셰익스피어의 여성인물에 나타난 페미니즘

Abstract

This study is to closely discuss the men' attitudes of treating women in the patriarchal society of Shakespeare’s time and the outcomes from a feminist perspective, examining the female characters in Hamlet and Othello among his other plays. In Introduction, the Renaissance period where Shakespeare lived was the most powerful patriarchal society than ever, and thereby men treated women as one of their belongings, especially in marriage. In this regard, in-depth analysis on such social background of patriarchal system will be conducted. In the main subject's Part I 『Ophelia and Gertrude』, mainly discusses the fact that Gertrude is described negatively, simply because it was consanguineous marriage, even though Gertrude married again in an effort to find a way out of national crisis at the request of the king and vassals. Ophelia also becomes a means of her father’s plot and tragically dies as if she were owned by her father, under the customs of patriarchal society. In short, the study examines in detail how the two female characters Gertrude and Ophelia confined and marginalized by men face with tragic fate under the patriarchal society. In the main subject's Part Ⅱ 『Desdemona and Emilia』, the focus of discussion is on Desdemona and Emilia. The first half of the play tells us how Desdemona is independent and positive, while she ends in undeserved death by two-dimensional masculine logic of gender toward women, contrary to her desire to be emancipated through marriage, failing to overcome conventional wisdom of patriarchal society of the time. Meanwhile, although Emila exhibits clear awareness about who she is and bravery to criticize men for their wrong attitudes toward women, she also finally dies due to double-faced misled values and attitudes of men toward women in patriarchal society filled with prejudice, like Desdemona. Therefore, this study provides an opportunity to closely investigate and assess from a feminist perspective how the values and attitudes of men toward women in patriarchal society affect the life and fate of the four female characters having self-identity awareness in Shakespeare’s plays.