Evaluating Shakespearean Macbeth & Othello through the Lens of Sara Mills' Feminist Stylistics Model

Abstract

This study aims to analyse Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth and Othello, in accordance with the feminist stylistic framework proposed by Sara Mills in her book Feminist Stylistics. By drawing on the paradigm of feminist linguistics proposed by Mills, this research attempts to delineate the gendered implications of language employed by Shakespeare in Othello and Macbeth, thereby highlighting how the language of these plays both reasserts and contradicts patriarchal notions and gender hierarchies. The principal focus is on the linguistic utterances and the speech acts of the two pivotal female characters from both texts - Lady Macbeth and Desdemona. Through a lexical, syntactic and discourse analysis of the speech acts of these two primary female characters, this study reveals that gendered beliefs are embedded within the semantic structure of the aforementioned Shakespearean tragedies. By examining the linguistic passivity of Desdemona and the rhetorical authority of Lady Macbeth within the context of the Elizabethan era, this research posits that both language and gendered framework are rooted in the sociohistorical and sociocultural ideologies of the society in which the text is produced. Building upon the frameworks of discourse analysis and feminist criticism, this study offers a nuanced perspective of the politics of language and the linguistic representation of gender evident in Macbeth and Othello.