Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays
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Description
From one of the country’s foremost experts on Shakespeare and theatre arts, actor, director, and master teacher Tina Packer offers an exploration—fierce, funny, fearless—of the women of Shakespeare’s plays. A profound, and profoundly illuminating, book that gives us the playwright’s changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights. Packer, with expert grasp and perception, constructs a radically different understanding of power, sexuality, and redemption.
Beginning with the early comedies (The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors), Packer shows that Shakespeare wrote the women of these plays as shrews to be tamed or as sweet little things with no definable independent thought, virgins on the pedestal. The women of the histories (the three parts of Henry VI; Richard III) are, Packer shows, much more interesting, beginning with Joan of Arc, possibly the first woman character Shakespeare ever created. In her opening scene, she’s wonderfully alive—a virgin, true, sent from heaven, a country girl going to lead men bravely into battle, the kind of girl Shakespeare could have known and loved in Stratford. Her independent resolution collapses within a few scenes, as Shakespeare himself suddenly turns against her, and she yields to the common caricature of his culture and becomes Joan the Enemy, the Warrior Woman, the witch; a woman to be feared and destroyed . . .
As Packer turns her attention to the extraordinary Juliet, the author perceives a large shift. Suddenly Shakespeare’s women have depth of character, motivation, understanding of life more than equal to that of the men; once Juliet has led the way, the plays are never the same again. As Shakespeare ceases to write about women as predictable caricatures and starts writing them from the inside, embodying their voices, his women become as dimensional, spirited, spiritual, active, and sexual as any of his male characters. Juliet is just as passionately in love as Romeo—risking everything, initiating marriage, getting into bed, fighting courageously when her parents threaten to disown her—and just as brave in facing death when she discovers Romeo is dead. And, wondering if Shakespeare himself fell in love (Packer considers with whom, and what she may have been like), the author observes that from Juliet on, Shakespeare writes the women as if he were a woman, giving them desires, needs, ambition, insight.
Women of Will follows Shakespeare’s development as a human being, from youth to enlightened maturity, exploring the spiritual journey he undertook. Packer shows that Shakespeare’s imagination, mirrored and revealed in his female characters, develops and deepens until finally the women, his creative knowledge, and a sense of a larger spiritual good come together in the late plays, making clear that when women and men are equal in status and sexual passion, they can—and do—change the world.
Part master class, part brilliant analysis—Women of Will is all inspiring discovery.
Beginning with the early comedies (The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors), Packer shows that Shakespeare wrote the women of these plays as shrews to be tamed or as sweet little things with no definable independent thought, virgins on the pedestal. The women of the histories (the three parts of Henry VI; Richard III) are, Packer shows, much more interesting, beginning with Joan of Arc, possibly the first woman character Shakespeare ever created. In her opening scene, she’s wonderfully alive—a virgin, true, sent from heaven, a country girl going to lead men bravely into battle, the kind of girl Shakespeare could have known and loved in Stratford. Her independent resolution collapses within a few scenes, as Shakespeare himself suddenly turns against her, and she yields to the common caricature of his culture and becomes Joan the Enemy, the Warrior Woman, the witch; a woman to be feared and destroyed . . .
As Packer turns her attention to the extraordinary Juliet, the author perceives a large shift. Suddenly Shakespeare’s women have depth of character, motivation, understanding of life more than equal to that of the men; once Juliet has led the way, the plays are never the same again. As Shakespeare ceases to write about women as predictable caricatures and starts writing them from the inside, embodying their voices, his women become as dimensional, spirited, spiritual, active, and sexual as any of his male characters. Juliet is just as passionately in love as Romeo—risking everything, initiating marriage, getting into bed, fighting courageously when her parents threaten to disown her—and just as brave in facing death when she discovers Romeo is dead. And, wondering if Shakespeare himself fell in love (Packer considers with whom, and what she may have been like), the author observes that from Juliet on, Shakespeare writes the women as if he were a woman, giving them desires, needs, ambition, insight.
Women of Will follows Shakespeare’s development as a human being, from youth to enlightened maturity, exploring the spiritual journey he undertook. Packer shows that Shakespeare’s imagination, mirrored and revealed in his female characters, develops and deepens until finally the women, his creative knowledge, and a sense of a larger spiritual good come together in the late plays, making clear that when women and men are equal in status and sexual passion, they can—and do—change the world.
Part master class, part brilliant analysis—Women of Will is all inspiring discovery.
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Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
04/07/2015
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780385353267
ASIN:
B00N6PCXS8
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APA Citation (style guide)
Tina Packer. (2015). Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Tina Packer. 2015. Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Tina Packer, Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2015.
MLA Citation (style guide)Tina Packer. Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2015.
Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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- bioText: TINA PACKER is the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. She has directed most of Shakespeare’s plays, acted in seven, and taught the entire canon at multiple colleges and universities, among them Harvard, MIT, and Columbia. Packer was an Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, and worked at the Royal Court and Aldwych theatres in London, Leicester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other regional theatres, as well as for BBC and ITV television. The performance piece Women of Will has traveled across America as well as internationally. She lives in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
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- From one of the country’s foremost experts on Shakespeare and theatre arts, actor, director, and master teacher Tina Packer offers an exploration—fierce, funny, fearless—of the women of Shakespeare’s plays. A profound, and profoundly illuminating, book that gives us the playwright’s changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights. Packer, with expert grasp and perception, constructs a radically different understanding of power, sexuality, and redemption.
Beginning with the early comedies (The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors), Packer shows that Shakespeare wrote the women of these plays as shrews to be tamed or as sweet little things with no definable independent thought, virgins on the pedestal. The women of the histories (the three parts of Henry VI; Richard III) are, Packer shows, much more interesting, beginning with Joan of Arc, possibly the first woman character Shakespeare ever created. In her opening scene, she’s wonderfully alive—a virgin, true, sent from heaven, a country girl going to lead men bravely into battle, the kind of girl Shakespeare could have known and loved in Stratford. Her independent resolution collapses within a few scenes, as Shakespeare himself suddenly turns against her, and she yields to the common caricature of his culture and becomes Joan the Enemy, the Warrior Woman, the witch; a woman to be feared and destroyed . . .
As Packer turns her attention to the extraordinary Juliet, the author perceives a large shift. Suddenly Shakespeare’s women have depth of character, motivation, understanding of life more than equal to that of the men; once Juliet has led the way, the plays are never the same again. As Shakespeare ceases to write about women as predictable caricatures and starts writing them from the inside, embodying their voices, his women become as dimensional, spirited, spiritual, active, and sexual as any of his male characters. Juliet is just as passionately in love as Romeo—risking everything, initiating marriage, getting into bed, fighting courageously when her parents threaten to disown her—and just as brave in facing death when she discovers Romeo is dead. And, wondering if Shakespeare himself fell in love (Packer considers with whom, and what she may have been like), the author observes that from Juliet on, Shakespeare writes the women as if he were a woman, giving them desires, needs, ambition, insight.
Women of Will follows Shakespeare’s development as a human being, from youth to enlightened maturity, exploring the spiritual journey he undertook. Packer shows that Shakespeare’s imagination, mirrored and revealed in his female characters, develops and deepens until finally the women, his creative knowledge, and a sense of a larger spiritual good come together in the late plays, making clear that when women and men are equal in status and sexual passion, they can—and do—change the world.
Part master class, part brilliant analysis—Women of Will is all inspiring discovery. - reviews
- premium: False
- source: Elizabeth Toohey, Christian Science Monitor
- content: "At once humanistic and grounded in the historical context of Elizabethan England . . . astute."
- premium: False
- source: Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
- content: "Fascinating . . . detailed . . . Her experience in the theater gives her book a hands-on dimension . . . her knowledgeable tracing of connections among the plays and parallels among characters is never less than compelling."
- premium: False
- source: Bryce Christensen, Booklist (Starred Review)
- content: "Packer recognizes in Shakespeare's full dramatic trajectory a great artist gaining an ever fuller understanding of both genders' human identity . . . An important and fascinating addition to feminist literary criticism."
- premium: False
- source: Tamar March, Founder, Arden Seminars, Inc.
- content: "A joy to read. The language is conversational--an easy tone that belies the depth to which Tina Packer is able to reach into the plays to unveil the evolution of Shakespeare's awareness of the power inherent in 'the feminine' . . . This consummate lover of all things Shakespeare delivers a dazzling new message about Shakespeare's capacity to learn and grow from observations and interactions with women, and transmute these into characters that become more complex, more true, more powerful. Women of Will is destined to become one of the best-loved books about Shakespeare, never to be filed into the bookcase, always accessible in case of need."
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- content: "Visceral and intellectual . . . A sparkling, insightful exploration of Shakespeare's words and world."
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- content:
March 15, 2015
With an exceptional career as an actress, director, and founder of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, Packer (coauthor, Tales from Shakespeare) is one of the country's foremost experts on the English Renaissance dramatist. Here she tackles Shakespeare's relationship to the feminine, and how this relationship transforms throughout his plays. In this impressive collection of essays, the author's analysis spans from Shakespeare's early to later works, closely examining his female characters and how they relate to the concepts of authority, sexuality, and finding their own voice. A pattern emerges, and questions such as what happens to women when they want the same power as men are explored. Packer has effective insight and presents strong arguments. VERDICT While Shakespeare scholars will appreciate the ambitious scope of this work, general readers might find the material less appealing. All readers, however, will appreciate the author's observations into the mind and life of the Bard and how this is reflected in the women of his plays. [See Prepub Alert, 10/27/14.]--Lyndsie Robinson, Milne Lib., SUNY Oneonta
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Beginning with the early comedies (The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors), Packer shows that Shakespeare wrote the women of these plays as shrews to be tamed or as sweet little things with no definable independent thought, virgins on the pedestal. The women of the histories (the three parts of Henry VI; Richard III) are, Packer shows, much more interesting, beginning with Joan of Arc, possibly the first... - sortTitle
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