Fathers and daughters in selected Shakespearean plays

Table of contents

Introduction

Inept and capable fathers

Rebellious and obeying daughters

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Though the impression that numerous Shakespearean plays on fathers and daughters are very similar to each other is awaken, however this is not true. Many plays depict the same situations with similar circumstances, still it is a great fallacy to suppose that there is only few variation. Indisputably each play has different essential themes, different focus and particulars. Many elements seem similar or actually are really similar, however Shakespeare’s subtle works are nevertheless unique and ingenious - each peace of work its own way.

Among Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies there are a lot of plays in which the relationship between parents with their children is focussed. Particularly interesting is the relationship between fathers and daughters as it is most controversial.

Shakespeare destines most of the father- daughter pairs to fail. Usually the father proves to be inept and incapable as he neither knows his own child’s nature, nor is he able or willing to get to know her. His paternal authority does not allow him to descent on his daughter’s level and make an attempt to understand her will and her needs. All the inept fathers of the further discussed plays undergo punishment - the death, either his daughter’s or his own or both die. On that account he can be empathised with, of course, but yet it is often his lack of wisdom which results in a tragedy.

Most of Shakespearian daughters are rebels who contradict their father’s word and will. Obedience is every daughter’s main duty and those who make an exception to the rule are definitely just as incapable daughters. However in comedies it is perfectly legitimate for a daughter to make her own choices and still be happy. Whereas in tragedies Shakespeare is not very generous with his heroines and does not bestow them such a lucky lot - pretty much as their fathers.

The present essay consists of two parts. The first chapter concentrates especially on the father figures and the second one on their daughters. The selection of the works is undertaken according to the plots in which the interaction between fathers and daughters is central. In this essay following plays are analysed in detail: Romeo and Juliet, Othello, the Moor of Venice, King Lear, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. Six various father-daughter constellations arise from the four tragedies and two comedies.

Inept and capable fathers

“Shakespeare created two of his most memorable father-daughter pairs at the beginning and end of his career” (Hamilton. 2003:13). Romeo and Juliet in 1596 and The Tempest in 1611. The conflict situations between fathers and daughters, caused by the discord on the choice of the right partner for the young girl, are very similar in both plays, as well as the fathers’ and daughters’ personal characters. However, these are the two of his most contrasting plays regarding the father figure.

Juliet and Miranda have many things in common, for example their beauty and intelligence. Besides that they are both the only child in the family and due to this fact they constitute the only hope and that is why the main focus for their father’s attention.

As already pointed out before, most of Shakespeare’s generation conflicts first appear when it comes to choice of the future husband and in these plays they constitute the main plot. The entire plays are actually about finding out if the lovers succeed to marry or not, unlike Othello which does not end immediately after Desdemona’s marriage. Infact, the last one is rather about the tragic outcome of such a marriage without her father’s blessing.

Both Juliet and Miranda unconsciously finds her object of love in the son of her father’s bitterest enemy and remain loyal to her genuine feelings. Shakespeare puts an end to their fathers’ feud in both plays, but in one of them the newly established peace does not matter any more.

The fathers, Capulet and Prospero have as well a lot of similarities. The main point is that both of them consider their only child’s marriage to a worthy suitor to be the most important task in life. Taking into account the genre of the two plays, one being a tragedy and the other a comedy according to their endings, one catastrophic, the other triumphant, it is striking that the father’s behaviour is crucial for the outcome of the story in both cases. His daughter’s happiness and even life lie completely in his hand, so that the way he treats determines his daughter’s fate.

Though both fathers act in their daughters’ best interests, it becomes an issue of understanding one’s child’s own feelings and desires in order to really choose the best for her future.

Prospero is a Shakespearean father figure who approaches best a character of a perfect father. He does not lose his paternal authority and at the same time he is wise enough and benevolent enough to reassure the happiness of his daughter.

Besides that, Prospero is the one who manages to solve the feud with his brother. This corresponds to the on-going feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, which could be resolved by Juliet’s marriage to Romeo, which unfortunately remains secret till the moment when it is too late. Well, the feud is resolved in the end:

CAPULET: O brother Montague, give me thy hand.

This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more

Can I demand.

MONTAGUE: But I can give thee more,

For I will raise her statue in pure gold,

That whiles Verona by that name is known,

There shall no figure at such rate be set

As that of true and faithful Juliet.

CAPULET: As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,

Poor sacrifices of our enmity! (Shakespeare, R.&J., p.278, ll.296-304).

The problem still remains the price paid for this solution. This price is just too high, indeed the highest possible which could ever be paid by any parent: his only child’s life. The fact that the feud is finished in the end adjoins even more to the tragic in the play. The reader or the audience cannot help thinking that if Juliet had only “resurrected” earlier, before Romeo’s arrival, or if Friar Lawrence had arrived in the Capulets’ tomb before Romeo, the final catastropy could have been prevented. But in Romeo and Juliet fortuna is obviously not at the side of the lovers.

By contrast, the lovers’ fate in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is helped by the magic powers of Oberon- a hero of greek mythology- and his servant Puck. Here, the metaphysical forces interfere and solve the human conflicts to their best. The magic accompanies the entire acting in the woods, where decisions are made. Thanks to this magic interference the play belongs to the genre of comedy. It is interesting, that even this play is not one hundred percent comic, as some elements are almost tragic, though not to the extent as to calling the play a tragicomedy. These tragic elements are provided for example by the inconstancy of the feelings of men and married women, as the married ruling couples are involved in a diagonal affair with each other, providing an amoral example for the young generations.

The young quartett ends up mirroring the behaviour of the older ones at one stage in the woods, but thanks to the constancy of Hermia’s and Helena’s feelings for their loved, they manage in the end to find the right way, which means the right partner. The happy end is a girl’s accomplishment in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It can be followed that only unmarried innocent girls are able not only to remain constant to their feelings but as well that only they know what true love actually means. They at least do know what they want, unlike the men, which by the way is very true as in Romeo’s case as well. The very fact that the girls know what they want has the implication that they want the right thing- they have no doubts on the choice made once and they do never change sides. Exactly for this reason it is even more tragic that Egeus is not at least a little enthusiastic in the end as it becomes obvious that his choice he was insisting on so hard, was a big fallacy.

Egeus could at this point be considered the most inept father. He not only does not have any reason to disagree to his daughter’s own choice, but as well he does not even recognise his own mistakes afterwards. If the old Capulet had found out earlier about Juliet’s marriage to Romeo he would either approve or disapprove of his daughter’s choice. Certainly, however he would not be happy about the fact that she had done it secretly and he would probably explode of fury. But he could not do anything about the marriage afterwards and soon he probably would be very released by the happy end of the exhausting feud. As he sees Romeo at the masquerade and does not mind at all, it becomes obvious that it is not the old Capulet and the old Montague who are pushing along the old feud, but the young ones. But even if the old Capulet disagreed to Juliet’s choice insisting on the impossibility of appeasement, it would still be comprehensible, though not worthy of approval.

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