The well-known and highly respected William Shakespeare wrote copious amounts of controversial, thought-provoking and, needless to say, captivating works in his time. His works focused on love, the idea of ​​being in love and the consequences that could follow. That said, many of his works were easily recognizable and at various times his audiences saw a mirror image of themselves on stage, which made for an interactive and psychologically stimulating experience. In most of her works, the woman in power was never blinded by love, rather, she always seemed to have men at her feet and used them to her advantage. In contrast, women who were madly in love were docile and had little to no power or control over their lives. Is this pattern a coincidence? It can be said that Shakespeare was nothing more than a mere example of an individual whose writing was influenced by his time. In his era he witnessed the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who was the head of state and the most powerful person in England in the 16th century. Along with Mary Tudor and Mary Stuart who were strong, independent and feared by their people. Furthermore, Shakespeare never failed to include women seen as sexual creatures. Therefore, the concept of femininity can be debated. His readers may have wondered what exactly made a feminine woman feminine and how could Shakespeare determine this? Furthermore, was Shakespeare influenced by women in the Elizabethan age, and if so, did he foreshadow the rise of women? Shakespeare incorporated and focused on women who fit into the traditional gender role in society and women who resisted their role in a patriarchal society. Women in the Elizabethan age of the early modern era we...... middle of paper ......rce: Strangening the Renaissance. Ed. Marjorie Garber. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1987. 90-121. Dash, Irene G. The Worlds of Women in Shakespeare's Works. Newark, DE: University of Delaware, 1997. Print.Linda Bamber, Comic Women, Tragic Men, Stanford Univ. Press., Stanford, 1982Tennenhouse, Leonard. Power of Visualization: Shakespeare's Gender Politics. Camden, Carroll. The Elizabethan woman. Houston [Tex.: Elsevier, 1952. Print.Howard, Judith A. “Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories and: Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge (Review).” NWSA Journal 14.2 (2002): 192-95. Network. 8 December 2013.Wiesner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge [England: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.Tassi, Marguerite A. Women and Revenge in Shakespeare: Gender, Genre, and Ethics. Selinsgrove [Pa.: Susquehanna UP, 2011. Print.