The Marginalized Female Characters in Contemporary British Drama

Women are forced to survive under patriarchal boundaries even within the present-day world. Even though women of the century have faced certain economic, social, and political improvements, the male-supremacy has not weakened significantly: Capitalist system employs patriarchal tools and exploits women much more severely compared to men; women, restricted by patriarchal boundaries, are more frequently stigmatized as envious; language that shapes the masses’ perceptions still devalues women; rape and pornography degrade women and control their lifestyles; a great number of women are confined within the private sphere; and women still suffer from identity crises in the patriarchal system, as the contemporary British plays brought together in Midsummer Mischief: Four Radical Plays (2014) demonstrate. This book focuses on specific marginalized female characters depicted in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Ant and the Cicada, Alice Birch’s Revolt. She said. Revolt again., E.V. Crowe’s I Can Hear You, and Abi Zakarian’s This is Not an Exit and discusses women’s marginalization in the patriarchal order in light of feminist theories. It questions how the playwrights mentioned above prompt the audience to become conscious of this unjust order and challenge it through their mischievous female characters. In other words, it seeks to analyze both the factors that marginalize women and the playwrights’ revolts against the patriarchal order.