King Lear

Role and Status of Women

Role of Women

Shakespeare has either been exhibiting his misogynism or conforming to societal standards of the time. Role of Elizabethan women:

Take care of the household

Attend to familial needs (true guardian of the family)

(So what else is new??)

Women did attend plays but often, even those belonging to the upper class, wore masks to hide their identity. Female characters in plays were played by young men.

How does this relate to “King Lear”?

Shakespeare’s female characters stand out because of either opprobriousness or notoriety.Opprobrious: Calphurnia, Portia, Queen GertrudeNotorious: Lady Macbeth, Goneril, ReganPossible exception: Cordelia, although she plays a very minor role.

(continued)

Goneril and Regan’s asperity as well as their avarice and utter disregard for their father and family was a complete antithesis of society’s view of women at that time. As a result, these two are ostentatiously contrasted and exhibited in the play.Also, their infidelity to their husbands (think Edmund) was shocking.Instead of creating and nurturing life, family and order, Regan and Goneril destroy it all.

Etymology

Goneril: Possibly from ‘Gomeril’, Old Scots for a fool

Regan: ‘little king’- Irish

Cordelia: From Celtic word meaning “daughter or jewel of the sea”

“She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab”. Act 1 Scene 5, lines 16-17

Discriminatory attitudes rflected

The pratice of giving dowry still exists. Even an educated person, Lord Burgundy, follows this archaic rule.

Children are still intimately connected to women. When castigating Goneril, Lear curses her feminity, saying her womb should be infertile and any child born should be a devil.

(continued)

“ And let not women’s weapons, water drops, Stain my man’s cheeks!”

- Act 2 Scene 4, lines 268-269

Shows the prevalent attitude that women were too soft and could be perceived as weaklings.