A Study Of The Father-Daughter Relationship In Shakespeare’s Romances

This doctoral dissertation, A Study of the Father-Daughter Relationship in Shakespeare’sRomances, based on the four grounds of literary interpretation proposed by J. Hillis Miller,namely, the social, psychological, linguistics, and anagogic aspects, is intended to explore thefather-daughter relationships in Shakespeare’s late four romances (tragic-comedies), Pericles,Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest, with a view to resituating these late plays intheir themes, historical import, generic expression, and their mark on Shakespeare’s dramaticcareer. The daughters in the romances are classified into four different types, the absentdaughter, the lost daughter, the disobedient daughter and the obedient daughter, whose naturein relation to their fathers forms the source of their respective regenerative power.Four central chapters focus on the romances themselves. Chapter One is devoted to a socialinterpretation of Pericles, the Prince of Tyre. The relationship between Pericles and hisdaughter Marina is examined as a social construct, with Pericles remaining a passive characterwho fails to perform his social obligations as a father, a husband and a king, and Marina, incontrast, demonstrating her courage and capacity to fight against loss and adversity in asocially active manner. The restoration of Marina, the absent daughter, shifts the socialdynamics into its normal order, with Pericles resuming his dominant role in the patriarchalsociety and Marina retreating back under the protection of a father. This chapter furtherexplores two examples of the violation of this social construct, the seeming “private” crime ofincest and that of the seeming “public” crime of sexual trafficking and prostitution. Theseviolations clearly define aspects of father-daughter relationships within a social context insofaras the father usurps the role of the son-in-law and exploit him of his social obligation of futureprocreation in the former, and the fertility of the daughter becomes publicized in the latter, andin so doing the generative cycle and the healthy progression of society are disturbed.Chapter Two presents a psychological reading of The Winter’s Tale. Leontes suffers from ablighting madness that derives from an unnatural jealousy, which brings destruction to hisfamily members, his attendant in court and his own kingdom. He also suffers from animbalance of sensuality and reason, and an inner fear of personal nothingness disguised in theoutward violence. In contrast, his daughter Perdita, guided by reason, internalizes the balance between her sensual attraction and her reason, and embodies of the natural garden that breedsa cure for her father that is very different from Marina’s actively self-conscious resistance tosocial attacks on her responsibilities as a daughter. Perdita’s very innocence marks her“lostness” from the courtly world; and her pure nature allows a rebirth to be restored toLeontes both as a father and as the king of a kingdom as well. The psychological rejuvenationis finally realized through the restoration of the lost daughter, Perdita, who embodies a naturalforce of vigor that cures Leontes of his mental disease and infuses in him the power of youthwhich is in stark contrast to the social force of vigor Pericles achieves.Chapter Three examines the father-daughter relationship in Cymbeline from the perspective oflanguage and linguistics. Cymbeline has been kept tongue-tied and manipulated by thelanguage of the queen, in private matters like the marriage of his daughter Imogen and inpublic decisions like the political stand towards the Romans. The silencing of the King andhis awkward communication skills disrupt the father-daughter relationship between Imogenand himself. In contrast, Imogen distinguishes herself from all the other daughters of the lateromances and the rest of the characters in this play as the most eloquent character, whoselanguage generates charm and intellectual wit and carries a strong power in bringing languagecapacity to her father and her husband. In a notable way, her language achieves forms of thesocial and natural-psychological restoration enacted in Pericles and The Winter’s Tale. Thereturn of Imogen, the disobedient daughter, marks the moment when Cymbeline regains hispower of language. Healing language is less obvious a force than either the more obviousrestoration of social power by means of that relationship that Marina accomplishes or even therestoration of psychological well being that Perdita achieves. Yet Imogen’s languageaccomplishes versions of both social and psychological healing and describes the combinationof social forms and psychological strength implicit in the father-daughter relationship.Chapter Four aims to expound on the relationship between Prospero and Miranda in TheTempest through an anagogic reading.“Anagogic” is a term borrowed from Dante, in hisunderstanding a religious term, though here it is used to describe magic rather than religion assuch. An anagogic understanding is one that situates itself from a point of view that allows allexperience to be understood in its terms. When Dante uses the term, he means to understandand interpret the world and all experiences by way of Christian faith. In The Tempest, Shakespeare means to describe both the world and experience–the “social” world of Pericles,for instance, and the psychological world of The Winter’s Tale as well as their combination inthe social-psychological language of Imogen in Cymbeline–as mediated by the magic and artof drama altogether. Shakespeare conceives the world and life as essentially theatrical, a stagethat informs every kind of relationships including the father-daughter relationship. There’retwo sides to Prospero’s magic: One being the manipulation of nature and nature-associatedspirits, the other being the control of human beings. Daughters inhabit two worlds: They are“natural” creatures who enter the “public” world of human beings in the ceremony of marriage.The raw magic Prospero wields taints him with a touch of coldness, influences his language,his character and his actions, but it is through the soft magic of the union between his daughter,the natural force, and Ferdinand, the human force that he reaches the end of forgiveness andrestores a balance of reason and emotion, which ends the play with personal rejuvenation,political restoration and familial reconciliation realized by the formation of a new family.The four late dramas are interpreted respectively from the social, psychological, linguistic, andanagogic perspectives that correspond to “the dominant” impulse of particular plays. It is thisclassificatory system that discovers the different kinds of restoration brought by the daughtersin the tragi-comedies. The social interpretation, an outward representation, poses itselfopposite to the psychological interpretation, an inward representation, with both realizedthrough the expression of language. These three perspectives in turn are governed by theanagogic interpretation, as they stage the theatrical and artistic nature of dramas. Through theprogressive probe into the four romances, this dissertation strives to draw the conclusion thatShakespeare conveys his thoughts and ideas to his audience, and interprets all the parts of theworld by means of drama. As Dante interprets all the activities of the world by the faith inGod, Shakespeare views the human world and life experiences through the magic of thetheatre and the art of drama.