This thesis aims at examining the ambiguities of gender roles in men and women in two fo Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. It is well known that from the middle ages through the 17th and the early 18th centuries to the modern age the dominant ideology, political and domestic, was pat...
This thesis aims at examining the ambiguities of gender roles in men and women in two fo Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. It is well known that from the middle ages through the 17th and the early 18th centuries to the modern age the dominant ideology, political and domestic, was patriarchy, and Shakespeare was not immune to its influence. But my close textual examination of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet focusing on gender roles reveals that Shakespeare criticizes patriarchy, exposing its inner contradictions, especially its gender distributions. Shakespeare adopts and endorses patriarchy only in order to dramatize it critically, making it a laughing stock via his chiasmic rendition of gender roles. As opposed to the biologically and anatomically given sex, gender is something culturally and historically constructed. According to such a dichotomy, one is born male or female, but not masculine or feminine: one is reared, told, educated, indoctrinated to become masculine or feminine. In a patriarchal society one’s sexuality is formed patriarchally, being subject to its ideological upbringing. As such, on the side of masculinity aligns positive values, such as aggressivity, assertion and dominance, while the other side is associated with negative values such as submission and humiliation. Shakespeare was quite familiar with and appropriated such gender roles in his works, and produced convincing masculine men and feminine women. However, he was not confined to such socially determined gender roles. In Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet he created masculine women in the figures of Lady Macbeth and Juliet, by making chiasmic combinations of sex and gender. Many critics have already observed that Lady Macbeth in Macbeth is more masculine than Macbeth himself. She is a personality more courageous, resolute and dominating than any other characters in the play. It seems that the proper space for her is not the home but the battlefield where men fight against each other for supremacy. Gender roles usually attributed to the male are redistributed to Lady Macbeth. As ”fair is foul, foul is fair” in the Witches’ Song, so woman is masculine, man feminine. The author of this thesis examines the axis of such a chiasmic gender redistribution, and conclude that gender roles heavily rely on the political situations of a society in which individuals, who are sexually subjectified, live. Traditional correspondence between sex and gender roles is valid only in a period of peace. In times of war as in Macbeth such a correspondence is put into chaos in order to be reformulated according to the sexual ethics of an emerging new society. Hence Macbeth can be read and reread continuously in a feminist Utopian way. Juliet in Romeo and Juliet is not masculine in Lady Macbeth’s way. Quite contrary to Lady Macbeth, Juliet appears to be feminine and does not deviate from feminine gender roles. Her masculinity, if she has any, can be found in her unflinching spirit of independence. According to the traditional gender roles, women tend to be dependent, while men independent. Juliet, before falling in love with Romeo, is a submissive daughter of her father, Capulet, being bound and subject to patriarchy. But her love sets her free and liberates her from patriarchal dependence, thus paving the way for achieving true independence, the first step toward the social and cultural liberation of women. If war and social chaos unties Lady Macbeth from her straight jacket of female gender roles in Macbeth, love is the main cause of bestowing the spirit of independence to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Metaphorically speaking, love is another battle ground for feminist liberation. But, as may be expected from the very nature of examining into chiasmic redistributions of gender roles in men and women, this thesis has some methodological limitations. Though assumed to be strictlly applied to men and women according to their sex, gender roles are not inflexible, nor are they rigid. The notions of masculinity and feminity are too complex and multifaceted to be diametrically opposed to each other. If so, the virtue of this thesis may lie in exposing the very limit of such notions: every term has seamy spots, thus vulnerable to deconstruction at the slightest touch of close reading.
This thesis aims at examining the ambiguities of gender roles in men and women in two fo Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. It is well known that from the middle ages through the 17th and the early 18th centuries to the modern age the dominant ideology, political and domestic, was patriarchy, and Shakespeare was not immune to its influence. But my close textual examination of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet focusing on gender roles reveals that Shakespeare criticizes patriarchy, exposing its inner contradictions, especially its gender distributions. Shakespeare adopts and endorses patriarchy only in order to dramatize it critically, making it a laughing stock via his chiasmic rendition of gender roles. As opposed to the biologically and anatomically given sex, gender is something culturally and historically constructed. According to such a dichotomy, one is born male or female, but not masculine or feminine: one is reared, told, educated, indoctrinated to become masculine or feminine. In a patriarchal society one’s sexuality is formed patriarchally, being subject to its ideological upbringing. As such, on the side of masculinity aligns positive values, such as aggressivity, assertion and dominance, while the other side is associated with negative values such as submission and humiliation. Shakespeare was quite familiar with and appropriated such gender roles in his works, and produced convincing masculine men and feminine women. However, he was not confined to such socially determined gender roles. In Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet he created masculine women in the figures of Lady Macbeth and Juliet, by making chiasmic combinations of sex and gender. Many critics have already observed that Lady Macbeth in Macbeth is more masculine than Macbeth himself. She is a personality more courageous, resolute and dominating than any other characters in the play. It seems that the proper space for her is not the home but the battlefield where men fight against each other for supremacy. Gender roles usually attributed to the male are redistributed to Lady Macbeth. As ”fair is foul, foul is fair” in the Witches’ Song, so woman is masculine, man feminine. The author of this thesis examines the axis of such a chiasmic gender redistribution, and conclude that gender roles heavily rely on the political situations of a society in which individuals, who are sexually subjectified, live. Traditional correspondence between sex and gender roles is valid only in a period of peace. In times of war as in Macbeth such a correspondence is put into chaos in order to be reformulated according to the sexual ethics of an emerging new society. Hence Macbeth can be read and reread continuously in a feminist Utopian way. Juliet in Romeo and Juliet is not masculine in Lady Macbeth’s way. Quite contrary to Lady Macbeth, Juliet appears to be feminine and does not deviate from feminine gender roles. Her masculinity, if she has any, can be found in her unflinching spirit of independence. According to the traditional gender roles, women tend to be dependent, while men independent. Juliet, before falling in love with Romeo, is a submissive daughter of her father, Capulet, being bound and subject to patriarchy. But her love sets her free and liberates her from patriarchal dependence, thus paving the way for achieving true independence, the first step toward the social and cultural liberation of women. If war and social chaos unties Lady Macbeth from her straight jacket of female gender roles in Macbeth, love is the main cause of bestowing the spirit of independence to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Metaphorically speaking, love is another battle ground for feminist liberation. But, as may be expected from the very nature of examining into chiasmic redistributions of gender roles in men and women, this thesis has some methodological limitations. Though assumed to be strictlly applied to men and women according to their sex, gender roles are not inflexible, nor are they rigid. The notions of masculinity and feminity are too complex and multifaceted to be diametrically opposed to each other. If so, the virtue of this thesis may lie in exposing the very limit of such notions: every term has seamy spots, thus vulnerable to deconstruction at the slightest touch of close reading.
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