English Literature KS3 / GCSE: Families in Shakespeare

Narrator:
Many of Shakespeare's plays tackle the concept of family and what it means to live within these close and complex groups.

There’s families at war with themselves and others, like in the Tempest, families that unite to do good things and plenty that do dreadful things – like in Macbeth.

Shakespeare shows us what it’s like to be a part of those families, on the receiving end of their actions and what it looks like from the side-lines.

In The Tempest, Shakespeare presents a family torn apart by treachery. Prospero, is cast adrift in a leaky boat with his young daughter, Miranda. Rather nastily, it’s his brother, Antonio who puts them out to sea, assuming they’d die, so he can claim his brother’s title of Duke of Milan.

In fact father and daughter survive and the play centres on how the treachery is uncovered and how Prospero gets to settle his scores with his brother.

By the end he even declares forgiveness.

Prospero:
For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
thy rankest fault, all of them; and require
my dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know,Thou must restore.

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Antonio shows no remorse and remains silent after the speech. Though justice has been done and scores settled, it might not be the end of the game!

Romeo and Juliet is all about young love and warring families.

The Montagues and the Capulets are sworn enemies and in Shakespeare’s time, family allegiance, or kinship, stretched far beyond parents and children. Distant cousins and servants would defend the family name if it was threatened.

When Tybalt – Lady Capulet’s nephew - sees Romeo Montague gatecrashing a Capulet family party he’s furious.

Tybalt:
"Now by the stock and honour of my kinTo strike him dead I hold it not a sin…"

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In Tybalt’s eyes Romeo is showing a gross lack of respect, the family’s honour is at stake and Tybalt has every right to kill him.

But this level of devotion to family has a price. Many characters in the play lose their lives and Romeo and Juliet, two beloved children, commit suicide just to be together. Only then do the families see sense, and the Montague/ Capulet fight is brought to an end.

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In Macbeth, family brings both strength and its own destruction.

Lord and Lady Macbeth are devoted to each other and, unfortunately, to ambition. They plot to kill the King and get the throne, but having got it, realise that without children of their own, they won’t keep it for very long.

So they decide to get ‘rid’ of a potential rival and his family…

Macbeth:
“Seize upon Fife, give to the’ edge of th’ sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; this deed I’ll do before this purpose cool” (IV.i.175).

Narrator:
Blinded by the desire to keep his new family status Macbeth is prepared to slaughter innocent children, in case they one day threaten the crown.

Instead his brutal, blinded fight to keep the throne leads the destruction of himself and his family.

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So - families. With their complex relationships, they’re a hotbed of potential drama and action. Some can be torn apart by treachery, like Prospero in the Tempest, some can face war but learn lessons, as in Romeo and Juliet, while others, like the Macbeths, end in tears and destruction.

Shakespeare, throughout his plays, shows the best families can be and the very worst.