A Little More Than Kin

As Shakespeare's masterpieces,the four tragedies carry Shakespeare's realistic imagination of the nuclear family during the Renaissance.The playwright's patriarchal idea and family affections integrate with each other and penetrate through each page.The principles of patriarchy appear to be two folds: male shall dominate female,elder male shall dominate younger.Under the patriarchal system,the patriarch(the father or the husband)becomes the head of the family and his members including his children and wife,are all in the charge of him.As one micro unit constructing the macro society,the nuclear family consists of parents and children.The nuclear family members in Shakespeare's four tragedies,whether princes or princesses,dukes or ministers,kings or queens,all live in a patriarch-centered order.By integrating nuclear family affections with family life and social reality,Shakespeare cunningly shaped many authentic characters and exhibited the complicated affections of family members in the patriarchal system.Besides the introduction and the conclusion part,this thesis consists of three chapters.The introduction part,after a literature review from three perspectives including characterization,political studies and paternal relations,gives definitions to patriarchy,nuclear family and family affections.The term of patriarchy is often mentioned in some Shakespearean studies of family affections.However,studies on the relation between the tragic consequences of Shakespeare's four tragedies and family affections with the theoretical approach of patriarchy are still insufficient.Thus,from the perspective of patriarchy,taking the patriarch as the focal point of the three chapters,this thesis interprets the nuclear family affections in Shakespeare's four tragedies from three dimensions of father-son,father-daughter and husband-wife affections,to explore the relation between the tragic consequences of Shakespeare's four tragedies and familyaffections.Chapter one discusses the achievement of self-recognition by sons.In the patriarchal system,the father becomes the son's life mentor and moral example.Father worship and filial obligation become the son's instincts.But the power competition between them under primogeniture is the only way for the son to attain self-growth.In the four tragedies,on the one hand,Hamlet and Laertes both regard the father as a perfect mode of man and obey his order willingly,to fulfill the son's obligation,Hamlet and Malcolm avenge the father in spite of difficulties.On the other hand,the father owning all the family property is the most powerful.Hamlet longs for power by snatching the father's queen and crown.The property competition among Gloucester and his two sons under primogeniture also reveals the son's psychological yearning for surpassing the father through power competition,so as to achieve self-recognition.Chapter two explores the degradation of paternal authority by daughters.In the patriarchal system,through marriage management in two forms including dowry distribution and love intervention,the father establishes his control on the daughter.But the daughter sometimes shows defiance of fatherhood to pursue her individual will.In the four tragedies,dowry becomes Lear's economic weapon to control the three daughters.Polonius intervenes into Ophelia's love for family interest including family reputation and political ends.Brabantio strongly opposes Desdemona's bold marriage without paternal admission.However,the daughter's sticking to the individual will turns back on her father: Desdemona for personal happiness,Cordelia for the consistency of integrity,Goneril and Regan for the greed of interest,and Ophelia for the relief of her oppressed passion for love.Chapter three analyzes the subversion of masculinity by wives.Under the patriarchal system,the patriarch has double identities: the father and the husband.He has the absolute authority on both his children and wife.The wife's subordination is embodied by the patriarchal social norms of chastity and procreation,but some wives dare to articulate challenging voices against husbands.In the four tragedies,chastity is of significance to the wife.Desdemona loses her love and life because of infidelity.Gertrude is deemed as unfaithful and disloyal because of her remarriage.Procreative ability also embodies a wife's value.Goneril's procreative ability is taken as the vehicleof elevating her status.Lady Macbeth's sterility even becomes the couple's one reason of murdering people out of jealousy and hatred.Nevertheless,some courageous wives challenge their husbands.Lady Macbeth's androgyny is expressed by her determination and power thirst.Goneril treats Albany in a tyrannous way.Emilia discloses Iago's evil plan for the defending of justice.In conclusion,with the leading of the patriarch,the nuclear family members in Shakespeare's four tragedies orderly and cohesively follow the patriarchal rule,which stimulates the realization of family unity and national solidarity.However,Renaissance is a transitional age from the medieval age to the early modern age.During this time,the individual value hailed by humanism awakens in people's minds,but the family's collectivity advocated by patriarchy in medieval age still exists.The awaking of individuality enables people to tear off the tag of family identity,so as to find the redefinition of self-identity instead of being mechanically labeled as a family member.The irreconcilable contradiction between individual identity orientation and family collectivity brews the breaking down of family affections,and lays a tragic tone for the four tragedies.Resorts to the nuclear family affections in the patriarchal system,Shakespeare appeals for individuals' meditations on the essence of an ideal family with the eyes-striking and tears-trickling disintegration of family affections in the four tragedies.