Claire underwood: Feminist warrior or Shakespearean villain? Re-visiting feminine evil in House of Cards

Abstract

This chapter offers a comparative textual analysis of two female villains more than four centuries apart, Claire Underwood in the political thriller House of Cards (2013-2018) and Lady Macbeth in Shakespearean play Macbeth (1603), focusing on the themes of motherhood, seduction, and madness. The Underwoods, as the perfect Machiavellian figures-ruthlessly pragmatic and manipulative-also correspond to other Shakespearean characters, such as Iago from Othello and Henry Bolingbroke from Richard III. This chapter follows the storyline of House of Cards where Claire Underwood takes center stage in the show's final season by bringing many feminist issues, such as rape and abortion, to the narrative and transforming herself into a cruel anti-heroine, even exceeding her husband's moral transgressions. © The Author(s) 2020.