Just Another Angry Woman: Adaptations of Female Rage through Euripides, Shakespeare, and Whedon

Abstract

Euripides’ portrayal of Medea, Shakespeare’s dramatization of Queen Margaret, and Joss Whedon and company’s creation of Willow Rosenberg all work to depict the silencing of female emotion. The continued representation of disempowered, raging women indicates flawed systems that dictate who is allowed to be angry in societies that often label female anger as irrational. Culture does not necessarily always evolve; the most recent character in some ways falls the further than the earlier ones.

Keywords

• euripides
• william shakespeare
• joss whedon and company
• medea
• queen margaret (character)
• willow rosenberg (character)
• gender
• power
• voice
• audre lorde