Feminism in both Hamlet and Lady Oracle Essay

The literary works, Hamlet and Lady Oracle, chart both the life’s course of their main characters and underline the protagonist’s trajectory in some decisive moments of their existence, when both of them, Hamlet and Joan Foster, need to take some decisions which may change their destinies. In this brief essay I will try to point out similarities and differences between these two stories taking into consideration a feminist approach. First and foremost I would like to mention what do I mean by feminist approach and how do I intend to apply it to my essay. Feminism is a political discourse aimed at equal rights and legal protection for women. It involves various movements, theories and philosophies, all concerned with issues of gender†¦show more content†¦In Hamlet the story takes place in a historical past after some important events which take place around the year 1600 in the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who had been the monarch of England fo r more than forty years and was then in her late sixties. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlets father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude, Hamlets mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. On the other hand, there is Lady Oracle.This novel has been written during the second-wave of feminist movement; second-wave feminism refers to the period of activity in the early 1960s and lasting through the late 1980s. This feminist-wave movement saw womens cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures. Atwoods novel is a post-modern novel written in 1976, whose heroine, Joan Foster, is a woman who h as faked her own death in order to escape the difficulties created by her compulsive creation of multiple personalities for herself. The