Portrayal of Women in King Lear and Ran - 1189 Words

Portrayal of Women in King Lear and Ran Women have a position, characteristics and a role in King Lear and in Ran. These films take place in a time period when geography influenced the portrayal of women. A significant portion of how women were portrayed to the audience in both films is based on the positions women held in the established hierarchy and how their new position in the hierarchy impacted the people around them. The characteristics of female characters display very clearly how women were portrayed. In comparing women in reference to their characteristics there are separate women in each film that portray women to be good or evil. Lastly, the portrayal of women was also shown through the specific role they had in each film.†¦show more content†¦The females that play a lesser role in each play are those portrayed to have positive characteristics thereby suggesting that the hurtful characteristics of women are more prominent than the helpful ones. King Lear gives of f a different image of women than Ran regarding the positive aspects of females. In Michael Elliotts film King Lear is overwhelmed with sadness as a result of Cordelias death. (King Lear, Act 5 scene 3 lines 262-279) The good natured female in Ran, Lady Sue, is less prominent than Cordelia. This is exhibited by the lack of empathetic feelings for Lady Sues misfortunes by her peers in the film. (Ran) Lady Sue lacks the attributes that others admire. This portrays the most well respected female in Ran to be only moderately respected. In King Lear the positive characteristics in females are portrayed to be equally balanced to the detrimental characteristics. The supportive and loving characteristics of women in Ran is outweighed by their hurtful and vengeful characteristics. The role of women is consistent in both films. Their selfish characters guided them to start spinning the wheel in the cycle of life. In King Lear, Regan and Gonerils intention to diminish their fathers power accelerated the downward motion of the wheel. Regan and Goneril tampered with the cycle of life by setting expectations for their father which they knew he would choose not to fulfill, causing him to have to leave the kingdom. (King