Dark Lady (character)
For other uses, see Dark Lady (disambiguation).
The Dark Lady is a stock character in fiction. Her darkness is either literal, meaning that she has dark skin, or metaphorical in that she is a tragic, doomed figure. The two may go together, with one being an allegory for the other. The Dark Lady is not usually seen to be married to a Dark Lord.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare wrote of a Dark Lady in his sonnets. The woman is described as having dark hair, dark skin, and a dark nature.[1] There has been much speculation as to her true identity.[2] He also created several, doomed dark ladies as characters in his plays such as Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth.[3]
In American media
Photo by Paolo Monti, 1975.
In American media, she is often portrayed as Latina.[4]
Notable examples
- A.L.I.E. from The 100 TV series
- Evanora and Theodora from Oz the Great and Powerful
- Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Kingdom Hearts
- Princess Mombi from Return to Oz
- White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia
- Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz (1939)
See also
References
- ↑ Hudson Shakespeare Company, Dark Lady Sonnets
- ↑ PBS, In Search of Shakespeare: Emilia Lanier (the Dark Lady?), series originally broadcast February 4th - 25th, 2004
- ↑ Ludwig Jekels, "The Riddle of Shakespeare's Macbeth", The Psychoanalytic Review, 30: 361–385
- ↑ Clara E. Rodriguez (1997), Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media, Boulder, Colo. ;Cumnor Hill, Oxford: Westview Pr., ISBN 0-8133-2766-0
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