The two texts present a woman from a disadvantaged point of view and how she struggles to establish a foothold in a male-dominated society. In Hamlet, analysis of the plight of women falls on Ophelia and Gertrude. The two women endure chauvinistic suffering and finally break loose. Gertrude transgresses the patriarchal bounds of femininity by marrying soon after her husband’s death, much to Hamlet’s chagrin. Consequently, he refers to her as “frail” (Act 1, Scene 2, line 146).
Jason accuses Medea of overreacting. He claims that his decision to remarry was in everyone's best interest. Medea finds him spineless, and she refuses to accept his token offers of help. While visiting Corinth, Aegeus, King of Athens, offers Medea to come live in his home city in exchange for her knowledge of certain drugs that can cure his sterility. Now guaranteed a home in Athens, Medea has cleared all obstacles to completing her revenge, a plan which grows to include the murder of her own children; the pain their loss will cause her does not outweigh the satisfaction she will feel in making Jason suffer.
My chosen monologue is spoken by Juliet to her nurse and can be found at Act 3, Scene 2 lines 97 – 127. In this scene, on hearing the news that Romeo killed her cousin, Tybalt, Juliet is initially angry, but her love for him resurfaces and Romeo’s banishment overshadows Tybalt’s death. There are a lot of conflicting stresses in the first few lines; opposites with contrasting arguments to show Juliet's opposed states of mind. Juliet feels conflicted because her love for Romeo clashes with her love and sense of duty to her family. She asks why Romeo killed her cousin, calling him a villain, but realises Tybalt’s death is less significant and she grants Romeo the license to kill her cousin when she realises that her cousin would have killed Romeo had he not been killed instead.
When the oracle said that her son would kill his father and sleep with his mother she quickly abandoned her son to avoid that horrible fate and thanked the oracle for that. However, when Oedipus heard that Polybus was dead and realized he didn’t kill his father Jocasta said the oracle was useless. Jocasta is the type of person that chooses to be blind and accept the lies but only when they help her. If the truths help her then she will accept the truths. Jocasta is also trying to blind Oedipus in this quote.
Women in Ancient Greece did not have the same rights as men in many areas of daily life. In The Odyssey, Homer portrays Penelope as an ancient Greek woman and by doing so to a point depicts how free non slave women were supposed to act within the norms that where created by that culture. Even Penelope, being an intelligent women as she was, had to comply with such rules, but only to a certain degree (Od. p 18). In ancient Greece, a woman could be pressured to marry a man, a woman could not control any property at all, and a woman could not even command respect from her own servants unless supported by a man (Od.
Women were looked at as the weaker sex compared to men. In this play there was a athenian rule which required women to obey there fathers wishes or they could be killed. For example Egeus gave Demetrius his consent to marry his daughter Hermia. She was in love with Lysander and her father told her she should be killed if she doesnt marry Demetrius. In this play a womens life was not valubal to men.
"She'd brooded on her loss, misery had brewed/ In her heart, that female horror, Grendel's/ Mother, slain his father's son/ With an angry sword. " First this quote refers to Grendel's mother and how the loss of her son impacted her. The physical description of both Grendel and his mother represent them as monstrous looking, tempting to ignore that they're very real emotions. Grendel's mother has been cast away from humanity, but also that she didn't do anything to precipitate this. The poet remains reader of how understandable Grendel's mother's response is.
The Loss of Subjectivity: Lady Macbeth as Unconscious of Macbeth Among most female characters in Shakespeare’s works, Lady Macbeth, who has been attracting attention and debates for centuries is ambiguous in identity and subjectivity. Her fascination lies in the masks beneath which the evil and good counterparts with the other self restlessly seek to hide or show: she is the dedicated wife, sacrificing her womanliness to help realize her husband’s ambition; she is the “fiend-like queen” (V.viii.35)[1], possessing the cruelty of a man, but is born as a woman. However, it is this mysterious woman that lacks the most fundamental component of her subjectivity, a name. As the only female protagonist in The Tragedy of Macbeth[2], she does not have a name of her own unlike Ophelia (Hamlet), or Portia (The Merchant of Venice), or Desdemona (Othello). She is the Lady Macbeth: she, lacking subjectivity, is not defined in her own right but a reflection of Macbeth’s mental status.
The betrayal of Polynieces causes his sister, Antigone, to start another long line of betrayal throughout the rest of the play. Antigone begins planning her betrayal against Creon and her justice against her brother when she goes to her sister, Ismene, for help. “You must decide whether you will help me or not.” (Line 30, Pg 774). Ismene is a coward and claims she cannot help Antigone, “But I have no strength to break laws that were made for the public good.” (Line 66, Pg 774). The fact that Antigone is now alone is this process does not slow her down at all; not even after Ismene warns her that the consequence of her actions could be death.
Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, is left torn between state of family, and in the end, chooses family over state. Disregarding Creon's edict with grave danger to herself, Antigone ventures to bury the body of Polyneices, and thus begins her adventure. Antigone is truly a tragic hero, marked by her station as son of Oedipus, and her proud and perhaps arrogant characteristics which will lead to her eventual, inevitable, tragic ending. At the start of her tale, Antigone is the daughter of royalty, but more then that, a daughter of a horrible tragedy: through an unwitting horror story, her father, Oedipus, was also her brother, as Oedipus was married to his mother before she killed herself upon discovering the truth. Before his death, Oedipus had blinded himself, adding to the tragedy.