Feminism in Sophocles Antigone and Shakespeares Othello Essay

Feminism in Antigone and Othello Feminism has been one of the most important forces in shaping our modern society. Thanks to the womens rights movement, females today enjoy rights and freedoms that ar unprecedented in the write up of Western civilization. However, it was not always this way. Whereas modern literature that contains feminist messages and takes a second thought, readers in our time are intrigued and impressed by feminist works coming from a decidedly male-biased past. Two of the greatest works of Western literature, Antigone and Othello, written by the two great dramatists Sophocles and Shakespeare, buzz off been said to illustrate feminist likingls in the distant past. Antigone, which embodies these ideals throughout and is earlier concerned with the inequity of gender roles, is such a play. Othello, while it contains casual feminist sentiment, still keeps its women in conventional female roles and thus is not a feminist work. In order to determine if these plays are feminist, we runner require a working definition of the term. This alone is rather complicated, because the cry itself is popularly used and misused in many different ways. In its simplest form, feminist doctrine states that women and men are equal and deserve the comparable rights and privileges. This, although astray accepted in our time, was not in the past. However, feminism withal has been seen as the spirit that men are the inferior sex, a belief that might more accurately be termed anti-masculinism. This belief has never been widely espoused in Western society, and probably never will be. It can besides be said that feminism is any belief or idea that is meant to improve the well-being and social standing of females for ex... ...e does not, and this is seen clearly in the play. We are driven to sympathize with Antigone, and we see that she finds a way to be muscular that does not fit in with the classical male-driven power structure. She is also correctly in the structure of the play she is its most well developed causa and the play takes its title from her name. Finally, Sophocles shows us that feminism works, at least in Antigones case she gets what she wants. Unfortunately, this happens to be death, but her attempts at power still get her what she desires. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine. New York Washington Square Press, 1993. Sophocles. Antigone. The Theban Plays. Ed. and trans. E. F. Watling. capital of the United Kingdom Penguin Group, 1947 126-162. Watling, E. F. Introduction. The Theban Plays. London Penguin Group, 1947 7-22.