Shelby Lueders

“My little body is aweary of this great world”: Shakespeare and the Female Body Aesthetic

In the aftermath of #MeToo, the spotlight is once again illuminating the injustices against the female body aesthetic; because of certain dress or outward appearance or behavior, women have been demoralized and assaulted. While this is current trend, the female body has consistently been an object for both admiration and deep criticism. It is constantly framed by the male gaze, judged and critiqued for any variances from the perfect, ideological version of the female body set up by men and their gaze. From there, their bodies are visually dismantled to the point where the body becomes not that of personhood, but of an object to be mutilated, owned, or tossed aside. In order to break apart from the male gaze, the woman must triumph over the man oppressing her, gain dominion and form a community lead by fellow women.

To look at the entire history of the female body aesthetic is a behemoth of a task, instead this thesis will narrow the focus to the early modern period and compare two Shakespeare plays featuring tantalizing, and beautiful, female leads. Written during the reign of Elizabeth I, the most powerful woman at the time, Portia of The Merchant of Venice and Hermione of The Winter’s Tale verbally suffer at the hands of their male counterparts. I examine how Shakespeare utilizes the traditional Petrarchan image of a woman and chooses to turn Portia and Hermione into not only iconoclasts, but creators of a better life for women. I urge that because of the consistent critique of their bodies, both Portia and Hermione are able to cultivate a community solely inhabited with women, the most realistic version of utopia they can grasp, and ultimately use their aesthetic to achieve domination over the men in their respective plays. Looking at these two plays written over four hundred years ago, allows us to notice that we are still grappling with a fear of the woman’s body and the potential it holds. As more women stand up to injustice in 2019, we can look backwards and see equally strong women reaching for the very limited justices they were afforded, and succeeding.

Shelby Lueders is a MA Candidate at St. John’s University.