William Shakespeare was an iconic playwright in the history of mankind. His characters are among the most unforgettable in literature. Shakespeare’s quotes about women have a lot to say about the icon’s view of the feminine gender. His portrayal of women is particularly noteworthy. The female characters featured in his books range from powerful and independent to meek and submissive. His works have sparked discussions and debates about the portrayal of women in literature, and his quotes about women continue to be relevant even today.
Shakespeare Quotes About Women
1. “Frailty, thy name is woman!” – Hamlet
2. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – As You Like It
3. “Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.” – Romeo and Juliet
4. “Women are angels, wooing: Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.” – Troilus and Cressida
5. “O, how this spring of love resembleth/The uncertain glory of an April day/Which now shows all the beauty of the sun/And by and by a cloud takes all away!” – Two Gentlemen of Verona
6. “Women’s vows are oftentimes made of air.” – The Merchant of Venice
7. “Women are as roses, whose fair flower/Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.” – The Rape of Lucrece
8. “Men’s vows are women’s traitors.” – Cymbeline
9. “A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted/With shifting change, as is false women’s fashion.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
10. “Women are not made to bear, and so gentler than man/But yet their passions are more violent.” – Julius Caesar
11. “Women like silent men. They think they’re listening.” – Henry VI
12. “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
13. “Women’s eyes are the books in which we read/Passages of love and beauty.” – Love’s Labour’s Lost
14. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” – The Mourning Bride (by William Congreve, but often attributed to Shakespeare)
15. “I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of.” – The Merry Wives of Windsor
16. “Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible; Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless.” – Henry VI
17. “Give me my Romeo; and when I shall die/Take him and cut him out in little stars/And he will make the face of heaven so fine/That all the world will be in love with night/And pay no worship to the garish sun.” – Romeo and Juliet
18. “Women’s fears/Will make men crouch.” – Macbeth
19. “Women’s pleasure pastime, beauty’s spring.” – The Rape of Lucrece
20. “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world/Like a Colossus, and we petty men/Walk under his huge legs, and peep about/To find ourselves dishonorable graves.” – Julius Caesar
21. “A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted/Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion.” – Sonnet 20
22. “Women will love her that she is a woman/More worth than any man; men, that she is/The rarest of all women.” – The Winter’s Tale
23. “Women’s virtues/Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against/The deep damnation of his taking off.” – Hamlet
24. “If I be waspish, best beware my sting.” – The Taming of the Shrew
25. “Women are angels, wooing:/Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.” – Troilus and Cressida
26. “Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.” – Oscar Wilde (although often mistakenly attributed to Shakespeare)
27. “I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster; but I’ll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me he shall never make me such a fool.” – Much Ado About Nothing
28. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!/It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/As a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear.” – Romeo and Juliet.
29. “She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed/She is a woman, therefore to be won.” – Henry VI
30. “One half of me is yours, the other half yours/Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours/And so all yours.” – The Merchant of Venice
31. “Women are the only archeologists who dig up the past and turn it into the future.” – The Two Noble Kinsmen
32. “The world is thy home, and not thy husband’s household stuff.” – The Merry Wives of Windsor
33. “Her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love.” – Twelfth Night
34. “Frailty, thy name is woman!” – Hamlet
35. “Women are the only things that men will die for.” – The Two Gentlemen of Verona
36. “In thy face I see the map of honor, truth and loyalty.” – Henry VI
37. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!/It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/As a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear.” – Romeo and Juliet
38. “Women’s gentle brains/Will not resist a lover’s gentle tongue.” – The Two Gentlemen of Verona
39. “Women are made to bear, and so are you.” – The Taming of the Shrew
40. “She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed/She is a woman, therefore to be won.” – Henry VI
41. “Women’s love is quick, my lord, but men’s love is deep.” – Much Ado About Nothing
42. “As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.” – The Taming of the Shrew
43. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – As You Like It
44. “What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!/how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how/express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!/the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!” – Hamlet
45. “When he shall die/Take him and cut him out in little stars/And he will make the face of heaven so fine/That all the world will be in love with night/And pay no worship to the garish sun.” – Romeo and Juliet
46. “Doubt thou the stars are fire/Doubt that the sun doth move/Doubt truth to be a liar/But never doubt I love.” – Hamlet
Last Words
Shakespeare’s quotes about women remain as apt today as they were when he first penned them. His female protagonists have nuanced personalities and varied characteristics. Shakespeare, via his writings, has thrown light on and questioned the stereotypical roles that women were expected to play in his time. His legacy as a writer of strong female characters lives on in his many inspiring and thought-provoking quotes about women.
