Dear Whom It May Concern,

- HUMANITY 3160 Topics in European Literature (Top: Eur Lit : Shakespeare);

a lecture course about Shakespeare's works

Estelle Song

Prof. P. A. 

HUMANITY 3160-001

14 December 2018

Daddies vs. Daughters

Marriage is not only a socially recognized union of a couple, it is one of the biggest milestones in one's life, declaring one's love and devotion to a significant other. Shakespeare especially thought that marriage is the ultimate goal and form of 'love', therefore he repeatedly enunciated love as the most important element of life and a perfect society, and marriage as a must.

From Renaissance period, I believe Shakespeare depicted the relationship between a father and daughter in his plays much more often than between a mother and son, allowed the relation to perform more significant role in the plot than the main event of the play itself, because a father-daughter relationship had much more melodramatic qualities regarding marriage. In order to prove my point, I will examine several father and daughter relations from A Midsummer Night's Dream, andthe Merchant of Venice.

In Renaissance period, the father was in charge of making a decision of whom his daughter shall get married to, in other words, to love for rest of her life, therefore the relationship between a father and a daughter was much more dramatic and emotional than one between a mother and a son.A Midsummer Night's Dream, a pure comedy of Shakespeare's, is about the troublesomeness in the course of love and redemption of foolishness: the play begins with Theseus, the king of Athens, who kidnapped the queen of Amazon, Hippolyta, planning their marriage in "four happy days bring in Another moon" (A Midsummer Night's Dream I. i. 2-3) While their wedding ceremony is being discussed and the other couple from the fairy world, Oberon and Titania, is in the midst of love quarrel; the ultimate event of this play is the ceremony of Theseus', to be proceeded without any issues, and the fairy royal couple to be in peace, before attending the mortal's wedding. Meanwhile, four young Athenians, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, also attempt to find the love of their lives; each has clear favor towards certain individual, and they are all hopelessly in love, whether the other loves him or her back, or not.

The problem arouses however, as the father of Hermia, Egeus, comes to Theseus, to file a complaint against his own daughter Hermia, and to get a "consent to marry with Demetrius... As she is mine" (A Midsummer Night's Dream I. i. 41-43) because even when she faces "Either to die the death or to abjure For ever the society of men" (A Midsummer Night's Dream I. i. 67-68) she refuses to follow her father's order. There is a clear rule in the world of Athens for a woman who disobeys her father's will regarding marriage, and despite of the fact that Theseus's the big "sealing-day betwixt my love and me" (A Midsummer Night's Dream I. i. 86-87) is coming up within few days, this merely significant young lady, Hermia, decides to take away the spotlight of the play, by not only rebelling against her father, but also by running away to the forest, which causes several other characters to experience confusion, and is all due to a problem between a father-daughter relationship of Egeus and Hermia in regard of marriage.

Shakespeare tends to disregard anti-life characters in his plays and in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Egeus, is the antagonist who tries to force the nature of love to change, and in fact, he appears only twice, throughout the entire play; when Hermia actually gets married to Lysander, who he ordered her not to marry, Egeus does not even get a chance to tell her to stop. Egeus is an exemplary masculine and patriarchal figure who immediately gets defeated - iron-willed enough to drag his own daughter to in front of the king, assertive enough to speak out loud to claim "the ancient privilege of Athens, As she is mine" (A Midsummer Night's Dream I. i. 42) and unemotional enough to put Hermia to death if she does not follow his order - despite of his position as a biological father and a caretaker until this youthful, rebellious yet beautiful age of Hermia's. Shakespeare prefers more flexible characters who are willing to transform themselves for better, and because Egeus does not change, his existence is neglected.

Considering how the 'silence' of women was considered one of the most important virtues to have in the Renaissance period, the way Hermia speaks in front of Theseus and Egeus is quite bold and as strong-willed as her father is - she will "grow, so live, so die... My soul consents not to give sovereignty" (A Midsummer Night's Dream I. i. 81-84) All are dismissed, however, because the father and his daughter do not resolve their issue by themselves, for next three acts, the wedding ceremony of Theseus, which is the major event of this play, is completely disdained. Instead, other individuals who are rarely relevant to this family issue, such as Puck, Titania, and Bottom, go through a period of lost in confusion; for not being responsible for their own problem, Egeus is completely destroyed and left out from the play, and Hermia, under the influence of Oberon's love potion, gets abandoned from Lysander and Demetrius, and almost loses her friend, Helena. The play does return to focus on the grand wedding of Theseus, beauty of transformation and discovering pure joy in redemption, yet the incident in the forest that dominates the entire play and is fundamentally caused by an uncompromising father and his daughter's unsolved quarrel.

While Shakespeare depicts only one type of a father and daughter relation which ended crudely in A Midsummer Night's Dreamto subtly notify the female audience the importance of loyalty towards their fathers, he chooses to emphasize his point more apparent by introducing two different father and daughter relationships, contrasting one another in the Merchant of Venice: Portia and her deceased father, and Shylock and Jessica. The play itself is about the power of love that overrules everything including law, and is unveiled through failure of Venice, the world of business, and the main event of the play is whether Shylock will get "A weight of carrion flesh than to receive Three thousand ducats" (The Merchant of Venice V. i. 41-42) or not. Yet what ultimately drives Antonio and Bassanio to make a ridiculous deal with Shylock and forces them to run into their own destruction is the relationship of fathers and their daughters.

A choice of a spouse was managed by fathers in Renaissance period, who decided who would be the best option not only for their daughters, but for the whole family: because it was such an important decision to be made, fatherly figures such as Portia's deceased one, "hath devised in these three chests... whereof who chooses his meaning chooses you... never be chosen by any rightly but one who shall rightly love" (The Merchant of Venice I. ii. 25-28) even after his death. Portia doubts this system "the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father" (The Merchant of Venice I. i. 23-24) yet when she faithfully executes and complies the will and requirement of her father's even to Bassanio who Portia has her favor leaning towards - to go through three caskets test - Portia not only gains a love of her life and fortune, she also officially acquires independence from male figures, her father and new husband, Bassanio. Freed from obligation and restriction, Portia was able to take action upon her will, such as going to Venice disguising herself as a man, to rescue Antonio and to punish Shylock, but also to demand equality and voice of her own to her husband, by establishing a new rule of "this ring; Which when you part from, lose, or give away, Let it presage the ruin of your love And be my vantage to exclaim on you" (The Merchant of Venice III. ii. 175-178) which allows her to gain power in the relationship between Bassanio and Portia.

Again, Shakespeare, by introducing an example of daughterly character who is respectful and loyal to her father, an orderly and harmonious father-daughter relationship; by showing Portia being rewarded with her father's recognition, pride and blessing, emphasizes the importance of a daughter's obedience, to satisfy the expectations of the audience of the period. Shakespeare tends to punish his characters who outlies from social norms, yet because Portia established such an exemplary of a perfect father and daughter relationship, she is excused from breaking rules such as 'turning into men', and destroying Venice, the world of male dominance, with "A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks, Which I will practice" (The Merchant of Venice III. iv. 77-78) Without Portia and her dead father's superlative relationship, Portia would never have been able to not only meet truly the love of her life, but to motivate Bassanio and Antonio to take such reckless actions - Bassanio to drive Antonio to ask his enemy, Shylock, to lend money under the term that threatens his life - and to drastically punish Shylock, at the first place: every events occur in theMerchant of Venice, is ultimately due to the a relationship between father and daughter.

Shylock and Jessica, on the other hand, another father-daughter relationship, is less about enforcing rules about marriage, yet their relationship hugely impacts main characters' movement. For instance, Shylock surely is a twisted individual who offers a "kind... if you replay me not on such a day, In such a place, such sum or sums as are Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit Be nominated for an equal pound Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken In what part of your body pleaseth me" (The Merchant of Venice I. iii. 140-149) however, Shakespeare indicates where Shylock's bitterness originates from, throughout the play, which appears to be reasonable. Publicly bullied and personally attacked by the majority of the society, Christians such as Antonio and Bassanio, Shylock being harsh on his daughter Jessica from the society "conspired together... you shall not see a masque... To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces... [to] My sober house" (The Merchant of Venice II. v. 27-35) despite of his bluntness, rather seems to a protection for his daughter than releasing Shylock's anger towards Jessica.

Jessica however, disagrees with her father, and instead of following Shylock's instruction, she bitterly rumbles that "I have a father, you a daughter lost" (The Merchant of Venice I. iii. 55) portending her runaway shortly after his departure. Like Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jessica also physically escapes from her father to achieve the love of her life, Lorenzo, but what is remarkable about Jessica is that she takes a step further by taking fortunes of Shylock's and believes in "I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian" (The Merchant of Venice III. v. 12) completely abandoning the relationship and any connection regarding her father. Jessica's disobedience and backstabbing of her own father - including the news of his daughter that she used "a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey" (The Merchant of Venice III. i. 98) - galvanizes Shylock to lose his last faith in humanity, especially towards Antonio, so even though he did not intend to actually acquire a pound of flesh at first, after the ruin and complete destruction of his relationship with Jessica, Shylock maniacally becomes obsessed with revenge, which eventually leads to his tragic end.

There is a pattern of behavior required from a daughter by her father and also by the society, and when it is disrupted, there is always a tragic consequence: even though Jessica runs away from Shylock in pursuit of 'love', which Shakespeare highlights as the most important element in life, she does not quite end in sense of happily ever after, because of the guilt she gets from disobeying her father and withdrawing her religion. Jessica is "never merry when I hear sweet music" (The Merchant of Venice V. i. 67)though she is in land of Belmont, where everything is full of love and wonderfulness, and Shylock gives up "my life and all; pardon not that" (The Merchant of Venice IV. i. 396) after total defeat at the court of Venice. While Egeus forces Hermia to marry Demetrius solely in his will without any specific reason behind, Shylock has logic behind his strictness towards his daughter; the way he expresses his intention appears crude and unemotional, yet Shylock does not mean to harm Jessica - or even want his daughter to die, like Egeus does -in any sense. The relationship of Shylock and Jessica's, since is troubled due to lack of communication and expression, both of the characters end up in unsolved sadness.

Although the daughterly figures and their fathers all carry different characteristics, there is a significant similarities and parallels between daughters and fathers in Shakespeare's plays: some of the daughters end in marriage, the ultimate form of love, and some, end with funerals, and these results mostly depend on the way the father-daughter relationship is preserved. These relationships enhance emotional dramatic qualities of the play, but are the ultimate catalysts of the main events of the plays: without Jessica's betrayal and absurd movements to upset Shylock, Shylock may not have pursued to avenge the Christian society and to harm Antonio, which removes the entire court scene. Without Portia's devotion and respect towards her dead father's will, she may not have the same power and excuses to challenge the society, not to mention meeting the true love of her life, which abolishes the reason for Antonio to make a reckless deal with Shylock at the first place. Without Hermia's disobedience and stubbornness, Egeus may not have to ask Theseus to either force his daughter to marry a man of his choice or to die, which takes out purpose of their existence in the play.

Some of these characters described previously, occasionally diminish in silence during a play, and some remain apparent and prominent, but surely Shakespeare understood the sensational nature of the relationship between a father and a daughter: the silence and obedience of women were considered the most important virtue of the time, and Shakespeare sometimes tempered with his characters' personalities to raise the audience's interest, by challenging stereotypical perception of women. Nonetheless, the fact that the Merchant of Veniceand A Midsummer Night's Dream, may not have existed at the first place without the fathers and daughters, is clear. Fathers nowadays may no longer have a privilege to choose a spouse of his choice for their daughters, yet the reason why the modern audience, including myself, can relate to the plays of Shakespeare's, may lie on the fact that we all understand and experience affectionate caring in relationship throughout our lives. As far as the "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind" (A Midsummer Night's Dream I. i. 245) exists, Shakespeare's plays will continuously thrill us, our daughters, and their fathers.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Minerva Publishing. 2018.

Print.

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Minerva Publishing. 2018. Print