Family issues in Shakespeare's plays

1.2 Facts from Shakespeare's biography
-The great playwright William Shakespeare has always lived in mystery.
-Shakespeare's biographical evidence suggests that he was the second most cited author of the entire world space.
-William Shakespeare did not go to university.
-Many of Shakespeare's works have been translated into other languages ​​of the world.
-William Shakespeare began his art career with acting.
-The period from 1585 to 1592 is considered the period of Shakespeare's disappearance, as no data on this period have emerged.
-About 3,000 new words were created by Shakespeare.
-No play by Shakespeare has been published during the playwright's lifetime.
-Some of Shakespeare’s dramas are based on legends of the past.
-Shakespeare was considered a true sonnet producer.
-According to Shakespeare’s plays, we can say that he had a lot of knowledge in the fields of history, law, natural sciences.
Chapter II.
2.1 Family issues in Shakespeare's plays
The family is one of the main themes that William Shakespeare used in his plays. Families in Shakespeare's plays are compared to a normal human body with all kinds of connections. Shakespeare imitates the behavior of the families in his play to the families of the Elizabethan era and therefore applies the social rules of the time. Whether it's Romeo, Juliet, or King Lear, one can find 16th-century social expectations with high patriarchal power, or in As You Like It and Twelfth Night, differences in the behavior of children wanting to be free from this patriarchy. In Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, one really wants to use the parent-child relationship as it is the key to housekeeping. As will be shown in this essay, Shakespeare actually used the codes of expectation and social codes presented in his society to manipulate character construction and the audience's perception of the relationship between father and children. Through the use of criticism, this essay first examines the role of the mother. Then I will talk about the relationship between fathers and daughters and, finally, about the relationship between fathers and sons. One striking common element in these four plays is the role of the mother and how little she is present in the stories. The only mothers physically present in these four plays examined are Lady Capulet and Lady Montagu in Romeo and Juliet. Both Montagu and Capulet belong to high society, as stated in the prologue "two households, both equally worthy". It is clear that both families will have the same social criteria regarding the behavior and upbringing of children. These two mothers are alike. They both ignore where their only child is, as Lady Montague asks Benvolio, “Oh, where is Romeo? saw you today? (I.I. 107) and Lady Capulet is also interested in her daughter's whereabouts "Nurse, where is my daughter?" Call her to me” (I.ii. 1). However, the reason for their surprise is where they differ. Lady Montague shows real concern for her son (Ii108), knowing that he was recently ill and afraid to leave him alone, but she and her husband were aware of his recent activities by analyzing his behavior (Ii122-133), Lady Capulet, c on the other hand, is more concerned about the well-being of her future thinker, and this lack of interest in her daughter is shown in Juliet's response “Madame, I am here. '(I.iii.7). Juliet was raised by her nurse, and this lack of maternal affection is shown in Juliet's response. As stated by Lisa Jardine, children at the time in important families were a guarantee that the family's name would live on to ensure a linear future, and thus they had a public identity from birth, which resulted in children becoming less appropriate. object of attachment. or even the "mother love" of our modern day. Lady Capulet is more present in the play than Lady Montague, and this constant presence may be related to the gender of the children. Juliet, being a woman, had to be obedient, and Lady Capulet, since she had already been through it, knew how to proceed in order to prepare her daughter. This mother-child relationship is codified by the social norms of the time, but this lack of physical affection does not mean a lack of love, as both mothers suffer when they hear their children die. There are several references to the mother figure in King Lear, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night, but not a complete description of them. This ignorance around the mother figure is explained by Oliver Davies as "a dead or absent mother leaves a young daughter or son without the support of adults who largely nurture and understand them." In King Lear, the absence of a mother is used to reinforce the idea of ​​illegitimacy. According to Janet Adelman, Lear's plot follows the logic of the illegitimacy of Gloucester's plot. Indeed, according to Lear, if the wicked son of Gloucester is literally illegitimate, then it is obvious that his own disobedient daughters are also the illegitimate product of an "adulterous womb" (II.iv.133). For As You Like It and Twelfth Night, the relationship with the mother is a little more complicated. In both plays, the mother is mentioned only once, and in both cases this reference is used in the process of identification (II.I.36), but never for a full understanding of the character. According to Kann, the basic difference between the initial separation of the male child from the mother and the female child creates an important difference between the girl's and the boy's developing sense of identity. Shakespeare's use of the mother figure either serves to strengthen the authority of the father and criticize the social norms of the time, or makes the children more independent, but also more dependent on the father, the only remaining parental figure. As Jennifer Higginbotham has argued, most of Shakespeare's daughters are used as a key element in understanding their father's life. They are pawns in their father's game, not characters in their own lives. The relationship between fathers and daughters in Shakespeare's tragedies is usually centered around power, with daughters falling into two categories: "daughter who rebels" and "daughter who agrees". The relationship between Lear and his daughters is complex, given the fact that he is a king and a father who behaves the same way towards his daughters. A daughter who agrees is a beautiful daughter: a quiet and obedient woman. Following this logic, Goneril and Regan are the ideal daughters, they behave like objects doing his bidding. However, Lear sees in Cordelia a beautiful daughter, the one who loves him the most, and the wording of his question "Which of you will say whether he loves us the most" (Ii51), makes the question of this addictive of its own accord. He had already made his judgment and imagined what their answers would be. King Lear is blind to what is happening in front of him, and this idea of ​​"sight" is present throughout the play: the repetition of the word "eye" reinforces this idea of ​​blindness, as Lear is unable to distinguish between true love and false love. In this case, Cordelia is "the daughter who rebels", but silently. Goneril and Regan and "daughter who agrees" vocally, but Cordelia is the daughter who silently rebels. Answering "nothing" and repeating this throughout the first act, she is not tongue-tied, she speaks more than her sisters. Her language is concrete, she makes it difficult to make her father sound physical (I.i. 77-78), when Goneril assured "love that makes bad breath and incapacity of speech" (I.i.60) in a perfect voice. The relationship between Lear, Goneril and Regan is false, based on strength and greed, while Lear saw Cordelia as a caring side, and it is she who loves him and, in the end, forgives him, returning by his side. As Elizabeth Finn argued, "rebellion and voice are not causal relationships: one does not necessarily create the other." Shakespeare uses this dynamic to create a daughter who will entertain the audience. Such is the case with Juliet, she was at first a dutiful little daddy's girl, too young to see the world. Being the only daughter, her father at first does not want to marry her: “And those who were born so early are born too early” (II.I 15). Juliet's father takes care of his daughter but then asserts his authority because he is tired and his behavior marks a decisive turn in the play. He is no longer calm, he is "mad" (III.v.176), telling Juliet that she can "hang, beg, starve to death, die in the street". Urgently asked his wife for marriage, and this, as a result, will lead to a rupture between him and Juliet. The template for "Twelfth Night" and "As You Like It" is different. In both of these plays, the daughters are not trying to escape their fathers, but are looking for them. In Twelfth Night, and as you like, the daughter, due to the lack of parental supervision, has become more independent and identifies with the male figure. In Twelfth Night they are not a nuclear family, the comedy begins with the mention of the death of Olivia's father
As Suzanne Penuel explained, the absence of a father and Olivia's position of power frees the conspiracy of the older generation controlling the libidos of the young. Like Olivia, Viola also lost her father and presumably a brother, but mention of her father's death is only made after she meets her brother. The use of "such Sebastian" implies that her brother and father are more similar to each other than just by name, and this similarity can also be applied to Viola, whose twin is Sebastian. She identifies as her father's daughter, and her cross-dressing is a way to immortalize her father's name and lineage. Both Viola and Olivia have suffered the physical loss of their fathers and are trying to find this male figure in love. The situation is completely different as you like it. Rosalind is not looking for a father figure, but simply a father. Just like Viola, Rosalind is identified with her father, as she is banished for being the daughter of a senior duke. However, Rosalind's relationship to her father is of less importance to her personality and is more based on duty and respect, but also on emotion. Her words to her father and Orlando "To you I give myself because I am yours" (vol. 4.116-17) echoes the wedding speech "which gives this woman to be married to this man." She gave herself to her father and husband. In this desire to abandon the old relationship of father and daughter, Rosalind and Celia find a new and fuller relationship in which the figure of the father lives in harmony with his daughter and their chosen one. Shakespearean fathers and daughters in tragedies usually end up with the death of their daughters as the ultimate punishment for their father's behavior. In comedies, however, daughters are not portrayed as punishments from their fathers, but as independent women. According to Louis Montrose, Shakespeare's plays mostly consist of sons and brothers related to their father or older siblings. In these four plays, the family connections between the father figure and the male child can be divided into two parts: the situation with the only child and the brothers. When it comes to an only child, the first relationship worth exploring is that between Romeo and his father. As the sole heir of the Montage family, Romeo's behavior towards his father is that of a teenager. However, Lord Montagu's behavior shows real concern for his son. He notices that something is wrong, but also knows that Romeo refuses to speak to him: "I do not know this and cannot find out about him" (I.i.130). This is the most common relationship between a troubled father and a careless teenage son who doesn't want to talk to his parents about his grief, but is quicker to confess to Lawrence's brother. The situation is very different from Sebastian in Twelfth Night. As Bruce Young explained, family in the sense of ancestry was a significant factor in establishing a person's identity, especially if the family was wealthy, and surnames tend to come from the father, most of which are identified with the paternal line. His confession of his identity (II.i.10-13) highlights the importance of the father figure in Sebastian's identity, he identifies himself mainly as his father, saying little about himself except for the fact that he is a son. Also the fact that he stated that "whom I know you have heard of" (II.i.10) is the key to understanding Sebastian's social rank, and as Suzanne Penuel explained, "Sebastian's consciousness of rank and his heredity reinforce his idealization of his father." After the death of the paternal figure, the difference in the relationship between the firstborn and the younger brother increases: the eldest son must accept the paternal relationship with his brother, and this can lead to potential conflict between them. This is the case when you like it. The death of Sir Rowland de Bois intensifies the rivalry between his sons, since Olivier has become the father of his brother and is responsible for him, as Orlando recalled at the beginning of the play. Orlando does not name his father, a resentment is forced upon him that left his son a small part of the inheritance and doomed him to an indefinite and socially humiliating dependence on his own brother. As stated by Montrose, "the father is in the strength of his memory", Orlando's rebellion against Olivier was due to "the spirit of my father, which I think is in me", and refused to be seen as a "prodigal son". (line 38). Again there is a biblical reference as the prodigal son was the son who failed his family's hopes and then returns home. But, in the end, it was Olivier, the prodigal son, who returned to his father's grace. According to Montrose, "the main factor.