In the Play Women Are Depicted Extremely Negatively, They Are Demons or Else Weak or Even Invisible; Discuss How Far You Agree or Disagree with This Statement in the Light of the Play.

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Some critics see Shakespeare’s King Lear as an anti-feminist text because of different contributing factors such as the reasons for Lear’s demotion from king, the fall of his kingdom and the reason for his madness. However others see it is a feminist text which recounts the insecurity of men and their dependence on the female characters. Overall within this play, women are shown to play both the good and the bad at different scales and scenes. The most obvious, demonically portrayed female characters are Regan and Goneril, arguably the main reasons for Lear’s down fall from a prestigious king to a madman. They both display the Machiavellian trait of whoever holds the power holds the right to control and both the sisters exert this fairly ruthlessly. In Act 4 Scene 4 Regan regrets her decision to spare the blind Gloucester’s life: “It was great ignorance, Gloucester’s eyes being out, to let him live” suggesting her indifferent attitude to what Gloucester calls a “horrid act”. Goneril also suggests a demonic personality through her treatment of her husband Albany calling him “milk-livered” when he questions her wish to kill her own father. He retorts fittingly by saying “see thyself, devil”, implying Goneril has changed vastly from the woman he married and the only explanation could be possession by the devil to justify her evil. Similarly, Goneril is insulted by her father when he calls her “[a] marble-hearted fiend” and a “sea-monster” however although Goneril’s later actions of agreeing to her father’s murder is inexcusable, Lear’s accusations in Act 1 Scene 4 show Lear’s own struggle with female dominance cause him to be unfair to her. Goneril confronts his disorderly conduct: “You strike my people, and your disordered rabble make servants of their betters”, Lear’s want to be in constant control means he becomes angry and hyperbolically reactive to anything his

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