No Weakening Of Patriarchy

Is it possible for a male writer like Mike Leigh to create a feminist work and challenge the male dominated patriarchal society? In his plays and films, Mike Leigh is noted for the use of women characters. In his first major screen-play Abigail's party, his leading character Beverly who controls the play from beginning to end, is one of his strongest women. If we can show that she does this in a way that supports the patriarchy, it will challenge the views of Mike Leigh and his works in general as being supportive of women. Further, if the play in general does not challenge the patriarchy, it will also challenge his views. A study of the play Abigail's Party was done through looking at the dialogue of the characters in the published script, and the actions of the characters in the BBC screen-play in terms of the radical feminist theory of patriarchy and a sociolinguistic analysis of the language. This was firstly done to analyze whether character Beverly is created in a way that challenges the patriarchy, or supports the patriarchy. The question is answered through her relations with her husband Laurence, the other male at the party Tony, and two women in the play Angela and Susan. It also answered the question whether the play in general supports or attacks patriarchy, especially in terms of the institution of marriage, women's work, and violence against women. This clearly confirms that the play Abigail's Party strengthens patriarchal institutions in society rather than weakening them. We see this in the way the women in particular and characters in general conform to and support the way radical feminists see a patriarchal society working. We also see this in the way the characters'language creates power in terms of male strength. This means that Mike Leigh cannot be seen as writing a feminist work, supporting the view that men cannot write a feminist work. Further study can be done on other Mike Leigh works to see if these results are applicable to his later works, as this thesis suggests.