Father-Daughter Relationships in Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Justification for the subjugation of females to males during the sixteenth century came from a variety of sources. Ranging from the view that God gave Adam authority over Eve as penalty for the fall, to a belief in the superiority of a husbands’ physical strength over that of his wife, attempts at rationalization of the restricted freedom of women came from every direction.1 Puritan reformers also believed that Eve was God’s gift, given to Adam ‘to consummate and make up his happinesse.’[1] From this perspective, we can easily make the mental adjustment necessary to embrace the view of women as property that could be ‘given in marriage, taken in battle, exchanged for favours, set as tribute, traded, bought, and sold.’[2] With this viewpoint in mind, it is interesting to move into a consideration of the father-daughter relationships presented in Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice to analyse how this viewpoint limited the freedoms of daughters.
To begin our exploration of father-daughter relationships in the context of patriarchal control, we must first examine how males viewed and represented daughters within the texts. In The Old Arcadia, Pyrocles as Cleophila not only ‘praises’ Philoclea in fragmented body parts (as opposed to a whole person), but also compares these parts to military instruments of war. ‘Her loose hair be the shot, the breasts the pikes be / Scouts each motion is, the hands the horsemen’ and ‘her cannons be her eyes.’[3] Although this comparison situates Philoclea in the degra...
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[10] Oxford English Dictionary Online
[11] Singh, 153.
[12] The Merchant of Venice, III.ii.83-96.
[13] D. Lucking, ‘Standing for Sacrifice: The Casket and Trial Scenes in ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ University of Toronto Quarterly (Spring 1989):355-75, quoted by J.G. Singh, in A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare, ed. Dympna Callaghan (Malden and Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2000), 150.
[14] The Jew of Malta, II.iii.52-3.
[15] II.iii.289.
[16] The Old Arcadia, 101.
[17] The Old Arcadia, 102.
[18] The Old Arcadia, 5.
[19] The Jew of Malta, II.iii.228-232.
[20] The Jew of Malta, II.iii.304-6.
[21] The Merchant of Venice, I.ii.22-5.
[22] II.v.56-7.
[23] The Jew of Malta, III.iii.39-42.
[24] The Jew of Malta, II.iv.1-4.
[25] The Merchant of Venice, III.i.31-33.
[26] The Old Arcadia, 360.
[27] Dusinberre, 124.
What was the predominant image of women and women’s place in medieval society? Actual historical events, such as the scandal and subsequent litigation revolving around Anna Buschler which Steven Ozment detail’s in the Burgermeisters Daughter, suggests something off a compromise between these two literary extremes. It is easy to say that life in the sixteenth century was surely no utopia for women but at least they had some rights.
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For the Greeks, Homer's Odyssey was much more than just an entertaining tale of gods, monsters, and men, it served as cultural paradigm from which every important role and relationship could be defined. This book, much more so than its counter part The Iliad, gives an eclectic view of the Achean's peacetime civilization. Through Odyssey, we gain an understanding of what is proper or improper in relationships between father and son, god and mortal, servant and master, guest and host, and--importantly--man and woman. Women play a vital role in the movement of this narrative. Unlike in The Iliad, where they are chiefly prizes to be won, bereft of identity, the women of Odyssey are unique in their personality, intentions, and relationship towards men. Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each--through her vices or virtues-- helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks.
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Drug courts were first established in Miami in 1989 and have continued to grow today. Over the past twenty-four years, drug courts have provided a treatment-orientated approach to help defendants with drug-related crimes. The constant interaction of the drug court provides the needed structure for participants to maintain their involvement in the program. Understanding the overall goals of the drug court and the outcomes of participants in the drug court program are the key factors in measuring the success of the drug courts.
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Although drug courts are a bit more lenient with substance abusers, it does not mean they get a “free-pass.” Those who are mandated by a drug court official to enroll in a drug free program must comply with the requirements, otherwise they will be facing jail time. According to Siegel (2013), some of the requirements include, but are not limited to: (a) mandatory periodic te...
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