Abstract
The paper discusses how, in "The Winter's Tale," William Shakespeare presents female characters with both inner and exterior strength. It shows that along with the strength, are the qualities of understanding, forgiveness and patience. It explores the three characters in the play that represent these female characteristics - Hermione, Paulina and Perdita. For all three female characters, they are a part of the action and suffer because of the events in the play. Yet even in suffering they remain gracious and strong and forgiving. The paper discusses how it is these characteristics that make "The Winter's Tale" a play about how strong and solid the female character can be, with the outcome of the play also showing what an impact these qualities can have.

From the Paper
"Hermione is the central female character of the play and also the one who suffers the most. At the same time, she is the character who has the greatest amount of strength. In the play, Hermione is accused of infidelity by her husband, something that must hurt her deeply. And yet even when her husband accuses her, she remains calm. When Leontes first calls Hermione an adulteress she denies it calmly and elegantly saying, "should a villain say so, the most replenished villain in the world, he were as much more villain: you, my Lord, do but mistake" (II,i). For the audience, the calmness that Hermione possesses is emphasized by the contrast with her husband."

Tags:Leontes, base, speech, shepherd

Abstract
This paper explains that, the female characters in two of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte's operatic collaborations, "Le Nozze di Figaro" and Cosi Fan Tutte", typify and go beyond the Enlightenment views of women, which did not conform with the usual gender prototypes in opera. Next, the author compares the music and dialogue as they relate to the changes in the characters Fiordiligi and Despina in "Cosi" and in Susanna and the Countess in "Figaro". The paper concludes that, although the two operas have similar characters, similar buffa-style stories written for a similar audience and both premiered in Vienna, "Figaro" has been considerably more successful, which is probably because of its more positive and progressive treatment of its female characters.

Footnotes and examples of the referred libretto are included in the paper.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Women and the Age of Reason
Characters in Context
Comparisons of Music and Dialogue
Examples

From the Paper
"Despina, the cunning and charming servant to the sisters, is never allowed to be the equal of another character (male or female). In ensemble numbers, she is frequently the comic relief. She dresses up as a doctor and a notary and disguises her voice. Despina pretends to be more than she is in both scenes, and she does an admirable job with the parody. However, I believe this clowning only accentuates her lack of depth as a character because she lacks any emotionally meaningful music in the opera. Even Don Alfonso, the old cynic, has moments of humanity (though he is unchanged by the end of the opera), but Despina is never more than the clever servant."

Tags:prototypes class duet, ensemble numbers, aria

Abstract
The theme of death is analyzed in this study of Poe's female characters, as depicted in his many stories about marital relationships. The writer discusses that for Poe, the abstraction of love is often characterized within his male narrator's misogynist and distant views of women, and of their eventual illness and death. The writer maintains that by unveiling the varying aspects of these female characters, they often emulate, ghostly, dreamlike, or violent fantasies about the brevity of love that is constructed through the plots.

From the Paper
"This study will analyze the comparatively different representations of death that is constructed through the female characters of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories. The stories: "Berenice", "Ligeia", "Eleonora", and "The Black Cat" to reveal the misogynistic and abstract nature of women that appear within Poe's character development and plot structure. By understanding this approach toward Poe's visualization of death for the women of these stories, a biographical account of his wife's death may provide a rationale for the bitterness and abstraction of women in these tales. In essence, this study will analyze the theme of death for the ..."

Tags:literature, women

Abstract
This paper discusses how Shakespeare's presentation of women must be commended as he managed to portray various aspects of what makes a woman, solely in two female characters Gertrude and Ophelia. It looks at how a socially advanced view of women is found in Gertrude's intelligence, sexuality and cunning, and a diversion from traditional Elizabethan values in Ophelia's passionate insanity. This is contrasted with "The Revenger's Tragedy" in which the 'Black Camp' style portrays women as either completely pure or tragically immoral and appears incapable of presenting women as a combination of the two polarised characteristics.

From the Paper
"On the other hand, though Hamlet may appear to respect and love his mother, his soliloquy presents Gertrude in a completely different light. His soliloquy shows his true opinion of his mother, and, in this, parallels can be drawn to Vendice's negative views of his own mother. The line "Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother," refers to Hamlet's indignant opinion that Gertrude has transferred her love from the late King Hamlet, a God-like man, to Claudius, a beast. Also, the implications for Greek mythology would suggest that, just as a satyr is obsessed with sex so is Claudius. Therefore, he is simply using Gertrude to satisfy his lust, implying she is just a sexual object, an unusual opinion for her son to have, however. Both Hamlet and Vendice reveal a strong sense of disgust at their mothers' actions which could be viewed as hypocritical as neither of the protagonists' characters are free from moral blemishes.
"

Tags:Ophelia, Gertrude, Feminism

Abstract
This paper looks at several Disney films such as "Cinderella", "Snow White", "Little Mermaid", "Aladdin" and "Shrek" among others. The progression from strict adherence to prescribed gender roles, as in "Cinderella" or "Snow White", to the noticeably different messages about gender in "Shrek" and the films in between that provided a bridge between the differing messages regarding gender norms, are analyzed. Messages regarding sexuality in Disney films and arguably appropriate content are discussed as well. There is an emphasis on the depiction of female characters and the roles they play in Disney films.

From the Paper
"When looking at female roles in Disney films, it is important to look at the inspiration behind those roles, Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a product of the 1940's and his patriarchal views of femininity most certainly reflect those ideals in the roles and manner in which his female characters are portrayed (O'Brien 157). In many of the Disney films children love to watch, the female characters are marginalized. The females are in unimportant or at least less important positions than are their male counterparts. Henke and others have this to say of Disney's female characters, "These alleged heroines are helpless ornaments in need of protection, and when it comes to the action of the film, they are omitted" (235). We see examples of this in the story of Cinderella when her gentleness and goodness is defined by her lack of resistance to the abuse she receives from her stepfamily (Henke 235). "

Tags:feminism, gender, roles, stereotypes, shrek

Abstract
The paper relates that "A Doll House" and "Mother Courage and her Children" both have strong-minded women with three children as leading characters. The paper identifies the stark differences in these characters and discusses how Ibsen's Nora is more literal while Brecht's "Mother Courage" is more symbolical and allegorical. The paper portrays how both plays represent extremes of female characterization; Nora develops more fully into her own self, into an independent personality while "Mother Courage" pulls further away from any sense of authentic self.

Outline:
Introduction
Nora's Character
"Mother Courage's" Character
"Mother Courage's" reaction to Kattrin's death
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1789), is a play about a young woman named Nora Helmer, a mother of three small children, who is married to an overbearing bank president, Torvald. Nora realizes during the play that she, because of society's repressions, solely domestic expectations of women, has never really grown up into an independent adult human being. Ibsen stated when asked about his reason for writing this particular play: "A woman cannot be herself in contemporary society, it is an exclusively male society with laws drafted by men, and with counsel and judges who judge feminine conduct from the male point of view" ("A Doll's House" Wikipedia)."

Tags:personality, Nora, feminine

Abstract
An analysis of the characters of Nora Helmer from "A Doll's House" and Elizabeth Rousset from "Ball of Fat". It explains how they are in complete opposite ends of the social spectrum, yet they make similar "sacrifices" and suffer the consequences that contribute to their realizations about themselves and those that they made the sacrifices for.

From the Paper
"In A Doll's House, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen reveals the story of Nora Helmer, a woman who having secretly borrowed money from Nils Krogstad, is now facing a dilemma when her husband becomes newly appointed director at the bank, and is preparing to fire Krogstad for forging his signature on a document. Nora in turn had forged her father's signature to get the loan from Krogstad, and when he threatens to reveal her crime, she must try and influence her husband not to fire Krogstad. Not realizing that Nora borrowed the 250 pounds for him when he was suffering and needed to go to a southern climate to recuperate. Her husband Torvald is ready to disown her when he learns of the truth despite her reasoning and once things are resolved between them and with the bank, Nora realizes that her husband is not worth it and decides to leave him "when the wonderful thing did not happen, then I saw you were not the man I had thought you" (Act III)."

Tags:nora, helmer, elizabeth, rousset

Abstract
Discusses the leading character of Hedda in Henrick Ibsen's play, "Hedda Gabler", and of Germaine, in Michel Tremblay's "Les Belles Soeurs." Examines how both women are recognizable types in bourgeois culture and how each deals with her given role.

From the Paper
"This research examines the leading female characters in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and Tramblay's Les Belles Soeurs. The plan is to compare and contrast the respective responses of Hedda and Germaine to the cultural mandate that women are guardians of the ..."

Abstract
In this article, the writer provides an argument that the female characters of Voltaire's 'Candide" are much more assertive and resilient than Candide, who is foolishly optimistic. The writer maintains that the women are not merely victims of fate but have a stake in their own future.

Tags:Candide, female, Voltaire, Paquette, Old Woman, Cunegonde, Paquette, Pangloss, optimism, Leibniz

Abstract
In this paper, I analyze the three main female characters of "The Great Gatsby": Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson. I attempt to show how each represented the materialism and shallow nature of the upper classes during 1920s America. I point out how the characters are similar in that they are self-centered, careless and have little self-respect.