scholarly journals WOMEN STRUGGLE IN 'A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM' : DE BEAUVOIR'S FEMINISM PERSPECTIVE

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Winarti Winarti ◽  
Ana Hening Kusuma
Keyword(s):  
Gender Difference ◽  
Married Woman ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Happy Ending ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Patriarchal Society ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Gender Awareness

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s comedies assumed to be written between 1590- 1597. It can be regarded as one of the comedies because it is full of silly funny things and also has a happy ending although there is seriousness within the work for instance the representation of patriarchal society. This paper aims at describing the women's struggles in the play based on the theory of Simon de Beauvoir regarding the situation of married woman to see the phenomenon found in the work better. As the result of the analysis, it can be concluded that there is a gender awareness which has been presented by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He shows that there is gender difference in the play presented by the male and female characters in a restricted patriarchal society of Athens.

Shakespeare for the Gifted

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-253
Author(s):  
Colin Butler
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Twelfth Night ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Much Ado About Nothing ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Relative Status

This article describes a multi-part approach to Shakespeare's playwriting, including his conception of comedy, his method of characterisation, aspects of staging, and the relative status of male and female characters. It can accommodate all types of Shakespearean play. A Midsummer Night's Dream is treated as seminal. Other plays discussed include Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello and Twelfth Night. The approach is cumulative in effect and derives from teaching English 17–18 year olds working on the coursework unit of their Advanced Level English Literature certificate. Its unitised structure suits college and classroom workshops. It can be modified for younger students.

scholarly journals Woman as the Other—Interpretations of the Gender Wars in “A Woman on a Roof” from the Perspective of Existential Feminism

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Junying Song
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Doris Lessing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Patriarchal Society ◽  
Male Power ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
The Subject

Doris Lessing is one of the Nobel Prize winners and “A Woman on a Roof” is such a famous short story of hers. In the patriarchal society, women are in the lower status, but the woman in the story struggles bravely to fight against the male power. During her fighting, the woman has doubts and hesitation, but she finally forces the three males to put off their prejudice. This paper focuses on how the woman strives for her own rights, and talks from the perspective of Existential Feminism, taking the main male and female characters in “A Woman on a Roof” as examples, so as to explore women’s self-survival in the dualistic society. Through studying her feminist thinking in the short story, the paper points out that the woman finally transforms her role from the Other to the Subject and then she is in an equal position with the three males. Though the two genders does not reconcile with each other as it seems to be with the purification of rainwater in “A Woman on a Roof”, the woman has made a big progress in the pursuit of her own transcendence.

scholarly journals Looking at French Comedy from the 1550s-1660s from the Perspective of Gender Studies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goulven OIRY ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Studies ◽  
World View ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Patriarchal Society ◽  
French Comedy ◽  
The Town

French comedies from the late 16th century and early 17th century revolve around games of love-making which are systematically likened to acts of war. A compact web of metaphors draws a parallel between the conquest of maidens and the conquest of cities. This metaphor of the conquest of a city which provides the narrative basis of the plays also displays, at an ideological level, a fundamentally misogynous world view. This study proposes to analyse this fundamental schema and explain the changes it undergoes. Indeed, as we progress through the 17th century, the metaphor of the town siege can be turned around and some of the lead female characters tend to turn into conquerors. The theatre of comedy thus takes the edge off its misogynous side. In Corneille’s La Veuve and Le Menteur, in Claveret’s L’Esprit fort or in Rotrou’s La Célimène the relationships between male and female characters develop in a way that is gradually more favourable the the latter. Gender studies can bring fresh light to the study of French comedy from the 1550s-1660s. This theatre of the beginning of the modern age highlights both the foundations of our patriarchal society and the first signs of its shattering.

Challenging Hegemonic Patriarchy

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Safi M. Mahfouz
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream

Drawing on feminist theory, this article offers a feminist reading of some Arab Hamlet appropriations to demonstrate whether or not such plays qualify as feminist Shakespeare re-visions. It shows how some female characters in these plays have been, unlike their Shakespearean counterparts, empowered to challenge the hegemonic patriarchal structures of their societies while others remain oppressed and submissive. The discussed Arab Shakespeare renditions constitute only illustrative samples of heroic and oppressed women in the Arab Shakespeare canon which has been known for producing political satires. The featured plays include Ahmad Shawqī’s Masra‘ Kileopatrā (The Fall of Cleopatra), Egypt, 1946; Nabyl Lahlou’s Ophelia Is Not Dead, Morocco, 1968; Mamdūh Al-ʻUdwān’s Hamlet Wakes Up Late, Syria, 1976; Yūsuf Al-Sāyyegh’s Desdemona, Iraq, 1989; Jawād Al-Assadī’s Forget Hamlet, Iraq, 1994; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Palestine, 2011.

Gender Differences in Clothing Worn in Current Popular Comic Books

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Landon Jossy
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Book Industry ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Lower Body ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Males And Females

This study looked at how males and females were portrayed, based on the amount of skin shown in the clothing worn.  A Content analysis was performed on a sample of 20 randomly selected popular comics from the last 3 years.  Both male and female characters were rated on how much skin they showed in three clothing categories; neck line, sleeve length, and lower body.  Results showed that in all 3 categories, women consistently wore more revealing clothing.  The findings demonstraetd that the comic book industry is comparable to other forms of media, in the sexualization of female characters, by having them wear more revealing clothing.

Shakespeare Afoot

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kerrigan
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

That Shakespeare adds a limp to the received characterization of Richard III is only the most conspicuous instance of his interest in how actors walked, ran, danced, and wandered. His attention to actors’ footwork, as an originating condition of performance, can be traced from Richard III through A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It into Macbeth, which is preoccupied with the topic and activity all the way to the protagonist’s melancholy conclusion that ‘Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player | That struts and frets his hour upon the stage’. Drawing on classical and early modern accounts of how people walk and should walk, on ideas about time and prosody, and the experience of disability, this chapter cites episodes in the history of performance to show how actors, including Alleyn, Garrick, and Olivier, have worked with the opportunities to dramatize footwork that are provided by Shakespeare’s plays.

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