The fleeting empowerment of female characters in Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and Henry VI, Part I, II, III

This thesis analyzes six powerful female characters and their influence in Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and Henry VI, Part I, II, III. In fact, Foucault's idea of power will be presented and all six female characters'"Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, Goneril, Regan, Joan of Arc, and Margaret'"will be evaluated based on it. Applying Foucault's definition to the aforementioned female characters suggests that these subaltern women are so powerful that they can destabilize the patriarchal structures. Also, to better elucidate the term subaltern, I will borrow ideas from Gayatri Spivak's essay '~Can the Subaltern Speak?' Making a conceptual connection between the idea of subaltern figure and these powerful women, this thesis will deduce that once the patriarchy, depicted by Shakespeare, rejects Foucault's definition of power, these significant female characters are eventually revealed as subaltern women who can neither protect nor speak for themselves and are all annihilated. --Leaf ii.