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Maritza Gonzalez

Gender and Tricks as Seen Through Shakespeare’s Plays

Throughout history men have undoubtedly had more success and opportunities than
women. Beginning with the Christian Bible’s creation tale of Adam and Eve, men have been set
up for success while women, more often than not, have been set up for and tricked into failure or
submission. During the lifetime of William Shakespeare, often thought of as the greatest
playwright of all time, England was under a female monarch's rule which greatly influenced
Shakespeare’s view of women in regards to their strength and power. Although Shakespeare
wrote plenty of things during his lifetime, from about 1594 to about 1605 he wrote four
incredible plays each filled with their unique tricks and characters. The characters of Duke
Vincentio from Measure for Measure, Don John from Much Ado About Nothing, Kent from King
Lear, and Portia from Merchant of Venice show that Shakespeare's representation of tricks
throughout these plays portrays the idea that gender does not determine the effectiveness of
tricks, but rather it does affect the characters' reasoning behind their tricks.

It is no secret that William Shakespeare liked to add tricks to his plays and build the play
around the trick or tricks. Tricks add variety, spontaneity, and suspense to any story. When
deciding who did what trick and how, did Shakespeare have a preconceived notion of how, or if,
the trickster’s gender affected the trick? According to a study conducted by Jussi Palomäki, Jeff
Yan, David Modic, Michael Laakasuo, students at the University of Helsinki, in conjunction
with students from Lancaster University and University of Cambridge, "Evolutionary
psychology suggests that men are more likely than women to deceive to bolster their status and