"So young and so untender?": Ophelia and the power of obedience

Abstract

This reading of the woman's part in Shakespearean tragedy explores the extent to which the role of the passive heroine sexualises a critical conflict in the fabric of Jacobean society. Models of submissive femininity in Elizabethan and Jacobean courtesy manuals provide an exaggerated version of Bakhtin's description of the dialogic process, in which the meaning of a conversation is understood in the context of the hearer's conceptual environment. This process is echoed in feminist critical· approaches to Shakespearean tragedy, which rejects the silence and passivity of the heroine as symptomatic of a destruc­tive male vision of feminine virtue.

Opsomming
Hierdie ontleding van die vroulike rol in Shakespeare-tragedies verken die mate waartoe die rol van die passiewe heldin 'n kritieke konflik in die wese van die Jacobeaanse gemeenskap seksualiseer. Modelle van ondergeskikte vroulikheid in Elizabethaanse en Jacobeaanse hoflikheidsvoorskrifte bied 'n oordrewe weergawe van Bakhtin se beskry­wing van die dialogiese proses, waarin die betekenis van 'n gesprek binne die konteks van die hoarder se konseptuele omgewing gesien word. Hierdie proses word gesien in femi­nistiese kritiese benaderings tot Shakespeareaanse tragedie, waarin die stilte en passiwi­teit van die heldin verwerp word as simptomaties van 'n vernietigende manlike siening van vrouedeug.