Family Life in some

Shakespearean plays

Family life for men and women in Elizabethan times was a concept seen from two opposite points of view. In this essay I am going to comment the most relevant aspects related to Elizabethan families, in order to see if the writer William Shakespeare took these characteristics into consideration when he created the families in some of his comedies. We will focus only on upper-class people and Elizabethan families belonging to the nobility, due to the fact that the main characters of the comedies we will comment later belong to this social class.

Elizabethan society was patriarchal. This means that men had power over women and dominated them. Women were inferior to men, so they were expected to obey all their male relatives. As the Scottish protestant leader John Knox said, “woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man” [1].

They had no choice in life: there were no schools for girls, so they were tutored at home; they were not allowed to study in universities; they did not have the right to vote;… so they were expected to have a private life at home. Furthermore, marriages were arranged. Husbands were chosen by the father in order to increase the wealth and the position of the family. The figure of power gave his daughter and a dowry to the man he wanted, so that both families would benefit from this marriage. The husband had full rights over his wife, who became his property and whose function now was to produce children[2].

After having used this information about the Elizabethan period, we will use Shakespearean plays The Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night in order to have evidence and consider if Shakespeare was loyal or not in his re-creation of the family.

In The Taming of the Shrew the rich gentleman Baptista has two daughters: Katharina, the eldest, and Bianca. Bianca is not allowed to marry until her sister does. However, Bianca has got some suitors but Kate has not. Here we see some family politics: the eldest daughter has to marry first and her father has to negotiate the dowry with her future husband. It is Petruchio the gentleman who decides to marry Kate and he will profit: he will increase his wealth and social condition, and later he will ‘tame’ her. So, it is seen here that marriage was not based on love, but was arranged to suit the family, and woman had a submissive role, accepting her father and husband’s domination.

Dealing with Bianca, she is provided an education which takes place at home. Once her sister is married she will be allowed to do the same, but under her father’s acceptance.

As the society of this period was patriarchal and the figure of power was the man, Shakespeare in this play erases the figure of the mother, which indicates that women were not important in society. “The behaviour of women in this play is classed as 'shrewish' and needing 'taming' if a woman questions male authority and rejects the courtly love tradition (in the case of Kate), or is seen to be attractive and admirable (correct behaviour) if the woman is passive and accepting of male domination by her father and husband (Bianca)”[3].

In Midsummer Night’s Dream there are two figures of authority: firstly we have Egeus, Hermia’s father, who will be helped by Theseus; secondly, we have Oberon, the king of the fairies. In the first case, Hermia is in love with Lysander, who is at the same time in love with her, but they are not allowed to marry because Egeus wants his daughter to marry Demetrius. The young girl is subject to her father’s authority and also controlled by Theseus, the duke of Athens, who gives her some time to think about her decision. As disobedience was seen as a crime, Hermia would be punished: she will be sent to a convent to become a nun or even executed if she does not follow her father’s instructions.

THESEUS

Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon--
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship--
Upon that day either prepare to die
For disobedience to your father's will,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana's altar to protest
For aye austerity and single life.(I,i,85-92)[4]

In this play the figure of the mother is also erased and Hermia’s life is controlled by her father.

Another figure of authority is Oberon, the powerful spirit, who tries to control Titania, his queen. After having a quarrel about who will raise the Indian boy and Titania taking him, Oberon feels that he is losing power and decides to humiliate his queen. He sends his servant Puck to control Titania and, through a love potion, he makes the queen of the fairies falling in love with the ass-headed Bottom. At the end, as in all Shakespearean comedies, chaos becomes order.

The last comedy we will talk about is Twelfth Night. Regarding the topic of the family life, this play is different from the other two. As we have just seen in the comedies commented above we have the pattern of: father as the authority in the family, figure of the mother erased, and a daughter or two daughters controlled by male characters.

In Twelfth Night both father and mother are erased, so there is no parental authority. This play could be divided into two parts: firstly, Orsino’s house; secondly, Olivia’s house. In the first case, Orsino, the duke of Illyria, is a powerful, authoritative man in love with Olivia. The only fact which can be commented in this part related to our topic is that Viola has to disguise herself as a boy in order to be working as Orsino’s messenger, because women’s duties were private, they had to work in their house, not public life.

In the second case, in Olivia’s house, there is no parental authority because her father died, and also did her brother. Sir Toby Belch, Olivia’s uncle, is the one in power to control his niece and to arrange her marriage. Sir Andrew Aguecheek is a possible suitor to Olivia and Sir Toby likes him because of his money, but he does not pay attention to his niece’s decisions. In this play we see two cases of social ambition: Malvolio, the steward of the house, wants to increase his wealth and social position marrying Olivia, and Maria, Olivia’s housekeeper, wants to marry Sir Toby Belch for the same reasons.

Having seen the information about family life in Elizabethan times, and having commented the aspects related to this topic in The Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night, the conclusion is that Shakespeare was loyal to his times when he created his characters and the way they lived. He made them realistic, highlighting aspects such as the paternal authority or, if not, the authority of male figures, the submissive role of women in marriage and at home with such importance that the figure of the mother is erased in all the cases mentioned before. With all these aspects Shakespeare obtained a precise adaptation and re-creation of the life in family in Elizabethan times.

Bibliography

-Elizabethan Family Life. Alchin, L.K. Elizabethan Era. July 16 2005. 3 Jan.2007. <http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-family-life.htm>

-Elizabethan Women. Alchin, L.K. Elizabethan Era. July 16 2005. 3 Jan.2007. <http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-women.htm>

-THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Hastings & Teresa. 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. 5 Jan. 2007.

<http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/Shakespeare/tameshrew/plottheme.html>

-Midsummer Night’s Dream: List of Scenes. Hylton, Jeremy. The tech 2006. Last updated on Tuesday, Dec.12. 5 Jan.2007.

<http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/midsummer/midsummer.1.1.html>

Academic year 2006/2007
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ana María Palacios Palacios
amapapa@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press