“Can Man Be Free If Woman Be A Slave?” A Study in Feminine Leadership in the Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Bole Butake

This article studies the primal role of female characters in the works of two dramatists separated by time and space and yet convergent in their philosophical portrayal of the woman as an agent of socio-political mutations. It posits that although Bole Butake is a Cameroonian contemporary playwright, he shares convergent views with Percy Bysshe Shelley, an English Romantic poet who also wrote lyrical dramas, in the portrayal of the front role played by female characters in bringing about change to their societies. The article concludes that though separated by culture and historical epochs, both Butake and Shelley are visionary and insightful in using women to solve the socio-political predicaments of their times.