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Theatre Journal 53.4 (2001) 672-674



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Book Review

Women's Worlds in Shakespeare's Plays

Gender and Performance in Shakespeare's Problem Comedies


Women's Worlds in Shakespeare's Plays. Irene G. Dash. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997. pp. 237. $45.00.

Gender and Performance in Shakespeare's Problem Comedies. David McCandless. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. pp.166. $27.95.

Determined to refute Shakespeare's words "frailty thy name is woman," Irene Dash and David McCandless are meticulous scholars who have crafted pertinent examinations of gender and performance in several of Shakespeare's works. While each author adopts a differing approach, the results are similar in that the problematic role of the women characters in some of Shakespeare's plays are given a feminist reading so as to suggest ways to lend (or restore) agency and empowerment to these characters. Dash's Women's Worlds in Shakespeare's Plays offers a detailed historical/critical analysis of the development (or lack of) of some of Shakespeare's women. McCandless' Gender and Performance in Shakespeare's Problem Comedies provides a psychoanalytical approach to the "problem comedies" with suggested production and staging ideas that highlight the performance of gender.

Dash's work accomplishes the daunting task of examining old prompt books, personal letters, records of actual performances, and critical responses to the plays throughout the centuries to trace how certain women characters have been edited, replaced, molded, and often times manipulated by the patriarch to make the women more "culturally acceptable" for their respective audience base. Dash's incisive investigation of how and why these changes occurred suggests the ways in which the world Shakespeare created for these women characters is not always the world that has been presented onstage. For example, Dash convincingly argues that the omission of Lady Macduff from some productions of Macbeth leaves only the character of Lady Macbeth as the unequivocal "she-monster" and oversimplifies the delineation of Lady Macbeth's complex characterization by offering no counterpart roles for mortal women.

In her treatment of A Midsummer's Night's Dream, Dash examines the relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta and how some productions have de-emphasized the captive status of Hippolyta and her silent resistance by offering music, spectacle, and the appearance of a merry wedding at the beginning of the play. Dash further evidences how cuts made to both Theseus' and Egeus' stern reprimands and ultimatums to Hermia about a daughter's duties tend to soften the dictatorship of the patriarchal order clearly set forth in the original work. Dash persuasively argues that such changes tend to simplify and negate the conflicting obligations facing Hermia and make her appear as merely a testy, excessively defiant daughter. Another example of how the severity of what has befallen a female character can be weakened occurs in the scene between Titania and Bottom. Dash proposes that if Titania is portrayed (as she has been in some productions) as a sex-starved dominatrix, played only for laughs, the audience overlooks Oberon's vicious role in usurping Titania's self-assurance. [End Page 672] Instead, the audience sees her as only a foolish vapid female devoid of the caring and articulate qualities she exhibits earlier in the play when she eloquently describes the devastation that she and Oberon have visited on the natural world via their fighting.

Shakespeare's self-assured and self-willed women have not fared well in other productions as well. In Twelfth Night, Dash argues that both Viola and Olivia are strong women who are suddenly free from fathers and brothers to discover their own identities. Their similar social backgrounds suggest a commonality between the two women. Dash notes, however, that productions have emphasized their differences with Olivia often being portrayed as selfish and unsympathetic. Beleaguered by suitors (Orsino and Aguecheek), Dash points out that Olivia has been scorned by critics for her refusals to marry and for her brazen attraction to the young Cesario. Furthermore, Dash notes Olivia is often portrayed as the older, more aggressive...

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