This was either my midterm or my final for my Eng 212 class (if you haven't guessed by now, it was a Shakespeare class). I can't remember exactly what the assignment was, but I believe it was to show a common theme among 2 of Shakepeare's plays. The two I chose to do were "The Merchant of Venice" and "King Lear".

Good/Bad Parents and their Children

The Merchant of Venice and King Lear are two plays different in significance and in time period, but they do have one common thread - both plays involve good/bad parents and their relationships with their children. In King Lear, the king uses flattery to attain knowledge about his daughter's love; in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock sees his daughters' lack of love towards him by marrying a man of another religion as the worst crime she could commit in his eyes. Of these two father/daughter relationships, only one relationship is reunited and all is well for a time. King Lear and Shylock never seen the kind of love that they have missed all along - the love that is a driving force; that is always there and no words can express the depth of love. At the end of both plays, both fathers realize what is important and what isn't.

In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish moneylender with a daughter, Jessica. Jessica loves her father, but Shylock does not show her the kind of love and affection that a father should. Shylock centers his life on his assets and he sees Jessica as another value. What Shylock does not see is that Jessica is not another asset, but a living breathing person who wants the affection love gives. She receives this by another, a man that is not of her religion. Jessica knows that to fall for a Christian would make her father angry, but she receives the love and attention from Lorenzo and she is drawn to it for she has never seen this type of attention before. When Jessica and Lorenzo leave in the dead of night while Shylock is away on business, Jessica's true feelings come to the surface.

Here it is seen that Jessica wants a father but doesn't want to be her father's daughter since she is only one of his values. Jessica and Lorenzo disappear into the night and all Shylock can say is:

Shylock is not even concerned with the fact that his daughter has left him, but that she took a part of his wealth. He wants vengeance for his daughter's actions - not for leaving him, but for taking his money. How can a father worry about losing his jewels, when his daughter had just left him? At the end of King Lear, Lear realizes his mistakes, and wishes to reconcile with the victim. Something Shylock would never consider doing.

In King Lear, his majesty wants to know wants to know which daughter loves him most. He asks his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, to each tell him how much they love him. Goneril tells him that "I love you more than word can wield the matter" (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 55). Regan than comes back to tell her father that she loves her father as much as Goneril but more than her sister has said. When it comes to Cordelia's turn, she simply says "Nothing" (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 87). Among hearing this, Lear is dismayed to know that his favorite daughter seemingly does not love him as much as his other two daughters. He than banishes her and spends his time with his remaining daughters. He soon finds that his daughters words of love were just that - words. His daughter's words are expressed with air, but their actions show everything but love. Lear slowly begins to realize that Cordelia's love was not worth the air her sisters used, but was shown in all her actions, in all her accomplishments. Lear couldn't read his daughter's eyes. He couldn't see into their soul and see what their hearts truly held. A father needs to be aware of his daughter's true self, their human nature, and what they are capable of. In the end, Lear is reunited with Cordelia and he realizes his mistakes surrounding his two eldest daughters.

With both these plays, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, both fathers are unable to understand their daughter's love - to value them as they are. At the end of each play, both fathers' realize what is important and what is not. Shylock and Lear finally realize what they need to have to be happy and what is given to them out of love. In all of his plays, Shakespeare gives a daughter or a son a father, but rarely is a mother in the scene. Through his words, Shakespeare could have told his own dilemmas concerning his own daughters through the lives of Jessica, Cordelia, Juliet or any of his other heroine daughters.

Of the plays that we have read this semester, I find that I am drawn to the play of Hero and how her love is always doubted by her true love. In Much Ado About Nothing, Claudio is in love with Hero and everything is perfect except for his doubts of her love. When Hero is accused of being non-virtuous, her father, Leonato, believes the lies. Leonato only continues where we left off. He loves his daughter but doesn't take kindly to any insult to his name. He reacts instantaneously without hearing the truth. Even though this section is only a small part of the play, my favorite part is the seduction of Beatrice and Benedick even though neither knows they are being seduced. Beatrice and Benedick never met until Benedick arrives with the Prince's entourage and even then Beatrice and Benedick continue a verbal war that has never seen the faces of the players. During all this, Don John (a prince that wants to cause trouble) is making chaos all around and yet everything is still going on as normal. This play is so twisted that it could be seen as a tragedy half way through and yet, at the end, the happily ever after comes out.

My feelings for all of Shakespeare plays are the same - unbelievable. It has to be hard for anyone to pick just one of Shakespeare's plays as their favorite. All his plays can be linked together with one theme or idea and still every one of them has their own unique plot, own unique characters and own unique hidden themes. The one play I will always enjoy reading by William Shakespeare is A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Written by J. Morgan 1999

---

© 2005-2008 J. Morgan