ENGLISH ACAD WRITING

English IV

Academic Writing

Literary Criticism

Written Composition #2

Members: IV - 5

#24 Marigondon, Ann Lorainne

#25 Martinez, Pauline

#26 Miranda, Katrina

#27 Naidas, Cassandra

#28 Ocol, Joanna Kim

#29 Panlilio, Patricia

#30 Rivadelo, Liberty

#31 Roaring, Benedictine

#32 Rullan, Tricia Lorrainne

Feminism

The theory o feminism seeks to give women justice in a patriarchal society. Since the male figure is domineering over the females or otherwise, this theory aims to end sexism in all forms. It is the belief that women should be protected with their rights and that men and women are equal, only different with the rights they stand up for. Also, in the literary arts, women are equally powerful to men in terms of rights, professions and capabilities. Feminism aims to remove the stereotyped concept of women being weak, submissive and dependent.

Women in the middle ages were completely dominated by males and were expected to obey them, their fathers, brothers, other male members of the family but then loyalty shifts to her husband when she marries. Unruly behaviour of women is considered a crime to their belief. They as well have in their culture the idea called Primogeniture. It is the custom that the first male child will inherit the wealth and/or titles of the family, women, does not inherit these. Though after marriage, women lose all their legal rights, for example, to own a property or to sign contracts. They believe in the existence of a universal hierarchy where God is the supreme, followed by the angels and then the males. They were also not educated well and were impeded to most professions; they were bound to the confines of home yet are rarely given custody over their children. But a great leap for women climaxed when Elizabeth I was made queen of England which defied the status of women and the believed universal hierarchy.

Here are some movements or steps those generations of women pushed through or acted on to protect their rights:

· “1^st WAVE FEMINISM”

o 19th-20th : women in the United States and the United Kingdom fought for women’s SUFFRAGE (right to vote )

o Elizabeth Cady Staton & Susan B. Anthony fought to abolish slavery in the U.S

o Most feminists belonged to conservative Christian groups; others to more radical movements

· “2^nd WAVE FEMINSM”

o Fought for the end of discrimination

· “3^rd WAVE FEMINISM”

o Early 1990’s

o Also fought against RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

o Feminists came from diff. races, classes, cultures and genders

Feminism in Hamlet: Contrasting Views

Ophelia

She could not decide for herself for instance, she is very much dependent to her father, Polonius; when she was asked for her to participate with the spying on Hamlet. Another is when she lost her sanity for the reason of her father’s death and/or Hamlet’s betrayal. She is weak. While the conflicting messages from these male/masculine sources damage Ophelia’s psychological identity, their sudden absence provokes her mental destruction. Optimistically, Ophelia’s madness offers the capability of speech, the opportunity to discover individual identity, and the power to verbally undermine authority. A thorough analysis of Ophelia’s mad ramblings (and their mutual levels of meaning) provides a single exposé of society, of the turbulent reality beneath its surface the appearance of calmness. And her words still suggest a split self and provide others the opportunity to control meanings that best suit them.

Gertrude

l Gets involved in what is happening around her

l Maintains upper hand with Hamlet

>Is concerned with Hamlet’s condition; not afraid to question Hamlet

• Near DEATH-> refuses to heed husband in drinking the poisoned chalice

• Dies prominent male characters

• Weak

• Got married after King Hamlet died

Bergoffen, Debra B. “Mourning, Woman, and the Phallus: Lacan’s Hamlet.” Cultural Semiosis: Tracing the Signifier. Ed. Hugh J. Silverman. Continental Philosophy VI. New York: Routledge, 1998. 140-53.

Dane, Gabrielle. “Reading Ophelia’s Madness.” Exemplaria 10 (1998): 405-23.

FEMINISM / GERTRUDE / PSYCHOANALYTIC

Concurring with “Lacan’s notions of the phallus, jouissance, the symbolic, the imaginary, and the signifying chain” (140), this article suggests that Gertrude demonstrates “the way woman’s complicity is essential to the patriarchal order as she provides a glimpse of a woman who steps outside its parameters” (141). In the role of mourning, woman represents “the invisible medium through whom the phallus passes” (144). But Gertrude substitutes “marriage nuptials for mourning rituals”; her marriage to Claudius “violates the father who has not been properly remembered, and it violates the son who is denied his legacy” (146). Gertrude’s “refusal to mourn brings back the ghost and fuels its impossible request: that the son do what the mother will not, legitimize the father” (146). But Hamlet, a male bound by patriarchal laws, cannot perform the “social act” of mourning, as he and Laertes prove at Ophelia’s burial (141). And, as long as Gertrude “confers legitimacy on Claudius, Hamlet’s action is barred” (149). The son begins the process of “re-inserting his mother into the patriarchal phallic order” in the closet scene by accusing her “of being too old to love,” by de-legitimizing her “mode of otherness” (149). Gertrude, in death, finally frees Hamlet to act by being unable to mourn Claudius, but her absence means no mourning and, hence, no mediation for the transference of power: “in the absence of women, Denmark comes under the rule of its enemy,” Fortinbras (151-52). “Rejecting the role of passive mediator Gertrude plays the game of jouissance” (153). Yes, Gertrude is destroyed as a result, but she succeeds “in exposing the myth of the male phallus” and “provides us with a glimpse of a signifier placed outside the patriarchal structure of silenced mourning women” (153).

References:

Bergoffen, Debra B. “Mourning, Woman, and the Phallus: Lacan’s Hamlet.” Cultural Semiosis: Tracing the Signifier. Ed. Hugh J. Silverman. Continental Philosophy VI. New York: Routledge, 1998. 140-53.

Dane, Gabrielle. “Reading Ophelia’s Madness.” Exemplaria 10 (1998): 405-23.