Essay - In Shakespeare's Plays, His Female Characters Show a Wide Range...

In Shakespeare's plays, his female characters show a wide range of personalities. Some women are weak or indecisive even after many years of life, and some are capable of acting bolding and with great personal determination at a very young *****ge. Gertrude in Hamlet is an example of a woman who is dependent on men, ***** Juliet in Romeo and Juliet is an example of a ***** ***** who h*****s a very s*****gle-minded sense of purpose. However, both ***** defy the status quo, giving them *****thing in comm***** as well.

It could be argued that Juliet and Gertrude are so different because ***** seems to have a better-developed ***** of right and wrong while ***** is able of behaving in ways believed to be wrong *****cause it meets her emotional needs. Juliet is a very young teenager when she meets Romeo at a dance. She knows th***** Romeo will never be acceptable as a suitor because he belongs to a riv*****l family. Her family ***** his ***** been involved in an extended feud, and the marriage of ***** to ***** would be opposed by both families.

Nevertheless, Juliet perseveres. She loves Romeo, and she recognizes that the feud should be ended. She does not hesitate to pursue her relationship with Romeo. However, she acts chastely and plans ***** marry Romeo in secret. She is ***** interested in a premarital sexual relationship just to re*****l against ***** father's guidance. She truly loves *****, ***** he ***** loves *****r as *****. They both die at the end of ***** play because they cannot bear to live *****out each other. Their love is noble and uplifting.

***** ***** have spurned Romeo's advances, ***** instead of a ***** tragedy we would have had a mild, one night flirtation at a dance, hardly an unusual event. Her dec*****ion to allow a rom*****nce ***** develop bet*****en her and Romeo was an act of supreme defiance against her father ***** *****, but she ***** herself to be right, and followed her conscience, which told her the ***** was foolish ***** wrong, as well as ***** heart.

Gertrude by comparison seems **********. She seems to have less awareness of what is happening around her. Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and her brother-in-law, kills her husb***** the king by pouring poison in ***** ear as he sleeps. It seems likely ***** she knew Claudius well, and it ***** likely that Claudius w***** manipulative and power-hungry before he killed his brother and ascended the thr*****, but Gertrude does not suspect him when her husband *****s.

In f*****, within two mont***** she has married *****. It seems unlikely that she was deeply in love with him, as her son po*****ts out to her. He reminds ***** that by ***** standards of the day, her relationship with Claudius is both adulterous and incestuous: adulterous because she ***** supposed to remain a widow, and incestuous because she married a close family member. But Gertrude cannot ***** to be alone and is confused by her changed