Women's Complexity in Shakespearean Tragedy: A Case Study of Macbeth and Hamlet
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Behold the world of Shakespearean tragedies, with their complex characterizations, especially of women who, even as they walk through hell with a smile, can play both the savior and the villain. The feminist gaze into Shakespeare: the complexity of female characters in Macbeth and Hamlet with a focus on Lady Macbeth and Gertrude/Ophelia. This paper investigates through qualitative analysis of the texts, the depiction of women as the agents of power and subordinates to patriarchal systems in the works of Shakespeare. The paper focuses on the characters of them as double agency, the psychological depth and their influence on a tragic end of the national tragedy. This study, by addressing this lack of attention to how women are depicted in Shakespearean tragedies, provides a more nuanced understanding of the complex relations between gender and tragedy in early modern literature.
Institution: University of Al-Hamdaniya
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Gender equality
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4408807348