Father-daughter relationships in Shakespeare's plays Cymbeline, Hamlet, King Lear and Othello (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Basel (Englisches Seminar), course: Shakespeare's Roman Plays, language: English, abstract: The relationship between fathers and daughters is a powerful source of Shakespeare's plays, which he chose to explore in great depth. By focussing on Shakespeare's dramas "Cymbeline", "Hamlet", "King Lear" and "Othello", I will try to examine the complex and provocative relationship between fathers and daughters.

These literary works provide four different father-daughter relationships between Cymbeline and Innogen, Polonius and Ophelia, King Lear and Cordelia and Brabantio and Desdemona. The plays have in common that they take up the stories at the point at which the daughter is moving out of the sphere of her father's control and starts to become independent.

The topic will be introduced by considering the historical background, which will help understand the situation of women at Shakespeare's times and the cultural dimension of the relationship a woman had to her father. Following this, on the basis of Shakespeare's dramas I will explore the challenges that daughters had to face by considering the fathers' responses to transitions in her life like marriage. How do daughters handle the situation of leaving their fathers for the commitment of marriage and filial obedience? Are the fathers ready to release their daughters into adulthood?