Religion

...There has been a consistent pattern of women accepting the blame accorded to them by men. Catholic teaching, for all it sanctified Mary for being the vessel in which Jesus was held for nine months, emphasised its view that women were weak. If they were not weak, they were probably wicked. While Shakespeare's contemporaries mirrored this expectation in their characters, notable Shakespearean characters were clear of blame, indeed so clear about their own roles that they could forgive others for having caused the suffering. Shakespeare did not internalise the sources of guilt in his most saintly characters, Isabella and Cordelia, and this difference in purpose and vision on stage must raise questions about the validity and completeness of historians' versions of women's response to religious controversies.....

...It is impressive that Shakespeare survived well in both reigns, writing plays which were deeply moral, in endorsement of marital and social order, with strong lessons for monarchs who overstepped godly limits set on humanity. While the destinies of the women he portrayed changed from reign to reign, his rendition of women's potential did not diminish. Lady Macbeth was an all too powerful strategist; Queen Cleopatra could shake empires. Their amorality and devotion to their men were closely linked and overwhelmed any responsibility to their nations. Innocents such as Othello accepted the moral burden of their actions, and Othello's grief cried anguish across "steep-down gulfs of liquid fire", opening hell on stage, with Desdemona's "look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven", giving the scope of what had been done to him. When he died upon a kiss, Desdemona's faith in him was restored to us, and our reactions of pity and regret for the human condition infuse a moral sense of what should be, and the plays are demonstrative reinforcement of logical theology.
Shakespeare read his audiences well and provided plays which spoke of current and age old controversies. More than his contemporaries, however, he created a frame of reference to an archetypal Christianity which valued people in terms of mercy, justice and duty. Life was a recognisable tangle of complexities in Act Three, but by the end of Act Five the audience knew what should prevail in human actions and how heaven would eventually judge. His spokespeople could be women, as with Isabella and Portia. Desdemona spoke little, but she neither accepted blame nor blamed. Denied professional status in the Church or law, some women characters spoke with right and authority in their plays. Audiences of Shakespeare's plays have never been left in doubt that revenge, greed and jealousy are wrong and will bring their own doom at least in a spiritual sphere after death; the virtuous who have perished are valued in terms of higher love. Perhaps this is the greatest attribute of Shakespeare's plays, for we wish to inhabit the universe of his perception....