THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS: A FEMINIST ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v4.i2.2023.4537Keywords:
Feminism, Shakespeare, Gender Roles, Patriarchy, Women In LiteratureAbstract [English]
This paper examines the presentation of women in Shakespeare's plays from a feminist perspective by investigating how these characters deal with the restrictions imposed by a patriarchal society. By the standards set in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when most of Shakespeare's work was produced, and indeed during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, it was the case that women had to be dependent, virtuous, and most importantly of all, obedient to male authority. Many female characters in his writings, however, are complex, intelligent, and capable of acting for themselves, either subtly or explicitly violating the norms. Some of the more prominent names that signify this idea are Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Desdemona, and Portia, all of whom speak to the much different dramatization of women in Shakespearean drama. Research will thus determine whether the works of Shakespeare perpetuate or resist the gender norms existent within a society, in context with its history, feminist readings of now, and yet also the relevance of that in current arguments about gender roles, power, and women's freedom as decoders of the same text. The plays themselves invariably don't have a feminist interpretation, but all the same, they make a window into the experiences and sufferings women have had to go through, thus being a reference for the analysis of gender in literature.
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