Title: Patriarchy, Misogyny and Pornoglossia in Shakespeare’s Tragedies Student: Kristina Trajanovska Instructor: Prof. Dr. Rajna Koška Hot Course title: SСakespeare‟s Female CСaracters: Subversion or Containment Date: June, 2007 To state thɚt Shakespeare was a misogynist, one has to “treat the plays as the material of cultural history […] and аitСout assuminР tСat tСe plaвs „reflect‟ tСe аorld tСat produced them, we can be sure that they explore the meanings of the terms they construct and reiterate in ways that were expected to be at least partially intelligible to tСeir oriРinal audiences” 1 . It is thus crucial to give a historical background of the time in which the patriarchal bard lived and tСerefore to assume tСe аomen‟s role in tСe EliгabetСan period, as well as in the Jacobean era, which according to social hierarchal structure (or rather God-given) resembled the past more rather than the future. Every creature in the Renaissance had its place in the great order of the divine appointments called tСe „Great CСain of BeinР‟. TСose links СiРСer in it possessed Рreater intellect, mobility and capability and hence they had more authority over the lower ones. The Elizabethan world picture reinforced particular class and gender hierarchy. Shakespeare insisted on increasinР patriarcСal oppressiveness in Сis traРedies and tСus Сe “Рave voice to tСe social views of his age. His thoughts on women were necessarily bounded by the parameters of СaРioРrapСв and misoРвnв” 2 . The Elizabethans had very clear expectations of both men and women. Men were expected to be breadwinners (Shakespeare for instance, moved to London and started his career as a playwright in order to provide for his family in Stratford) and Tudor women to be housewives and mothers, to have tСe “skill аitС tСe needle and tСe spindle, аСicС „enricС‟ botС tСe аoman and Сer familв” 3 . Othello gives us a picture of what an average Renaissance woman ouРСt to do and knoа and for tСat reason verballв reаards Desdemona‟s feminine virtues tСat sСe is „so delicate аitС Сer needle, an admirable musician‟ 4 . Men were considered to be the leaders and аomen tСeir inferiors. Women аere from birtС reРarded as tСe „tСe аeaker seб‟, not just in terms of physical strength, but emotionally too. To act in accordance with the patriarchal modes of life of their period, they were expected to be sexually loving and faithful, obedient first to their fathers and then to their husbands, which were after all their possessions. The patriarchal ideology furthermore firmly instated gender hierarchy and the subordination of women to men,