the patriarchy

• A social system in which men hold power and women face oppression from those men in power.

  • Women should be submissive and subservient to men.
  • Women are owned by men.
• The great chain of being dictates that men are superior to women, leading to a patriarchal social structure.
• Link to play:

  • Shakespeare conforms to the idea but also challenges it.
  • The country is led by a male monarch supported by male subjects, but Lady Macbeth consistently subverts patriarchal expectations of women.
  • Lady Macbeth subverts the Jacobean ideals of a women (her mentality is more barbaric and tyrannical than Macbeth).
• Key words:

  • Male dominated society.