Female image from Euripides to Churchill

This article aims to present some methods in which classical and contemporary playwrights choose to treat female characters in their writings. In close connection with a socio-political context that is continuously changing, female characters in dramaturgy are substantially evolving. If in the past centuries they developed almost exclusively in relation with the masculine characters, today they have a distinct, powerful voice, which is profoundly anchored in everyday realities. This voice accuses gender inequalities or abuses with which we are confronting as a society and also promotes an image of a female different from the stereotypes rooted in the collective mind. A key moment of this revolution in dramaturgy is the appearance of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, in 1982. This legendary moment innovated the manner in which we think feminine and feminism on stage and also the way in which we construct the structure of a story or a dialogue. All of these became a major influence for nowadays' dramaturgy. In the following, I will try to illustrate a few perspectives on female identity as seen through the lens of contemporary reader and spectator.