Coming of Age in Shakespeare by Garber Marjorie;

Author:Garber, Marjorie;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

For Shakespeare, himself coming of age as a dramatist in this period of consolidation and change, the prevailing beliefs of the time about marriage, virginity, chastity and child-rearing were essential materials for his art. In the history plays he deals vividly with the question of marriages arranged for political purposes and personal gain. The surrogate wooing of Suffolk, the cynical marital politics of Richard III, and Henry V’s moving attempt to express his love for Katherine as a personal need over and above the needs of the state – all these are placed against the background of historical custom. The deep affection between Richard II and his queen is yet another evidence of Richard’s primary identity as a private person rather than a public monarch – and it is useful to remember here that Shakespeare changed history in order to make the queen a grown woman. Laertes’ assertion to Ophelia that Hamlet is a prince, and therefore ‘may not, as unvalued persons do, / Carve for himself’ (Ham. I. iii. 19–20) touches upon the same theme, as (on the level of the squirearchy) do A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Othello. The figure of the tyrant father, defender of patriarchy and patrimony, is everywhere in his work, from Egeus to Shylock.

Yet Shakespeare was by no means, of course, merely the creature of his time. In comedies, tragedies and histories alike, he describes love in affective terms which for the most part go beyond even the courtly expectations of romantic love. As we shall see, his characters are often vividly aware of their own sexuality. His women, in particular, are frequently outspoken about their sexual feelings, as well as about the quality of their love. Certainly they are not the tattlers and triflers of Bishop Aylmer’s diatribe; rather, time and again, they show themselves wiser and more capable than their lovers and husbands. In short, much as we should expect, Shakespeare uses the beliefs and practices of the world around him to inform his own dramatic vision, not as a copyist but as an interpreter, making of social custom a thematic instrument to reveal the nature of his characters and their situations.

The rites of passage which demarcate sexual growth to maturity are explored in the plays in considerable detail, in terms which are at some times literal, at others metaphorical or emblematic. To observe them more closely, it will therefore be useful to divide our topic into three phases: sexual self-knowledge as manifested in attitudes towards virginity, chastity and sexuality; actual rites, like marriage, defloration, child-bearing and nursing; and symbolic or metaphorical representations of sexual themes.

II

In the opening scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theseus cautions Hermia to consider her choices carefully: if she does not marry Demetrius, she must either die, or ‘abjure / Forever the society of men’.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;

Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,

You can endure the livery of a nun,

For aye to

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