Richard Iii

A Woman’s Voice

The role of women seems to remain a topic of interest in just about every single course I am taking this semester. I chose to take a political science class discussing women in politics. The course began with an introduction to the suffrage movement - a movement filled with strong female actors. The NAWSA chose to play the game by the social rules given to women while the NWP rebelled by raising their voices and making a scene. Opposition to the movement includes, but is not limited to the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church opposed suffrage “primarily on ideological grounds, arguing that the church desired ‘ prevent a moral deterioration which suffrage could bring’” as well as because of the “association of the birth control movement” included in the women’s rights movement (Ford 53).

Although Shakespeare’s Richard III takes place during the 15th century, the role of a women popped up in our discussion of the play. Phyllis Rackin, an assistant professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses Shakespeare’s women in her journal titled Anti-Historians: Women’s Roles in Shakespeare’s Histories. In addition, Rackin also wrote the “Modern Perspective” essay in the Folger edition of Shakespeare’s Richard III. When discussing Shakespeare’s women, it is important to remember that these roles were played by men. In class, an interesting point was made that strong female roles were often accepted because the lines were at one time said by men. Phyllis Rackin confirms that the roles of women were played by boys in her “Modern Perspective” essay in the Folger edition of Richard III, but that it violated “biblical injunctions against cross-dressing and threatened to evoke illicit lust among the playgoers” (“Modern Perspective” 339). This use of religious text corresponds to the Catholic Church’s opposition to the suffrage movement in the late 19th century. It is interesting to note that even in the 19th century in a democratic...