"Suppose, for instance, that men were only repre-
sented in literature as the lovers of women, and were
never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers;
how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be al-
lotted to them; how literature would suffer! We might
perhaps have most of Othello; and a good deal of Antony;
but no Caesar, no Brutus, no Hamlet, no Lear, no
Jaques-literature would be incredibly impoverished,
as indeed literature is impoverished beyond our count-
ing by the doors that have been shut upon women." (page 83). This was the most impactful quote of the whole essay. I can't stop thinking about it.