Any pregnant characters in Shakespeare?

Question

Or insinuation of pregnancy? If not, any characters where it would be funny/ironic if played by a pregnant woman?

Preferably looking for something in the comedies, but tragedies and histories also.

Answer 1

I'm afraid you are very much mistaken minervabnu.

In 'Measure for Measure ' Claudio gets his girlfriend Juliet pregnant, that's basically what the theme is. It's a morality play. There are funny characters in the play, but I'm not sure if it was entirely a comedy.

In 'The Winters Tale' Hermione Leontes's wife is pregnant. Leontes, has issues and becomes convinced that Polixenes and Hermione are lovers.He publicly accuses his wife of infidelity, and says that the child she is carrying must be illegitimate. But they sort business out in the end ( when the baby's all grown up!)

Apart from that i can't think.

you might want to have a look through http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/index.html

good luck:)

Answer 2

Funny you should mention it.

When I directed "Macbeth" a few years ago, I made Lady Macduff enormously pregnant. And NOT for laughs, believe me. When the murderers sent by Macbeth showed up at her home in Act 4, scene ii, I wanted it VERY clear that they were about to slaughter HER, her young son...AND her unborn child. The people who die in "Macbeth" die because they underestimate him. They always believe that there's a point that he won't go beyond. I wanted to reinforce fo rthe audience that there is no such point, and ordering the cold-blooded murder of a pregnant woman seemed to make that case pretty effectively.

At one point in the scene, one of the murderers just sort of reached out and stroked her huge pregnant belly, leering at her with evil intent. She just started SCREAMING...and then I dumped the lights. It was pretty creepy.

Answer 3

I believe it has been suggested by some scholars that Ophelia might have been pregnant (either by Hamlet or by Claudius). But there wouldn't be anything funny about that---it would merely act as a motive for her state of mind and eventual suicide.

Answer 4

I have a feeling pregnancy was not discussed openly those days. So you mat not hear of it.