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Patriarchy and Literature

Western society has been characterized as a patriarchy, a male-dominated social order in which the father image is a powerful one. That image has been presented in different ways in different media and at different time periods. One important patriarchal image in literature is embodied in the title character in Shakespeare's King Lear, though this is an image of a patriarch who fails at a key point in his life to live up to the patriarchal image. In our own time, Joseph P. Kennedy is seen as the patriarch of an important political family in American life, and while he remains a somewhat shadowy figure because he has been overshadowed by his famous children, he still embodies a patriarchal image which can be compared to that of Lear to show the persistence of the patriarchal image through time and its importance as a means of ordering society.

Consider first the image as it appears in King Lear, where it is bound with the role of king, a role that is itself an example of the patriarchy. While England may have had queens as well, the line of descent is through the male. Had Queen Elizabeth had a brother, for instance, she would not have been queen even if she were the older. This draws attention to the plight of King lear, who also has no son and so who must consider how his kingdom will be divided and governed by his three daughters. His crime is first in trying to divide the kingdom among the three women rather than on the long-accepted basis of patrilineal descent for the kingdom as a whole, and second in trying to separate himself from his responsibilities while retaining the trappings and benefits of office.

The title character in King Lear is a foolish old man who allows his desire to have a quiet old age color his judgment about his rights and responsibilities as king of England. It is his failure to judge the worth of his daughters correctly that leads to his downfall because he has false ideas about the importan...

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Patriarchy and Literature. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:33, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707789.html