The well-known and highly respected William Shakespeare wrote a copious amount of controversial, thought-provoking and, of course, captivating plays in his time. His plays focused on love, the idea of ​​being in love and the consequences that can come from it. That being said, many of his pieces were easy to understand, and at different points his audiences saw a mirror image of themselves on stage, making the experience interactive and psychologically stimulating. In the majority of her plays, the woman in power was never blinded by love, but she always seemed to have men at her feet and use them to her advantage. In contrast, women who were madly in love were found to be docile and had little or no power or control over their lives. Is this pattern a coincidence? It can be said that Shakespeare was just one example of an individual whose writing was influenced by his times. In his time, he witnessed the reign of Queen Elizabeth, head of state and the most powerful person in England in the 16th century. With Mary Tudor and Mary Stuart who were strong, independent and feared by their people. Additionally, Shakespeare never failed to include women as sexual creatures. The notion of femininity can therefore be debated. His readers may have wondered what exactly made a woman feminine and how did Shakespeare determine it? Additionally, was Shakespeare influenced by women in the Elizabethan era and if so, did he foreshadow the rise of women? Shakespeare incorporated and focused on women who fit the traditional gender role in society and women who opposed their role in a patriarchal society. Women in the early modern Elizabethan era we...... middle of paper ......rce: Foreign the Renaissance. Ed. Marjorie Garber. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1987. 90-121. Dash, Irene G. Women's Worlds in Shakespeare's Plays. Newark, DE: University of Delaware, 1997. Print. Linda Bamber, Comic Women, Tragic Men, Stanford Univ. Press., Stanford, 1982 Tennenhouse, Leonard. Power of display: Shakespeare's gender politics. Camden, Carroll. The Elizabethan woman. Houston [Tex. : Elsevier, 1952. Print.Howard, Judith A. “Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories and: Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge (journal). » NWSA Journal 14.2 (2002): 192-95. Internet. December 8, 2013. Wiesner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Modern Europe. Cambridge [England: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.Tassi, Marguerite A. Women and revenge in Shakespeare: gender, genre and ethics. Selinsgrove [Pa. : Susquehanna UP, 2011. Print.