The Tone of Female Characters in William Shakespeare's As You Like It

Abstract

Studying English literature is insufficient without shedding light on the works of William Shakespeare (1564- 1616). His plays in particular, are rich of significant ideas that give inspiration, controversy and debate for both spectators and critics despite the fact that female characters in Shakespearean plays have less conversation than the male characters. Nevertheless;  when they speak, the spectators feel that they seem as they were the  backbone of the plays. Their roles are pivotal in the plays and in the development of the plot and undoubtedly, their words and their speeches reflect the mind of the male counterparts. In this respect, the present research is focused on the tone of female characters in Shakespeare’s comedy As you Like it in the light of two points. The first is the focus on how Shakespeare used tone differently for his male and female characters and the other is in what extent the tone is leveled in comedy plays. The aim of the present research is to examine, to understand and to characterize the tone in the boundaries of the context depending on Renaissance period