The Elizabethan Age was an age of remarkable global expansion. While this is so obvious as to need not bear repeating, it still is important to consider how this influences the plays. In particular, we find the question of the cultural outsider coming into the play. Three plays in particular – Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest- are concerned with the outsider. Granted, we find other kinds of “outsiders” throughout Shakespeare: Richard III. But unlike Othello, Shylock, and Caliban they are isolated from others, as opposed to being outside and alien to the culture. It is not simply an issue of Anti-Semitism with Shylock nor Race with Othello. Link this to a fairly insular that is now engaging commercially and colonially with other peoples, and the issue becomes even more fraught. Well, consider the issue of the outsider in the plays we have read.
Use Othello, The merchant of venice, and Richard III

Topic: Shakespeare

Order Description
This is the conclusion that I would like you to do now. After discussing with my tutor, we have decided that the best way to structure the conclusion is thematically. So in 1100 words the whole dissertation must be summed up in which the final result is that there is an equal balance- Shakespeare did not say all women were submissive or all were empowered, he presents an equal balance in his plays.
To do this my tutor said in themes talk about how one women is submissive and one is empowered. The themes can be anything from fathers-suitors/husbands-language etc but it must overall say whether they are submissive or empowered through their speech.

An example of how I would like it done thematically is in one paragraph I might talk about how women were to the suitors and to their husbands after. Now I’ve got my theme, looking at the two chapters you have previously done I will say that this relates to Bianca and Katherine- how Bianca is submissive to the suitors before marriage but once she has got what she wanted, a husband, she changes to an independent woman and takes control. Katherine, on the other hand, finds it hard to get married as suitors don’t want to marry her but after marriage she is still independent. That is one example of how to do it- please note that it must have been talked about in the two chapters before as the conclusion is about summing everything up.
Remember everything you say must be analysed in depth and the ideas/themes should come from the two chapters (my tutor said this is the best way to bring the two chapters together)

You must also do the same for Beatrice and Hero and Hippolyta, Hermia and Helena. Remember the theme must relate to both characters in the play and remind readers that you are showing that there is an equal balance- there is not all that are empowered or all that are submissive.
Hermia and Hippolyta are the ones that are empowered and Helena is submissive.

Finally, to end with my tutor said you should find critics that say that women are submissive, and then find critics that say they are empowered and then end with my stance saying that there is an equal balance of women empowerment and submissiveness