Patriarchal Arrangement in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth: A Reconnaissance from a Feministic Perspective

Abstract

Literature is full of ideologies, which at times is apparent and sometimes concealed. Shakespeare’s tragedies provides a platform to all the theories and principles and are seen as the hauler of various issues like love, abhorrence, envy, battles, hamartia, and catharsis. Women are often seen as feeble and languid creatures in various literary texts but Shakespearean women are not only strong but also exceedingly influential to control the patriarchal state. Women in his tragedies range from the acquitted to the intricate and deceitful, to fit in the needs of the text and of society. Shakespeare’s tragedies there is no dearth of women with positive attributes of humanity and chivalry and some of them are endowed with the qualities at par with men.

          As a feminist critic and writer, Simone de Beauvoir reflected that the character of a woman is shaped by an imposed identity, which a society frames for her. In a way, her original self gets ignored by a foisted identity, which is produced by patriarchal social standard. The present paper will try to investigate the portrayal of  Renaissance women in Shakespeare’s tragedies in the luminous of feminism. Each of his works presents the character of woman in different historical contexts.