OSHER 682 - The Women in Shakespeare

This course will examine 12 outstanding female characters in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets: Volumnia in Coriolanus, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Kate in The Taming of the Shrew, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, Isabelle in Measure for Measure, Margaret of Anjou in Henry VI (1-3, RIII), Helena in All's Well that Ends Well, Rosalind in As You Like It, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Rosalind in Love's Labor's Lost, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, and finally, The Dark Lady in Shakespeare's Sonnets. Discussing two women per week, we will discover links between Greek heroines and these Elizabethan "influencers". We will examine how female wisdom and strength, as the representative of society, created themes Shakespeare wanted to address in his time and place.