feminism
Waves of feminism
First Wave: 1900-1959
● Women’s suffrage
● Property rights
● Political candidacy
Second Wave: 1960s-1980s
● Sex inequality
● Reproductive rights
Third Wave: 1990s-2000s
● Individualism and diversity
● Redefine femininity
Fourth Wave:
● Combating sexual harassment,
assault, and misogyny
The characterization of Sethe and
Ophelia demonstrate the common
experience of female oppression
but compare in feminist and
conservative ideals.
common threads of oppression
 “Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain
If with too credent ear you list his songs… Fear it, my dear
sister, and keep you in the rear of your affection,
out of the shot and danger of desire”
(Shakespeare I.iii).

understatement of song
 “They are brokers
Not of that dye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile”
(Shakespeare I.iii).

metaphor
“ Ten minutes, he said. You got ten minutes and I’ll do it for
free”
(Morrison 5).

emphasis on time
lack of quotations
“I am full God damn it of two boys with mossy teeth, one
sucking on my breast the other holding me down, their

book-reading teacher watching and writing it up ”

(Morrison 83).

disturbing imagery
conservative threads in Hamlet
“‘Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways’
‘I shall obey, my lord’”
(Shakespeare I.iii).

tones
 “Young men will do’t, if they come to’t.
By Cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she, ‘Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed’
He answers, ‘So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed”
(Shakespeare IV.v).

syntax
 “There, on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke, when down her
weedy trophies and herself fell into the weeping brook”
(Shakespeare IV. vii).

imagery
diction
progression throughout Beloved
“Nothing! I’ll protect her while I’m alive and I’ll protect her
when I ain’t! ”
(Morrison 54).

hyperbole
“I did it. I got us all out… I birthed them and I got em out… I
did that… it was me doing it; me saying Go on and Now. Me
having to look out. Me using my own head”
(Morrison 190).

anaphora
“You are your best thing, Sethe”
(Morrison 322).

simplicity
 Beloved Hamlet

● Female ● Male perspective

perspective ● 16th century
● Modern author author
● Poetic prose ● Playwright
● Complex ● Complex male
characters characters
Conclusion
 works cited
Dorey-Stein, Caroline, et al. “A Brief History: The Four Waves of
Feminism.” Progressive Women's Leadership, 27 Aug. 2018,
www.progressivewomensleadership.com/a-brief-history-the-four-wave
s-of-feminism/.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage, 2004.

Shakespeare, William, and John C.. Crowther. No Fear Shakespeare:

Hamlet. SparkNotes, 2003.