Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2016, English

The fate of most young women in sixteenth and early seventeenth century England, as well as in Shakespeare's comedic plays, is marriage. In Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom observes that, “If there were an Act VI to Shakespeare's comedies, doubtless many of the concluding marriages would approximate the condition of Shakespeare's own union with Anne Hathaway” (88). It is impossible to know the extent to which Shakespeare's married life influenced his work, but there are certainly hints that the marriages which supply his comedies' happy endings might prove less than blissful. If Shakespeare's comedies present difficult (though perhaps somewhat typical) marriages as the happiest ending and best case scenario available to his young, female heroines, then his tragedies offer a much darker look at the worst that may befall such young women. The following work is an analysis of four of Shakespeare's best known, tragic female characters: Juliet of Romeo and Juliet, Ophelia of Hamlet, Desdemona of Othello, and Cordelia of King Lear. It aims to explore the reasons that these young women are failed dramatically by the patriarchal social systems responsible for ensuring their well-being

Committee: Graley Herren Ph.D. (Advisor); Niamh O'Leary Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Womens Studies