ENG4U | Lauren Pearson, 2022
Adapting Famous Novelists: Shakespearean London
Awoken by the glistening sunlight at 4 am, my eyes open as I start to comprehend the exhaustive list of my duties as the female head of our household. I look to my right to see my husband as I was greeted by the aggressive cool breeze coming from beneath the cracks of our oilcloth window covering. My subservient demeanour frequently implies my capabilities of being the ideal London woman somewhat of a duplicate of Queen Elizabeth 1, only if she matched our lower social hierarchy status. At times I wish I could explore the interests dominated by masculinity although the consequences of doing so often refrain me from actually following through with the said tasks. The societal outpour of emotion was one to be heard from miles and miles away as the sounds of the theatre extended all through the town. But in a matter of fact, the majority of my ambitions were cultivated by my marriage and household-related endeavours. So much that I never had any other opportunities to explore typical masculine adventures, if so I‘d be ironically plagued by physicians as having “female hysteria” for my lack of confiding to societal normalities. The constant pressures of the house weighed on me like a ton of bricks. It was as almost like the drama within Shakespeare’s play correlated with the complicated morals of our patriarchal society. I could never be seen as heroic, due to the somewhat simplistic tasks in which I participate. I wonder if I was able to fight in vile bloody brawls, then maybe I would be seen as the breadwinner. Or if the genres of tragedy and comedy coincided with the levels of oppression men and women face. As I sat and stared at the blank dark interior of our house, I kept visualizing a world where men and women were treated as equals. The moment of reflection did not last long as I heard the loud knocks on the door.
A reminder of the family which I care for so deeply. Suddenly it was breakfast which consisted of rock-hard bread as it was the only thing we could seem to afford. Luckily, this minimal prep allowed me to sink further into my thoughts regarding the questioning of my gender. I thought to myself, “I wonder what our world would look like if the roles were reversed.” The stale bread acted as a reminder that I was forever stuck in acting as whatever society had perceived of me.
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