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Role Of Misogyny In King Lear

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Misogyny The portrayal of women changes each year as female rights continues to expand and develop until one day females across the world can achieve the same rights as males. In the tragic play, King Lear written by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare challenges the long established portrayal of women by giving them the power of authority, despite later reverting back to the traditional gender roles by suggesting that the females in this play who are given the power of authority are bound to fail. The old king of Britain, King Lear, has three daughters who are all not considered to be part of stereotypical Elizabethan women as they all have the power of authority in different manners. They are all strong-minded, politically powerful and voice …show more content…

She loves her father dearly, however when her father asked her to do a love test, everything changed; Cordelia did not know how to express her love for her father verbally. The love test is a test where all the daughters must express how much they love their own father with words. Goneril and Regan went first and told their father that they love him with all their heart, however, when it was Cordelia went, she said nothing; She loves his “majesty according to [her] bond, no more nor less” (Shakespeare 1.1.91-92). Cordelia went against her father by defending her answer through reasoning that if her sisters love their father with all their hearts, they do not give any love to their husbands. In other words, she was implying that her sisters must be telling a lie. Thus, Cordelia making a statement that she will not marry due to the reason that when she is married, she will have to split her love for her husband and her sense of duty equally. When Cordelia said this to her father, King Lear grew furious and immediately disowns her from the family and took away all her inheritance and dowry. She is then married off to the king of France with no dowry and received political power over the French community. Cordelia was very …show more content…

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth has power over her husband and manipulates his thoughts to kill others in order to gain more power; however, the plan failed as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth lost their sanity and brought their reign to an end by bringing misery and misfortune to everyone around them. Also, in Othello, Desdemona went against her father by sneaking out to marry Othello and completely went against the female norms by joining Othello to the battlefield. As a result, the antagonist manipulated Othello into killing Desdemona due to her determination and independence. Shakespeare has always portrayed females as strong, prideful and independent individuals who aren’t afraid of speaking up to defend their thoughts, however, due to the long-established gender roles, these individual will ultimately bring bad omen to their own family and lead them to their own

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