Females in Shakespeare

So the story of my research project so far goes like this:


Me (while reading The Tempest and Henry V): Ooh, I'm going to write a paper on the class relations. Shakespeare was a genius splitting the high class from the low class and yet they get along so well...(for the most part). His plays appeal to all classes too. I like this idea.


Me (while researching Hamlet): Hmmm this article is really fascinating. Is Ophelia necessary for the plot of Hamlet...(the article: JSTOR "Ophelia: Shakespeare's Pathetic Plot Device" ) This would make an interesting paper...I could discuss the French Princess in Henry V and I can add an actual female that seems crucial like Portia in The Merchant of Venice...I like the female aspect...I'll keep that idea.


Me (while trying to decide where to start researching): I kind of want to put a more modern twist in my paper...so that I feel like I have something interesting for the social aspect...maybe I'll do a paper on the women in Henry V and how the 1944 version, the script itself, and the Branagh version differ on the interpretation of the women! Yea...that sounds good. Only wait, the only female in that is only in like two scenes and it's in French...I will be the only one who can read my paper...


Me (today): I want to look at Much Ado About Nothing (which I haven't read) and The Taming of the Shrew (which I've seen a few times) and discuss the female characters as they reflect the time that it was originally produced in and look at the 1993 Much Ado About Nothing and the 1956 The Taming of the Shrew and see how they reflect both the play and more modern feelings towards women.


I also am going to watch Claire Bloom's thoughts on the women characters in Shakespeare and then see if anybody replied to my new facebook status, which reads: "tell me if this sounds interesting: A comparison of Katherine from The Taming of the Shrew and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing and how Shakespeare endows them with spirit and independence only to take it away in the end to comply with the ideas on women of his time and how this translates to modern versions of these two plays."

After that I will read both of the plays and find someone to contact (besides my facebook peeps).