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Constance Leadbelly: The Concepts Of Women In Literature

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Constance Leadbelly breaking the chains of literature identity limitations
The role of women in literature has been represented by male authors for a very long time. This representation has been vastly criticized by modern day feminists. The assumption of women in such discourse was absolutist; a woman was either a virtuous figure or a deceptive one who is a danger to the society. The absurdity of this tradition has led many women to write back in response, challenging the logic of the overly used feminine role and characteristics. They further attacked the implementations of women’s’ role in society that was created by this literary tradition.
Ann-Marie Macdonald author of Goodnight Desdemona (good morning Juliet) creates a Satirical play in which she challenges William Shakespeare’s tragedies Othello and Romeo and Juliet, by eliminating their tragic endings, while highlighting their comic relief.
This essay will discuss the challenge Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) presents to the inappropriate representation of females in the previously mentioned Shakespearian tragedies. While using the existentialist theorist Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex’s ideas on the myth of women to highlight Constance Leadbelly’s journey from marginalizing …show more content…

In an interview with Simone De Beauvoir she states that “a woman is a product of a history, of civilization first of all, which has resulted in her current status”. In the original play of Othello Desdemona is said to be a woman who has fallen for Othello’s witch craft, and that’s why she married a black warrior. In Goodnight Desdemona good morning Juliet, Desdemona is presented as a woman who is infatuated by war and, bloodshed, her character becomes more complexes as she is no longer a woman who is a victim of tragedy thus she is no longer as product of her history and civilization, she is now her own

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