The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 5 · October 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Beyond the Patriarchal Dividend: Navigating Complicit and Hegemonic Manhood in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth

Mr. Kunal Upadhyay, Dr. Nisha Khan

Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n5.27

While Renaissance scholarship has often examined Shakespearean tragedies through an apolitical or sovereign lens, early modern manhood remains an important area of inquiry in studies of Shakespearean drama and the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Hence, to evaluate this, this paper examines William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth through the theoretical lens of R.W. Connell’s theory of masculinities. The concept classifies the male characters in the plays as hegemonic or complicit, based on their roles and positions in Hamlet and Macbeth. It explores how both plays develop hegemonic and martial ideals while exposing the supporting characters who portray complicit masculinity to ensure their roles in front of the court and to secure patriarchal dividends.

Besides, the objectives of the research include the construction of hegemonic and martial ideals established within the social and political structures of the setting of the plays, and also focus on revealing the realities of the men showing complicit masculinity to secure their patriarchal dividend. And at the end, the research concludes with the tracing of Connell’s crisis tendencies by exploring how these plays show intellectual paralysis and hyper-violent ambitions of the heroes.

Ultimately, this qualitative, comparative study finds that Hamlet and Macbeth expose the instability and contradictions of sovereign and patriarchal power by revealing how hegemonic and complicit forms of masculinity sustain and erode established hierarchies of manhood.

Upadhyay, Kunal, and Nisha Khan. “Beyond the Patriarchal Dividend: Navigating Complicit and Hegemonic Manhood in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 5, Oct. 2026, pp. 484-502, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n5.27.

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