BREAKING THE BOUNDARIES OF PETRARCHAN GENDER IDENTITY:
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS
During the 1500-1600’s, the limited number of female writers produced a limited set of archetypes for female characters to follow. One of the archetypes Renaissance writers frequently repeated is based off of the Petrarchan trope. In the Petrarchan trope, the female protagonist is generally depicted as a fair skinned, blonde haired, blue eyed and beautiful, yet unattainable, young woman whose entire worth is wrapped up in her virtue and virginity. These female characters, modeled after Petrarch’s character Laura, have a strict moral code that they must abide by. The typical male protagonist in the Petrarchan trope is quite the opposite. He is the hunter, filled with sexual desire and an obsession for the Petrarchan woman he cannot have.
In Shakespeare’s Sonnets, we see a clear shift away from this typical Petrarchan model of poetry and instead towards a model that explores women’s sexuality and liberation from gender stereotypes. This is important because by breaking away from Petrarch’s traditional model, Shakespeare begins to rescribe the cultural boundaries of gender and the body, which in turn, challenges the heterosexual male hierarchy and creates a new space for gender identities to flourish and co-exist.
Throughout this essay I will explore the similarities and differences between Petrarch’s Rime Sparse and Shakespeare’s Sonnets, demonstrating that although Shakespeare had a clear understanding of how to use the Petrarchan trope, he deliberately inverts this tradition in order to push the boundaries of both character and gender development.
In Shakespeare’s Sonnets, we see a clear shift away from this typical Petrarchan model of poetry and instead towards a model that explores women’s sexuality and liberation from gender stereotypes. This is important because by breaking away from Petrarch’s traditional model, Shakespeare begins to rescribe the cultural boundaries of gender and the body, which in turn, challenges the heterosexual male hierarchy and creates a new space for gender identities to flourish and co-exist.
Throughout this essay I will explore the similarities and differences between Petrarch’s Rime Sparse and Shakespeare’s Sonnets, demonstrating that although Shakespeare had a clear understanding of how to use the Petrarchan trope, he deliberately inverts this tradition in order to push the boundaries of both character and gender development.
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| Breaking the Boundaries of Petrarchan Gender Identity |