Feminist Criticism Of Feminism

Feminist Criticism is a theory that points out the way gender, races, etc. are looked at in a piece of literature. It’s a comparison of how society views them and how they are written about. Feminist critics care about how females are written in a piece. They also like to look at the different stereotypes people have about women, and how they can change them.

“King Lear” by William Shakespeare is a tragic play. There are so many theories that could be applied to this play, but the Feminism theory is the best way to describe all the conflict happening. Overt time, we realize that the women are the cause of everything that happens. The way Shakespeare writes about women is opposite from societies view on them. The women he writes about are considered the stronger sex, but at the time, men were the ones who ruled the kingdoms. Everything in a kingdom is run by men, but in this play, women slowly take over it.

In Act 1, Lear has all this land that he needs to get rid of, and he chooses to divide it between his daughters. Cordelia is the youngest daughter, and she is very independent. Regan and Goneril are the older daughters, and they abuse their power in many ways. The daughters have to show their love for him in order to get land. Regan and Goneril suck up to him and tell him that they love him. In reality, they don’t love him at all. They just want more power. Cordelia is very straight forward with him. She tells him that she loves him but not as much as her sisters. Lear gets mad by her response, which shows that the daughters have enough power to make him feel whatever emotion they want. They can easily get under his skin, and strip him of his power. His power was at an all-time high, but over time it gets taken over.

In sc...

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...d Shakespeare wrote about it.

Women only experienced being housewives. They were never able to be in a male’s position because society didn’t think they were strong enough. Female authors wrote from their own perspective. I would imagine them writing about the power they wished to have. They wished to have characteristics that are similar to a man. They didn’t want to be stereotyped by society. Female Critics attempted to change these stereotypes by writing about them. Male authors also wrote from their perspective. I think they would write about how much power they have. Some didn’t think women needed more power. Then, Shakespeare came along and wrote the complete opposite of what society thought. He changed the way society thought about them.

He wrote through more of a female point of view. He over looked both points of views, and included societies views.