PLATON’UN KORUYUCUSUNDAN TUDOR EGEMENLİĞİNE: KARŞILAŞTIRMALI FİGÜRLER OLARAK GERTRUDE VE CORDELİA

Abstract

Bu çalışma William Shakespeare’in Hamlet ve Kral Lear trajedilerindeki Gertrude ve Cordelia karakterlerini, iki farklı egemenlik modeli çerçevesinde karşılaştırmalı olarak inceler. Çalışma, Platon’un Devlet’te geliştirdiği cinsiyetten bağımsız “ideal koruyucu” anlayışı ile Tudor dönemi siyasal teolojisinde merkezi bir rol oynayan “kralın iki bedeni” doktrinini kuramsal arka plan olarak ele alır. Platon’un modeli, adaletin ve yönetme yetisinin beden değil ruhun akılsal uyumu üzerine kurulu olduğunu savunurken, Tudor doktrini siyasal meşruiyeti hükümdarın ölümlü doğal bedeni ile ölümsüz siyasal bedeni arasındaki ayrım üzerinden temellendirir. Çalışma, Shakespeare’in bu iki soyut egemenlik anlayışını sahne üzerinde kadın karakterler aracılığıyla dramatik olarak yeniden dönüştürüldüğünü ileri sürmektedir. Hamlet oyunundaki Gertrude, arzuların akla üstün gelmesiyle hem ruhsal uyumun hem de siyasal meşruiyetin çözülüşünü temsil ederken, King Lear oyunundaki Cordelia ölçülülük, sadakat ve akıl ilkeleriyle hem Platoncu ruh düzeninin hem de siyasal bedenin sürekliliğini somutlaştırmaktadır. Bu karşıtlık üzerinden makale, Shakespeare’in egemenliği yalnızca kurumsal ya da ilahi bir yapı olarak değil, etik ve bedensel bir deneyim olarak yeniden değerlendirdiğini savunmaktadır. Böylece kadın bedeni, Hamlet ve King Lear oyunlarında, erken modern dönemde egemenliğin farklı kavramlarının sınandığı temel bir temsil alanı haline gelmektedir.

Keywords

• Platon'un ideal koruyucusu
• kralın iki bedeni
• kadın temsili
• Hamlet
• King Lear

FROM PLATO’S GUARDIAN TO TUDOR SOVEREIGNTY: GERTRUDE AND CORDELIA AS COMPARATIVE FIGURES

Abstract

This study comparatively examines the characters of Gertrude and Cordelia in William Shakespeare’s tragedies Hamlet and King Lear within the framework of two different models of sovereignty. The study examines Plato’s concept of gender-neutral ideal “guardian” developed in The Republic and takes the doctrine of the “king’s two bodies” which plays a central role in Tudor political thought, as the theoretical framework. While Plato’s model argues that justice and the ability to govern are based on the rational harmony of the soul, the Tudor doctrine grounds political legitimacy in the distinction between the ruler’s mortal natural body and the immortal political body. The study argues that Shakespeare dramatically reconfigures these two abstract concepts on stage through his female characters. In Hamlet, Gertrude represents the collapse of both spiritual harmony and political legitimacy when desires prevail over reason, while in King Lear, Cordelia embodies both the Platonic order of the soul and the continuity of the political body through the principles of temperance, loyalty, and reason. Through this contrast, the article argues that Shakespeare reevaluates sovereignty as an ethical and bodily experience along with an institutional and divine construct. Thus, the female body becomes a central site of representation in Hamlet and King Lear where different concepts of sovereignty are tested in the early-modern period.

Keywords

• king's two bodies
• Hamlet
• King Lear
• Plato's ideal guardian
• women's representation

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