Shakespeare's Eco-feminist Consciousness In His Plays

As the greatest poet and dramatist in Renaissance, Shakespeare is never out of date.With the continuous development of global environmental protection movement and the women's movement, Eco-feminism criticism theory emerges at the historical moment and provides new methods and theoretical perspectives for the study of Shakespeare and his plays.However, there are only a few studies on Shakespeare's plays from the theoretical perspective at home.The thesis explores the eco-feminist consciousness of Shakespeare from the perspective of Eco-feminism and analyzes the relationship between woman and nature, woman and man as well as man and nature in order to re-understand the classic plays of Shakespeare. Thus,Shakespeare's eco-feminist consciousness is explored by analyzing the interconnection between women and nature in his nine plays through detailed text analysis.The eco-feminist consciousness of Shakespeare mainly reflects in three aspects: First, he presents the close relationship and similarities between women and nature, and affirms the value of women and nature. Second, he reveals that women and nature are both the victims of patriarchy, and they are both in the position of marginalization in patriarchal culture. Thirdly,he expresses his exploration of ecological ideal, namely, to construct an ideal society where man and nature as well as that man and man are in harmony. It's not difficult to find that Shakespeare pays a lot of attention to harmonious relationships among man, woman and nature, and he is a writer with eco-feminist consciousness by studying his plays. His works also contain rich ecological wisdom.The thesis is composed of five parts. In introduction, the research background, literature review, research theory Eco-feminism and research object and significance are briefly introduced. In Chapter One, the close relationship between women and nature is discussed and the concrete embodiment of the affinity in Shakespeare's plays is also analyzed. In Chapter Two, the plight of woman and nature in patriarchal society is analyzed and reveals woman and nature are both the victims and otherness in the society. In Chapter Three, theecological ideal and the harmonious idea of Shakespeare are excavated. Women need to awake and fight bravely for independence and freedom. Meanwhile, the construction of a harmonious society is on condition that man and nature as well as man and man are in harmony. In conclusion, the research significance of the study is summarized. In the background of the discrimination against disadvantaged groups and the worsening ecological environment, harmonious relationships among man, woman and nature, which Shakespeare advocates are beneficial to the sustainable and stable development of the society, and provide enlightenment for humans nowadays to solve the ecological crisis fundamentally. The analysis of Shakespeare's plays from the perspective of Eco-feminism helps to arouse people's awareness of protecting nature and woman's rights in order to construct a harmonious society where man and nature, man and man are in harmony.