Dec
07

Family relationships in Shakespeare’s Comedies

Filed Under (Second Paper: Shakespeare) by Jessica Roch on 07-12-2010

Father-daughter: In this patriarchal society, a daughter was seen as an object that the father gives to the future husband. Girls were not normally heiresses of their fathers’ Egeuspossessions because male children had priority. However, a great exception for this tradition was the Queen herself. Many marriages were a convenience for the families. Women had no power to decide by themselves and had to be obedient. Normally, a father looked for a rich and powerful man in order to improve the status of the family with the marriage. This is the case of Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Egeus wants her to be married with Demetrius and tries to abuse of his power because of Hermia’s disobedience:

EGEUS:

Consent to marry with Demetrius,

I beg the auncient priuiledge of Athens:

As she is mine, I may dispose of her:

Which shall be, either to this gentleman,

Or to her death; according to our lawe,

Immediatly prouided, in that case

In the case of Baptista Minola, the father of Katherina and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, he is not for cing her daughters to marry a concrete man but he doesn’t allow Bianca to be married until Katherina, the eldest sister considered the shrew, finds a husband.

BAPTISTA MINOLA:

Gentlemen, importune me no farther,

For how I firmly am resolu d you know:

That is, not to bestow my yongest daughter,

Before I haue a husband for the elder:

If either of you both loue Katherina,

Because I know you well, and loue you well,

Leaue shall you haue to court her at your pleasure.

– Siblings: As we have mentioned before, children were not in equal position within a family. twinsThe eldest son was the heir and if the father died, he became the head of the family and ruled it. In this case, brothers had the responsibility of looking for a good husband for their sisters and take care of them until they got married. This is the situation we find in Twelfth Night. Sebastian is supposed to take care of Viola, because they have no parents. Curiously enough, they only allude to the figure of their father, so we can understand how the patriarchal society suppressed the importance of women even in the family.

Marriage: After the wedding, the woman became her husband’s property and she had to accept the housewife’s duties tamingand her husband’s decisions. We cannot forget that, at that time, a husband had a lot of power over his wife and he even had the right to beat her. Shakespeare showed a bit of this situation in his plays. If we pay attention to The Taming of the Shrew we can consider misogynic the way in which Petruchio treats Katherina. This behavior was supposed to be the tool to get the “taming” of the “shrew”, turning Katherina into a submissive woman.

PREVIOUS -.,.- NEXT



Post a Comment
Name:
Email:
Website:
Comments:

¡IMPORTANTE! Responde a la pregunta: ¿Cuál es el valor de 12 2 ?