Dr Pam Peled
Shakespeare’s Women: Angels or Devils?
Summary
An insightful examination of Shakespeare’s portrayal of women and the significance of his views in today’s context. This lecture also explores how Shakespeare’s works can be interpreted to support different agendas, emphasizing the importance of understanding the historical context and societal attitudes towards women during Shakespeare’s time.
Dr Pam Peled
Pamela Peled was born in South Africa in 1957. At 17, she left home for Jerusalem to study English literature at the Hebrew University. After completing her MA she taught for many years and then received a PhD in literature at Bar Ilan University. She is a journalist with two columns in the Jerusalem Post and is a contributing editor of ESRAmagazine. She also writes a regular column for the Jewish Renaissance journal in London and the monthly newsletter for the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Pam lectures at the IDC (Interdisciplinary Centre, Herzlia) and Beit Berl College in Israel and gives guest lectures in Europe, England and America. Her expertise is on English Literature, including Shakespeare, Chaucer, Swift, Arthur Miller, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and poetry. She also lectures on feminism and public speaking. She is the author of How to Have a Husband and Live with your Lover (at the Same Time) (2005), For the Love of God and Virgins (2010), and Three Ladies, Three Lattes (2014). Pam lives near Tel Aviv and has three daughters.
Of course we can’t be sure. Queen Elizabeth herself was not great for women. She said about herself that she was a man in a woman’s body. She actually didn’t think of herself as a powerful woman. She thought of herself as a kind of a man figure. She didn’t surround herself with women advisors at all. She was jealous of the women in her court. She wasn’t good to them. And I don’t think that she actually forwarded the status of women in any way.