Shakespeare's vast collection of publications were all published four centuries ago, a completely different era. In this period, gender was viewed and represented differently which is clear in the works we reviewed. The number one claim that can be made from gender depictions is the role of women as wives. Both plays have themes of a patriarchy controlling marriage and the lack of agency of wives. Hardly any woman is shown to be independent, and even the most powerful woman, Queen Tamora, has to work within the patriarchy to achieve her revenge. A second key theme present throughout is the weakness of women, shown by tears and cases of defenselessness. It can be concluded that woman were viewed, and hence depicted, as not as strong or capable as men, especially in the discrepancy of power given to each gender, heavily preferring men. This depiction is inherent in Shakespeare's writing as woman characters hardly get the power to speak aside to the audience. Lastly, the appearance of sexual violence and unwanted romantic pursuits show how helpless women are shown to be. There is no chance in these works that a woman could stand up for herself physically or intellectually, or have their wishes respected. Overall, gender stereotypes pervade Shakespeare's writings, showing the beliefs, ideas, and culture of the times.
Shakespeare includes non-white characters, but their personality and depiction differ greatly from the other characters. To start, black characters are not frequent used throughout Shakespeare's combined works, with generally just one character of color in a play if any at all. For the black characters that do appear they are often shown as foreigners, dirty, or villains, perpetuating the current racial thoughts of the time. Aaron the Moor for example is the only black character in Titus Andronicus and he is villain through and through, with zero remorse for his terrible deeds. Furthermore, society attributes his villainy to his skin color, saying that the inside evil manifests the outside blackness. On the other side, black women were shown as less than white women, with adjectives and depictions of a dun skin color, wiry hair, ugliness, and even bad breath. It can be concluded from these racial depictions that gender and race were combined to create an evolutionary order with white men on top and black women on the bottom.