Shakespeare's Daughters

<p> The father-daughter relationship was one that Shakespeare explored again and again. His typical pattern featured a middle-aged or older man usually a widower with an adolescent daughter who had spent most of her life under her father's control protected in his house. The plays usually begin when the daughter is on the verge of womanhood and eager to assert her own identity and make her own decisions especially in matters of the heart even if it means going against her father's wishes.</p><p> This work considers Capulet in <I>Romeo and Juliet</I> as an inept father to Juliet and Prospero in <I>The Tempest</I> as an able mentor to Miranda; Hermia in <I>A Midsummer Night's Dream</I> Jessica in <I>The Merchant of Venice</I> and Desdemona in <I>Othello</I> as daughters who rebel against their fathers; Hero in <I>Much Ado About Nothing</I> Lavinia in <I>Titus Andronicus</I> and Ophelia in <I>Hamlet</I> as daughters who acquiesce; Bianca in <I>The Taming of the Shrew</I> and Goneril and Regan in <I>King Lear</I> as daughters who cunningly play the good girl role; Portia in <I>The Merchant of Venice</I> Viola in <I>Twelfth Night</I> and Rosalind in <I>As You Like It</I> as daughters who act in their fathers' places; and Marina in <I>Pericles</I> Perdita in <I>The Winter's Tale</I> and Cordelia in <I>Lear</I> as daughters who forgive and heal.</p>