{"id":142,"date":"2016-02-22T21:18:33","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T02:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/?p=142"},"modified":"2019-11-10T16:35:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T21:35:45","slug":"who-runs-the-world-shakespeares-girls-by-hannah-simpson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/2016\/02\/22\/who-runs-the-world-shakespeares-girls-by-hannah-simpson\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Runs the World? Shakespeare\u2019s Girls by Hannah Simpson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt\u2019s always fun to talk about Shakespeare,\u201d quipped Caroline Bicks at the start of her lecture, \u201cIncited Minds, Rethinking Shakespeare\u2019s Girls.\u201d I couldn\u2019t agree more. Much like the title of her lecture indicates, Bicks\u2019 talk centered on stereotypes that surround adolescent girls and how the strong-Willed (pun intended) females of Shakespeare\u2019s plays defy them. After listing the qualities of the ideal Renaissance female (one who is chaste, silent, and obedient), Bicks laid the foundation for her discussion of Shakespeare\u2019s fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls by listing stereotypes of young women prevalent in both an early modern as well as a contemporary context: adolescent girls are marked as hysterical, erratic, and in need of saving\u2014 Ophelia is remembered most for her stint as the drowning damsel, and Miranda from The Tempest has not been given enough credit for her \u201cbeating mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bicks pointed out the ways we are misreading these young women by drawing on humoral theory, the closest thing to psychology we have from Elizabethan times. Humoral theory is a model for the basic workings of the human body, and it places humans on a spectrum that ranges from extreme heat to extreme coldness. Females were thought to have inherently cold, moist bodies, while men were hot and dry. According to this theory, female hysteria can be traced back to a lack of adequate bodily heat, further bolstering the aforementioned frenzied, fitful stereotypes of Renaissance women and girls. However, Bicks presented evidence that opposes this prejudice. In Microcosmographia<\/em>,\u00a0Helkiah\u00a0Crooke describes female puberty as \u201cheat gather [ing]\u201d strength. In other words, he saw enormous potential in the female body and mind. Using Crooke\u2019s analysis as a backdrop, Bicks went on to describe specific actions of Ophelia and Miranda, two Shakespearean girls oft dismissed as flighty females. Most notably, she pointed out that in the original quarto of Hamlet<\/em>, the stage directions at the beginning of Act Four, Scene Five read \u201cEnter Ophelia with a lute.\u201d If these stage directions are followed faithfully, Ophelia has complete agency in this scene\u2014she is controlling an instrument and performing before the court. Instead of acting as a female repository for male stories (by being \u201cplayed\u201d or \u201cplucked\u201d by the men in her life), Ophelia takes control of the scene by strumming her instrument according to her own rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As a Theatre\/English double major with a minor in Women\u2019s and Gender Studies, these characters and their unfortunate misreadings interest me a great deal. It is frustrating to sit in the theatre (or on my bed with Netflix open on my laptop) and watch Shakespearean girls portrayed as ditsy, passive vessels for male thoughts and actions (read: Helena Bonham Carter\u2019s Ophelia in the 1990 film version of Hamlet<\/em>). Bicks\u2019 talk gives me hope that I\u2019m not the only one who champions plucky, mindful interpretations of Shakespeare\u2019s females… after all, that\u2019s how they were written. How can we call a young woman like Desdemona meek or fragile when she \u201ctrumpet[s] to the world\u201d her blatant defiance of tradition (letting her father choose her husband for her)? Can we really see a girl like Miranda, who interrupts and corrects Prospero, as a passive recipient of her father\u2019s art? A shy and sheepish interpretation of Olivia from Twelfth Night makes no sense\u2014a wary girl would never be so bold as to say, \u201cTis not that time of moon with me to make one in so skipping a dialogue.\u201d I could go on, but alas, I\u2019ll refrain… for now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun to talk about Shakespeare,\u201d quipped Caroline Bicks at the start of her lecture, \u201cIncited Minds, Rethinking Shakespeare\u2019s Girls.\u201d I couldn\u2019t agree more. Much like the title of her lecture indicates, Bicks\u2019 talk centered on stereotypes that surround adolescent girls and how the strong-Willed (pun intended) females of Shakespeare\u2019s plays defy them. After… <\/p>\n

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