Revolt Against Patriarchy

This paper proposes to make an attempt at a reinterpretation of Shakespeare's three love tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, by focusing upon the three heroines' brave assaults on the territory of patriarchal absolutism from the perspective of feminism. The author of this paper illustrates with feminism how Shakespeare, in his three most famous love tragedies, changes women's role from past objective to subjective, thus destroying the dominating male-centered logic, dissolving the traditional ideological pattern of "male=creator" and deconstructing silent and speech-absent women. Evidences concerning their self-autonomy and self-assertiveness abound in the three plays. In contrast, the three heroes self-deny themselves. Juliet, Cleopatra and Desdemona, in their own peculiar way. move beyond their original-defined restricted images. Shakespeare delicately and aesthetically expresses women's psychological experiences and existence status, showing the art power and glamour of female's healthy and perfect personality.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the most remarkable playwright and poet in the history of English literatrue. He was so well received by various scholars and critics all over the world that Shakespearean essays have kept pouring out in large quantities during the past four hundred years. Among all his plays, the three love tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and Othello, draw much attention. These three plays has been analyzed and commented from many different perspectives in various literary criticisms. However, it is quite regrettable that till now not many critics have focused their attention on the three heroines' brave assaults on the territory of patriarchy. Therefore, the originalities lies mainly in two aspects. The first one is the theme. And the second one is the critical theory which is adopted , that is, feminism.This paper consists of 6 chapters. In the introductory paper, the author ushers Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 for the illumination of the motivation for the reinterpretation of the three plays from feminism perspective and initiates the thesis statement.