Feminism

1. Feminism In ‘King Lear’

2. What is feminism? • A range of social and political movements and ideologies which aim to achieve equality of the sexes. • Advocating for rights, freedom and agency that are the same for people of all genders • These issues include topics such as equal pay, rights to vote, bodily autonomy, parliamentary representation and the like. (Barber et al. 2013)

3. Brief overview • First wave feminism: arose in the 19th-20th centuries, and was concerned with gaining women's right to vote, along with other legal issues • Second wave feminism: arose in the United States in the 1960s, aiming to create further equality between the sexes. It concentrated on the social questions of women’s roles in all aspects of life including profession. It constructed patriarchy as something that constrains women and removes their right to agency. • Third and fourth wave feminisms: aimed to change perceptions and redefine many ideologies concerning gender. Forth wave arose around 2012, focusing on the empowerment of women • Postfeminism: the view that many of the goals of feminism have been met. Postfeminists also pick out contradictions and gaps in previous waves • Black feminism: the idea that racism, gender inequality, and classism are all bound. Black feminism argues that all women experience oppression differently

4. We have chosen to apply second wave feminism to ‘king lear’

5. Second wave feminism • Second Wave feminism is a 1960s peace movement, focusing on attempting to achieve full liberation.  • It was a fight against abortion and workplace laws.  • The idea was to celebrate women's experiences, with women accepting their own nature. • Feminist Literary work from the 1960s stated 'men must learn to be silent' (Eagleton 2014) which relates to Goneril's anger in Act 1 Scene 3 where she attempts to quieten Lear • Women still faced gender-based assumptions even after the right to vote, with emphasis on traditional gender roles. (Hannam 2014)

6. Summary of Lear • ’King Lear’ is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. • Lear is dividing his kingdom between his three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. In order to be given their inheritance, they must first pay obeisance to Lear and declare their love. Goneril and Regan make a great show of doing so, but Cordelia holds fast to her convictions and declares that she loves Lear no more or less than she should. • As a result, Lear strips Cordelia of her inheritance. She is ‘rescued’ by the King of France and leaves, leaving Lear to depend on Goneril and Regan for care and a home in his old age. He quickly realises what a mistake he has made as his daughter’s treat him with disdain, and he flees to wander on a heath during a storm. • The Earl of Gloucester has a similar problem, being misled into trusting his scheming illegitimate son Edmund, and made to be leave that his legitimate son Edgar wants to kill him.

7. Summary of lear continued • Edgar escapes after hearing of this plot, and heads for the heath disguised as “Poor Tom” the crazy beggar. • Regan and her husband Cornwall discover that Gloucester has tried to help deranged Lear, and accuse him of treason. They consequently blind him and send him away, where he ends up meeting Poor Tom. • Cordelia leads a French army to Dover in an attempt to save her father. • English troops defeat the French, and Lear and Cordelia are captured • Nearing the end of the play, Edgar kills Edmund, the death of Gloucester is revealed, and Regan is poisoned by Goneril who later commits suicide. • Cordelia is executed in prison, and Lear eventually dies of grief.

8. Summary of the treatment of women in ‘king lear’ • In King Lear, women are automatically assigned the binary roles of monster or angel. Regan and Goneril are cast as cold and heartless despite their protestations at the beginning of the play. • This is the archetypal treatment of women who are devious and not to be trusted and reinforces the “stereotypical divisions between saintly and demonic women” (Kelly 2004) • Lear naively assumes that his daughters would not be false because he is unquestionably owed their love and fealty. • In fact, throughout the play, any changeable or untrustworthy thing is given a female character – “Fortune, that arrogant whore” (2.4.49) • A feminist reading of Lear also creates the question of whether Goneril and Regan are products of their father’s tyranny and undisguised preference for Cordelia? In more modern terms, the roles in the family can be seen as a “Tableau of an aged king accompanied by Cinderella and her two ugly sisters.” (Kelly 2004)

9. Examples of feminism in the text The following slides will examine examples of feminism in the ‘King Lear’ text itself…

10. Feminism in act 1 • Gloucester "There was good sport in his making" referring to women as a game to be played, an object rather than a human with feelings – (1.1.21-22) • Lear "Great rivals in our youngest daughters love" (1.1.45). The male characters are objectifying Cordelia and deeming her love as something to fight for, or a prize to be won. • Women speak before him one by one showing the power difference, treated like servants. Puts his daughters' status on wealth rather than the individual. • Cordelia speaking her mind and instantly being condemned and dismissed not only from the room but from the role of daughter by Lear, “Here I disclaim all my paternal care” (1.1.112) • Goneril "By day and night, he wrongs me!" Even when Goneril has control Lear is still influencing her decisions – (1.3.4)

11. Feminism in act 2 • Regan is shown to be cold and heartless “That if they come to sojourn at my house, I’ll not be there” (2.1.102-103) • Kent, when making an impassioned succession of comparisons regarding Oswald, ends with “the son and heir of a mongrel bitch” (2.2.20) • Lear’s changeable treatment of his daughters reinforces the narrative of women as weak and disposable “Beloved Regan, Thy sister’s naught” (2.4.128-29) • Goneril is similarly portrayed to be cold and patronising towards Lear in his time of need, “All’s not offence that indiscretion finds And dotage terms so” (2.4.191-2)

12. Feminism in act 3 • “I am a man More sinn’d against than sinning” (3.2.58-59) • "They took me from the use of mine own house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him” (3.3.2-4) • “O Regan, Goneril!- Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave you all” (3.4.19-20) • “Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this?” (3.4.58-57). “What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?” (3.4.61). “nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. – Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! ‘twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters” (3.4.67-72) - Lear blames Poor Tom’s ‘daughters’ for Tom’s current state. • “Hang him instantly” “Pluck out his eyes” (3.7.4-5) - Regan and Goneril after discovering Gloucester is a traitor  • Regan “takes a sword from another servant, and runs at first servant behind” and kills him.. (3.7.stage direction)

13. Feminism in act 4 • “I must change names at home, and give the distaff Into my husband’s hands” Goneril, (4.2.17) • “O Goneril, You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face. I fear your disposition. That nature, which contemns its origin Cannot be bordered certain in itself. She that herself will sliver and disbranch From her material sap perforce must wither And come to deadly use” Albany (4.2.29-36) • “Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed? A father, and a gracious agèd man, Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick, Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.” Albany (4.2.40-43) • “See thyself, devil! Proper deformity shows not in the fiend So horrid as in woman” Albany (4.2.59-61) • “Were ’t my fitness To let these hands obey my blood, They are apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones. Howe'er thou art a fiend, A woman’s shape doth shield thee.” Albany (4.2.63-67)

14. Act 4 continued • “And now and then an ample tear trilled down Her delicate cheek. It seemed she was a queen Over her passion, who, most rebel-like, Sought to be king o'er her” Gentleman talking about Cordelia (4.3.12-15) • “Who should express her goodliest. You have seen Sunshine and rain at once—her smiles and tears Were like a better way. Those happy smilets That played on her ripe lip seemed not to know What guests were in her eyes, which parted thence As pearls from diamonds dropped. In brief, Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved If all could so become it” (4.3.17-24), Cordelia is seen as beautiful because she is displaying typical feminine traits (being emotional and caring). This contrasts the previous descriptions of Goneril, who does not show these qualities • “Down from the waist they are centaurs, though women all above. But to the girdle do the gods inherit; beneath is all the fiends'. There’s hell, there’s darkness, there’s the sulfurous pit— burning, scalding, stench, consumption!” Lear (4.6.124-25)

15. Feminism in act 5 • Women as property with a lack of agency can be seen here. When Edmund plays one sister against the other, Regan remarks “But have you never found my brother’s way To the forfend place?” (5.1.10-11) • Goneril shown to be frivolous and unable to prioritise ‘properly’ – “I had rather lose the battle than that sister Should loosen him and me” (5.1.18-19) • Men control women’s lives in every way. A game played by Edmund between the affections of two sisters results in a murder and a suicide, but he pays no heed to the impact of what he owes “Neither can be enjoyed If both remain alive:” (5.1.58-59) • Woman are commodities; “To both these sisters I have sworn my love…Which of them shall I take?” (5.1.55-57) • Edmund is also responsible for Cordelia’s death, “He hath commission from thy wife and me to hang Cordelia in the prison” (5.3.251-52) and Lear fails to fulfill the idea of a “hero” by arriving too late to save her. • The play ends with the death of all three daughters, at the hands of men and their perpetually changing agendas, removing all sense of independence and agency from the women in the most dramatic and permanent fashion possible.

16. references • - Barber, A. Et al. (2013). What is a feminist? [online] available from <https://www.bl.uk/sisterhood/articles/what-is-a-feminist [10 March 2019] • - Eagleton, M. (2014) Feminist Literary Criticism London: Routledge • - Hannam, J. (2014) Feminism 2nd ed. London: Routledge • - Kelly, P. (2004) See What Breeds about Her Heart: “King Lear”, Feminism and Performance’. Renaissance Drama 33, 137-157. • Shakespeare, W. (2004) King Lear. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited