In the midst of a male-dominant society - sixteenth century Elizabethan England - Shakespeare portrays women with strengths at least equal to those of men. By so doing, he opens the door for them politically as well as socially, well in advance of any legal rights being granted to women. It has been argued that Shakespeare's views of women can be logically traced to the characters he has created (Kolin 11). He "came as close to exposition of a system of practical values as he could, without creating characters to serve as mouthpieces for his own ideas" (Greer 39). If this is true, he had very modern views of women, men, and equality, believing that women are equal to men. Germaine Greer confirms this with, "Shakespeare views marriage as a partnership between equals, sexually vibrant, committed, constant, and practical" (39).

In his Comedies, Shakespeare empowers women over men in two distinct...