Shakespeare Plays Quotes

“But, of course, in real life, in the outside world, women do not have equality. They have been judged inferior to men -Adam's rib, his helpmate- with no soul of their own. This has been so since the beginning of Western civilization. Women may have been potent characters in plays by Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, but in classical Greek life, women were not allowed to leave their houses (except to go to the well or on certain feast days). Their names on all legal documents appear as "the daughter of so and so" or "the wife of so and so", They had almost no rights -"She is my goods, my chattels", as Petruchio says of Kate two thousand years later (Taming of the Shrew,3.2,220). And with the advent of Christianity we began the debate as to whether women had souls in their own right or whether they were an "add-on" to their husbands and fathers. What is clear is that the mother of Jesus had to be both a virgin and totally lacking in sexual desire. And she is the model for all women.
By the time we get to Shakespeare's era, a widow would automatically inherit a third of her husband's possessions if he died (but those possessions became her new husband's if she remarried). Women probably had souls (but it was still being debated), and a woman was a monarch. But in neither classical Greece nor Elizabethan England could a woman portray a woman onstage [...]”
― Tina Packer, Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays

“أفضل الهلاك على ان أحيا خائفا من مجرد انسان مثلي”
― Shakespeare

“Would you like to begin with a historical, or a comedy—?"
"Tragedy," says William. He looks at me. "Hamlet?"
"You mean to carry or not to carry the burden of being a privileged male with too much time on my hands, while my girlfriend is slowly crushed by the patriarchy right in front of me?"
"Hamlet is one of the most complex plays ever written," he argues. "It is—"
"Pick another play," says Minaro, cutting him off right as I open my mouth to retort.
"Macbeth," I say instead.
"You must be having a laugh," says William. "You cannot tell me you prefer that play to Hamlet."
"Why not?" I ask.
"You would rather read about a weak man who is so obsessed with tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow that he throws his entire life away just because three witches read him a poem?"
"Lady Macbeth is one of the most fascinating characters in all of literature!" I say, raising my voice, and even though we're arguing, I can't deny it's fun to debate books with someone as passionate about them as I am.
"What is so fascinating about a coward?" he asks. "She pressures Macbeth to take action, yet when she has the chance to do the very thing she demands of him, she fails."
"Wow, you really don't get it," I say, sitting up on my ankles. "Her very existence is a challenge to—"
"Here is what we are going to do," says Minaro, speaking loud enough to drown me out. "I am going to choose."
She looks from me to William and back to me.
Then a smile plays on her lips as she says, "Romeo and Juliet."”
― Romina Garber, The Last Vampire