Are Shakespeare’s Women Second-Class Citizens? Janet Suzman Thinks So

“What I am struck by … is that none of the women are awarded interiority in nearly the same measure as the male characters. No soliloquies of any note, although Cleopatra comes nearest, achieving a Lear-like clarity about her place in the world after the death of Antony. And none of them earn the lengthy scholarly analysis accorded the eponymous heroes of the canon.”