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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 75-26,670 SPROAT, Kezla Bradford Vanmater, 1937- A REAPPRAISAL OF SHAKESPEARE'S VIEW OF WOMEN. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1975 Literature, general Xerox University MicrofilmsAnn , Arbor, Michigan 48100 Kezia Bradford Vanmeter Sproat 1975 PLEASE NOTE: Page 184 is not available for photography. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS A REAPPRAISAL OF SHAKESPEARE'S VIEW OF WOMEN DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University Kezia Bradford Vanmeter Sproat, A. B., M. A. * * * * * Tne Ohio State University 1975 Reading Carmittee: Approved By John B. Gabel Mildred B. Munday Edwin W. Robbins Adviser Department of English In Memoriam Cornelia Sisson Vanmeter Mstzger PREFACE This study began on a much more modest scale, as an investiga tion of Love's Labour's Lost and The Winter's Tale to determine if, as I had suspected, these plays supported my hypothesis that Shakespeare possessed what today we would call a feminist consciousness. I had planned to spend about twenty years dealing with the other plays, when it was suggested that I consider all the plays at once. It was suspected that I was rather daft on women's liberation and perhaps too desirous of findinq my own predilections in Shakespeare's works, where, as we all know, we can find whatever we truly seek. Although I once read Karl Mannheim's doctoral dissertation, a structural analysis of epistemology, I do not pretend to be an epistemologist: whether what I see in the world and in Shakespeare's plays is truly and obiectively there is a question I cannot answer. The following study is only my effort to share my excitement at finding some new jewels in the Shakespeare mine, and it will please or displease, convinae or repel, according to its merits. I wish to thank the following persons for helping me avoid getting black lung, as it were, in this process: Greer Allen, Ansie Baird, Frances Clements, Inez Cardozo-Freeman, John Gabel, Mary Vanmeter Gordon, Copp&lia Kahn, Mildred Munday, Edwin Robbins, Joan iii . iv Straumanis, Cyoe Titchener, Bmma Vanmeter, John Vanmeter, Jewell Vroonland, Joan Webber, and Andrew Wright. Special thanks are due iry children, Cornelia and Eliza Sproat, who have graciously shared their entire lives with this study and brightened all darkness. Last and most important is my mother, Helen Janes Vanmeter, who provided financial support for the last year's study and immeasurably more. Kezia Vanmeter Sproat Chillicothe, Ohio June 2, 1975 VITA Noverrfoer 8, 1937 . B o m Chillicothe, Ohio 1959 ................. A. B., Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York 1960 ................. Resident Teacher of English, Kingswood School Cranbrook, Blocmfield Hills, Mich. 1962-1969 ........... Teaching Assistant, Departirent of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1963 ................. M. A. in English, The Ohio State University 1969-1973 ........... lecturer, Division of Comparative Litera ture, The Ohio State University 1974 ................. lecturer, Department of English, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS "The Spontaneous School" (poem), OCEAN Newsletter, 3, no. 3 (October 1974), 6 . "On Reaching Age 37 in the American Middle Class, 1974", "A Child of the Fifties Sings for Her Breakfast"/ "A Cold in January" (poems); "Hie Pitiful Case" (song), The Oliio State University Wanen's Week Journal. 1, no. 1 (April, 1975), 10, 11, 26, 27, 32, 33. FIELDS OF STUDY Major field: English Minor field: Philosophy M. A. Thesis: "Difficult Balance: The Function of Puns in the Poetry of Richard Wilbur" Adviser: Professor Francis Lee Utley v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE................................................ H i VITA .................................................... v Chapter I. The Independent Wcmen of love's Labour's Lost 1. Introduction.............................. 1 2. Final control: the last scene, extension of the action into the future, and the problem pl a y .......................... 6 3. The main p l o t .............................. 13 4. The Princess and her train ................... 19 5. The King and his m e n ....................... 37 6 . Unity of theme in main and subplot shown in Act V and in tlie character Armado . 51 7. Appearance versus reality and the mockery of antifeminist views; a therapeutic purpose of the p l a y ...................... 60 N o t e s ............................................. 65 II. Sisterhood in Shakespeare 1. Introduction: definitions, examples, negative examples...................... 70 2. Analysis of an early example in The Two Gentlemen of Ve r o n a ...................... 75 3. The Comedy of Errors and the stereotypes of shrew and obedient w i f e ............... 80 4. As You Like It rectified in the climate of Renaissance England...................86 5. Tie Merchant of Venice: a conspiracy to balance the power in marriage .... 94 6 . The Merry Wives of Windsor: a conspiracy against male presumption............... 102 7. Defense alliances in darker situations: Much Ado about Nothing, Measure for vi vii Chapter Page Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, The Winter's T a l e .............................. Ill N o t e s .........................................122 III. The Fatherless Heroines and Shakespeare's Negative Treatment of Traditional Marriage Customs 1. Introduction: two contrasting examples of marriage arrangements. Hardin Craig's definition of t h e m e .........................126 2. Shared characteristics of tie fatherless heroines, a group which includes all Shakespeare's major conic heroines . 130 3. Compelled marriages in comedies and tragicomedies.............................. 134 4. Compelled marriages in tragedy.... 143 N o t e s ........................................... 152 IV. Sane Ironic Processes in Othello and King hear 1. Introduction..................................153 2. The Patres Dolorosi........................... 154 3. Desdemona and Iago ............................ 162 4. Hierarchic ethics in The True Chronicle History of King heir contrasted with the egalitarian ideas of King Tear................. 169 5. Conclusion................................... 182 N o t e s ......................................... 183 V. Source Changes in The Winter's Tale 1. Introduction..................................186 2. Greene's Mamillia: blaming the blasphemous b l a b s ..................................... 186 3. Paulina, Shakespeare's feminist heroine . .194 4. The transfiguration of the shrew . .208 5. Mamillius, the casualty of his father's oppression of his m o t h e r .................... 210 6. Bellaria's dalliance......................... 212 7. Polixenes and Perdita........................ 213 8. Some other source changes..................... 214 9. Conclusion................................... 217 N o t e s ........................................... 219 LIST OF WORKS C I T E D ........................................221 CHAPTER I THE INDEPENDENT WOMEN OF LOVE’S LABOUR'S LOST 1. Introduction There is a whole class of Shakespeare scholars who delight in finding new reasons for appreciating one or another of his less popular works. This chapter is for them. In Love's Labour's Lost Shakespeare holds up to scrutiny several of the most conventional responses to women, and he gives the Princess of France control of the main plot. Our first evidence that the Princess is meant to have more importance than most critics give her is in the title, which refers to the main action of the play. An editorial controversy over the apostrophe

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