Revenge Tragedy Revisited: Women and Law in Nina Raine’s Consent

Year 2024, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 743 - 758, 29.08.2024

Esra Ünlü Çimen

https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1487991

Abstract

‘Revenge’ has been a common theme in western drama, the primary examples of which are found in well-known Ancient Greek plays and Renaissance revenge tragedies, in which one major thematic quality of revenge is its affinity with the themes of ‘justice’ and ‘law’. Mirroring the inefficacy of legal mechanisms in such well-known plays, Nina Raine’s Consent (2017) portrays three women who have to struggle against a gendered-biased legal system with their own methods in their search for justice. This article argues the play can be read as a contemporary revenge tragedy with a feminist outlook, in which the female characters suffocated within a patriarchal legal construction try to attain justice on their own, portraying women’s permanent confinement within legal discourse both in real life and dramatic representations.

Keywords

revenge tragedy, justice, law, Nina Raine, Consent

İntikam Trajedisi Geri Dönüyor: Nina Raine’in Consent Oyununda Kadınlar ve Hukuk

Abstract

‘İntikam’, Batı tiyatrosunda ilk örnekleri Antik Yunan trajedilerinde ve Rönesans intikam trajelerinde görülen yaygın bir temadır. İntikam trajedisinin (revenge tragedy) göze çarpan bir özelliği ‘adalet’ ve ‘hukuk’ konuları ile ilişkili olmasıdır. Nina Raine’in Consent (2017) oyunu bu oyunlarda görülen hukuki aksaklıkları yansıtır ve adalete erişme yolunda cinsiyet temelli mekanizmalar tarafından engellenen üç kadının kendi yöntemleriyle adalet arayışını konu edinir. Bu makalede, oyunun ataerkil bir hukuk sistemi içerisinde hareket edemeyen kadın karakterlerin kendi başlarına adalete erişme çabasını ele alması bakımından, feminist bir perspektifi yansıtan çağdaş bir intikam trajedisi olarak okunabileceği ve gerçek hayatta ve dramatik temsillerde kadınların hukuki yapı içerisindeki süregelen sıkışmışlıklarını ortaya koyduğu fikri ele alınır.

Keywords

intikam trajedisi, adalet, hukuk, Nina Raine, Consent

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