Wayward Sons and Daughters: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry IV, Part 1

Abstract

In his contribution to a collection of new psychoanalytic essays on Shakespeare, C. L. Barber argues that ‘Shakespeare’s art is distinguished by the intensity of its investment in the human family, and especially in the continuity of the family across generations.’1 He traces a difference in focus through Shakespeare’s opus, suggesting that the earlier plays are characterised by ‘a very strong identification of the cherishing role of the parents in early infancy’.2 Certainly the role of the family and in particular the question of the relationship between children and parents in adolescence is strikingly present in a large number of Shakespeare’s plays, particularly those that date from the mid-1590s. This interest cuts across other categories, and in this chapter we shall be looking at a tragedy (Romeo and Juliet), a comedy (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and a history (Henry IV Part 1) all of which share certain common thematic lines relating to parents and children.