| Summary: | 碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 英國語文學系 === 89 === Thesis Title: A Feminist Reading of William Shakespeare’s
Othello and Hamlet
With the progress of history, women’s roles always
adjust to the need of the patriarchal society. It is not
difficult to find that women’s roles expected by the
patriarchal society do not change essentially. Even
in the civilized twentieth century, like most men in the
traditional society, male chauvinists consider women
their subordinates. They regard women as objects.
Besides, they also regard women as their slaves, tools for
giving birth to children, as well as tools for their sexual
desires. Essentially, these men are all misogynists.
Pitifully, many male chauvinists make women suffer from one
century to another. In order to solve women’s unequal
treatment by men, Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex not
only makes a detailed observation on women’s situation in
the patriarchal society but also points out women’s being
situated in the society by men as the second sex, the Other.
She intends to arouse women’s consciousness that they
virtually live in the illusion of the equality between the
two sexes. She attempts to make women conscious of their
unequal situations in the patriarchal society and she
encourages women to emancipate themselves through constant
struggles against men.
The thesis employs Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex
to examine women’s unequal situation and oppression in
Shakespeare’s Othello and Hamlet. In these two plays, most
female characters exist under the domination of men and
they lose their self-identities. Since they are shaped by
the patriarchal society, they lose their individuality as
well. In addition, some female characters become victims
of men’s power struggle. In these two plays, women’s
oppression in the traditional society is prevalent.
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