The Psychology of Gender and Sexuality in Shakespeares Plays

Name of Author : Mahmood Mawlood Khalaf Almashhadani, Prof. Jawed S. Ahmed

Abstract: Scholars of psychology continue to regard Shakespeares depiction of human psychology as the most scientific and accurate in literary works despite his depiction of the human mental condition are not based on reasonable psychological theories. According to dominated belief at Shakespeares time, Humors are the four substances within human body, responsible for the determination of the individuals temperament. Elizabethan doctors did not have the scientific psychological knowledge, however, they engaged in practicing and studying human mentality. The psychological treatment of human gender and sexuality is nearly continuant in Shakespeares drama and scholars undertake a close analysis of his works to uncover the historical and cultural factors in his presentation of gender and sexuality. Shakespeare gives his female protagonists the power to act in an authoritative ways with success and have an effective role as concerns about the monarchys gender which forms the primary social consideration in his time. Freud and other psychoanalytic theorists have used Shakespeares works to apply their theories to explore the gender and sexual anxieties of the Elizabethan culture.

Keywords : Psychology, Shakespeare, Gender, Sexuality, Women

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