Elizabeth (Shakespeare's Richard III)

Queen Elizabeth, like all of the women in Richard III, represents the unfair treatment of women in a power-hungry world that only sees them as a means to an end. Queen Elizabeth is left vulnerable after her husband, King Edward, dies because he was the only person who could protect her and her children from Richard and anybody else who wanted the crown. She is tragically forced to watch as Richard plots to kill her family and eliminate the line of succession, and is left to grieve her two young sons after Richard has them killed and assumes the throne.