Potter Capstone Project - Draft June 6, 2015 The Gender Roles in Shakespeare Known as a fine interpreter of human thought and action, William Shakespeare often relied on gender roles and stereotypes to aid the audience in forming an opinion of a character or event. Since Elizabethan society made such great distinctions between the actions and feelings of men and women, it is only natural that the works from that era would also conform to those same great differences between the sexes as well. While