Young women in Shakespeare's comedies

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature grade: 17 University of Osnabrück language: English abstract: Compared to other writers of his time Shakespeare introduces an unusual amount of deep female characters in his comedies. His representation of women in particular the ways in which his female roles are interpreted and put on stage have become topics of scientific interest. Especially the young women often show vitality great intelligence and a strong sense of personal independence which marks them as queen[s] of comedy (Palmer 72). Therefore they are often referred to as Shakespeare's heroines.In the following I want to show their importance and point out that each heroine although they all share character traits has distinct and unique qualities. In doing so I will occasionally refer to a secondary literature and involve positions of different critics. Though my attention will be focussed on the plays treated in this research paper: A Midsummer Night's Dream As You Like It Much Ado About Nothing The Tempest and Twelfth Night. On the basis of these romantic comedies I will analyse how the young women are presented and subsequently compare them among one another.In the first part I will look at each heroine individually and introduce their plays. Then I will develop possible similarities between them: Beautiful but unworldly Miranda seems to be totally controlled by her father Prospero but she shows a strong will in planning a shared future with Ferdinand and she is aware of her superiority to the savage Caliban. Hermia's father similarly chooses her husband. With magic help however she and Helena manage to come together with the right partner. Moreover Helena reveals that she believes in the transformative power of love (MND I.2 233-4).Viola in Twelfth Night is in a way almost the opposite of Rosalind in As You Like It although both plays deal with a cross-dressed her