Throughout history, women have always been supressed by men, especially when women were once viewed as being physically too delicate to participate in the public sphere. However, men’s oppression of women in modern times rises from defensive resistance not in the interests of protecting women, but of preserving men’s privilege haven (Kimmel, 2010). One mechanism of maintaining masculine privilege in modern times is through soft influence tactics, such as rewards and praise rather than harsh influence tactics, like open acts of hostility (Kimmel, 2010). For example, stereotypes and norms of traditional and heterosexual paternalism are
The Emalia-Desdemona relationship is an interesting and complicated one. At first glance, it might seem that Emalia serves as the jaded foil to Desdemona’s innocent naivety about love. However, a closer, sympathetic look at Emalia shows she has plenty of reasons to be as hardened as she has become. The role of Iago’s wife can’t be an easy one, and he is usually too concerned with revenge to pay much attention to her. He’s arguably one of the cruelest Shakespearean villains, and Emalia is just trying to survive unscathed.
An integral event that shapes Ophelia is in act 3 scene 1 when Hamlet confronts Ophelia. Before this point, Polonius hypotheses that Hamlet is mad due to the absence of Ophelia’s affection. However in contradiction to Polonius’ belief, in this scene, Hamlet is acting and speaking harshly to Ophelia. Despite this revelation, Ophelia still wishes for the Hamlet she loves to return, as shown in the lines: And I, of ladies most deject and
This bitterness brewed in him due to society casting him away because he forged a signature, and also due to his love, Mrs. Linde, rejecting him for someone who was richer than him. Emotions had determined what had happened to him and would influence his decisions towards the end of the play. When he learned about Nora and her act of committing forgery, he used this opportunity and blackmailed Nora by opening her eyes to the reality of the world. This was the part of the play when the tension increased and eventually led to the conflict. Mrs. Linde persuades him to mend his ways by forgiving Nora.
He doesn’t value Katharina as her Bride and only sees her a challenge to be conquered. He treats her cruelly and is shown in believing traditional orthodox patriarchal male dominant character. Bianca – She is the sister of Katharina and is complete anti-thesis of her sister. She is the one suitor’s line up for but due to the ridiculous condition put up by Baptista, they cannot. She is shown to be submissive and materialistic qualities of her which are despised by her sister
Openly, impacted and predisposed by the domestic or relationship-based hierarchies of the period. Society’s subgroups such as the hired help or women were not necessarily beaten into submission, but by the systematic powers of expression delegated. The plays result satisfies the audience then because its story maintains an essence of dynamics between characters, driven mainly by a clash of personalities, carrying an analytical opinion about treating second-class people deliberately as objects. Perchance, a sensible point because this is what Shakespeare criticizes in his own work. Nonetheless, Shakespeare satires this minority outlook by giving the female
It is a striking event how he treats his alleged favourite daughter and how easily he believes the lies he is being fed. Despite this, his quote holds a certain truth to it. As Lear has sinned against Cordelia, his other two daughters have sinned against him. He is right in his words for the reason that, although he was unjust and treated Cordelia disrespectfully, he did it because he felt betrayed. His view on showing love is expressing it through words, so when Cordelia fails in her declaration of love, Lear sees this fail as a lack of love and ungratefulness, especially when he decides to give the entire kingdom to his daughters.
McEwan mainly focuses on how the negative emotions can affect moral judgement. In the case of Briony jealousy causes her to want to hurt Robbie. Rejection and replacement cause Briony’s jealousy as her love, Robbie, chose to be with her sister rather than with her. The lingering effect of jealousy can be attributed to the leading cause of her immoral judgement. By giving this character a hamartia such as this McEwan made it possible for the readers to eventually feel empathetic towards Briony, as many would have felt jealousy due to an unrequited
Phaedra from Hippolytus by Euripides and Medea from Medea by Euripides are sympathetic victims of the patriarchy. The women hold very little power and are representative of the dysfunction that can arise from a calculated, male-dominated society skewed by a disproportionate power struggle. From the start of both plays, Hippolytus and Medea, it is clear that both women are fated to be victims because their actions, though cruel, are simply reactions to the injustices they have been subject to and occur as a result of the lack of power among women, and these acts are catalyzed by oppression. It is true that Phaedra and Medea committed cruel crimes against their loved ones, but these violent acts were self-preservative in nature. Moreover, Phaedra and Medea are complex and well-developed characters, antithetical to the ideal Greek woman.
Minus becoming impure, Ophelia is left brokenhearted and distraught as Hamlet breaks his promises to her of marriage. This broken promise is also one of the stones that later drives her mad. So a reader may find it interesting that even in her state of madness she is able to communicate her heartbreak and touch down on topics most would never consider. While Ophelia does show some good examples of feminism, Queen Gertrude shows even more compelling evidence of feminist lens in the form of Gertrude holding the perfect image of a proper women. The reader can see the feminist lens in Gertrude through her love for her son and when she is always being overlooked by the men in her life.