Women in Shakespearian plays have always had important roles. Whether they create the main conflicts and base of the plays, or bring up interesting moral and cultural questions, they have always been put in challenging situations. Some women are stronger than others, and their effect on the play is different for each one.

For example, Hamlet has an interestingly strong female in it. Queen Gertrude, widow of Old Hamlet, remarried to Claudius, has a type of conditional strength. When she and Claudius get married, that alone takes a lot of guts. Her marriage so soon after her husbands death would be subject to ridicule and gossip in the people she was ruling. She took a chance with that action, she knew it, and it was a fairly big chance. This is the whole base plot for the play. Claudius had killed hi brother, the king, before him to...