Challenging Masculine Power Dynamics and Patriarchal Stereotyping: A Feminist Reading of The Merchant of Venice

Describing Shakespeare as a feminist or misogynist is a debatable issue. While some feminist critics believe that Shakespeare's plays place women as equal to men, others suggest that they enhance the subordination of women. However, The Merchant of Venice enables one to argue that Shakespeare writes back 16th century women's emancipation through challenging women subalternity that confined them to nurturing and domestic sphere. This article tackles The Merchant of Venice from a feminist perspective aiming at highlighting feminist concepts that appeal to power dynamics and destereotyping. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the role of women in Elizabethan era as represented in The Merchant of Venice. As such, this article answers the question of literary representation which parallels in importance the thematic issues the play tackles. It, furthermore, follows a structural approach that comes across the different layers that constitute the contextual system of meaning in the play.