Good"" and ""Bad"" Girls in King Lear and Harry Potter: Analyzing the Portrayal of Women and Patriarchy Then and Now

In this essay we will explore how five female characters are defined as "bad" or "good" girls based on their interaction and relationship with the patriarchal figures of their text. We will be looking at Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia in Shakespeare's King Lear and Bellatrix Lestrange and Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. In order to analyze these five characters in relation to their texts we must first understand what a patriarchal society looks like. Moreover, how a patriarchal society is in the very foundations of both King Lear and the Harry Potter series, which is a result of the culture that each text was published in. By analyzing the actions and words of all five female characters we will be able to see how a patriarchal system is reflected in each text in determining the female characters' fate at the end of those texts.