Transformation of Anti-Heroine into Heroine in Goodnight Desdemona

This essay analyzes Ann-Marie MacDonald's play, "Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)," focusing on the transformation of the anti-heroine, Constance Ledbelly, into a heroine. The play reimagines Shakespearean tragedies, such as Romeo and Juliet and Othello, as comedies, challenging patriarchal views and exploring feminist themes. The essay examines the use of inter-textuality and meta-theatre to reveal hidden feminist narratives and the protagonist's journey of self-discovery. It highlights Ledbelly's quest for the original sources of Shakespeare's works, her encounters with Juliet and Desdemona, and the incorporation of masculine qualities to achieve wholeness. The essay discusses the play's critique of Shakespearean tragedies, the importance of personal empowerment, and the psychological and magical transformation of Ledbelly from an anti-heroine to a true heroine. It references the play's exploration of personal crises, emotional recovery, and the protagonist's ultimate empowerment.

Running Head : ENGLISH LITERATURE
English Literature
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH LITERATURE
Topic – How is the anti-heroine transformed into a heroine in Goodnight Desdemona
(Good Morning Juliet)
The “Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)” is a comedy play by the author
Ann-Marie MacDonald(1998) where a young English Literature professor goes on a
subconscious journey of the self-discovery. The name of the professor is Constance Ledbelly
who theorizes the tragedies of Shakespeare such as Romeo and Juliet and Othello to be comedies
originally and considers that the ideas for these plays have originated from the indecipherable
Gustav Manuscript. She has developed such beliefs because when such wise fool archetypes
have been reinstated in such plays, these can no longer remain tragedies. She is hesitant to
disclose to her professor Claude Night what she thinks. In a moment, she throws the tragedies of
Shakespeare to realize her own truth and find the actual fool with Juliet and Desdemona.
In such an exuberant comedy, the playwright questions whether Juliet and Desdemona
were allowed to live or not. The character of Constance Ledbelly is shown as an academic,
tweedy person. She has almost ghost-written her mentor’ papers for many years but later she
announces that she has decided to marry a rival. She decodes the manuscript of Gustav and at
the same time identifies two of the comedies. These comedies are considered to be the
inspiration of Shakespeare’ writing Romeo and Juliet and Othello. When she goes deep down
into the theory, she finds out that Juliet and Desdemona are hellions that are full of surprises, far
from being the shrinking violets. This helps Constance to get out of her gloom directly into the
world of her confident self.
After going through the play, it can be seen that Ann-Marie has used inter-textuality for
unveiling the complete Shakespearean characters of Desdemona and Juliet. This is to reveal a

2ENGLISH LITERATURE
feminist narrative hidden in Shakespeare’ plays. It is done through inter- textual re-examination
and interjection of reassigning of dialogues and genre in the meta-theatres. This is the exact
feminist representation of female Shakespearean characters. These characters are unveiled from
behind the pre-conceptions related to patriarchy. The main character of MacDonald that is
Constance Ledbelly is in search of a missing link in the original sources of the play. McDonald
makes use of meta-theatre and inter-textuality for diving into the deep mystery which is the
source of Shakespeare’s works. The dumb show in the beginning introduces the audience to
three of the different world which are to be explored throughout the play.
I have found that in Goodnight Desdemona ( Good Morning Juliet), the source material
of Shakespeare has been reworked for raising the contemporary female issues. These stories also
delineate some of the difficulties and achievement of this heroine Constance Ledbelly. The play
has presented accounts of this heroine’s empowerment after crucial personal crises. Having
demonstrated the transformation of the protagonist into strong woman, this play communicates
that women need to acquire some psychological strength. This play also highlights the
importance of support in emotional recovery and personal development too.
McDonald is undoubtedly one of the greatest feminists who has criticised the
Shakespearean patriarchal view. In his tragedies, there are victimization of women including
accusations, avoidance of their rights and desires where the husband kills his wife for being
infidel to him. With the purpose of destroying these tragic heroines, the playwright elaborates the
recovery, wholeness and development after profound personal crises. Hence, the dramatic works
of Shakespeare are used for depicting the various processes of empowerment leading to the real
transformation of the protagonist in a positive way.

3ENGLISH LITERATURE
The playwright is pretty aware of the real contrast between the comic and tragic heroines
of Shakespeare. When Ledbelly in this play feels unhappy about the preventable deaths of Juliet
and Desdemona, she puts effort on proving that these two Shakespearean plays were comedies,
which the Bard transformed into romantic tragedies. In fact, it is quite logical to support that the
playwright goes against the ill-treatment of women characters in tragedies of Shakespeare.
In this play, the personal empowerment is triggered by extremely grave personal crisis.
This drama does not begin with the traumas of the protagonist, but they begin with the distinctive
feature of speaking of magic before they reveal the crises. Hence, it has foregrounded the
empowerment need of the heroines’ having drawn the attention of the audience towards the old,
unofficial way of receiving few knowledge along with few specific aptitudes.
Goodnight Desdemona depicts two different types of the shadow selves of Constance.
These are the personal identity in dormant in the form of Juliet and Desdemona along with the
other side which is her unconscious masculine side. Iago, Chorus and the Ghost represent this
masculine side. Therefore, in this functional work, McDonald (1998) elaborates the
psychological, magical transformation of Ledbelly into a powerful individual. This
metamorphosis from the anti-heroine to heroine is depicted without showing signs of Ledbelly’
psychological alteration.
Through the beginning, Constance ghostwrites the speeches and articles for Professor
Night hoping to grab some of his attention. The professor takes advantage of this effort to
become ‘widely published’ but Ladbelly could not finish her dissertations. The heroine lastly
decides strongly to call the Dean and resign being overwhelmed by sadness and disillusionment.

4ENGLISH LITERATURE
It can be said that through the irritating and irrelevant representation of heroines, the playwright
underscores her intention of experiencing excessive love.
It is seen that Constance prompts Juliet and Desdemona to change all their personalities
and conducts too. At the end of the story, the protagonist finds out that Desdemona is similar to
Othello who is violent and gullible but Juliet is deeply “in love with death”. For helping these
heroines, McDonald tries to persuade and manage them to realise that these irrational and
excessive attributes might entail extremely tragic results. The incorporation of manly qualities
within her helps the heroine to attain integrity. In this manner, the anti-heroine in McDonald’
play transformed into a true heroine.

5ENGLISH LITERATURE
Reference
MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). Grove Press, 1998.