SPECIALIZAREA STUDII ANGLO -AMERICANE FORMA DE ÎNVĂȚĂMÂNT: IF LUCRARE DE DISERTAȚIE COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC Prof. univ. dr. Monica Chesnoiu -Matei… [605537]

UNIVERSITATEA „OVIDIUS” DIN CONSTANȚA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
SPECIALIZAREA STUDII ANGLO -AMERICANE
FORMA DE ÎNVĂȚĂMÂNT: IF

LUCRARE DE DISERTAȚIE

COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC
Prof. univ. dr. Monica Chesnoiu -Matei

ABSOLVENT: [anonimizat]2020 )

UNIVERSITATEA „OVIDIUS” DIN CONSTANȚA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
Avizat Data
Semnătura coordonator științific

Trails of Cultural Memory:
Shakespearean Adaptations in Contemporary Fiction

COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFI C
Prof. univ. dr. Monica Chesnoiu -Matei

ABSOLVENT: [anonimizat]2020 )

Contents

Introduction: Aim and Method………………………………………………………… …………………………. .4
1. Working with Shakespeare: Adaptation and Cultural Memory ………… ………………………….. 6
1.1. The Cult of Shakespeare …………………………………………………………………………….. 6
1.2. Preserving Cultural Memory ……………. ……………………………. ………………………….. 9
1.3. Transmigration from Drama to Fiction ……………………………. ………………………….13
1.4. Conclusion ……………………………………………………… ………………………………………17
2. Father and Daughter: Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson ……………………………….. .19
2.1. Parents and Children in The Merchant of Venice ………………………………………….20
2.2. Shylock versus Shylock ………………………………………………………………………….. …25
2.3. Father and Daughter in Shylock Is My Name ………………………………………….. ……31
2.4. Conclusion ………………. ………………………………………………………………………. …….35
3. Father and Children: Hag -Seed by Margaret Atwood …………………………………………………37
3.1. The Father Prospero in The Tempest ………….. ………………………………………………38
3.2. Prospero versus Prospero ………………………….. ……………………………………………..43
3.3. Father and Children in Hag-Seed ………………………………………. ………………………47
3.4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………52
4. Filling the Parental Gap: The Gap of Time by Janette Winterson …………………………….. ….55
4.1. Parents and Children in The Winter’s Tale …………………………………………………..57
4.2. Parents and Children in The Gap of Time …………………………………………………….63
4.3. Filling the Parental Gap …………………………………………………………………………….67
4.4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………70
Final Remarks ………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………..72
Works Cited …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 76

4 Introduction: Aim and Method

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the social implications of Shakespearean
adaptations in contemporary fiction, by looking at the way the relationship between parents
and children is portrayed in both the late sixteenth up to the early seventieth century and the
twenty -first century. Novels have become the most consumed forms of literature nowadays,
especially the ones which grasp common, but real issues, because they can fit a broad array of
symbols and meanings, which can be understoo d by numerous readers. Even more so,
adaptations have become a topic of interest in the last decades, since they provide different
perspectives to texts that were taken for granted or lost in the plentiful mass of literature pieces.
The first chapter will provide the theoretical framework of my thesis, by way of
discussing the importance and relevance of William Shakespeare in the twe nty-first century.
Harold Bloom and Stephen Greenblatt offer extensive descriptions of the reasoning behind
choosing the Bar d as po int of interest for a rewriting project. In the context of the transition
from drama to novel as explored by the literary p roject Hogarth Shakespeare, this section
attempts to describe and clarify the historical context behind the transition from th e
Shakespearean plays, performed four centuries earlier, to the present -day interpretations given
by acclaimed contemporary novelists . The novelists that I am going to refer to are Howard
Jacobson, Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterson. In their rewriting s of Shakespeare , they
preserved the core precepts of the plays, such as the characters, the flow of events, or a number
of themes and motifs, whi le shifting the action in today’ s society , which is more perceptible to
the actual readers . The Hogarth Shakes peare project, thus, not onl y recreates some of
Shakespeare’ s most beloved works, but also reinforces the authenticity and si gnificance of the
Bard to today’ s contex t, even after so many centuries. In addition, the conceptual context s that
are used within such a literary venture —and which are to be explored in the first chapter —
include the literary theory of new historicism, the significance of cultural memory in the
restoration of canonical texts and adaptation, as the postmodern literary tool that sets th e entire
reinterpreting process into action.
The second chapter will argue how the father -daughter relationship in The Merchant of
Venice by William Shakespeare has undergone revision and has been portrayed through
contemporary societal lenses in the nove l Shylock Is My Name by Howard Jacobson. Thus , the
focus will be set on the adapted novel’s display of sociological symbolism and the manner in
which the father –daughter relationship is translated in present -day terms. Furthermore, I will

5 argue that the rigid father figure in the novel is a disproportionate rewriting of the Shylock
character , all the while setting the premises for voicing his otherness present with in the play .
The novel adds to the meaning of the play, by means of redeveloping certain subpl ots of the
protagonists in The Merchant of Venice. The play essentially renders perceptions of Shylock
from each character’s point of view , while in the novel the authoritarian figure represented by
Shylock achieve centrality in the portrayal of the father –daughter relationship. To this extent,
the one who reimagines the work is in actuality the character.
In the third chapter , the focus will fall on discussing the patriarchal nature of Prospero,
as it is represented in The Tempest and its novel adaptation by Jeanette Winterson, Hag-Seed .
Through its title, the novel reinforces the postcolonial interpretations of the novel conveyed
throughout the twentieth century, because of the Caliban character, who is the personification
of the hag -seed in the play. Howe ver, the novel provides further explanations regarding the
potentiality of Prospero having two other sons in the embodiments of Ariel and Caliban, beside
Miranda, his daughter. Consequently, I will further argue that the postcolonial interpretati on of
the play is dismantled —or at least put to question —by the sociological analysis of the parent –
child relationship, to the extent of perceiving The Tempest , a seventeenth century play, as an
actual lesson for present -day families.
The fourth chapter will approac h the children –parent s relationship through a different
perspective, as it is presented in the play The Winter’s Tale and its fiction al rewriting, The Gap
of Time by Jeanette Winterson. I thus argue that children can be the safe -keepers of their own
parent s, when the former are symbolic for changes and the hope for a better future, while the
latter stand for decay and the ugliness of the passing of time. Thus, it will be proved how both
the play and the novel are appropriate for the theme of the passing of time, in direct
correspondence to familial bonds and the dynamics of power struggles in what concerns the
interrelations between parents and children in both the seventeenth and the twenty -first century.
Furthermore, although innocence plays an important p art in the children’s redemption for their
parent’s mental well -being, they are still homogenous to their forerunners, mirroring them,
although the offspring might not follow the same patterns of behavior from the very beginning
of their existence.

6 1. Working with Shakespeare: Adaptation and Cultural Memory

In the light of the transmigration from drama to novel as covered by the Hogarth
Shakespeare literary project, the present chapter aims to present and explain the theoretical
framework behind the jo urney from the Shakespearean plays, staged four centuries ago, to the
present -day fictional adaptations . The renowned novelists that partook in this project
maintained the fundamental parts of William Shakespeare’s plays, such as the characters, the
action or flow of the events , or a number of themes and motifs, while moving the action in
contemporaneous settings, which are more palpable to the actual consumers of literature.
To this extent, regarding the way people apprehend literature nowadays, it is saf e to say
that novels are much more popular and more generally employed than dramatic pieces.
Therefore, the Hogarth Shakespeare project not only revive s some of the most appreciated
plays by Shakespeare, but it also confirms the Bard’s authenticity and rel evance to present -day
times, even after so many centuries from their first staging. Furthermore, the theoretical
framework which employs such a literary project and which is going to be discussed in this
chapter concerns the li terary theory of new historic ism, the implications of cultural memory in
preserving canonical texts and adaptation, as the literary device which puts in motion the whole
of the rewriting project.

1.1. The Cult of Shakespeare
William Shakespeare can still be deemed as outstanding, when it comes to the way he
depicts significant traits of history and his present social context , turning them to new
dimension s, while educating and entertaining his audience s as well within all his plays . His
texts are standing proofs of his broad understan ding of the societal endeavor which surrounded
him and the human psyche that he so elaborately portrays. Not only did Shakespeare succeed
in communicating indirectly, through his plays, with the audiences of his time, but he also still
influences people of all times and cultures. It may be affirmed with confidence that William
Shakespeare is the best-known writer , at least in the English -speaking communities Moreover,
Harold Blooms militates upon the Bard’s importance for the world canon:

Real multicultura lists, all over the globe, accept Shakespeare as the one indispensable
author, different from all others in degree, and by so much that he becomes different in

7 kind. Shakespeare, as I have argued at length elsewhere, quite simply not only is the
Western ca non; he is also the world canon. (Bloom , The Western Canon xv)

Bloom’s argument makes sense also in connection to Peter Eri ckson’s argument ; in his book
Citing Shakespeare , he claims that Shakespeare is maybe the most cited writer in history:
“Shakespeare is our most quotable author, and everyone knows how to dredge up at least some
bits of Shakespeare, whether with pride, jocularity, or nervous apology ” (Erickson vii) . In truth,
Shakespeare’s texts have been recited and referenced throughout centuries by p eople, who do
not even realize that they are in actuality quoting Shakespeare; from such lines as “To be or
not to be” from Hamlet to “All’s well that ends well,” which is the actual title of one play,
Shakespeare has been intertextualized or used as prove rbial example in many instances, such
as reinterpretations of texts, songs or psychoanalytical studies and his characters have become
archetypal, immediately recognizable . In The Western Canon , Harol d Bloom goes further into
describing Shakespeare as “ the Canon. He sets the standa rd and the limits of literature ” (Bloom
50). Indeed, Bloom’s affirmation is appropriate, especially when taking into consideration the
numerous artists who used Shakespeare as their inspiration for their own arti stic purposes.
Moreover , Allen Carey -Webb argues , in his article “Shakespeare for the 1990s: A Multicultural
Tempest ,” that Shakespeare’s relevance stands the test of time, through his writings being
applicable to certain contexts: “Rather than bearing ete rnal truths about a supposedly
“universal” human nature, Shakespeare’s art should be located within a particular culture,
history, and politics ” (Carey -Webb 34) . In other words, Shakespeare’s relevance is drawn by
his capacity of having been expressed mean ings that are persistent with any age, social context
or historical period.
Furthermore, the way in which people use the same contextualized examples, although
social contexts are changeable , is interesting to note . Jean E. Howard argues in her essay “New
Historicism in New Renaissance Studies” that “in both England and America, the plays of
Shakespeare have often been treated not as products of a particular moment but as works for
and of all times: universal masterpieces ” (Howard 14), while Stephen Greenblatt describes
Shakespeare as the “greatest playwright not o f his age alone but of all time ” (Greenblatt , Will
in The World 1). Thus , Shakespeare’s importance is given by his masterly talent of creating
individuals with real human traits that often exemplifies patterns of behavior found with any
century , from the moment o f the plays’ creation to the present time.
Regarding criticism of Shakespeare in the twentieth and twenty -first centuries, there
has been a transition from the formalists, who were interested i n confining the texts of William

8 Shakespeare to ahistorical evaluations, to the interpreters of new historicism, who were bound
to understand the text and attribute them a conceptualized analysis. On the same line as new
historicism, feminism and gender st udies are other two lenses through which Shakespeare’s
work has been examined in the past decades. Furthermore, these current approaches address
the issues portrayed by the texts from psychological and psychoanalytical points of view , while
discussing characters in terms of different complexities , egotism or, more broadly,
contradictory emotions . In this sense, Stephen Greenblatt’s study, Renaissance Self -Fashioning
accommodates a standard for the ways in which literary criticism could examine old texts as
new, to the extent of creating contemporary reinterpretations.
In regard to feminist approaches, among the many names that have discussed
Shakespeare from this perspective , there is Je an E. Howard, who developed her theories in the
late twentieth century and early twenty -first century. She highlighted the degree of Shakespeare
living in a patriarchal world, dominated by men and fathers, in which women were generally
the means of exchanging power dynamics amongst t he “male -dominated social order ”
(Howard, The Stage and Social Struggle 69). Feminist criticism has a strong interest in family
dynamics and structures, the relationship between parents and children, as well as gender
relations or the customs of marriage and courtship. For instance, when analyzing The Tempest ,
feminism’s attention appears to concentrate on Prospero’s powerful position as a parent and on
how Ferdinand and Miranda get engaged as they vow their affection to each other in the
presence of an only witness, who is Miranda’s father.
To such an extent , it is pivot al to discuss the way s in which William Shakespeare has
been illustrating families in his plays, since he seems to have been drawn to this aspect in the
Elizabethan and Ja cobean periods in which he wrote , although it appears that he only focused
on the neg ative aspects that family life rendered back then . In this sense, examples are
numerous —starting from the patriarchal figure of Shylock, unable to express his real feelings
towards his daughter and ends up losing her to the people who m he despised the most , to
Leontes, the cruel king who abandons his own daughter because of unresolved e motions of
jealousy , and then ending with Prospero, the father whose daughter befit his revenge plan and
who is sadly accepting her marring a prince.
There is not much infor mation about William Shakespeare himself and his inner
familial relationships or about his role as a father for his own children; however, studies about
the social context of the late sixteenth and early seventieth centuries broadly portray the familial
circumstances of that period, and it can be presupposed that Shakespeare actually dr ew
inspiration from his own surroundings for the familial aspects of his plays. Furthermore,

9 because of his “ cognitive acuity, linguistic energy, and power of invention ” (Bloom, The
Western Canon 46), Shakespeare wrote timeless pieces, which got to be adapted time and time
again, in each historical period. Furthermore, sociological readings of the plays, as part of new
criticism, and the rewritings of Shakespeare’s plays, are part of the twentieth -century
interpretations of Shakespeare. Thus , the relevance of Shakespeare is proved through new
historicism, new criticism and the rewriting project employed by the Hogarth Publishing
House.
Nevertheless, when discussing Shakespearea n plays, one should also take into
consideration the ars poetica found within each text, as James Calderwood argues:
“Shakespeare’s plays are not only about the various moral, social, political, and other thematic
issues with which critics have so long and quite properly been busy, but also about
Shakespeare’s plays ” (Calderwood 5 ). Thus, although criticism of the works are pivotal in
better understanding the implications that led to the Bard writing about certain societal issues,
the appreciation in regard to the value and weigh t of William Shakespeare’s work should be
taken into consideration as such.

1.2. Preserving the Cultural Memory
Cultural Memory is a concept introduced by the German Egyptologist Jan Assmann to
analyze “the textuality of the past” ( memory, historical consciousness, identity, and culture),
which can further be characterized as “the individual storage of texts, images and rites that are
meant for reuse related t o various societies and epochs” (Ißer 808) . Cultural Memory, through
mainta ining this collection, preserves cultural heritage and “stabilizes its self -image and
conveys a collectively shared knowledge ” (Ißer 808 ). It is oftentimes described as the
connection betw een past, present and future; a connection which can further be assi milated to
new historicism, another important theory for the study of literary texts in relation to social
contexts of the past that influence the present state of affairs.
Stephen Greenblatt , as already mentioned, is among the critics who has studied the
social endeavors of the sixteenth and seventieth centuries, by means of analysis of the plays
written in this inte rval. He employs new h istoricism in describing the extent to which the past
is relevant in present societal conditions. New h istoricism implie s a theoretical attitude to
writing, which has been applied in Renaissance studies in particular. He argues further that t he
personality is formed through collective structures , according to new historicism , and thus
literature is another type of social cr eation that the community creates . In exchange, literature
is involved in restructuring the community ’s cultural identity , which completes the circle of

10 self-creation . In connection to Greenblatt’s theories, Jean E. Howard also describes the concept
of new historicism as being , in truth , a response against formalism:

A new kind of activity is gaining prominence in Renaissance studies: a sustained
attempt to read literary texts of the English Renaissance in relationship to other aspects
of the social forma tion in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. (Howard , “The
New Hist oricism in Renaissance Studie s” 13)

Furthermore, Howard underlines this phenomenon in the theoretical literary sphere as having
two reasons for development: “This is partly due to the importance of the lyric and part ly due
to the importance of Shakes peare in the English curriculum ” (Howard , “The New Hist oricism
in Renaissance Studies ” 14). Therefore, she analy zes the extents to which Greenblatt’s studies
make sense in explaining the correspondence between Shakespearean texts and more modern
circumstances t hat can also be translated into contemporary meanings. She discusses further
the impo rtance of discussing old texts in order to convey understandings of actual issues, be
they of societal or literary nature. Of course, Howard assumes the study of new histo ricism in
connection to late twentieth -century texts and culture, but the same ideas are easily applicable
to contemporary issues and even contemporary rewritings of the analyzed texts:

[…] at this historical moment, an analysis of Renaissance culture can be made to speak
to the concerns of late twentieth -century culture. For a long time the Renaissance as
cultural epoch was constructed in the terms set forth by Jacob Burckhardt1; it was the
age of the discovery of man the individual, the age of the rev ival of classical culture,
the age of the secularization of life. (Howard , “The New Hist oricism in Renaissance
Studies ” 15)

Thus, new historicism takes into account the Renaissance for its glory in the fields of art and
culture, which mostly engaged the importance of the individual. Although S hakespeare wrote
long after the Renaissance developed throughout Europe, it seems that he was influenced by
this period and made use of it through focusing on creating protagonists with deep
psychological traits and complex inner lives. The disruption in s ocial structure enabled

1 Swiss historian of art and culture . Important figure in the study of the historiography of art and culture , who
stabilized an essentialist view of Renaissance culture in his book, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy .

11 Shakespeare to examine the complexities and morality of each protagonist, irrespective of their
position in society, as among common people, members of royalty were also depicted as
possessing natural desires or committing irreparab le errors.
Howard also discusses the burden of trying to appropriate the past to the present, in
using the former as an example for the latter. She invokes the historian Dominick LaCapra in
discussing the issues which a re prompted by new historicism. He argues that there should be
an understanding of the separation between past and present that still exists, although they
might be assimilated one with the other with the purpose of creating something new through
the “quest for liberation from the ‘burden’ o f history through unrestrained f ictionalizing and
mythologizing ” (LaCapra 63). Thus, when speaking about Shakespeare’s work, it is essential
to keep in mind the fact that while his works are patterns of examples throughout histories, the
rewritings of his plays might lose some of its nuances, while adding new meanings, according
to the social context in which the rewriting takes place. Moreover, Howard argues on the
importance of differentiati ng fiction from reality, in using literature as example , and she
actually takes into account the way in which familial emotions were portrayed, since this is
something quite common in Shakespearean plays:

A culture’s discourse about love and the family need not, and probably seldom does,
corresp ond exactly to how peopl e live. One could say the same about politics,
economics, or personal identity. (Howard , “The New Hist oricism in Renaissance
Studies ” 26)

For this reason, Shakespeare’s works migh t represent a challenge, since his universality in
portraying human endeavo rs through using common people and the c omplexities of the
situations and the expressed inner lives are convoluting the rew riting, even when having as aid
such devices as new historicism theory. Family and love, as Howard exemplified, are common
subject s, but one should not overlook the fact tha t there is a disparity of four centuries between
the Shakespearean text and the rewritings discussed in the following chapters.
Greenblatt’s primary concern was the creation of personality , in the study Renaissance
Self-Fashioning . In the book, he shows t he sixteenth century as a pivotal moment in England’s
history and described the requirements for the potential of self -designation. In a sequence of
meticulous analy ses he explored how , in the sixteenth century , the self or individual attained
form , in com parison to particular authority and their historically oriented opposites or
supernatural entities. Of all the many influencing factors on the book , as presented by

12 Greenblatt, is the Neo -Freudian psychology of Lacan , with its presumption that the result o f
the dialogue is not a cohesive and fully independent self, but a temporary and conflicting one.
Accordingly, in Greenblatt’s research , the human being is portrayed as the result of impersonal
historical powers fundamentally antithetical to individualism, while disregarding the humanist
premise that man, the protean agent, governs the creation of his own identity .
Greenblatt’ s critique relies mainly on the early modern period’s drama. He attempts to
identify the link between culture and theatre in his eva luations. Clifford Geertz, a forerunner
to New Historicism, considers society not as “complexes of concr ete behavior patterns —
custom s, usa ges, traditions, habit clusters ” (Geertz 44) , but as “ a set of control mechanisms —
plans, recipes, rules, instructions […] for the governing of behavior” (Geertz 44 ). Geertz claims
that “there is no such thing as a human nature independent of culture” (Geertz 49 ). In this sense
Greenblatt further argues that “self-fashioning is in effect the Renaissance version of these
control mechanisms, the cultural system of meaning that creates specific individuals by
governing the passage from abstract potential to concrete historical embo diment” (Greenblatt,
Renaissance Self-Fashioning 3-4). Furthermore, according to Greenblatt , “literature functions
within this system in three interlocking ways: as a manifestation of these concrete behaviors of
its particular author, as itself the expression of the codes by which behavior is shaped, and as a
reflection upon those codes” (Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning 4). Therefore, the
writer, the social influ ences or context and the text allow for a better understand ing of the
bigger picture. New historicism is dealing with all these implications , as they must be
associated with literary criticism, because, if analysis becomes limi ted to the actions of the
artist, then this becomes literary biography —in either a traditional his torical or psychoanalytic
style—and it might jeopardize the grasp of the broader networks of aspect s that both the autho r
and his writings are involved into.
Furthermore, proving the realness with which Shakespeare would portray his
characters, Greenblatt would seem reluctant to carry the two spheres —the real and the fictional
one in regard to analyzing individuals —for an antithetical partnership or in thinking of one as
the foundation for another. Thus, he argues that “our interpretive task must be to grasp more
sensitively t he consequences of this fact by investigating both the social presenc e to the world
of the literary text and the social presence of the wo rld in the literary text ” (Greenblatt,
Renaissance Self-Fashioning 5). By interconnecting the external social factors and the internal
fictional components in an integrative correspondence, there is a better chance of understanding
an individual or a certain context. Furthermor e, Greenblatt believe s that the self -discourse has
no particular source of reference, but develops continuously in reaction to multiple sources of

13 cultural influence, both in literary paradigms and in the creation of real lives on paper . The
critic also ex amines the interpretative modes of literary texts, embedded in the social context
of a certain period of time:

Social actions are themselves always embedded i n systems of public signification,
always grasped , even by their -makers, in acts of interpre tation, while the wor ds that
constitute the works of literature that we discuss here are by their very nature the
manifest assurance of a similar embeddedness. (Greenblatt, Renaissance Self –
Fashioning 5)

Thus, l iterature becomes a creation of culture, built on more than one conscio usness. Therefore,
the meanings it genera tes are determined by the social, political , religious, and economic
conditions of a particular society. Such factors propagate throughout communities and
transgresses their authorship and their point of origin, bec oming the media through which
suggestive texts reflect the philosophy of a certain period’s community .

1.3. Trans migration from Drama to Fiction
One of the grandest areas of expertise of Shakespeare was to arouse the essence of his
plays by retrieving cr ucial components from the actual life and putting them inside his own
work, providing a perfect mixture of the aesthetic and the authentic. His living, surrounding
environment, and real understanding seem to be all the foundation for the creativity of his
writings. Shakespeare reconstructs actual characters from memory in many of his works,
equating them to match the concepts i n his multiple plays. His story’ s protagonists, whether
actual personalities or not, are founded on aspects of the Elizabethan and J acobean culture and
society, giving them life and relevance throughout history, while aestheticizing and
memorializing them as well. The adaptations gather and posit the basic story of the
Shakespearean plays in the present day, adding them a new spin, ren dering them more relevant
to real -life people and contemporary societies.
Part of the new historicism approach are all the various adaptations of Shakespeare’s
texts, especially of the plays, through which the success of the Bard and his works find their
way further into contemporary day. Thus, it is also important to discuss the differences between
the diverse ways through which a story can be rendered. To this extent, the media through
which a play’s plot is portrayed has an impo rtant role in understandin g it; while a theatrical
piece has to respect certain rules regarding the length and it also has to contain certain comical

14 elements, in order to ease and appease the audience who expect s to see a comedy, a novel can
accommodate a longer story, with numero us meanings and an even more numerous group of
characters. A novel can solicit the reader’s imagination forth, while the play, as a visual
medium, can provide props and add to the spectators’ imagining the story. Linda Hutcheon
observes the advantages of t he novel plots as compared to dramatic ones, in her discussion
abou t adaptation from drama to novel, as she argues that “a shown dramatization cannot
approximate the complicated verbal play of told poetry or the interlinking of description,
narration, and explanation that is so easy fo r prose narrative to accomplish ” (Hutcheon 23) .
Thus, as Linda Hutcheon argues in A Theory of Adaptation , while the novel’s interpretation
can be different for each and every reader, the play’s way of delivery, through acting, leads to
the audience having similar —or even the same —understanding of the same story. With this,
the novel and its literary stance, as a new medium of portraying stories, are “not a relief from
disbelief […], but rather a particular way of enjoying it ” (Gallagher and Greenblatt 169) , as
Catherine Gallagher and Stephen Greenblatt describe in their study Practicing New
Historicism .
Furthermore, in the twentieth century , the novel has been a more intuitive and
consumed product of literature, with all the emergence of new technologies , such as
audiobooks, which also have a dialogic sense to them, but not a performative or visual one , as
it is the case within the spectatorship of a play. In regard to the way the consumer perceive s
the novel in comparison to a stage performance, Gallagher and G reenblatt also argue that:

We respond to the implicit promise of the figure’s alluring fictionality, which
stimulated our desire to witness palpable human fabrications that appear as independent
beings endowed with life . […] Novels may therefore be said to activate a fundamental
practice of modern ideology —acquiescence without belief, crediting without
credulousness —while significantly altering its disposition, transforming the usually
guarded wariness into plea surable expectations. (Gallagher and Greenblatt 169 )

In short, a play and a novel will port ray certain elements differently; by excellence , a play has
a dialogic side, whereas a novel, being textual, will present different meani ngs and sides of the
same story. S hakespeare, indeed, allowed for his audiences to fill in certain gaps with self –
interpretations, but a play still does not allow for further dwelling upon certain matters; whereas
a novel, through lengthier narratives, can accommodate additional discussion s and
interpretations from the reader’s part. Moreover, the reactions to a play and a novel are

15 differentiated by the amount of time spent upon pondering. Thus, while a novel is usually read
in one’s own silence and permits the critical analysis of a text to be considered upon, a play
through its performativity , only allows for short reactions, sometimes left unexplained and
which are usually caused by certain dynamic scenes. However, S onya Freeman Loftis argues
in her book , Shakespeare’s S urrogates , that “ literary adaptation is a way of quickening the
dead. On stage, dramatic performance does much the same, as an absent figure can be made
present in the body of the living actor ” (Loftis xi) . In other words, staging a play or rewriting
it through a different medium are not too disparate processes.
Consequently, t he audience plays an important role in such instances, since readers are
most often than not invited to share their own presumptions and opinions, whereas with a play
such demands are only present wh en the playwright breaks the barrier between actor –audience .
In this sense, in his book, A World of Others’ Words : Cross -Cultural Perspectives on
Intertextuality , Richard Bauman argues that “t he collaborative participation of an audience, it
is important t o emphasize, is an integral component of performance as an interactional
accomplishment ” (Bauman 9) . Thus, although the audience might have short and fast reactions,
they are important in delivering the performance on stage. Furthermore, transmigration fro m
drama to novel and restaging a dramatic piece are once again not that different, as they are
interpreted and developed as part of an extensive sequence of intertextually connected repeated
contextua lizations in certain periods of time and communities. Ev ery time a play is staged, not
only the audience might be different from one period to another, but also the director and actors
are changed as well; thus, certain symbols might be also rendered and understood different ly.
In the case of the novel , the rea ders and the interpretations also change.
However, in the case of novel adaptation s, chances are that only the frame of the story
might remain the same as the original, while the setting, characters and certain symbols might
be completely altered as to fi t the actual society and the present groups of readers. Loftis affirms
in this regard that “w hile the Elizabethans valued imitation […] postmodern audie nces are
accustomed to pastiche ” (Loftis xv) . Thus, postmodern literary devices call for alterations t hat
fit the expectations of the contemporary readers. In conjunction with this affirmation , two
important factors link the rewritings of the Shakespearean plays that I am going to discuss
further . First, all of these plays use the individual as a canonical icon and the novelists will
follow the pattern as such, with instances of transposing characters from the seventeenth to the
twenty -first century. Second, each writer portrays the process of restructuring the Renaissance
by depictions of physical violence in a more dynamic contemporary way, with instances of
following the example of action movies .

16 Additionally, the twenty -first-century adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays call for
rewritings under sociological lenses, just as mentioned previously in regard t o the readings of
the plays. Before discussing further the sociological implications of familial relations in
connection to the Shakespearean rewritings, it is essential to understand the way a family would
live in the Elizabethan period and how a family’s member would interrelate one with the other.
In this sense, in his book study , Life in Shakespeare’s England , John Dover Wilson present s a
document written by Francis Bacon, who depicts the relationship between parents and children:

The difference in af fection of parents towards their several children is many times
unequal, and sometimes unworthy, especially in the mother […] And therefore the proof
is best, where men keep their authority towards their children, but not their purse. […]
Let parents c hoose betimes the vocations and courses they mean their children should
take; for then they are most flexible. And let them not too much apply themselves to
the disposition of their children, as thinking they will take best to that, which they have
most mi nd to. (Francis Bacon qtd. in Wilson 50 -51)

With this, there is a clear understanding of how power relations would work out between
parents and their offspring during Shakespearean times. Parents were encouraged to decide
their children’s future and it can only be assumed that , in actual fact , the father had the last
decisive word, as a similar tendency can also be seen with Shakespeare as well. In the following
chapters I will discuss how, for instance, Shylock acts as an emotionless patriarchal figure in
his relationship with his daughter, Jessica; how Prospero, in order to take his revenge plan to
an end, decides upon his daughter’ s engagement and implicitly upon her future ; and how
Leontes, in a fit of anger, disregard s his own daughter. Furthermore, by comparison, there are
slight changes in the portrayal of the relationship between fathers and daughters with the novel
adaptations of these character’s respective plays, as in the twenty -first century, children are
actually the ones encouraged to take the ir own decisions or they even make certain mistakes,
which would dictate the developments in the familial dynamics, among other symbolical
alterations in this respect.
All in all, with Shakespeare there is always a duplicitous role which he conveys through
his plays, as Lachlan Mackinnon argues in his book, Shakespeare the Aesthete , that there are
always going to be characters that one might despise, but stand in solidarity with, admire but
dislike, fear but care about, all at the same time :

17 Shakespeare c learly sets out to complicate and divide our responses, and his work is
unusually hospitable to interpretation. This is related to the world in which he worked.
Shakespeare’ s audiences are able to res pond to their utmost capacity. (Mackinnon 157)

This st atement highlight s once again the implications of the audience in giving new meanings
to the play and the relevance of Shakespeare even after more than four hundred years from the
last written play. He created complex characters, which can be understood di fferently, in
accordance with the changes in society. Thus, through the transmigration from drama to fiction,
the novelists only accentuated newly and undiscovered facet s of the convoluted Shakespearean
characters. Furthermore, they proved that “g reat work s of art have an autonomous existence,
independent of the intention and personality of their creators and independent also of the
circumstances of the time of their creation, that is the mark of their greatness ” (Kott 7) , as Jan
Kott claims in his work Shakespeare, Our Contemporary . Consequently, Shakespeare’s
characters become timeless examples of patterns of behavior, found even today . One can find
illustrations of behaviorism that have been first put on stage by the Bard himself, but have
become classic, insomuch that there is no need for knowing the source, as the creation becomes
independent and its relevance only increases Shakespeare’s timelessness in the collective or
cultural memory.

Conclusion
All in all , William Shakespeare’s value is upheld by his permanence in terms of creative
methods of employing events, characters and symbols, which proves to be relevant even four
centuries later from their first staging. With this, the Hogarth Shakespeare project of adapting
old texts through new societal l enses and slight changes in terms of characters only reinforce
the Bard’s timelessness and importance , not only in the western c anon, but in the world
literature as well.
New historicism, as expressed by Stephen Greenblatt, represents the stepping stone i n
understanding the implications of contemporary criticism in the twentieth and twenty -first
centuries, as this theory can also be connected to the Shakespearean plays adapted in novel
formats . Furthermore, sociologically speaking, the differences between familial relationship s
nowadays , in contrast to four centuries ago , is a purposeful aspect to analyze, since Shakespeare
seems to have employed this subject in a considerable number of his plays, although he
portrayed it through a rather negative and contr astive lens. Family life is in itself a never -ending
subject, relevant for each and every period of time and having distinct areas of interpretation,

18 according to each social context. Thus, the media through which each story is conveyed and
the literary ge nre have an important role as well, with the play leaving less space for
interpretation, while the novel, because of its length, can accommodate a wider array of
expertise from the reader’s part. Moreover, dramatic exchange shows a variety of alternative
voices in interaction, and in this way , drama achieves authorial objectivity . Alternatively, the
novel form enables the author to achieve psychological insight into the characters’ selfhood,
thus revealing a more influential authorial voice, while insist ing on minute details of setting
involved in the development of character.

19 2. Father and Daughter: Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson

Given that in the last few decades theories of adaptation have advanced enormously,
with such names as Linda Hutcheon setting the theoretical premise of these ideas, it is essential
to see how certain as pects present in canonical text s, have been translated into present -day
literature. In this manner, in this chapter it will be discussed how the father -daughter
relationship in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, has been (re)interpreted
through the carrying of simila r characters and situations in the novel, Shylock Is My Name by
Howard Jacobson . The novel does not only serve as a mea ns of projecting old ideas as new,
but it also provide the stage of resolution , for such prominent characters as Shylock. In order
to have a broader understand ing of the (re)interpreted father -daughter relationship , this chapter
will take into account the sociological symbolism of the contemporary text, with Erik Erikson’s
descriptions of adolescence in the foreground.
“Shakespeare largely invented us” argues Harold Bloom in his work Anxiety of
Influence , “[he] will not allow you to bury him, or escape him , or replace him” (Bloom xiii-
xviii) and so does happen with some of the characters Shakespeare brought up on paper and on
stage; he gave people something to remember, to reference, to intertextualize. His characters
became examples of behavioral patterns or proverbial illustrations. Such a persisting figure is
Shylock, the Jew Merchant in The Merchant of Venice ; a figure, who because of his multi –
faceted nature, remains on the back of audiences’ minds long after the play is over.
Shakespeare’s The Merchan t of Venice has been adapted into a novel by Howard
Jacobson, published in 2016 under the title Shylock is My Name and it only makes sense that
he wrote this novel as a post -modern rewriting of Shakespeare’s comedy . Jacobson is a Jewish
writer and universi ty professor, winner of the Man Booker Prize. However, the form is not the
only thing adapted as to fit our contemporary culture and likings, but the meanings of the play
have also been reinterpreted in order to befit the masses of readers of our time. Mor eover, the
novel pays a tribute to the bard’s wo rks that have been read, played and understood differently
across centuries, by each generation.
In his novel, Jacobson focuses on the marginalized character of The Merchant of
Venice , while also keeping him in shadow as the action unfolds, but whose presence is felt in
each key moment of the story. The character is Shylock, the one who , in the play , is left aside,
betrayed by his daughter and mocked by all the others, the one the public holler s at the most,
who triggers the most hate and less sympathy. With Jacobson, he is spared all this malevolent

20 treatment, because he becomes the agent and not the patient this time; Shylock becomes the
puppeteer of the action and , at times , he is not only influencing the ot her characters in the novel,
but he also bewitches the reader with his mysterious presence and magic words.
Such a rewriting project not only gives voice to the secondary character , but it also
projects another side of the story and, by recounting it from another perspective , and essentially
deconstructing it, there are unexplored meanings added to the new text. Therefore, while in the
play there are perceptions of Shylock from each character’s perspective, in the novel, that is
the adaptation, the central ity of Shylock leaves no room for interpretation of the manipulative
father image, since this is the auctorial picture: the character who re-imagines the work.

2.1. Parents and Children in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a comedy by Willi am Shakespeare, whose main focus is the
way in which people’s identities can be misplaced and how things are not what they seem at a
first sight. The main characters are Shylock, a Jew and his daughter, Jessica, who come into
contact with Antonio, Bassanio , Lorenzo and Portia, among others. Being a Shakespearean
comedy, by excellence it must end well and so does this play: the good is rewarded, the bad is
punished and justice is served.
Thus, being the receiver and giver of negative opinions throughout the play, “the very
devil incarnation” ( I.ii.24),2 as he is called by his own servant, Lancelet, Shylock the Jew is
somehow exiled into his own hatred, being denied any right of appeal or changing of mind; he
is left to mourn not only his dead wife, but also his rebellious daughter and his lost money ;
bitter, betrayed and lonely, he is laughed at, without anyone left at his side to actually see this
man’s suffering. Still, as Cedric Watts3 asserts in the introduction to the Wordsworth Classics
edition of The Me rchant of Venice , Shylock remains “a character so intense that he dominates
the play” (Watts 9). Since he generates mixed reactions from the public —hatred, amusement,
anxiety —there is no denial in the fact that , as Lorenzo tells Jessica , “the man that hath no music
in himself” ( V.i.83) would touch the heart and mind of anyone who follow his path through the
play. Although Lorenzo refers, generally, to people who cannot be moved by the power of
music as being untrustworthy, this descripti on is not far from the perception of Shylock’s
character in the play.

2 All references to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice are keyed to the Wordsworth Classics edition, edited
by Cedric Watts (2000) . Quotations to act, scenes and lines will be given parenthetically in the text.
3 All references to Watts’ text i n this chapter are keyed to the introduction of the Wordsworth Classics edition of
The Merchant of Venice (2000 ).

21 One of the most iconic scenes in the play is Shylock’s running through the streets of
Venice, in the second act, third scene, when he is shouting over his lost money and his daughter,
who ran away with her lover, Lorenzo, who is a Christian . As the Venetian Solanio explains to
Salarino,

I never heard a passion so confused,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my d aughter!
Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! […]’ ( II.viii. 12-16)

The audience does not see this scene at first hand, but they hear it told by Solanio, who is in
fact mocking the man’s outburst, w hen he finds out about what Jessica has done. In this way,
not only do the other characters during the dramatic interaction miss to understand Shylock’s
desperation caused by his own daughter, but by seeing a secondhand account of the episode ,
given by Salarino and Solanio, the audience also fail s to com prehend the gravity of the
situation. Thus, nobody is able to perceive that Shylock is , in fact , a human being, whose
character is more complex than what the two Christian onlookers want to describe. Shylock’s
actions are driven by a strong sense of self a nd deep -rooted Jewish principles, by which he
stands , no m atter how judgmental people are. Moreover, as described by Stephen Greenblatt,
Shylock is mindful of the Christians’ ways, manners and reasoning against other groups of
people, but he has a very str ong sense of identity: “[Shylock] is not ignorant of their pleasures;
he simply does not want any part of them ” (Greenblatt , Shakespeare ’s Freedom 61). In this
manner , depending on the way one reads or sees the play, it can be seen as a criticism against
Jewishness or a criticis m against hypocrisy and Christianity, so that one can see either Shylock
or his daughter, Jessica, as the villain. To this extent, the question that comes across this multi –
faceted Shakespearean text is what kind of father is Shylock, who is a multi -facete d character
himself ?
From the very first act, Shylock is portrayed as a shrewd man, evil, almost devil -like,
and he answers all the accusations and offenses that are attributed to him in the same
antagonistic manner , whereas his speech also preserv es faint trails of irony . This aspect is
portrayed during the discussion Shylock, Antonio and Bassanio have in regard to the first
lending the money to the other two, in order to satisfy Bassanio’s indulgences As Shylock says,

22 Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances . (I.iii. 101-5)

As indicated by this quote , it seems that Shylock answers rather out of pride than out of
malignity. It is universally acknowledged, even nowadays, that people will treat other s not out
of spite, but out of egotism , or even hurt dignity, in the same way that they are acted upon; and
so does the character Shylock, almost four hundred years ago, in the fictitious universe of the
play. Furthermore, the negative attitude he faces fr om the people around him does not have to
do with his religious identity, as it does with the fact that Shylock outcasts himself, since the
only racial remarks are made by himself. Thus, he admits that the faith is the most persisting
characteristic he has and it seems such an important one that, when he accepts to help Bassanio
with the needed money, Antonio already presumes that Shylock is about to change his faith:
“[…] The Hebrew will turn Christian – he grows kind” (I.iii.74). However, what Antonio
appears to be unable to see is actually Shylock’s wish of reconciliation with the people that
caused him much misery.
Nevertheless, while religion is acted upon in an in -depth manner in studies about The
Merchant of Venice , criticism of the play has a tendenc y of treating parenthood as rather
peripheral . Indeed, Shylock’s daughter is about to marry a Christian man and the other
characters in the play assume that she is nothing like her father . This is not only because Jessica
denies her religious identity, but also b ecause she appears to want to integrate and to let away
any feeling of self -importance in order for her to belong to something other than her father’s
mercantile imperium.
Even more than this, it is clearly seen that she is afraid that her only fea tures are
attributed to her in connection to her father: she is Jessica, the Jew’s daughter and therefore, by
betraying her father, she actually redeems herself and seeks her own identity —a thing which
Shylock is unable to see, since his clear thinking is shadowed by the lost money and the lost
ring. However, Jessica’s act of selling the ring in exchange for a monkey, is again her way of
decons tructing and regaining herself. Moreover, as I see it, the report from Tubal that Jessica
sold in Genoa a ring to buy a monkey (III.i.117 -118) may not even be true, because is based
on hearsay and not fact. Camille Slights argues that Jessica is conscious regarding her decision
and the moral costs this will take and, more than this, she also feels that her leaving mean s loss
for both herself and Shylock (Slights 364) . Before Jessica exits, in the scene of her elopement
with Lorenzo , it seems that she is indeed hurt by the fact that she has to go, but she also shows

23 her need of escaping the isolation from her father’s ho me: “Farewell; and if my fortune be not
crost, / I have a father, you a daughter, lost” (II.v. 60-61). This statement implies that, in this
father -daughter relationship, none of the two is able to see the other’s torment: Shylock’s
anguish over losing whatev er was most precious to him after his wife’s death and Jessica’s
suffering over her inability to contour herself as her own self -standing persona.
However, Jessica’s actions have also been long criticized, claims being made towards
her sudden departure fr om her father’s nest. Those who read the play in the light of Christian
hypocrisy do not have kind words towards the betraying daughter . At the beginning of the
twentieth century, Sir Arthur Quiller -Couch sees her as “bad and disloyal, a thief; frivolous,
greedy, without any more conscience than a cat and without even a cat’s redeeming love of
home […] she betrays her father to be a light -of-lucre carefully weighted with her sire’s ducats ”
(Sir Arthur Quiller -Couch qtd. in Slights 357). Nonetheless, over ti me, critics have changed
regarding Jessica’s decision and attitude towards her father and Slights even argues that “s he
must be a disloyal daughter in order to become a loving wife ” and thus, Jessica’s role in the
play requires a dual interpretation, that is a young girl is on the ve rge of b ecoming a wedded
woman (Slights 365). Moreover, the Jessica -Lorenzo subplot seems to be portrayed in
opposition to the Bassanio -Portia one ; the first couple is represent ed as rebellious and
unconcerned of rules and conse quences, while the second couple represent s consistency, the
rule-driven image of the perfect, obeying daughter. This is due to the fact that , since Jessica
betray s her father nonchalantly , Portia respects her deceased father’s wish of choosing a partner
according to his system.
In contrast , more recent responses to the play have criticiz ed Shylock’s fatherhood and
have been less reproachful towards Jessica’s a ctions. Contemporary readings of the play can
attribute more negative features to Shylock’s actio ns as a parent than to Jessica’s response as a
child. Janet Adelman argues , in her work of psychoanalytical criticism , Blood Relations:
Christian and Jew in The Merchant of Venice, that Jessica runs away with Lorenzo out of
desperation over her father’s au thoritative manner rather than only for love of the man she is
about to marry: “Lorenzo is invoked not as the solution to the problem of Jessica’s erotic des ire
but as the solution to the problem of being her father’s daughter” (Adelman 71). Thus, seeing
that Jessica finds marriage to be the key to her freedom, then Shylock can be seen as a rather
demanding an d overprotective father, keeping his daughter at arm’s length until she “collapses”
(Adelman 71) . Jessica’s running away to Belmont can be understood as her way to find a new
peaceful, joyous home together with her lover, away from her father’s control and rules ,
according to which “fast bind, fast find; a prov erb never stale in thrifty mind ” (II.v.53 -54) (John

24 Russell Brown qtd. in Slights, 358) . Addit ionally, Jessica feels somehow remorseful because
of her leaving Shylock, as can be seen in her only soliloquy of the play:

Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
To be ashamed to be my father’s child!
But though I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not to h is manners. […] (II.iii. 16-20)

Addressing an absent Lorenzo —a creature of her own imagination —then Jessica pledges to
become “ a Christian and thy loving wife ” (II.iii. 21). Jessica’s promise, in response to Lorenzo’s
declarations of love, shows that she ha s a strong sense of fidelity to her lover. With all this said ,
Jessica renounces her heritage and origins in favor not only of a new life, but a new faith , and
she settles to a decision that she feels is more appropriate to herself, since her only standing
connection to her father is the blood. However, as Horacio Sierra points out , “Jessica’s scant
lines in the final scene mark her as an outsider ” (Sierra 105) ; thus s he will remain an outsider,
an other , even after the happy ending of the play, just becaus e of her lineage , of her father,
Shylock the Jew .
Read in this manner , the play portrays Shylock as a toxic father, ready to disavow his
only relative alive that the audience know s of, because of his stubborn principles. In the Court
of Justice scene , Shylock is prepared to kill a man not because of his faith or out of spite, but
because he feels that mercy would not accord to his state of mind, to his principles , to which
he seems to abide more than anything. However, when he is faced with the choice betw een
losing his life or his faith, Shylock decides upon converting and thus “to ratify his own
absorption and that of his only child into the dominant re ligion and the dominant culture ”
(Greenblatt , Shakespeare ’s Freedom 54-55). After this, Shylock leaves the court room on the
premise that he does not feel well ( IV.i.395) and he is never heard of in the play again. Thus ,
it seems that when faced with the danger of dying, even Shylock obliterates any thought of him
or his daughter to be part of the “Christian f ools with varnished f aces” (II.v. 32) and Antonio’s
premonition of Shylock growing kind is somehow completed, because Shylock has attained
the limit ations of his hate (Greenblatt , Shakespeare ’s Freedom 70). Although , in the
relationship with his daughter, Shylock appears to act in the same manner as before the trial,
this is more out of his self -set doctrine than out of fatherly sentiments.
Shylock does not see any possible reconciliation between himself and the people who
have offended him and, therefore, he sees it impossible for his daughter to be friend those who

25 despise him and who, in return, are despised by Shylock. As a father, he is driven by a sense
of obedience and control that he expects to see from his daughter at all costs. This matter can
be a result of Leah’s death and the fact that he must take care of his daughter by himself , a
daughter who is his only heir. Hence, he sees in Jessica his heritage, his name being led forward
in time and his wealth being taken care of by a person in whom he can trust no matter what.
This is the reason fo r his going angry at his daughter’s decision of running away with his
money; Shylock feels that he is not in control anymore and that whatever he tried to buil d is
on the verge of collapsing. Shylock realizes that he is alone and his pain is doubled when h e
finds out about the sold ring, which he had from his wife, Leah, insomuch that he is on the
verge of disavowing Jessica without a second thought : “Out upon her! Thou torturest me,
Tubal; it was my turquoise: I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I woul d not have given it
for a wilderness of monkeys” (III.i.107-9). This confession of Shylock, when Tubal delivers
him the bad news, highlights Shylock’ s emotional side.
In this regard , it is essential to mention another prominent father figure in the play , and
that is Antonio. In sacrificing his wealth and ultimately, himself, he is to be seen as projecting
paternal feelings upon Bassanio. In the first act of the play, upon seeing Bassanio’s pain over
his inability to win Portia’s hand, Antonio declares: “ My purse, my person, my extremest
means, / Lie all unlocked to your occasions” (I.i.138-39). It is clear from the very beginning
that Antonio is concerned with Bassanio’s happiness and , hence, Antonio is ready to do
anything in his power to help the younger m an, even if this means to put his lifetime’s work at
risk to what is , actually , a young man’s indulgence.
Thus The Merchant of Venice portray s three notable father figures , and those are
Portia’s father, whose legacy seems to protrude into his daughter’s f uture by leaving her with
his protection even after he is long gone; Antonio , whose care for Bassanio seems to have no
limitations whatsoever ; and Shylock, who certainly has his own paternal humanity that only
seems to be waiting to show up. From all the three fathers, Shylock is the most persistent one,
because he is infusing in the play both feelings of loathing and of sympathy; loathing for
every body who hates him and sympathy for whatever is lost and cannot be repaired, such as,
his wife’s death and her memory , represented by the sold ring.

2.2. Shylock versus Shylock
In The Merchant of Venice , Shylock is asked by Portia , disguised as a lawyer, during
the Court of Justice scene, about his name, to which, after a short break, the r esponse is:
“Shylock is my name ” (IV.i. 175). This line, this affirmation of identity , has endured throughout

26 centuries up until the moment when Howard Jacobson wrote a novel, an adaptation of the play
mentioned above . The title is most representative, because, during the trial scene, when the
protector of justice, the lawyer, was himself a deceiver, Shylock, who wanted his justice, kept
his head up and fully disclosed his identity , when, without shame or fakery, he tells everyone
who want s to hear, who he is, namely that he is Sh ylock. By answering with his name fronted
in bold letters , Shylock emphasize s it, making it sound even more astounding ; throughout the
novel, Shylock Is My Name , the re -interpreted Shylock will make his presence felt at all
moments. Moreover, Jacobson use s these lines from the trial scene before the novel starts and ,
in this way, readers are reminded about what and who they are about to read:

Portia: Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?
Duke: Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.
Portia: Is your name Shylock?
Shylock: Shylock is my name. (IV.i.174-75)

However, Shylock in the novel is actually not modernized or adapted to present times, but he
is literally taken out of the play and put as such in the novel , since it is well known that the pla y
offers different perspectives of the story, which are somehow comical, in comparison to the
novel that gives the Shylock character the chance of speaking out his mind.
At the same time, Jacobson creates a character that has some of Shylock’s
psychologic al traits , such as the pain of his own pride, the hatred and betrayal of his child, the
loss of a partner in life, the shrewdness of asking what he cannot have, the frustration caused
by all that is surrounding him , and that character is Simon Strulovitch. He is the twenty -first-
century Shylock, a Jewish philanthropist with an eye for Anglo -Jewish art, having got divorced
once, married a second time and being the father of a very rebellious daughter, named Beatrice.
Just as Shylock, his present -day counterp art, Strulovitch, does not permit his daughter to marry
a Christian man, but the difference between Shakespeare’s Shylock and Strulovitch is that he
himself was married a first time with a Christian woman, whom he divorced , and he admits
that he has not th at much acquaintance with the Jewish way of life . The result of Strulovitch’s
rage will end up with his daughter’s running away, just as in the case of Shakespeare’s Jessica.
By means of intertextuality, Shylock is My Name includes other characters from The
Merchant of V enice , besides the obvious presence of Shylock -Strulovitch and Jessica -Beatrice .
Thus, in a modern cloak , the reader will find Plurabelle, who instead of being the lady of
Belmont , just like Portia, is a famous television personality, with a deceased father, named

27 Peter Schalcross , who left her with a similar wealth and a similar system of wisely choosing a
partner. Then there is D’Anton, instead of Antonio, who is an art dealer and becomes very close
to Plurabelle . D’Anton has a godson, Barn aby (Barney), infatuated with Plurabelle , and in the
same position as Bassanio in Shakespeare’s play . The novel also introduces a contemporary
version of Lorenzo, under the guise of Gratan Howsome , who embodies a certain young man,
somehow stereotypical of the twenty -first century, because he is described as a very handsome,
but not very smart, football player , who dat es plenty of women . Still, the triangle
D’Anton/Antonio, Barnaby/Bassanio and Lorenzo/Gratan presents some alterations in the
contemporary ve rsion, because D’Anton, just like Antonio, will make a sacrifice for a young
man, but this time the man is not Bassanio, but Lorenzo/Gratan , to whom D’Anton is willing
to give his “pound of flesh”. Moreover, throughout the novel, D’Anton display s father -like
feelings for both Barnaby and Gratan.
Almost all the characters seem to follow a certain pattern of stereotypes, which makes
the action even more interesting, since Jacobson switched the Shakespearean comic devices
with his modern readers ’ knowledge of societal standards, which are amusing and easily
recognizable. Even the setting place has been changed , from Italy’s imaginary Belmont to a
wealthy British county of Cheshire, in order to underline certain stereotypical features . This
appears to be somethi ng voluntar y on Jacobson’s part , as he explains in an interview in The
Guardian :

In my novel I move Portia’s world from Belmont to Cheshire’s Golden Triangle, home
to footballers, heiresses and Manchester’s most wealthy. […] I feel Portia’s moral
univers e of childish choices and pettish ruses, where protestations of fine feeling cannot
hide materialism and malice, licenses me to satire. (Jacobson, The Guardian )

Thus, the setting takes part in the description of the characters, since, when the readers kno w
these stereotypes about Cheshire’s Golden Triangle , a real space , it is likely that they would
already attribute certain features to the characters, even before they start diving deeper into th is
part of the story.
All these comic features of juxtapositi on screen the meanings and symbols which are
to be discovered throughout the novel. There are certain aspects very consciously depicted in
the adaptation , such as family life, love and friendship, wealth and power, which are also
brought up in The Merchant of Venice and, as expected, there are differences regarding the
ways in which these aspects are depicted in Shakespeare , in comparison to the contemporary

28 Jacobson . At the same time, there are a number of similarities between the elements presented
in bot h the play and the novel , although the time span is of no less than four hundred years
between the time setting of the play and the novel —a fact which makes for an even more
challenging reading.
Amid all this fusion of transparency and simplicity that the novel’s characters initially
portray, there is Shylock , who seems to have transcended time and space and got to be a n
inhabitant of a contemporary postmodern British city that has long passed the Elizabethan and
Jacobean times , during which Shakespeare’s play was initially performed . Shylock appears as
a shadow , more than anything, because he is not actually involved in the action of the novel,
but ha s a persisting presence and a prominent role ; he gives the impression of a symbolic figure
of wisdom, almos t like a philosopher with more life experience than any other character; he
seems to be living more intensely within his mind, still together with his beloved Leah, and
still betrayed by a long -gone daughter . The omniscient narrator describes the character ’s
impetuous personality as follows:

[…] Shylock, also an infuriated and tempestuous Jew, though his fury tends more to
the sardonic than the mercurial, and the tempest subsides when he is able to enjoy the
company of his wife Leah, buried deep beneath th e snow. (Jacobson , Shylock Is My
Name 3)

Jacobson kept Shylock’s story in the novel, as well as his attributes , but he reinterpreted the
character’s attitude . Shylock is here more solemn in talk and manner, more secretive in his
conversat ions with Simon S trulovitch. They become sort of partner s or friends , after a rather
odd encounter in the cemetery, where both of them were visiting someone dear to them,
Shylock’s wife and Simon’s mother . Shylock introduces himself to Strulovitch by waking up
from his rev erie towards Leah an d saying “Ah! [.. ] Just the man” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My
Name 17). A fter this, Strulovitch invites Shylock to his home, as if they already knew each
other for quite some time and Shylock will spend his time at Strulovitch’s throughout the action
of the novel , and he will only leave at the end of it . Furthermore, the way Shylock addresses
Strulovitch for the first time would make the reader think that Shylock was actually expecting
to meet someone there in the cemetery , on “one of those better-to-be-dead -than-alive days ”
(Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 1). Regarding Shylock talking to his dead wife, Leah, Howard
Jacobson declares that: “ I am deeply touched by his passing reference to his wife, I imagine
him in constant conversation with her . The dead have much to say, just as the living have much

29 they want to hear ” (Jacobson, The Guardian ). Howard Jacobson refers here to the moment of
the play when Shylock receives the bad news of his daughter selling his turquoise ring that he
had from his wife, when he was not ye t married ( III.i.107-9). Thus, the audience gets a glimpse
into who Shylock was before The Merchant of Venice , a thing which fascinates Jacobson and
makes him introduc e this element of a mysterious interaction between Shylock and L eah, when
the man wants to be alone with his thoughts .
Furthermore, Shylock has a pivotal role throughout the novel; he not only adds a sense
of solemnity to the action, but he also brings clarity among a group of people driven by wealth,
power and seeming ly nothing else but superficiality. It is even more ironic, comparing the
novel to the play, that the same character that has been reviled and judged for centuries , and
mocked for as much as that, is now an advocate of compassion and justice.
Other altera tions added to the novel’s action , so as to adjust it to the present times ,
regard the pound of flesh, which takes here the form of circumcision, that is a surgical
intervention , which is supposed to convert a Christian to Judaism , and the famous speech ab out
mercy delivered so gracefully by a disguised Portia in the play; this plea for mercy is brought
up by an unexpected character, Shylock himself, who brings up questions of identity,
singularity and how nothing has changed over time in terms of faith. At the same time , this
adaptation of The Merchant of Venice can also be seen as having a pedagogical reaso ning, as
Linda Hutcheon calls forth in her book A Theory of Adaptation , since adaptors, through the
process of adaptation, acknowledge an idea and reinterpret it as something new (Hutcheon xv).
Moreover, in the novel, Shylock, being given a voice, has the chance to argument regarding
his demand of a pound of flesh from Antonio, in a very insightful and elaborate discourse ,
when the subject is brought up o n the occasion of Strulovitch’s request of circumcision from
Beatrice’s boyfriends, Gratan :

Like you, I’m made of the softest stuff and equally hate the sight and smell and even
thought of blood. […] I stood for order, [Antonio] for chaos. […] I felt myse lf to be, I
won’t pretend otherwise, the instrument of justice. […] And there’s no violence a man
is not capable of when he believes he is acting as God would have him act. (Jacobson ,
Shylock Is My Name 180-182)

The use of “like you” refers directly to S trulovitch, thus highlighting the similitude between
the two men and the connection made by Jacobson between two characters of two different
centuries that seem to be worlds apart. Moreover, Shylock sees himself as the better counterpart

30 of Antonio and the seeker of justice, thus affirming his capability of ending a man’s life in the
name of what he thinks as rightful. However, when asked if he meant the pound of flesh as
something metaphorical or not, Shylock hesitates in answering.
Another interesting asp ect is the fact that Jacobson introduces Shylock’s story as if it
happened prior to the action of the novel. By pure insertion of a character, that is Shylock,
Jacobson imitates Shakespeare , while also adapting the character’s story as his ow n, in the
process of “imitatio” (Hutcheon 20) . In this manner, the reader can assume that , with Jacobson,
Shylock goes through a symbolic freeing, because he has shown his true identity and his true
feelings, only when the masks dictated by others are withdrawn and he i s finally heard and
understood. The secondary, the marginalized, the mocked achiev e the well-deserved liberation
and becomes the auctorial figure in the story ; he becomes Strulovitch’s counselor, helper in
familial matters, even his call to reason . This is part of the transfer from the play, the source
text, to the novel. Furthermore, when Strulovitch asks h is daughter’s boyfriend to circumcise
if he is to be with her, Shylock, has the role of being the voice of reason for Strulovitch, using
his own demand of a pound of flesh from Antonio as an example or analogy. At this point
Jacobson once again lets Shylock explain himself and his reasoning during the action of The
Merchant of Venice . In this part , Shylock clarif ies matters of religion and history, as wel l as
the fact that he felt compelled to tak e one pound of Antonio’s flesh, just because the Christian
merchant reduced Shylock to a mercantile business and nothing else , depriving him of his
humane status (Jacobson 149 -50). Strulovitch listens carefully Sh ylock’s soliloquy and is
surprised at hearing him say: “The villainy you teach me, I will execute” (Jacobson , Shylock Is
My Name 151), since this is the very same line Shylock also uttered in the discourse he delivers
in Act Three, Scene One , when he finds out about Jessica’s whereabouts (III.i.64-65). With
Jacobson, Shylock inherently analy zes his own speech.
Even more symbolical and paradoxical than this is the end of the novel, when, after
delivering the speech about mercy (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 266), Shylock is approached
by Plurabelle (the modern embodiment of Portia) , who confesses her admiration for him: “that
was awe -inspiring” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 268) and asks Shylock if she could offer
him anything , to which he answers with: “Peace and quiet are all I am i n need of ” (Jacobson ,
Shylock Is My Name 269). Moreover, Plu rabelle admits that she did not believe that someone
with Shylock’s presence “co uld be capable of such humanity ” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name
269). This remark lead s to the two of them having a rather heated conversation about religion
and the wrong judgements people can have because of one’s faith , and Plurabelle feels cursed
because of Shylock’s forcefully manner of speaking. On this scene, Howard Jacobson himself

31 states that: “ I never saw it as my function to give Shylock a second chance. Where things ended
for him, they end forever. But he does have one thing he would like to say to Portia/ Plurab elle.
And I allow him to say it” (Jacobson, The Guradian ). Thus, Shylock h as the opportunity to
clear things up with Portia, who is disguised as Plurabelle, regarding matters of justice and
truth.
Shylock’s last line in the novel is the most triumphant ending he could have: “Well now
you know t he sensation from the other end ” (Jacobson Shylock Is My Name 270). With this, he
exits a different stage this time, a stage that gave him the chance to avenge himself, by using a
most powerful weapon, that is, language .

2.3. Father and Daughter in Shylock Is My Name
Parenthood is one of the elements that has been translated from Shakespeare to
Jacobson in a way that appears different and unchanged at the same time. There are traces of
Shylock remembering his daughter, Jessica, but they play a secondary role and are meant more
to be an ex ample for Strulovitch and his relationship with his daughter, Beatrice. Beside the
already mentioned similarities between Shylock and Strulovitch, in terms of ideas,
temperament and demands from those around them, there are certain parallels that can be dr awn
between Jessic a and Beatrice, although their appearance in the play and in the novel,
respectively, are parted by so many centuries .
The first thing worth mentioning is the fact that both girls have over -protective fathers,
to the extent that they dic tate the people they can and cannot marry, being driven in their
judgement by external factors, such as religion or position in society, rather than actual internal
characteristics that the men towards whom their daughters have interest in may possess . Then,
both Jessica and Beatrice are regarded as being rebellious and ungrateful to their fathe rs and
their material situation, without the paternal figures taking into consideration the identity crisis
the girls may face, due to isolation and inability of fit ting in a larger group or circle. In his work
Identity, Youth and Crisis , Erik Erikson argues that adolescence is a stage in which an
individual is developing physically, but also mentally, through forming personal ideas about
the world surrounding them selves, and this is why sometimes there may be a clash between
generation s, a bridge forming between parents and their teenage offspring, out of the need of
the y outh to express their free will (Erikson 129) . Therefore, it can be clearly seen how an
adolescen t girl like Beatrice may not feel comfortable under the tutelage of a strict father like
Strulovitch .

32 Jessica’s and Beatrice’s mothers are also meaningful; the extent to which the missing —
fully or partially —of maternal figure s led the girls to running away from home, since Jessica’s
mother, Leah, has passed away , and Beatrice’s mother , Kay, has suffered a stroke , which made
her incapable to take care of herself, let alone r aising a child. Regarding Kay, Strulovitch feels
guilty for what happened to her, sin ce she had a stroke right after an argument between him
and his daughter, the motive being Beatrice’s going out with a boy he did not approve of , and
what followed was that “he dragged B eatrice home by her hair . Shortly after that Kay felled ”
(Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 143). In this manner, because of what happened to his wife
and because he was left to supervise a teenage daughter amidst her identity crisis, Strulovitch
thinks that the solution is to “keep Beatrice on the straight and narrow, to ensure that the high
purpose he discerned in her delivery would be honoured ” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 142);
thus he becomes the manipulative father figure , seemingly a mirror -image of Shylock.
This manipulative image of Strulovitch becomes authoritative inso much that he grows
envious of Shylock, after the former ha d a first encounter and a friendly discussion with
Beatrice. Strulovitch comes to think that Shylock is trying to replace Jessica by appropriating
Beatrice as his new daughter, a thing, which provok ed his mind into having negative thoughts
towards his guest:

All too impossibly Mephistophelean to imagine Shylock on an errand of this sort,
Shylock here with the express purpose of replacing Jessica – no, surely not – but it is
deranging to lost a daugh ter as he had lost his and who’s to say what derangement won’t
bring about? An eye for an eye, a daughter for a daughter. (Jacobson , Shylock Is My
Name 102-3)

The final sentence is revealing of the Torah, in which such expressions are indicating of a pure
idea of justice, but a justice that none of them has to serve the other ; henceforth Strulovitch
feels guilty for his thoughts, but he also excuses himself as being a normal thing for a father to
be suspicious when he sees his daughter in the presence of a nother man (Jacobson , Shylock Is
My Name 103). This attitude forced Strulovitch to ask Gratan, Beatrice’s boyfriend, of
converting to Judaism by means of circumcision, if he is to be together with his daughter; the
circumcision being the modern counterpart of the pound of flesh from The Merchant of V enice
(Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 130). The request is met reluctantly by both Gratan and also
Beatrice, who decided to leave her father’s house and, in one way or another , to run away from
her incarcerator . However absurd Strulovitch request is, Gratan still believes that: “A father

33 was still a father, no matter that he was a monster. And a Jewish father, from all he’s heard,
even more so” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 166). In this manner, it is obvious that the
religious matter is persisting, and taken into account, even by somebody with quite a simple
mind , such as Howsome Gratan.
In comparison with the play , and Jessica’s barely explaining her decisions, the novel
grants Beatrice to tell her side of the st ory. Jacobson lays a lot of emphasis not only on
Strulovitch’s justification of being rather harsh on his daughter, but also on her reasoning of
behaving reckless, up to the point where she leaves her home. After having heard what her
father asked from Gra tan, she flees her home together with her Christian lover, to Plurabelle’s
house —just as, in the play, Jessica leaves to Belmont, to Portia’s house .
In the contemporary Belmont villa, while contemplating on her existence and especially
on her relationship with her father, Beatrice reveals everything she had to go through because
of him: “My whole life, she thought, has been made a misery by him” (Jacobson Shylock Is My
Name 167). Her suffering was mostly caused by the social humiliation her father put her
through , such as taking her by force out of parties, following her around the places she went,
fighting with her boyfriends or removing her make -up by force. (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name
167) Moreover, he also: “ […] pulled her down the street by her hair while clutching at his
heart, as though to threaten her with cardi ac arrest. […] Though it was he —wasn’t it? —who
was killing her” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 167). So, it seems that Beatrice’s desperation
is not only induced by S trulovitch ’s behavior, bu t also by his intimidating her into thinking that
he could die if she does not behave according to his principles. However the use of the tag
question “wasn’t it?” in Beatrice’s monologue underlines the fact that she is waiting for
confirmation that what s he thinks is valid and that she is entitled to feel as she does; at the same
time, this is somehow revelatory of her not despising her father throughout and is once again
underlying the identity crisis she deals with. Furthermore, Beatrice also believes th at: “[…] he
loved her” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 169); thus , Beatrice is aware of Strulovitch ’s
recurrent presence in her life and of his wanting the best for her, although he seems to be
causing even more confusion and mixed feelings in her mind. Thus , Strulovitch can be seen
not only as a paternal, but also a s a patriarchal figure in her life, a persistent figure, to whom
she is not able to turn her back completely: “She couldn’t fall in love with anyone else. […]
she could think only of her father” ( Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 168). This father –daughter

34 relationship appears to have traces of what C. G. Jung calls “the Electra complex ”4, although
Beatrice does not seem to be competing with her mother, but on the contrary, she would like
to have her mo ther around more. However, going back to Erikson’s theories regarding the stage
of adolescence, he argues that this is what a teenager feels : “that the environment tries to
deprive him too radically of all the forms of expression which permit him to develo p and
integrate ”; then he or she will look for ways of resisting and fighting back, sensing the same
amount of emotion as an animal in need of protecti ng itself ( Erikson 130). Henceforth, it is
easy to justify Beatrice’s insecurities regarding her relation ship with Gratan, whom she asks at
some point if he has already found somebody else, taking into account his dating history
(Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 166). She seems to be considering Gratan her shield, her island,
around whom she can finally construct her identity; with this relationship Beatrice wants to
prove herself and her father that she can take matters into her hands, since the leaving of the
domestic nest is often seen as a next step towards growing into adulthood.
In addition, on the matter o f adolescence and love, Erik Erikson argues :

To a considerable extent adolescent love is an attempt to arrive at a definition of o ne's
identity by projecting one’ s diffused self -image on another and by seeing it thus
reflected and gradually clarified. Th is is why so much of young love is conversation.
(Erikson 132)

Thus, Beatrice is not only projecting her want of identity and security on Gratan, but she also
wants to feel that she belongs to something or someone, because a sense of belonging brings
comf ort to individuals. This is why, when the two young lovers leave for Venice, Beatrice
ponders once again upon her decision and upon her relationship with Gratan, which suddenly
for her, does not seem as satisfactory as she expected, insomuch that she even wonders why
she did run away with him in the first place: “Oy, vey, why have I run away?” (Jacobson ,
Shylock Is My Name 208). As any young girl at the age of becoming, she has great expectations,
especially when it comes to the people or to the person she puts all her trust into. This is why,
when she realizes that other than the carnal component, their relationship does not present any
other feature of substantial matter, Beatrice becomes despondent and conscious of her own

4 As opposed to the Oedipus complex, analyzed by Sigmund Freud, the Electra complex is the daughter developing
a particular fondness of the father , while being jealous o f the mother (Jung 72 ).

35 decision making, a thing which i s another step towards her development as a future mature
woman.
The novel concludes the father -daughter relationship between Beatrice and Strulovitch,
with their meeting again after the circumcision of D’Anton (who wanted to sacrifice for
Gratant, just as Antonio did for Bassanio) took place, instead of Gratan’s, and after her and
Gratan’s returning from Venice. Both father and daughter exchange pleasantries , in the
presence of Kay , with Beatrice being quite harsh on his father, by saying: “ I’m unharmed [… ]
And unbetrothed, if that’s what you really want to know” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 277).
On the other side, Strulovitch seems to be at ease that his daughter is back home, thinking that
it is unfair that she had to go through all this suffering; although in manner and speech Beatrice
seem s to be more mature than at the beginning of the novel, her father still sees her as a child.
However, contradictory to his thinking of his daughter in terms of the child -like features she
may still have, he admits th at “in her stony unforgivingness s he resembles Shylock” (Jacobson,
Shylock Is My Name 277). This is a peculi ar thing to say about a Jew’s daughter, but this only
proves that Beatrice never wanted to shed away her father’s lineage, nor her Jewish heritage,
but she wanted her freedom from her father’s grasp, her own fully fledged identity.
Moreover, the last sentence of the novel is revelatory of the father –daughter relationship
in both The Merchant of Venice and Shylock Is My Name : “I will be revenged on th e whole
pack of you” (Jacobson , Shylock Is My Name 277). This sentence, intertextualized from the
fifth Act, first Scene of the play Twelfth Night ,5 is now in Strulovitch’s mind, a thing which
can have a double meaning , since the character who first uttere d this sentence, namely,
Malvolio, is an antagonistic character, who is representative for the idea of contempt, when
everybody else is joyous , just as Shylock at the end of The Merchant of Venice or Strulovitch
at the end of the novel . A first interpretat ion of this final sentence could be that Shylock is
finally avenged by Beatrice , since this strong -willed girl has something in common with
Shylock , that is the unforgiveness Strulovitch mentioned , a thing which can signal that
Jacobson found Shylock an he ir in the embodiment of an adolescent girl, although she is born
decades later from Shylock’s first appearance on stage. The second meaning of this same
sentence can refer to Strulovitch, who after being made fun of, has his daughter back and can

5 In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night , Malvolio, like Shylock in The Merchant of Venice , is left outside of the happy
group of lovers in the comedy. Saddened and disappointed at the fact that he has been manipulate d by Maria and
Uncle Toby, Malvolio announces in a spiteful manner: “I’ll be reven ged on the whole pack of you” (V.i .401).
Even if Shylock in The Merchant of Venice is not given such vindictive words, he is also left outside the circle of
happy couples and he asks to leave Venice because he is not well (IV.i.413 -414).

36 only hope that she will somehow give him justice, if only through her having bitter ideas about
the world, just like her father.

Conclusion
While both The Merchant of Venice and Shylock Is My Name raise questions of religion,
group identity and societ al flaws, an aspect which cannot be left apart is parenthood. Both texts
posit the father -daughter relationship in foreground, although the time span between the two is
quite enormous. Nonetheless, common elements are present in both Shakespeare’s
representation of th e Shylock -Jessica characters and in Jacobson’s picture of Strulovitch –
Beatrice, with the latter being given a wider array of expression, due to its medium. Thus,
regarding the media and genre of each text, it is commonsensically believed that a play will
also provide a comical side, besides its positing meaningful questions, because of it s
performativity, while the novel, being composed mostly of narration, will leave space for
deeper insights into the character’s mind, with the reader being able to better understand their
reasoning into decision making. Furthermore, t he daughters in the play and the novel reflect
the issue of par enthood and family similarly and differently, according to each of their contexts.
While in the play , family is a dialogic issue that involves the focus on theatr ical
performance of dramatic characters, such as Shylock , then in the novel, the same character is
represented in its complexity, with various other forms and ideas, having interactions with the
family in focus formed by Be atrice, the daughter, Simon Stru lovitch, the father and a mother,
Kay, which although she may seem absent throughout the novel, seems to be the binding force
that brought fa ther and daughter back together in the end. Finally, while Jessica’s character is
somehow shadowed by her father and the triangle Antonio -Bassanio -Loren zo, in Jacobson, t he
substance of the character Beatrice is given by a complex identity ; although she is a teenager,
she has second thoughts, deep -rooted familia l feelings and a taste for art, which can b e rather
uncommon for a teenage girl, but which are definitely features adopted from her father’s side.
Shylock is, without any doubt, the model by which Strulovitch is constructed; they both
permeate their origin texts, being extremely pr esent throughout the action, with Shylock’s
multi -faceted and performative discourses being memorable through their fierce ness of
delivery in The Merchant of V enice . By means of insertion in Shylock Is My Name , the character
Shylock, in its entire complexi ty, is used to compel and somehow manipulate each character
with his mysterious presence and ambiguous manners of acting and talking. He becomes the
genius behind the machine , who puts in motion the action ; he is the voice of reason, who seems ,
at times , to have an experience of life as old as the play. In this manner, with Howard

37 Jacobson’s aid, Shylock is allowed to recover himself and to show his complex nature in a
contemporary setting, proving his relevance even after four centuries since he first appe ared on
a stage.

38 3. Father and Children: Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

As discussed in the previous chapter, the relationship between parents and children can
be troublesome, especially in cases of single -parent families, where all the extrinsic pressu res
upon the youth can transform them into troublesome adolescents . In this chapter, however, I
will discuss how fatherhood can express itself when the child does not have any other
influences or example s. To this extent, I will examine how the father can turn into a concealed
patriarchal figure , even if an imagined one . I argue that while the relations among
Shakespeare’s characters defy any common association and they are as erratic and complex as
the imaginary world to which they belong, the novel shows how all the postcolonial readings
of The Tempest can be dismantled —or at least questioned —in the light of the contemporary
parent -child relationships.
Continuing on the subject of family matters, William Shakespeare had three children ,
one son and two d aughters, but whether they represented a source of inspiration for the bard’s
plays is still left for question and debate. Nonetheless, a thing is clear and that is, Shakespeare’s
fictional children, his writings’ young characters, play pivotal roles, as, most often than not,
they serve as teachers or moralists for their elders or they succeed into solving and calming
some serious issues. Such aspects can be observed with Romeo and Juliet, whose love story
put an end to the feud between their respective fam ilies or even with Perdita, who acts as
mediator and bond between the inhabitants of Sicilia and Bohemia. Even Hamlet, although
already in his thirties when the action of the eponymous play is set, succeeds into solving the
mystery of his father’s death. To this extent, it can be considered that children are eye -openers,
since, with Shakespeare, they seem to have a certain understanding of the world, that their
parents or tutors lack, probably because of all the bitterness they have gathered inside. With
sweetness and innocence, Shakespeare’s fictional children alleviate torments, even though
sometimes this means that they have to change their path of life forever, without their being
aware of this. This is also the case with Miranda, whose father, Prospero, uses his sorceries to
change the course of life of so many characters , in a revengeful plot with a happy ending .
Therefore, in The Tempest , Miranda becomes the voice of hope, the discoverer of the brave
new world, who, together with Ferdinand, will bring the resolution to all the othe r’s characters
labor and misery.
The Tempest in considered to be one of the last Shakespearean writings , being the
playwright’s creation in all its entirety and, because of Prospero’s soliloquy by the end of the

39 story , it is b elieved that the play represents Shakespeare’s manner of saying his goodbyes and
departing from the stage, as a p laywright and even as an actor. In this sense, as described by
Allen Carrey -Webb, in “Shakespeare for the 1990s: A Multicultural Tempest ,” the play can be
regarded as “one of the Bard’s stuffiest plays, a sophisticated commentary on his own art
perhaps, but a deliberate piece, weak in characterization, and unsuited to the tastes of
adolescents” (Carey -Webb 30) . Indeed, The Tempest does not appeal to the young public as
much as the tragedies, such as Hamlet or as much as the comedies, like A Midsummer Night’s
Dream , but the story of the tempestuous revenge that Prospero plots, as well as his relationship
with his daughter Miranda, can be as relevan t to the present time, as any other one.
The Tempest is considered to be both a Shakespearean comedy and a tragicomedy, with
some scholars arguing that it even might be regarded as a romantic play, due to its subject
matter and happy ending. Cedric Watts6 observes that: “the term romances has been applied to
literary works which, in contrast to more realistic writings, offer the far -fetched, strange,
peculiar and exotic; often they invoke the supernatural” (Watts 9) . The plot builds extensively
from the rom antic pattern, a fictional tale set far from everyday existence. Usually romances
were focused on subjects such as the mystical, exploration , adventure and discovery. They were
mostly situated in coastal areas , usually depicting tropical, beautiful locatio ns and themes of
destruction and rebirth, exile and reconciliation , misdemeanor and repentance .
The relevance of the play is a thing ingeniously exemplified by the Canadian writer,
Margaret Atwood, who, within the Hogarth Shakespeare program of rewriting S hakespeare’s
plays, adapted and reinterpreted The Tempest , in the form of a novel, entitled Hag-Seed , which
was published in 2016. Atwood won t he Booker Prize twice and among her most acclaimed
novels is The Handmaid’s Tale (1985); therefore she was very m uch praised for choosing this
particular Shakespearean play to rewrite , and the result was positively received by the public,
including the youth, whose appeal over novel -format readings has been higher, than over plays.
Once again, just as in the case of Jacobson’s Shylock is My Name , this novel has been written
by means of intermediation, from drama to fiction.

6 All references to Watts’ text in this chapter are keyed to the introduction of the Wordsworth Classics edition of
The Tempest (2004 ).

40 3.1. The Father Prospero in The Tempest
The play opens up on the sea, in a ship, which carries Alonso, the King of Naples,
Ferdinand, his son, An tonio, the usurping king of Millaine7, Gonzalo, an elderly councilor and
some other servants, who mostly have the role of easing and appeasing the audience, when the
tension rises too much. Their ship is hit by a tempest put in place by Ariel, a spirit, as dictated
by Prospero, the rightful king of Mil an, who , betrayed by his brother, had to flee in a boat,
together with his young daughter, Miranda. In this opening act, another character is introduced,
namely Caliban, who is the son of Sycorax, a witch. (I. i.1-63; I.ii.1 -508)
From Caliban’s perspective (I.ii.332 -45), the play can be read as a postcolonial one as
Carey -Webb observes : “in The Tempest , Shakespeare creates an indigenous New World figure
who initially welcomes he Europeans and later finds himself cheated of his birthright” (Carey –
Webb 31). Caliban is very vehement towards the bad treatment he receives from Miranda and
especially, from Prospero, as Caliban utters: “I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his
cunning hath cheated me of the isla nd” (III.ii.40 -42). However interpreted, the character
Caliban represents one of the first literary figures, with origins in the Native Americans’ or the
African Americans’ heritage. As Carey -Webb argues, Shakespeare was “aware of the slave
trade and the p resence of slabs, both Africans and Native Americans, in the Caribbean
plantations” ( Carey -Webb 31), since the island on which Prospero and Miranda lived for
twelve years has been believed to be somewhere in the Caribbean.
Notwithstanding, leavin g the pos tcolonial aspect aside, The Tempest interconnects
social and historical matters as well, one of which being the wedding between the children of
Milan’s and Naples’ monarchs. Issues of culture, race or gender do not fail to appear, in light
of Prospero bein g the paternal or even the patriarchal figure in the play. To such an extent , The
Tempest may even be considered Prospero’s play, since he is the one who puts everything in
motion, from the storm on the sea, which brings the characters on the island, to th e very last
spoken words, which are again Prospero’s. The psychoanalytical critic, Stephen J. Miko,
discussed Prospero’s sorcery and abilities to influence both the characters within the play and
the audience as well; Miko argues that “ there are hints thr oughout the play that invite us —quite
inconclusively —to subordinate this power, this Art, to something approaching hypnosis, the
creation of dream states for moral psychotherapy” ( Miko 4-5). The moralistic point of view of
the play is adjacent to the crafts that Prospero creates; therefore , the characters and the audience

7 Milan . All references to Shakespeare’s The Tempest are keyed to the Wordsworth Classics edition, edited by
Cedric Watts (2004) . Quotations to act, scenes and lines will be given parenthetica lly in the text.

41 are taught by the end of the play whatever the sorcerer wanted them to keep in mind and, as it
seems, the main lesson is that people should never be that trustful in those around them.
Nonetheless, in discussing the father -daughter relationship, it is imperious to point out
that the future of Miranda being dictated by her father could be the proof of Prospero’s being
ever protective over his daughter and all the other things that he thinks belong to him, including
the island, as Miko describes him: “Prospero is an overprotective father and an uneasy,
apparently disillusioned idealist” ( Miko 5). Thereupon, his exile is a product of both his
brother’ s inherent evil and his own withdrawal from the dukedom ’s responsibilities , towards
sorcery studies and arts. Thus, in Prospero acting out of Miranda’s lack of knowledge, I have
observed the moralistic point of view mentio ned earlier, that is, Prospero is afraid of letting his
daughter choose for he rself.
Therefore , this particular teaching appears to not be applicable to Prospero and his way
of taking care of h is child and somehow contradictory ; his patriarchal nature also come s from
the fact that he trust s his daughter, Miranda, into the hands of a man whom neither him nor her
knew at all before the tempest. Miranda’s innocence was Prospero’s last piece of his masterplan
of revenge against the wrongdoings that happened to him. Indeed, Miranda is the rightful heir
to the throne of Milan; yet, her fa ther acted against her will, that was, from the beginning, not
even visible . Miranda’s astonishment upon laying her eyes on all the people from the ship, at
the end of the play, comes out of her not having any prior knowledge of the vastness of the
world i tself: “ O Wonder! / How many godly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind
is! O brave new world, / That has such people in’s!” (V.i.181 -185). To a certain degree,
Miranda can be seen as a discoverer or a colonizer, but a reversed one, since she is going to
lead the dukedoms of Milan and Naples, which are inhabited by her own people in the first
place. Furthermore, her innocence and lack of knowledge are understandable, given that her
universe was only occupied by her father, Caliban and Ariel, who is not even human. In this
sense, Miranda is going to be a leader because of her father’s magic and because sh e is to marry
Ferdinand, a man , and this way the social and polit ical are intertwined once again.
Carey -Webb observes that somehow like Romeo a nd Juliet , in the case of The Tempest ,
young love is explored interweaved with the conflict between parent and child. However,
Miranda only yields unknowingly to the will of her father and establishes a romantic
connection with Ferdinand , which cross es soc ially accepted boundaries concerning the
engagement between two young lovers. Therefore, the difference between Romeo and Juliet
and The Tempest lies in the tension, that “is not only between families but also pr imarily
between social classes —the masque is startlingly interrupted by Caliban’s insurrection ,” as

42 Caliban is the one who interrupts the moment with the spirits set by Prospero for Miranda and
Ferdinand (Carey -Webb 32 -34). At this point , it is quite difficult to say which the real parent –
child conf lict is, as Prospero could be considered a father figure not only for Miranda, but also
for Caliban.
When he sails up to the island he has been inhabiting for twelve years, Prospero makes
use of what he learned and is grateful to Gonzalo, who has provided him his books of magic
that helped him to take control over Caliban’s rightful legacy. It is only through his book –
learning that Prospero discovers the supernatural strength he requires to conquer the isl and and
the citizens there; citizens to whom he tea ches English and matters of discipline to insure that
his control stays intact. Caliban already lived there since he was a young child, before Prospero
and Miranda arrived on the island. As a consequence of this, Tom Lindsay discusses , in his
article “Whic h First Was Mine Own K ing,” that Caliban was more than just a label reflecting
the cannibals of Montaigne (Linds ay 403). The island in The Tempest is rich in food and
freshwater sources and comparable to the cannibals of Montaigne8 and Caliban used to surv ive
off the plentiful natural wealth of his birthplace, without needing any other type of help.
Therefore , Caliban realizes , at a certain point in the play , that his emancipation was only in
favor of Prospero and, as it seems, Caliban’s only benefit over l earning English is that he can
now turn against the conqueror, using one of his weapon s: “You taught me language, and my
profit on’ t/ Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you/ For lea rning me your l anguage!”
(I.ii.362-64) Be that as it may, the comp lex relationship between Prospero and Caliban sloped
downward, when the latter tried to take advantage of Miranda; this is because , up until that
point, in the p lay, it is suggested that Caliban was actually glad that he would have company
and he even help ed Prospero get acquainted with the island (I.ii. 346-57). Therefore, Prospero
treated Caliban at first as a student, with respect, but when Caliban gave in to animalistic
instincts, their father -son bond transformed into a colonizer -slave type of relations hip, with
Prospero even stating such things as: “ We’ll visit Caliban, my slave, who never / Yields us kind
answer ” (I.ii.308 -309). Furthermore, Lindsay argues that “Caliban repeatedly speaks and acts
like someone who has both absorbed and been disillusioned by hi s training in Prospero’s cell.”
(Lindsay 403) This means that , as he first met Caliban, Prospero brought him up as his own
son and exhibited empathy for the island’s heir . In this way, Caliban seemed somewhat
indoctrinated by Prospero, so he did ever ything th at the authoritarian figure requested him to

8 Lindsay refers to Of Cannibals , an essay by Michel de Montaigne, which describes the ceremonies of the
Tupinambá people in Brazil.

43 do, but w hen Prospero achieved power and control , their established connection fell
downwards and Caliban grew very dissatisfied.
Ariel is another character, whom Prospero saves at first, helping him to escape from the
prison created by Sycorax in a tree, only to manipulate him later in the play, in order to bring
the revenge plan to an end. Moreover, while Prospero is thinking at every step from the scheme,
Ariel is the one who has the role of eyes and years on the island, the one who puts Prospero’s
plan in motion. This could be the reason why, while Caliban is called a slave, Ariel is
Prospero’s “brave spirit,” (I.ii. 206) since, without his invisible nature and magical quality,
Prospero would not be ab le to actually control and manipulate every other chara cter in the play.
On the other hand, Ariel may be considered as a surrogate son for Prospero, just as
Caliban was, before having been turned into a slave. While Ariel was a slave imprisoned by
Sycorax in a pine tree when Prospero arrived on the island, Caliban had been free, but he
became a slave later, when he demonstrated he could be led by animal instincts. However, both
Ariel and Caliban can be seen as Prospero’s surrogate children —the sons that he never had .
On analyzing the characters of the play, John Gordon argues that Ariel and Caliban are placed
in contrast, as to underline their differences:

Though Ariel m ay be called ‘a brave spirit’ (I .ii.206) by Prospero, while Caliban is
explicitly and r epeatedly called his ‘slave’, Ariel too is enslaved by Prospero. This is
most apparent in Prospero’s response to Ariel’s reluctance to perform a new task and
Ariel’s demand for liberty. Prospero exclaims, ‘ thou liest, malignant thing!’ (I.ii .257),
employin g an adjective he attributes elsewhere to Caliban. (Gordon, British Library ,
online )

Thus, Prospero has always been in direct authority of the action and the other protagonists,
including their history and development, although his plans depend on them as well. He is wary
of addressing the influence of the spi rit and reiterating his promise, that is, Ariel “ shalt be as
free/ As mountain winds” (I.ii. 503–504), although this can be interpreted as ju st another
example of Prospero’ s masterful manipulation and complete power techniques. In this sense,
just as with Caliban, Ariel, too, could be understood as another son of Prospero, although he
has not a physical form. However, the relationship between Prospero and Ariel is problematic
as well, since the former i s threat ening the later with drastic actions, using a harsh tone, only
for his warnings to become promises, as the plan unfolds as designed.

44 In light of all the decisions Prospero took form the very beginning , starting with the
storm itself, to his last wo rds, as if talking directly to the audience, the play feels as if he knew
all along how the action will move further and how the audience will feel up until the end;
hence , Harold Bloom9’s description of The Tempest is applicable to any reading or
interpret ation of the play :

The Tempest is Prospero’s play, and not Ariel’s (as the Romantics believed) nor
Caliban’s (the Postcolonialists), and Prospero is not Shakespeare the dramatic poet,
though he may be Shakespeare the man of the theater . (Bloom xi)

Theref ore, though a patriarchal figure (for Miranda) or an authoritarian dictator (for Caliban or
even for Ariel), Prospero is still an advocate for compassion and forgiveness, redemption and
mercy, which are the reasons why he has to go to such an extent in ord er to bring his revenge
plan and, finally, his magic to an end. Moreover, “Prospero” is the Italian word for “the favorite
one” (Bloom xii) , and among all its meanings, “favored”10 can also be the synonym for
“selected” or “privileged,” both of which match the different readings of the play, as Prospero
is privileged by being the learned and more influential one in the fictitious world of the play,
but as he is also the selected one to deliver Shakespeare’s final words, before the bard’s
retirement fr om the stage world.

3.2. Prospero versus Prospero
In The Tempest , the prison is a deeply interesting symbol, which has multiple
dimensions : each character is held hostage against his/her will. Moreover, besides the
indisputable imprisonment of Caliban and Ariel, Miranda and Prospero are also prisoners on
the island , both spatially and metaphorically. Spatially because they are all captives on a desert
island, with no possibility of physically leaving it. Metaphorically, Miranda is being
imprisoned by her own inno cence, while Prospero is his own mind ’s captive. He is so engulfed
by his art and his revenge plan that he is unable to perceive reality and acknowledge the
implications of his fervor upon his daughter and his other two detainee s, Caliban and Ariel .
Howeve r, in the first act, Miranda is actually telling Ferdinand that Prospero is not a bad person:

9 All references to Bloom ’s text in this chapter are keyed to Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages – The Tempest
(2008 ).
10 As given by the Thesaurus website (https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/favored?s=t)

45 Be of comfort;
My father’s of a better nature, sir,
Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted
Which now came from him. (I.ii.499 -502)

In this way, Miranda’s d escription of her father, foreshadows the conclusion of the plan – the
act of forgiveness, which symbolizes an evolution from Prospero’s part and, somehow
opposing to a bildungsroman’s plot, although it would have been the custom for Miranda to
flourish a nd evolve throughout the play, it is , in actuality , her father the one who changes the
most as the action develops. Prospero succeeds in freeing himself, both from the physical
prison that is represented by the island and the psychical one, which is his ow n mind.
In the same manner, Margaret Atwood’s novel, Hag-Seed , tackles the matter of
imprisonment, but translated in to a more literal sense than what the play portrays , as Viv
Groskop rightfully observes :

Set all that aside, though, as this is written wit h such gusto and mischief that it feels so
much like something Atwood would have written anyway. The joy and hilarity of it just
sing off the page. It’s a magical eulogy to Shakespeare, leading the reader through a
fantastical reworking of the original but infusing it with ironic nods to contemporary
culture . (Groskop, The Guardian )

In this sense, as a contemporary reimagining of The Tempest , the novel centers around the
flamboyant, deeply flawed yet likeable artistic director of the Ontario theater festiv al, Felix,
overly focused on revenging those who did him wrong.
Set in a present -day Canada jail, the novel is deeply entertaining, primarily because of
the revival of the play directed by Felix, with the inmates’ help inside Fletcher Correctional ,
where he is a teacher. Fel ix is, of course, Prospero’s re interpretation in Hag-Seed . Atwood
focus es on a similar development of the character as in the case of Shakespeare’s character.
Felix may possibly have been a theatre’s stereotype or cliché, but Atwood off ers a convincing
and unsettling character background, which will become the pivot that moves the story
onwards, as Felix loses his three -year-old daughter and his job as theater director, being
betrayed by his old friend and colleague, Tony , who becomes , in the novel , the contemporary
representation of Antonio . All these issues will haunt Felix throughout the story and , although
a sympathetic character, he is sta nding on the edge of psychosis . Thus, the reinterpreted

46 protagonist, just as the original one, is once again a prisoner of his own consciousness. Felix
condemns himself for his daughter’ s death, and thereby makes use of the theater to avoid
reality. Moreover, in Atwood’s version of Prospero , he choos es to strand himself outside
civilization, by movin g in a secluded cottage, which is the equivalent of the island where
Prospero will live for twelve years, together with his daughter. Moreover, the prison, as a
symbol in the novel, as well as in the play, is multiplied, as the protagonist lives isolated a nd
works in an actual prison. Felix oscillates between reality and delusions ; his fantasies are
indeed his manner of trying to make sense of the anguish and sadness , which overwhelms him,
especially after his daughter’s death . Those imaginations are intert wined with his perception
before a prison scene in which the reader is no longer sure that all those fantasies are in the
mind of Felix. In this manner, the mind of the character also becomes a prison, just as in the
case of Prospero.
To such an extent, tw elve years after Miranda’s death and Felix’ s rem oval from the
festival, Estelle, a character who becomes the living embodiment of the auspicious star, tells
Felix that his teaching initiative in the prison is put to question by those in high position and ,
if the literacy program taught by Felix does not prove itself to be fruitful, then the ministers
will cancel it (Atwood 67 -73). One of t he ministers is Tony and, in the same manner as it
happened in the play, the auspicious star delivers the enemies to the protagonist’s island, that
is, the prison, where Felix plans a very close t o reality play for the guests.
Felix defines a prison as “any place or situation that you’ve been put in against your
will, that you don’t want to be in, and that you can’t get out of” (Atwood 122 ). Shakespeare’ s
play also portrays several prisons, with the island itself being the clearest representation .11
Nonetheless, the conceptualization of Felix that a prison is a place where people are held
against their will suggests that each individual is battling their way out of some sort of
metaphorical prison , whether it is a job, a friendship, some sort of sorrow, the family, or the
past. Furthermore, the fact that in the novel the actual institution of the prison is turned into a
workpl ace only reinforces the symbolistic side of the confinement, as being all present and
relevant, since prisons can be of all type s, more literal or metaphorical , and for all people.

11 Caliban is a virtual prisoner of his animal instincts, while Ariel used to be a prisoner of the pine clove before
Prospero arrived on the island, only to be turned into Prospero’s prisoner by being forced to fulfill his wishes in
the hope of being freed. Antonio and Sebastian from the Neapolitan party are prisoners of their own wish for
power, while Trinculo and Stephano are prisoners of their limited education and their drinking vices. Nobody on
Prospero’s island is totally free, including Prospero himself, who is initially limited by his wish of psychological
revenge.

47 Moreover, the novel conjointly portrays the duality of the Felix character by differentiating the
distinct prisons wher e he is spending his existence .
Notwithstanding , the novelty which Atwood adds to the numerous Shakespeare
rewriting s is the use of the pl ay-within -a-play device within a novel . As Emily St. John Mandel
observes, “In Hag-Seed, Atwood opts for, well, the play itself. When he learns that his enemies
will be delivered into his hands, Felix decides to stage an unusually interactive perfor mance of
The Tempest in the prison ” (Mandel, The New York Times ). In this sense, the novel becomes
the frame in which Felix will set up the real Shakespearean play, The Tempest , while living the
play himself, but in the contemporary setting. Thus, the multiplicity of the prisons will serve
Felix hi s different plans and purposes —the cot tage represents the place where he can live with
his daughter and fulfill his paternal role, while the actual jail, where he works with the inmates,
has the function of fulfilling Felix’ revenge plan and they both act in Felix’ mental framework:

Felix fin ds pleasure in engaging with the outside world again, although it doesn’t make
Miranda any less real. He’s drawn to Estelle, the professor who supervises the program,
but doesn’t act on hi s attraction because “ he has a dependent child, and those duties
come first.” His relationship with reality is uncertain. When he’s not caring for his
ghostly daughter, he obsessively tracks his enemies across the ocean of the internet.
(Mandel, The New York Times )

Thereafter , the novel’s protagonist becomes a disproporti onate rewriting of Shakespeare’s
Prospero. Additionally, the choice of names is also important in the novel, as they are
representative indicators for characterization and for the contemporary equivalents of the play’s
characters . Accordingly, as Prospero means “the favored one ,” Felix is a name that comes
“from a Roman cognomen meaning ‘lucky, successful,’ in Latin ” (behindthename.com) . Then,
in the contexts of the play and the novel, both of which portrays the male protagonists as dealing
with tremendous disdains and misfortunes, it seems as if the names are attributed somehow
ironical ly; the names portray whatever Prospero and Felix lack and have to work in order to
achieve. Prospero’s sorcery and his books are translated with Atwood by means of
Shakespea re’s plays directed by Felix in very glamorous or exorbitant ways; for instance, his
staging Pericles involve s extraterrestrials (Atwood 13) and h e puts a performance of Macbeth
with chain saws (Atwood 22 ). To this extent, for Felix, theater and Shakespear e himself
become his beliefs, a type of religion, towards which he expands his life, a point seen with the
staging of The Tempest in prison.

48 Jones and Denman argue , in “Notes of a Conversatio n on Shakespeare’ s Tempest ,” that
“the subject, then, of this play ( née The Tempest ) is l ife—our life. The char acters are
personification s of what is found in the human soul, and, accordingly, i n the social life of the
race” ( Jones and Denman 394). This affirmation of human existence could also be applied to
Hag-Seed , since the novel examines ways in which life’s events are unforeseeable and ever
changing for the individuals. In this sense, Felix, the contemporary portrayal of Prospero,
embodies actual and relevant issues, which haunt people, without their being aware of it. Felix
is the only character in the novel that the reader sees developing, as he is at first confused and
bitter with treason and grief and , later on, he plunges into recreations of Shakespeare which, in
actuality, give him a purpose of exi sting. Mor eover, through theatrical representations,
although in an odd environment, that is, the prison, Felix heals and succeeds into letting go of
the fantasy of his daughter, i n the same manner as Prospero did with Ariel, a fter finishing his
revenge plot . In this way, ironic as it may be, Felix frees himself with the help of a real and
contemporary prison.

3.3. Father and Children in Hag-Seed
Shakespearean characters are by excellence manifold in nature , many of them pursuing
different stages throughout the pl ay and Prospero is one of them; his complexity is underlined
by Felix himself in Hag-Seed , as he tries to make sense of the character that he embodies, both
literally and metaphorically . Felix himself observes in a moment of retrospection “So many
contradi ctions to Prospero! Entitled aristocrat, modest hermit? Wise old mage, revengeful old
poop? Irritable and unreasonable, kindly and caring? Sadistic, forgiving?” ( Atwood 179 )
Although it seems that he cannot comprehend Prospero’s complexity, Felix is repres entative
for all those features as well , and it is in his character’s confusion and ambiguity that the novel
takes its deepest, most intriguing turns. For instance, Felix both claims , and does not think that
his ghostly daughter is alive. He is serious at times and yet, at other times he is putting an entire
act, especially in Estelle’s presence, who, as already stated, is not the love interest in the novel,
but the equivalent of the auspicious star from the play . Moreover, Felix assumes his vengeance
is justified , as he fulfill s his scheme and locks his rivals in a surreal nightmare of an immersive
theater experience . Still, in at least one way , the ruthlessness is amplified dramatically by the
fact that Felix knows what it is like to lose a child, telling one of the ministers, who came to
see his Tempest , that his son has died. Thus, this brings forth aspects of parenthood, and an
element that is meaningful to address is the relationship between Felix and his children or the
figures that could be seen as hi s children.

49 Hag-Seed is at its haunting, most enchanting as Atwood focusses on the interaction
between Felix and his lost daughter , Miranda , since Felix transposes his imagination in the real
world of the novel – he is acting as if his daughter is alive a nd growing before his eyes . Every
evening he makes it back to his cottage , after his work at the prison , and he looks forward to
seeing her. In The Tempest , Miranda is imprisoned as surely as Caliban and Ariel and, b y the
end of the novel as well , it begin s to occur to Felix that , if Ariel wishes to be exposed to the
world, maybe the lost girl in his cottage is waiting for the very same , as it seems that the novel’s
Miranda is rather a representation of Ariel than of Prospero’s daughter. Ann Blake argues in
the article “ Childr en and Suffering in Shakespeare’ s Plays ,” that the children portrayed in the
bard’s plays are pure and they lack any imperfections, as they are meant to be tender and pacify
the parents’ souls: “ These children are tender -hearted and loy al, brave. Moreover, they are free
from adult vices, and emphatically innocent ” (Blake 293) . This argument is also true of Hag-
Seed , since Felix translates the fantasy of his daughter as a perfect one, unattained by the
outside world. Furthermore, despite the fact that she gets to the age of adolescence by the time
Felix let s her go, she does not grasp all the customary characteristic of this period that can be
observed with other teenagers, such as Jessica, Shylock’s daughter in The Merchant of Venice
and her contemporary counterpart, Beatrice in Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson . In
the same sense, it can be assumed that the original Miranda in The Tempest does not develop
into a traditional adolescent , with all the mental and bodily changes that occur , and that
Prospero himself wanted to have an intact daughter, up until the point when he gets to put his
plan in motion. Blake also tackles upon c ontempor ary literature regarding youth’ s schooling ,
which usually open s with a perception of the child ’s inherent imperfection as entities wh ich
ought to be carefully supervised and harshly monitored for their own benefit, so that “soon
rational faculties will be sufficiently developed to restrain natural evil impulses ” (Blake 294) .
Attributing this argument to b oth Prospero and Felix, it can be assumed that this is the type of
education that the play’s and the novel’s daughters received from their respective fathers. As a
result , their education could be read as patriarchal, although in the case of Felix, the same
reading could not be applied to his version of a daughter, who is merely a fantasy.
Consequently, Miranda is a ghost too, flowing in and out of the air i n her father’s home,
in Atwood’ s disturbing reinterpretation. Although the lost kingdom ca n seem fair ly
insignificant in Hag-Seed , a theater festival being incomparable to the kingdom of Milan , the
festival was everything Felix had, and the lost daughter adds a layer of agony different from
the action of the play . As years fly by in isolation, surviving off his investments and retirement
plan, Felix is consumed by vengeance, but he tends to pretend that he is not lonely. When he

50 discovers that he can finally hear his daughter talking , he chooses to move past depression and
he seeks employment in the nearby prison , teaching literacy class . There, together with Felix,
the inmates analyze and stage Shakespeare and the program rapidly becomes widely popular.
However, as mentioned before, Felix could be considered the father of another
allegorical Miranda. Felix is a wid owed parent, just like Prospero, but the difference in Hag-
Seed is that the girl is lost , when she dies unexpectedly at the age of three . Shortly after the
burial, Felix plum mets into a new development of The Tempest , which he promises that it wil l
be his most avant -garde and creative output so far, as he himself will play Prospero. In this
manner, Felix plans to resurrect his beloved Miranda on stage. However, the question remains
as to who is going to fill in the gap left by Felix’ daughter. The answer does not cease to appear,
as Atwood introduced a new character, who acts as a symbolic daughter for the protagonist,
both in rea l life and on stage. A nne-Marie Greenland was supposed to play Miranda in The
Tempest , but the play got cancelled when Fe lix was fired. When he first discovered her , she
was sixteen and “so eager, so energetic” (Atwood 16) , and he felt as if he rediscovered his
daughter:

Through her, his Miranda would come back to life […] Felix himself would be Prospero,
her loving fath er. Protective —perhaps too protective, but only because he was acting
in his daughter’s best interests. (Atwood 16 -17)

However, after the twelve years’ time -gap, when Felix decides to stage the play with the
inmates, he decides to ask Anne to play the Mir anda part, although the prison’s management
is not content with the bringing of a woman from outside in the same room with a group of
prisoners; this is, however, Atwood’s manner of portraying Miranda’s living on an island with
somebody like Caliban, who g ives in easily to animalistic behaviors. The allegory of the
contemporary actress in the prison as Miranda on the island is also admitted by A nne-Marie
herself, who states that Felix is acting like a protective father, when the two of them see each
other t o discuss the play: “You’re in character already. […] Playing my overprotective dad. But
you know teenage girls, they desert their adored daddies the minute some young ripped stud
heaves into view” (Atwood 141) . What Anne is describing concerns aspects o f teenage hood,
which normal as they may be, are unacceptable in Felix’ mind. In his belief , his daughter should
be exactly as the initial M iranda, although she is charmed when meeting Ferdinand. However,
Felix , in this conversation with Anne -Marie , is mor e concerned by Anne’s bad manners, than
by her leaving his side by the end of the play; therefore, this only reinforces the argument

51 regarding the fathers wanting the pure st form of their daughters, the form which is forever
innocent.
Atwood is playing wi th the assumptions that were known about the play, as she
emphasize s Prospero’s patriarchal nature. After Felix shares his fatherly essence with his
symbolic Miranda, A nne-Marie, he wonders whether her big eyes are as such because of the
project she just a ccepted to be part of , or out of fear; thus, he puts to question the father –
daughter relationship, to the extent of thinking that in The Tempest Miranda may not be
accepting Ferdinand as a result of the awe moment she lives upon seeing him, but because she
may think that this is her way of escaping her possessive father:

He has a split instant of seeing Prospero through the gaze of Miranda – a petrified
Miranda who’s suddenly realized that her adored father is a full -blown mani ac, and
paranoid into the b argain. […] The poor girl is trapped in the middle of the ocean with
a testosterone -sodden thug who wants to rape her and an ancient dad who’s totally off
his guard. No wonder she throws herself in the arms of the first sane -looking youth who
bumbles her way. Get me out of here! is what she’s really saying to Ferdinand. Isn’t it?
(Atwood 143 -144)

Nonetheless, Felix dissolves this interpretation, although its relevance as a contemporary
reading might be plausible. However, this same analysis could be easi ly dismantled by the fact
that Miranda might not have any idea about what is outside the island’s borders. Living on a
secluded piece of land for so long does not actually teach one about behaviors and people of
the outer world.
Felix’ doubts could still be applied to the father -daughter relationship between himself
and A nne-Marie, when he was taken aback by his fervor of recreating the exact enactment of
The Tempest. Since her identity as Miranda is only limited and symbolical, Anne -Marie might
have certa in concerns in regard to how the staging of the play will happen. This is why, during
Felix’ revenge play, A nne-Marie comforts Freddie O’Nally, who is Ferdinand’s embodiment
and who gets the same treatment as the original character, that is, he is separate d from the
others and put in some other cell of the prison together with the actress playing Miranda. When
Freddie gets scared and confused, Anne explains everything that is happening and tells him
that the man behind it all is “a lunatic ” (Atwood 216) . This underlines the fact that while Felix
might see a potential daughter in Anne -Marie , she does not really reciprocate the feelings, as,
while she accepted to play the part in Felix’ revenge plot, she is not really sure about his mental

52 state. Somehow simil ar to the play, Anne -Marie and Freddie are also falling in love, as Felix’
revenge plan unfolds. Furthermore, the scene between the two young lovers is happening while
all the other representations of Antonio, A lonso and Sebastian are dealing with the fant asies
put in motion by Felix and some prisoners from hi s class, in another cell, which is the
equivalent of the magic banquet Prospero organizes for his enemies , but, of course, Atwood
decides to place digital instruments, which are more attainable than so rcery books (Atwood
224-225).
As mentioned already, in his revenge plot, Felix is helped by the actual prisoners, to
whom he taught Shakespeare for twelve years. With them, t he novel tackles upon societal
criticism, when it comes to the literacy program th at Felix teaches the prisoners. Their
capacities of understanding and critically analyzing the plays have been depreciated . Indeed, it
can be agreed that the inmates are reluctant to engage with Shakespeare, but it is then proven
that they not only interac t with the productions , as a result of Felix’ confidence and dedication,
but they also have extensive and informative role descriptions until each play they perform at
the end of a year is complete. This reinforces the idea that, even without a broad audie nce,
Shakespeare supersedes time. With the prisoners’ help, however, Felix not only got to put on
stage the play that he did not have a chance to perform as Prospero, but he also found himself
a new family. As stated before, Caliban and Ariel could be seen as children of Prospero and,
in the same manner, the prisoners could be perceived as Felix’ children, especially the ones
who play Caliban and Ariel, because they raised the most important questions regarding their
identity as the respective characters.
In Hag-Seed the two fantastic figures received new forms, as Ariel has decided to
become an alien (Atwood 103), rather than a fairy, a decision which makes sense, when
thinking that , in the novel , the real fairy is Felix’ lost daughter, Miranda, while Cali ban got to
be a modernized character, with a talent for making rhymes in rap songs:

My name’s Caliban, got scales and long nails,
I smell like a fish and not like a man –
But my other name’s Hag -Seed, or that’s what he call me;
[…] He prison me up to make me behave,
But I’m Hag -Seed!
(Atwood 174)

53 Considering that Caliban has been despised by the audiences across time, just as much as he is
hated by the characters in the play, Atwood’s approach of turning him into a contemporary,
likeable prisoner is a n interesting choice. Rap songs are appealing to the public by and large
and there has also been an interest in reviving negative characters in literature and film,
attributing them new nuances. Thus, t he novel leads up to a spectacular conclusion of grim
calamity, with a brilliant addition that looks at the inmate chara cters contemplating what they
would want to happen next to each character in The Tempest . In this manner, Caliban is given
the opportunity to explain himself through the eyes of the prisoner who portrayed him and who
ended up identifying with him. Moreover, Felix also becomes empathic towards the character
which also gave the title to the novel, that is, the Hag -Seed . Through these two contemporary
characters, Prospero and Caliban are given a second chance at bonding as father and son, at
least symbolically . Even the characters of the novel believe that there is a chance for the two
of them to be biologically relate d and the line uttered by Prospero —“this thing of darkness I/
Acknowledge mine” (V.i.276 -277)—to mean more than just a relation of subordination
between the two. This is also reflected by Anne Blake’s argument in regard to the education
that Caliban receives from Prospero: “That view of the young is perhaps reflected in
‘schoolmaster ’ Prospero’s efforts to ‘nurture ’ the d ark nature of the ‘hag – seed’ Caliban, and
his own noble daughter” (Blake 294) . Thus, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, in
this contemporary reading of The Tempest the relationship between parents and the ir children
is put to question and is given new nuances that resemble lessons for both parts.
The novel itself ends in a gracious manner, with Felix, Anne -Marie and the rest of the
inmates -cast discussing a ninth prison, which they consider to be the play itself. In this sense,
Felix argues that:

“The last three words in the play are ‘s et me free,’ ” says Felix. “You don’t say ‘set me
free’ unless you’re not free . Prospero is a prisoner inside the play he himself has
composed. There you h ave it: the ninth prison is the play itself.” (Atwood 275)

With this, whether Felix also meant that , just as Prospero, he will als o be a prisoner of his own
art and expectant of forgiveness and freedom, is left for debate. However, this interpretation
could be possible in the light of the many symbolic prisons that both the play and the novel
depict. After all, Prospero frees everyone else in the play, in the same manner as Felix does in
the novel; both writings break the fourth wall, where the audiences and the readers are engaged,
as they have to decide if Prospero and Felix will be freed. With this, each decade’s audience

54 and reader give other nuances and interpretations to the play and the novel, as both protagonists
are, thus, ever incarcerated and ever freed. The quest ion remains whether their respective child
figures are also forgiving them with each staging of the play and each reading of the novel.

Conclusion
With Margaret Atwood’s rewriting of The Tempest , the bard’s relevance is proved once
again as shifting with various voices. As in the contemporary version s of the play —the many
productions in which The Tempest has been presented throughout time —Hag-Seed preserves
Shakespearean aspects, while having original elements assigned to it , such as the appeal for a
certa in type of music, new meanings concerning human relations and questions in regard to
identi ty. The playwright ’s connecting the magnitude of a character , such as Prospero , with the
vagueness of the play itself makes for an appealing performance in any centu ry and, without a
doubt , the novel succeeds in inducing similar perceptions of the story. Across centuries,
different social contexts brought into light different perspectives and distinct readings of the
same play, with the characters’ congruit ies being q uestion ed, from Prospero’s assuming power
and control over the island, to Miranda’s innocence and incapability to see the different shades
of grey of the world , and to Caliban’s important role in raising awareness in regard to societal
issues.
Prospero in The Tempest could be perceived as a patriarchal figure by means of the
ways in which he raised his daughter and taught Caliban language ; both of them are
subordinated to Prospero’s impulses and to his revenge plan. Miranda is put to sleep whenever
her fath er does not want her to find out something, while Caliban is treated badly whenever he
does not behave to Prospero’s conformities. Another child figure is Ariel, treated as harshly as
Caliban, but the tone of Prospero ’s voice changes throughout the play, a s his plan develops
accordingly. Sociolo gically speaking, this father -children relationship is mainly characterized
by a certain lack of emotional bonding, as traditionally emotional support is given by the
mother and, in the absence of a mother figure, Mi randa has to deal with certain emotions on
her own ; of these may be her seeing Ferdinand for a first time and already falling in love with
him. Without any clear example in social behaviorism, Miranda acts upon instinct, just as she
cusses at Caliban for b oth his trying to abuse her and because that is what she sees her father
doing. There are no certain clues as to whether Prospero raised his daughter to be more like a
man, with him preparing her to lead his kingdom one day, but her femininity traits are somehow
given by traditional patterns of innocent behavior, which she draws upon when meeting
Ferdinand.

55 Furthermore, in the contemporary environment of Hag-Seed , rather than social
behaviorism, mental health is put up to question, as Felix, Prospero’s emb odiment in Hag-
Seed , deals with mourning and deep feelings of vengeance, as he isolates himself, only to live
exactly like Prospero, with Felix actually being aware of it. To such an extent, the novel
provides different parallels between the novel and the play, tackling upon issues regarding
reality in contrast to fantasy, with the protagonist having to process the different stages of grief,
while making sense of his existence. To such an extent, the literary instrument the play -within –
a-play-within -a-novel , provides the character in the story with the necessary means to
overcome his issues ; in other words, Felix uses The Tempest as his getaway from the real world,
by literally living in it. Last but not least, the different types of prison and enslavement are also
important in both the play and the novel, since they are representative for the portrayal of
contrasting ways of life, as those imprisoned lead their existence in a continuous loop of
anguish and, as paradoxical as it may appear, Felix is freed by the prisoners themselves.

56 4. Filling the Parental Gap: The Gap of Time by Janette Winterso n

In the present chapter I will discuss how children can represent the salvation of their
own parents, when the former are symbolic for changes and the hope for a better future, while
the latter stand for decay and the ugliness of the passing of time, as represented in William
Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Jeanette Winterson’s reimagined novel, The Gap of Time.
Thus, it will be prov ed how both the play and the novel are relevant to the theme of the passing
of time, in direct correspondence to familial bonds and the dynamics of power struggles in
regard to the relationships between parents and children in both the seventieth and the t wenty –
first century.
Just as discussed in the previous two chapters, in the Hogarth Shakespeare collection
of the Bard’s rewritings, the novel becomes an instrument for rendering new interpretations for
familial aspects, such as power struggles and familia l bonds. Thus, The Gap of Time by Jeanette
Winterson, being the first novel published within the project in 2015 , plays with analogies by
placing her reimagined work as a reaction, rather than a revision of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s
Tale. Her role as a (r e)creator of the play was also rendered simpler by the fact that she was
completely straightforward in her heart when it came to the issue of which play she should
approach ; Winterson has argued : “All of us have talismanic texts that we have carried around ,
and that carry us around […] I have worked with The Winter’s Tale in many disguises for many
years […] And I love cover versions.” (Winterson qtd. in Hirschfeld 444) The cover version
label , that Winterson attributes to her rewriting of The Winter’s Ta le, is in this context on point,
since there is a sweet, mel odious rhythm to Winterson’ s contribution to Shakespeare’ s play.
As mentioned before, children play important roles in Shakespeare ’s works , with their
innocence being a catalyst in the adult’s rec ognition of their misbehavior and mistakes. In his
article “Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and the Myth of Childhood Innocence, ” Thomas
Kullman discusses Shakespeare’s including children in pivotal roles:

Shakespeare had a thing for children. Not only do they appear in his plays far often than
in the work of any of his contemporaries, but they are also given the quality of being
perfectly innocent, and thus, as a group, opposed to the adult characters, most of whom
becomes a prey to sinful temptations and mental derangements. (Kullman 328)

57 In this sense, The Winter’s Tale portrays childhood virtue as the answer to the issues which
arises due to the parent’s lack of righteousness. The same happens with The Gap of Time , in
which Winterson tackles the signif icance of the lack of communication and the sociological
symbolism of the family relations. Moreover, both the play and the novel engage in the subject
of psychological affairs, psychosis and their implications in family matters , which are more
prominent a nd more elaborately discussed with Winterson’s twenty -first century rewriting.
The Winter’s Tale is an unu sual play, being often described as far -fetched or
exaggerated, in the sense that it does not follow the classical structure of a play (time, place
and action)12, according to which the action shou ld not exceed twenty -four hours and its having
introduced mythical elements still does not make up for some of the missing explanation found
in the play, such as Hermione’s resurrection from death. This is prob ably the reason why
Shakespeare introduced Time, the equivalent of the Chorus in the Greek tragedies in the first
scene of the fourth act, as a way of making up for the skipping ahead sixteen years into the
future at the certain point during the action. However, the literary critic G. Wilson Knight
argues that these inadequacies of the play should not be disregarded ; on the contrary, the
audience must “understand them as important tonal building blocks that help comprise the
play’s beautifully indeterminate vision ” (Wilson Knight qtd. in Bloom13, 57). Therefore, the
play surpasses time and space, with its elements of action in the same light of singularity as
The Tempest . Furthermore, with such complex characters as King Leontes or King Polix enes,
Shakespeare dwells on psychological matters, while pertaining romantic and comical elements.
To such an extent the literary critic J. I. M. Stewart reads the play under psychoanalytical
circumstances, having Freudian theories as foreground, arguing that “ Leontes’ jealousy is
rooted in an unconscious homo sexual desire for Polixenes ” (Stewart qtd. in Bloom , 58).
Furthermore, Winterson dwells upon the homoerotic side of Leontes’ and Polixenes’
friendship, giving it actually a backstory, thus making up for the missing info rmation in the
play, which does not give reasons for certain patterns of behavior found with some of the
characters.
Jeanette Winters on focuses on the fault of time found with Shakespeare, using
temporality as a symbol throughout the novel. Furthermore, s he makes up for certain
misconducts in the plot by using a contemporary device, very famili ar to most of today’s

12 A classical play should follow the following rules: 1) the action should take place within 24 hours; 2) the action
should take place in one geographical location/ setting; 3) one main plot and no sub -plots shou ld be played.
However, like many other Shakespearean play, The Winter ’s Tale does not follow these rules.
13 All references to Bloom’s text i n this chapter are keyed to Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages – The Winter's
Tale. (2010 ).

58 consumers of literature, that is, videogames. Thus, all the mythical elements and any other
surreal aspects are rendered in a very realistic ma nner through Polixenes’ character equivalent
in the novel, who is Xeno, a present -day and fanciful videogame designer, whose mysterious
identity generates the suspense that transforms the action through out. Leontes’ role is also
differently rendered in the novel, as he becomes an investment management trader, who us es
wealth and prestige to intimidate his way around the globe and the business world. Hermione
becomes Mimi , an artist, a singer of soul music in Winterson’s rewriting of the play and in this
manner music becomes an important symbol in the novel as well . Space is also transferred
from the play to the novel, with slight changes; the imaginary world of Sicily and Bohemia in
Shakespeare’s play becomes the cold London and a sunny southern American cit y, reminiscing
of New O rleans in Winterson’s The Gap of Time .

4.1. Parents and Children in The Winter’s Tale
The Winter’s Tale is a deeply complex play, with mythical elements tangling with
aspects of Shakespearean realities, such as the introduction of c hildren, as answer to the adult’s
sorrow. The play pictures the story of five children, since, beside Florizel, Perdita and
Mamillius, the King of Sicilia, Leontes and the King of Bohemia, Polixenes, could also be
considered as being part of the children’s group, since the play opens up with two of their
respective servants talking about how the two kings grew up to gether and how their friendship
will stand the test of time , although adulthood separated them physically; in this sense Camillo,
the Lord at Le ontes’ court tells Archid amus , who is a Bohemian lord, that :

They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such
an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities
and royal necessities made separation of their society, their encounters (though not
personal) have been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving
embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a
vast; and embraced, as if it were from the ends of opposed winds. (I.i.19-28)14

Therefore, this description of Leontes’ and Polixenes’ friendship foreshadows, through the use
of the words “cannot choose but branch,” the friendship between their children, Perdita and

14 All references to Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale are keyed to the Wordsworth Classics edition, edited by
Cedric Watts (2004) . Quotations to act, sc enes and lines will be given parenthetically in the text.

59 Florizel, a lthough the use of the adverb “now” is inaccurate, since another sixteen years will
have passed until the kings’ relation with his friend Polixenes, another king, is taken back to
its course. In the same discussion, Camillo and Archid amus also mention Mami llius, the King
of Sicily’s son, who, they believe, will grow up in a beautiful manner, perpetuating their
fathers’ friendship. However, Leontes’ son death creates a rupture between the two worlds and
their leaders, until the point of Florizel and Perdita finding out the truths about the girl’s royal
origins.
Furthermore, g iven that one of the most astounding aspects about The Winter’s Tale is
the presence of the time gap, one angle of which the play could be read is the differences
between the young and th e old generation s. To such an extent, the play explores the disparity
between the parents and the ir offspring’s development. The older generation, represented by
Leontes and Polixene s, is liable for the disunion of family and friends, enormous hurt and
suffering , as they are unable to communicate their misunderstandings . When the youth comes
of age , that is, when Perdita and Florizel grow up to their adolescent period , their love and
affection for one another has the effect of reestablishing familial connec tions and augment the
hope for a more positive future. Still, the younger generation cannot erase any of Leontes’ sins.
Young Mamillius’ and old Antigonus’ irreversible deaths stand as caution ary examples that
certain things and some people are lost perman ently and can not be revived ; thus, mistakes have
to be taken account for, which is an ironic teaching, since, with Shakespeare, the father Leontes
has to learn this lesson of morality, which was taught to him by his own children – Perdita’s
finding her pl ace of origin and Mamillius’ death. Richard P. Wheeler discuses in his article
“Deaths in the Family: The Loss of a Son and the Rise of Shakespearean Comedy ” the
implications of Mamillius’ death:

But even in The Winter’s Tale , with its powerful ending cen tered on the recovery first
of the lost daughter Perdita and then of the lost wife Hermione, it is the death of
Mamillius earlier that restores the connection to reality which Leontes has lost in his
madness, even as it empties that reality of its life. (W heeler 153)

Thus, Leontes seems disconnected from reality altogether, until the moment he realizes that
Antigonus and his son are not going to be brought back ; this is the detail that actually led to his
being anchored back in reality. However, a lthough t he first three parts of The Winter’ s Tale are
dominated by Leontes’ anger causing misery and distress, the latter half of the play is more
about love, repentance and rebirth. The real identity of Perdita is discovered , the daughter is

60 reuni ted with her fat her and mother, Hermione, who is in fact “resurrected” from the dead, as
the character s from Greek tragedies , whose stories are resolved by the Deus Ex Machina
device .15 Furthermore, Paulina and Camillo, whose roles have been that of bringing a sense of
serenity to the story, will share their affection for each other, and, in a sense, will add to the
symmetry of the story. The triumphant conclusion of the play not only preserves domestic and
political s tability but also provides a positive vision of mankind. Be that as it may, t he first
three acts of the play are dark and transmit a sense of claustrophobic atmosphere , as they are
set at the Sicilian court. This atmosphere is mainly the product of the envy and dictatorship of
Leontes, which dominates much of the first half in the play , as King Leontes , poisoned with
jealousy, imprisons his wife , Hermione, plans Polixenes’ murder, abandons his newborn
daughter, Perdita, and attracts Mamillius’ early death.
The mood of the play changes radically a s the setting mo ves to Bohemia, after sixteen
years since the dreadful events caused by Leontes in Sicily. In Bohemia, where the spring
festival of sheep -shearing is ongoing, the love between Perdita and Florizel blooms. The
celebratory atmosphere dims momentarily when Po lixenes threatens the contentment of the
young couple, but the heavy mood begins to lift almost as soon as the Bohemian cast make s its
way to the Sicilian court, where Florizel and Perdita sail to, after being persuaded by Camillo
to do so .
On the same ide a about childhood innocence, Polixenes describes his friendship with
Leontes, during more peaceful times, before adulthood got in the way of their relationship.
Polixenes claims that they were like “twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’ sun,” (I. ii. 67). His
using this metaphor provides a clear image of the simplicity and the happiness they enjoyed as
children . This description also implies that during their youth years, Polixenes and Leontes
were remarkably similar ; thus , through this metaphor of joint union in friendship, Polixenes
underlin es the fact that through their guiltlessness, all children represent the sameness and
equality all people should enjoy . Moreover, by using a simile, which directly compares the two
boys with lambs, only reinforces the ideas of purity and innocence. Only during their adulthood
this lovely portrayal of the virtually identical boys by Polixenes inevitably led to something
darker:

We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’ sun,

15 A plot device through which an issue that is apparently impossible to solve in a story is unexpectedly and
suddenly resolved by an unforeseen and improbable occurrence.

61 And bleat the one at the other: what we changed
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill -doing, nor dreamed
That any did. Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne’er been higher reare d
With strong er blood, we should have answered H eaven
Boldly, ‘Not guilty’; the imposition c leared,
Hereditary ours . (I.ii.67-75)

Fascinating enough is the fact that Polixenes regretfully believes that if they had remained
young and innocent , Leontes and himself might not even have been “guilty” of the original
sin16. Thomas Kullman argues that “Polixenes indulges in memories of childhood perfection
which almost take on a transcendental quality and make him challenge a central religion
doctrine” (Kullman 318) . In other words , Polixenes implies that if they had become interested
in carnal experienc es, which is entailed by the expression “stronger blood”17, they would have
been able to remain without sin . This could be an indication of the conclusion of youth, which
occurs the moment they develop more profound feelings towards women, being presumably
the argument towards Polixenes ’ and Leontes ’ not being as similar as they once were.
Furthermore, Polixenes’ description could also be read as another foreshadowing of what
happens through Leontes’ mind right after this scene, when he accuses his friend an d wife of
having an affair.
An important, but controversial, symbol in the play is the bear, which attacks and kills
Antigonus, after he abandons Perdita in the middle of nowhere. On one hand, the interpretations
are layered and many of them revolve aroun d Leontes’ inhumane decision to disregard his own
child; thus, the bear acts as a warning for Leontes’ decisions. However, the bear mauling is
believed to be , in fact , Antigonus’ punishment for being compliant to Leontes’ coercion. On
the other hand , sever al other literary interpretations revolve around the fact that the occurrence
of bear mauling appears to mirror stereotypes of fertility rituals .18 As the literary theorist Jean
E. Howard argues, these fertility rituals could also involve the sacrifice of a n elderly man in
order for the spring season to come faster , which would carry a certain reproductive fulfilment

16 The concept of “the origi nal sin” is the belief that all human beings are born defiled as Adam and Eve had been,
after they sinned in the Garden of Eden, according to the Genesis chapter of the Bible.
17 Referring to “men’s passion and desires .” (Cedric Watts, in “Notes on The Wint er’s Tale ,” p. 128)
18 These fertility rites might conclude with the sacrificing of “a primal animal, which must be sacrificed in the
cause of fertility or even creation .” (Aniela Jaffé, “Symbolism in the Visual Arts,” p. 264)

62 (Howard , “Theatricality, Artifice and the Mended World ” 6). This last reading of the scene
makes the most sense in the light of the parent -child relationship of the play, since Perdita could
be seen as a symbol for spring in the sense of rebirth, while her father is representative for
winter and the decaying of nature.
Accordingly, the presence of the passing of time, as well as that of the different season s
is relevant in reading the way the connections between parents and children develop throughout
the play. The first half of the play is set d uring the freezing winter months at the court of King
Leontes. The one who signals the season of the action is Mamillius , who tells his mum “A sad
tale’s best for wi nter” (II .i.26), after Hermione asked him to tell her a story . The frigid season
appears entirely fitting in a place where Leontes’ cold-hearted actions lead to the loss of his
family and his friend, as it causes the very worst of possible mi series . Furthermore, in this
scene, Mamillius act s as a representation of the calm before the storm, since he prepares to tell
his mother a tale fit for the present season ; thus, he is somehow dehumanized into becoming
an instrument with a dramatic functio n.
However, in the second half of the play, t he Sicilian winter collapses into the Bohemian
countryside, sixteen years later, during the spring, a season which is mostly connected to
growth and rebirth. Fittingly, Bohemia is a vibrant land full of hope and youthful spirit s. It is
where the lovely Perdita grew up, after being found by Shepherd and his son, Clown, who
raised her as their daughter and sister, respectively. In the fourth scene of the fourth act, Perdita
is compared to the goddess of flowers, Fl ora, by Florizel, Polixenes’ now adolescent son:

These your unusual weeds, to each part of you
Do give a life: no shepherdess, but Flora
Peering in April’s front. This, your sheep -shearing,
Is a meeting of the petty gods,
And you the Queen on’t. (IV.iv. 1-5)

Without their acknowledging yet, Perdita really is of royal heritage ; thus, the play dwells once
again on foreshadowing of the following action, when Perdita will find her true identity , a thing
which reflect s Cedric Watts’19 assertion, according to wh ich “part of the irony, of course, is
that [Polixenes] opposes the prospective ‘cross -breeding’ of his noble son with the supposedly

19 All references to Watts’ text in this chapter are keyed to the introduction of the Wordsworth Classics edition of
The Winter ’s Tale (2004 ).

63 low-born Perdita. Another part is that she is not ‘low -born’ at all” (Watts 17) . Therefore,
Bohemia is still not only the p lace where the youthful love of Florizel and Perdita blossoms ,
but also the location where almost everything seems probable, particularly during the vibrant
festival of sheep -shearing , although Polixenes resembles somehow a patriarchal figure in his
stance against his son’s friendship with Perdita . The festival is quite iconic, given that in a
previous scene Polixenes compared Leontes and himself with lambs , and it is during this festive
event when the king will meet Perdita, without his knowing who she rea lly is. Moreover, in
most cultures, the cutting of hair represents change and the hoping for a better life, which falls
perfectly in place with the children’s bringing good fortune with thei r travelling to Sicily, in
Act Five . There the freezing Sicilian l andscape is completely changed . Leontes welcomes his
guests with content: “Welcome hither,/ As is the spring to th’ earth ! […]” (V.i. 151-152)
Leontes, whose winter -like life in Sicil ia has been enduring for sixteen long years, suggests
with these words that Florizel’s appearance is like spring’s emergence after a long and cold
season , since, as Arlin J. Hiken observes in the article “Shakespeare’s Use of Children ,” the
fact that “ Shakespeare’s interest in the child that he increased the age of the boy to all ow him
to be a speaking and part -taking actor” (Hiken 247) . Therefore, the spring is also an indication
of the newer generation taking the place of their parents. Moreover, the youthful influence of
Florizel and Perdita seems to have a calming impact on th e king and his ailing court, which
never fully healed from Hermion e and Mamillius’ deaths and the loss of his daughter . Thus, it
might be assumed that Florizel and Perdita , as representative for the new generation in the play,
carry the spirit of the sprin g with them and fill the pla y with passion, comfort and forgiveness .
Hermione’s statue is one of the play’ s most controversial issues and René Girard argues
in his article “The Crime and Conversion of Leontes in The Winter’s Tale :” “The statue scene
is a u nique reversal of a relationship between truth and illusion, being and non -being ” (Girard
63). When Paulina invites everyone to see the statue of Hermione in the final act of the play,
everybody believed Hermione’s death because they knew her heart had bee n broken, as Paulina
announces in the second scene of the third act . This is why everyone seems utterly shocked at
seeing that such a realistic and stunning statue has been created by an artist , and even more
stunning is the fact that the statue even sugge sts the artist to have taken into account how
Hermione would have aged over the years. When Paulina calls for music and says “’Tis time:
descend; be sto ne no more; approach; […] (V.iii. 99) Hermione comes down from the pedestal
and embraces Leontes. Certa inly, for the characters and the audience , this is a pretty moving
scene. However, t he question remains whether Hermione is brought back from the dead or she
was alive throughout the play, but kept hidden by Paulina, so that Leontes would not be able

64 to hu rt her . It could also be believed that Hermione is magnificently and perplexingly brought
back to li fe, when her daughter, Perdita, is back home .
Be that as it may, all these symbols and elements draw upon the bonds established
between parents and childre n. In this sense, as a father, Leontes primarily failed his son,
Mamillius, who , as Hiken observes , “is closer to his father than to his mother” (Hiken 247) .
This is also seen in reverse, as this scene reveals a lot about the father –son relationship, on
which Shakespeare dwells. In his outrage and burst of jealousy, Leontes think s whether
Mamillius is also the result of adultery from Hermione’s part, but dismisses the thought
immediately, thinking how much the boy resembles him. The moment when Mamillius’ d eath
is announced presents the deep feelings that exist between father and son, as this moment
exhibit s a greater grief on Leontes’ part, greater than the moment of Hermione’s death. This is
even more distressing, as the audience finds out by the end of th e story that , while the
equilibrium is reestablished with Hermione’s resurrection and Perdi ta’s coming back home,
Mamillius’ death is permanent. With this, justice seems to be served and life seems to have its
course back, the story having an almost happy ending, with the characters reunited and the
families rebound.

4.2. Parents and Children in The Gap of Time
Jeanette Winterson describes The Winter’s Tale herself by the end of The Gap of Time :
“It’s a play about a foundling. And I am. It’s a play about f orgiveness a nd a world of possible
futures —and how forgiveness and future are tied together in both directions. Time is
reversible” (Winterson 284 -185). All these aspects were kept in her contemporary rewriting of
the play. In this sense, Winterson begins her novel The Gap of Time with the subtitle “cover
version” and with this she raises awareness towards what the readers are about to encounter
within the pages. Generally speaking, the term “cover version” is usually used in connection
to pieces of music, reinterpreted by other artist than the original performer of it, because they
are either an admirer of the original performer of the song or they want to restate the relevance
of a certain musical piece. Therefore, in Winterson’s case, she performed a Shak espearean
piece as well, proving its relevance after its four decades of existence, with only slight changes,
as to make it more appealing to the contempor ary consumers. Furthermore, the title of the novel
is a most fitting one, since Time in the original play has been a disputed subject among scholars
across centuries, as stated in the previous subsection of this chapter :

65 And the world goes on regardless of joy or despair or one woman’s fortune or one man’s
loss. And we can’t know the lives of others. An d we can’t know our own lives beyond
the details we can manage. […] And time that runs so steady and sure runs wild outside
of the clocks. It takes so little time to change a lifetime and it takes a lifetime to
understand the change. (Winterson 269 -270)

With Winterson, Time finds its important place as well, since in Shakespeare’s play, it was a
most peculiar introduction . However, its pertinence is unquestionable, because of its literal
healing powers, the ability to make amends and to bring people back together. In this manner,
The Gap of Time follows the mapping of the play point by point, with alteration only in what
concerns the names of the characters, the setting, the action being transported to more familiar
places for the readers , and some aspects of the action and its meanings, since the medium
allowed Winterson to dwell largely on the characters’ inner world s. Thus, the novel provides
lengthy explanations and reasoning for most of the characters’ actions, as the psychological
element plays an imp ortant part in the novel.
One of the difficulties of “covering” Shakespeare would be dealing with the incredible
coincidences of the plot, which may seem effortless on stage but, disorganized on page. In this
respect, The Winter’s Tale might be especiall y troublesome as it depends heavily on the
persistence of doubt when advancing to its very cheerful conclusion. Nonetheless, Winterson’ s
ability for expressing unspoken sentiment s with strong lyricism produces a group of
protagonists whose perspectives are compelling and often difficult to experience, utilizing the
special potential of the novel to illustrate the actors’ innermost thoughts .
In this cover novel, King Leontes is Leo, an arrogant, paranoid post -crash London
hedge -fund manag er and his friend , King Polixenes , is Xeno, a dreamy, introverted video
games developer. Winterson invented a back story about a deep ly rooted sexual connect ion
between the two, making Leo’ s overhyped anger and unreasonable jealousy much more
believable at the outset than it was in the original. Leo keeps his negative mindset and takes
the same decisions as in the play and, in a description attributed by Ren é Girard to Leontes,
there is easily observed a mirror image between the original character and its reinterpreted
counte rpart:

The traditional critics have always found Leontes simultaneously disturbing and
unintelligible. Complaining that his jealousy is “insufficiently motivated,” they find

66 him unsatisfactory as a protagonist of “serious drama.” (Girard , “The Crime and
Conversion of Leontes ” 54)

In this sense, Leo is certain that Xeno and Mimi are having an affair and that the child she is
bearing is not his. Leo attempts to attack Xeno in a rather violent scene in a parking lot. After
the baby is born, Leo fails to acce pt her as his and w ith a suitcase full of gold, he gives her to
his gardener , Tony, and pa ys him for bringing her to Xeno, on a different continent, in New
Bohemia. Tony , feeling that thieves are trailing him, covers the baby in a Baby hatch (a spot
for aba ndoned babies). She is discovered by Shep and his son Clo, who take her home and raise
her as part of their own family . They e ven discover a diamond bracelet, money in a suitcase
and a piec e of sheet music entitled Perdita, which becomes the baby’s name . Back in London,
Leo takes Milo and attempts to catch a fligh t to Berlin to escape from Mimi, but the child does
not want to go and runs right into the direction of an approaching vehicle from his dad. After
this, Leo and Mimi divorce and she leaves for Pari s, where she is going to exist only as a half –
person, that is, secluded, away from the people’s eyes . Leo , thus, has to live with his acts that
contributed to the death of his son, the loss of his daughter, his wife and his best friend.
Meanwhile in New Bohemia , Perdita grows happy and loved. The readers meet her after almost
eighteen years from the initial events of the story, when she organizes a birthday party for Shep ,
her adoptive father . There is also Zel, Perdita’s boyfriend and Xeno’s son. Xeno is a lso at this
birthday party, disguised, and after a conversation with Perdita, secrets related to her origins ,
which have been buried for a long time , begin to emerge . Thus, she wants to locate and question
her biological father.
With all its violent scene s, the novel presents a subtle cultural criticism of male
chauvinism , and the accompanying brutality fueled by wealth flows significantly under the
exterior of the novel. However, this is only part of Winterson ’s catching the emotional weight
of her tales w ith sentences that flame along, stunning, unpredictable and fast. Piece by piece ,
the plot escalates, and characters become increasingly complex and dramatic .
The parent –child relationship is given new meanings in Winterson’s cover version,
according to the contemporary times and the sociological componence of the family in the
twenty -first century. For instance, the novel place s a lot of emphasis on the relationship
between Xeno and Zel, who are th e embodiments of Polixenes and Florizel. If the play only
focuses on them from the father’s point of view, in regard to whom his son should marry, then
the novel presents Zel as being a very rebellious teenage boy, with a father more absent than
present in his life , as he himself declares: “My dad’s my dad, but I don’t know him. He could

67 be anybody’s dad. I could be anybody’s son” (Winterson 173) . With this, Zel gives way to the
traces of an identity crisis, caused by his own father’s absence. However, things change
throughout the story , as the father learns from his own son’s kindness and, as Bruce Young
argues, “paradoxically, parents humble them selves in some sense before the child or receive
renewed life from the child to whom they had earlier given life ” (Young 199) . Thus, besides
the already known con clusion of the story, with Leo/Leontes, Mimi/ Hermione and Perdita
brought back together, the novel also provides closure to the father –son relationship between
Xeno and Zel: “Zel hesitated. Then he smile. Xeno hesitated. Then he smiled. ‘I’d like to get
to know yo u.’ Zel hesitated. ‘I guess I’m walking down there. You walking too?’ (Winterson
281) In this father –son moment, both of them are breaking the walls buil t around themselve s
and are trying to overco me the coldness in their souls, caused by their own sorrow; Xeno’s
over losing Mimi and his friend, Leo and Zel’s over losing something that he never even got,
that is, a father figure. Thus, going back to Bruce’s remark over parents’ humbleness, in this
instance Xeno changes his attitude, in order to gain human c onnection, which is, as the novel
presents, more valuable than any assets one might have. Taking into consideration Thomas
Kullman’s observation, according to which “it is children who take a natural part in this order20
while adults may be tempted to leave or even destroy it” (Kullman 325) , then it can be assumed
that in both the play and the novel, the older generation destroy s the natural order of the state
of affairs, which should flow naturally and uninterrupted . In this sense, the child ren need to
repair the adult ’s injuries.
The protagonists are contemporary but the action in the novel maps itself to the play.
Wint erson’ s substitution of Leontes’ court with the financial markets of today —the true s eat
of contemporary influence —is insightful and humoro us, and Xeno’ s technical forays into
virtual reality offer her freedom to maintain any of the more surreal aspects of the play without
interfering with the authenticity of the story . In Winterson’s novel, the characters of the older
generation, the parents , are intriguing character s, with Xeno being fluid in his homoerotic
existence, loyal to both the rough Leo and the gracious Mim i, although Xeno does not let his
friend to overpower him. However, t he bonds are ruined by the fact that Leo can not stand
shari ng his loved ones with others. There are frequent jolts , nonetheless , given her loyalty to
Shakespeare’ s plot, Winterson continues to hold to the original, while attributing the story
certain elements which might compel today’s literature consumers. Her ve rsions of the play’s

20 Thomas Kullman refers to a “ natural order characterized by perfection and innocence” which might have been
present in the Sicilian realm , before Leontes’ outrageous decisions towards his family, in The Winter’s Tale.
(Kullman 325)

68 protagonists are given vivid backgrounds, such as Leo’ s psychosis caused by his own parents’
missing from his childhood and the homoerotic suppressed feelings for his friend, Xeno . An
observation made by René Girard in regard to Leonte s’ and Polixenes’ friendship is on the
same wavelength with Winterson’s reinterpretation of the novel, since it insists on how the two
men grew apart, in spite of their lamb -like innocence:

Childhood friends are as far from actual sin as any two human bei ngs can be; all they
exchange is innocence for innocence. And yet, as they grow up, they turn to ravening
wolves, either simultaneously or successively; it does not matter. Even in these lambs,
especially in them, the potential for evil is enormous and per fectly continuous with the
innocence in which it is rooted. (Girard , “The Crime and Conversion of Leontes ” 55)

In other words, while both the play and the novel does not present any true villain, it does not
exclude evilness, which can root out of the pas t’s childhood innocence , maligning whatever
was considered pure in a first instance . Furthermore, the homoerotic component of the novel
adds to Girard’s observation about the children’s innocence as being removed by the time they
reach adulthood. However, in comparison to other plays written by Shakespeare, The Winter’s
Tale, although it resembles a tragedy at times, supplies the necessa ry elements for a happy
ending —forgiveness and the opportunity of righting a wrong, which can also be found with
Winterson ’s The Gap of Time , as they are the main subject matters of the novel.

4.3. Filling the Parental Ga p
In contemporary literature on education, such terms as “continuous learning” occur,
where the education is associated not only with the formal discipline that the child might
acquire, but also with the instructions given by the parent to the child. In this sense , Ann Blake
discusses the implications of parenthood in the primal steps of a child’s upbringing:

Contemporary writing on the education of the you ng begins with a sense of the innate
imperfection of children as beings who must be closely watched and severely
disciplined for their own good, in the hope that soon rational faculties will be
sufficiently developed to restrain natural evil impulses. (Blake 294)

These evil impulses, noticed by Ann Blake, are the adults’ experiences and gathered bitterness
throughout life; thus, the parents feel a certain need of controlling their offspring, in order for

69 them to avoid certain mistakes that they have done when they were young. This tendency of
control is seen with both Shylock and Prospero, in their relationship with their respective
daughters, as well as with a father figure in The Winter’s Tale and its contemporary rewriting,
The Gap of Time , both of whic h present Leontes not merely a s a patriarchal figure, but a s a
dominant person, driven in his judgement by greed and a need for controlling those around
himself, starting with his own wife and his childhood friend. Thus, in comparison with Shylock
and Pros pero, Leontes’ psychological nature leads him to eventually abandon his daughter,
without a paternal blessing or at least a couple of words denoting well-being.
Jeanette Winterson even go es to such an extent as turning Leontes/Leo into an abuser,
both physically and mental ly, for his wife, Hermione/Mimi and his friend, Polixenes/Zeno.
Transforming the action of the play into a compelling, almost cinematographic one, Leo almost
runs Zeno over with his car, into a metaphorical maze, that is, a parking lot, a fter which he
violates his own wife, in a deep state of anger. Thus, the novel emphasizes the undetected
mental problems that Leo might confront with, such as lack of empathy, sociopathy and even
a mild psychosis or, what Ren é Girard calls “mimetic desire ”21:

Leontes resembles the way in which Shakespeare himself long applied the mimetic law
in his own theater, creating plays from which innocence was practically banished.
Innocence was especially impossible in the case of triangles involving childhood
friends. (Girard , “The Crime and Conversion of Leontes ” 52-53)

With such outrageous decisions especially towards his childhood friend , Win terson transmits
the abnormalities of Leontes, present with Shakespeare in the first place, since, Leontes not
only proves to not having the capacity of fulfilling his duties in the role of a father, but he is
also driven by unnatural forces, which condemns him to turn to an inexplicable trivial
aggression s exactly to those towards whom he should only show affection.
By the e nd of The Gap of Time , Mimi is revealed to be back home , in an emotional
piano concert to which all the other characters participate; thus, in a similar moment to that of
The Winter’s Tale, the good is restored and families are reunited. However, there is one more
aspect that needs to be considered in discussing familial relations in both the play and the novel.

21 René Girard refers to the mimetic nature of desire, which “ is such that the characters can be called jealous or
snobbish depending on whether their mediator is a lover or a member of high society,” which could be attributed
to Leontes, who is mediated in his a nger by both his wife (lover) and his friend, King Polixenes (a member of
high society). (Girard, Deceit, Desire and the Novel , 1965, p. 24 -25)

70 Jeanette Winterson includes herself in the story, claiming her role as an omniscient narrator, in
a postmodern moment of breaking the fourth wall a nd addressing directly her readers, much in
the same manner as Prospero does with his audience, by the end of The Tempest . This time
though, Winterson ends by claiming that she left the characters in the theater for now and she
went out to take a walk “in the summer night” (Winterson 284) , then the novel continues with
her own analysis of the play and, more precisely, the characters. She also ment ions Shakespeare
and his lack of enthusiasm when it came to families and their existence: “Shakespeare was not
an enthusiast of familial life; would you want to be raised by a Montague or a Capulet? Would
you want parents like Hamlet’s parents? ” (Winterson 286) However, with presenting the
negative side of family life and the links between parents and children, Shak espeare actually
anticipates Freud; Shakespeare “puts the threat where it really is: on the inside,” as Winterson
observes (Winterson 288) . In The Gap of Time , the writer actually ponders upon this
psychoanalytical side, especially on one parent’s side, th at is, her version of Leontes , thus
focusing to a greater extent on the meaning of fatherhood and the significance of the
interactions between fathers and their children . His psychosis persist s throughout the story, up
until the end, when it seems that it disperse s as if by magic, when he sees his wife singing on
stage; the familial calmness presented at the end seems almost therapeutic. However, just as
seen in the pl ot, there is proof throughout the novel that Leo and his son, Milo, were very close
as wel l: “Leo hugged Milo. They loved each other. That was real” (Winterson 24) . With this ,
Leo proves his share of fatherhood affection, although Xeno accuses him of placing his work
above his family, a thing on which he blames the previous generation: “We had horrible
families. Every generation gets the chance to do it better” (Winterson 36) . In the same manner
as the play, certain elements foreshadow certain events; thus, Xeno’s assertion acts as a warning
for Leo’s following behavior. However, as Ren é Girard notices, all this negative behavior
found with Leo/Leontes is not proof of evilness:

Among the plays of unfounded jealousy, The Winter’s Tale is not unusual solely for its
innocent childhood friend and its innocent wife. Something else makes it exception al
in its category, and it is the lack of a villain. (Girard , “The Crime and Conversion of
Leontes ” 53)

Thus, all these patterns of behavior from Leo’s part are underl ying the fact that he is not the
villain of the story, as he also takes part in the teac hings provided by the younger generation’s
innocence, which include the premature death of his son. Furthermore , Leo is a balanced

71 rewriting of the Leontes character, with the added psychotic characteristics, which are filled by
his own familial experience s as a child.
In Winterson’s version of The Winter’s Tale , the man who finds Perdita and actually
adopts her is given a greater part than in Shakespeare’s, with Winterson emphasizing on the
importance of a parent in a child’s upbringing. In this sense, the novel begins with Shep, who
is Shepherd ’s contemporary equivalent . Furthermore t he two fathers of Perdita, Shep and Leo,
are presented in antitheses, since the former is transparent and loving, while the latter is self-
centered, determined only upon gaining wealth and strength. Whereas the play skips ahead the
moment of Leontes’ and Shepherd’s meeting, the novel fills this gap with an interesting
discussion between the two fathers, which gives way to two different perspectives on
fatherhood :

‘[…] I fig ured that anyone who could abandon his own child wasn’t fit to be a father.’
‘I didn’t believe Perdita was my child,’ said Leo. ‘I thought she was Xeno’s.’
‘I knew she wasn’t mine,’ said Shep, ‘but I loved her.’ (Winterson 261)

Consequently, the novel pre sents the children as being mirrors o f their parents, as seen in the
case of Xeno and Zel, both of whom embody the same cold attitude for each other. However,
Perdita has acquired Hermione’s beauty and grace, Shep’s kindness and generosity, but she
seems t o have nothing genetically inherited from Leo, as Georgianna Ziegler also observes in
her article “ Parents, Daughters, and That Rare Italian Master :”

Perdita turns out to be much more her mother ’s child […] we recognize that her honesty
of expression, […] and even her physical appearance are inherited from the Hermione
[…]. And all of this comes about despite the lack of her mother’ s presence or that of
another worthy gentlewoman in her upbringing. (Ziegler 210)

Thus, while Leo highlight s the import ance of blood and genetics in raising a child, Shep, whose
position on the social scale does not compare to that of Leo’s, has a healthier approach to
parenthood and considers the responsibility of father ing a child as being placed itself above
heredity or any other egotistic mannerism.

72 Conclusion
Where W interson offers us descriptions of the characters’ behaviors , Shakespeare
creates gaps in which the reader s are encouraged to construct their individual interpretations.
Finally, the provision of transpare nt or straightforward explanations would have been
simplistic, as they close down the intervention ist challenge provided by Shakespeare.
Winterson’ s response is The Gap of Time ; thus she herself, part of Shakespeare’s audience,
fills the gaps of time left by the Bard . Through her novel, she place s a lot of emphasis on the
familial relationship s and the beneficial effect of the passing of time that the contemporary
world take s into considerations when it comes to human connections. This is also something
that Shakespeare dwells upon in his later plays, as Winterson asserts herself in The Gap of
Time : “Shakespeare knew all about revenge and tragedy. Towards the end of his working life
he became interested in forgiveness” (Winterson 285) . In other words, forgiv eness is one of
the results of moving forward in time; with both the seventeenth -century Shakespearean play
and the twenty -first century novel written by Winterson , people forgive and forget, repent and
try to resolve past issues.
In regard to repentance , it is safe to say that , in both The Winter’s Tale and The Gap of
Time , parents are the one s to atone their mistakes, with Leontes/ Leo trying to make amends,
after literally banishing all his loved ones, only for him to realize his overreactions later in l ife.
With the novel, however, he even gets a set of explanations and a backstory, which makes him
a little more sympathetic than the play’s version of the same character. Be that as it may, he is
not the villain of the story; on the contrary, he could be c onsidered to be the embodiment of a
lesson that can be learned in any social context and at any given time. Moreover, c hildren
represent the bind that close the vicious circle opened by the adults, as their innocence and
candor act as pivots in resolving t he past’ s issues, with Mammilius/ Milo symbolizing the
primacy of violence thrown upon himself and Perdita and Florizel/ Zel depicting the flourishing
and hope for a better future.
Furthermore, in reference to the m any of the coincidences found with Shakes peare, they
sound indeed a little exaggerated , but they are only a reflection of the Bard’s ability to use them
relatively liberally and still to put together an exhaustive plot, which enable s a negotiated
settlement among the protagonists. Winterson uses these coincidences to the novel’s benefit,
by giving them a psychoanalytical component that provides the text with certain
understandings and new meanings, which may have not been available when Shakespeare
wrote the play, but which were somehow predicted. Be that as it may, Jeanette Winterson’s
cover version of The Winter’s Tale only prove s the relevance in contemporary times of the

73 sociological component that the play entails. Through transfers of certain elements, such as
characters or events, the novel, as a more consumed literature format, accommodate s an old
story that can stand alone as new.

74 Final Remarks

All things taken into consideration, it goes without saying that William Shakespeare’s
timelessness is given by his approaching real, sim ple issu es that people will always face, as he
placed them in dynamic settings that entertain audiences of all ages and in any historical
moment or social context. The Hogarth Shakespeare project , released at the turning of four
hundred years from the Bard ’s last play being published , is only a wise decision to be made in
order to attract the younger generations towards the classical literature and in order to please
those already familiar with the original texts. In this sense, both the plays and the novel s dwell
upon actual matters and familial relationships this will always be a present subject on the
individual’s mind, whether interpreted from a sociological or literary standpoint. Thus, new
historicism and cultural memory are theories which only prove f urther the importance of such
a rewriting project, since they not only give way for a better understanding of the plays through
contemporary interpretations , but also provide the theoretical framework for the adaptations.
Moreover, Shakespeare seems to ha ve presented family portraits in a significant
number of his plays, although he often depicted it throug h a rather negative perspective and
thus, from an anthropological point of view , the differences between family dynamics
nowadays in contrast to four ce nturies ago represent a purposeful aspect to assess. Family is a
boundless topic in itself, pertinent for every period of time and having different areas of
interpretation according to each social context. Thus, the media whereby each story is
transmitted also has a vital function, with the play leaving very little room for debate , while the
novel can facilita te a broader spectrum of reader’ s expertise because of its length . Furthermore,
while , in a play, family has a dialogic representation, which includes theatrical performance of
dramatic characters, then a novel may present characters in their raw complexity, with various
other forms and ideas being broadly expressed.
Therefore, in regard to the different media which accommodate each story discussed in
this paper, it is safe to say that the novel does not only serve as a means of envisaging old ideas
as new, but it also provide s a place for resolution, for such prominent characters as Shylock,
Prospero or Leontes, who are seen in the twenty -first century as being authoritarian, insomuch
as to reaching patriarchal points. In order to have a broader understanding of the (re)interpreted
father -daughter relationships discussed in this paper, I have also taken into account the
sociological symbolism of the cont emporary text, with Erik Erikson’s descriptions of
adolescence in the foreground.

75 This has been especially the case in the second chapter, where both Jessica and her
contemporary counterpart, Beatrice were on the verge of attaining adulthood and confusion
was present with both of them; however, while Jessica seemingly has not enough words in
order to describe her state of mind, Jacobson helps her in this sense by creating Beatrice, a
fierce teenager, although confused, still having a deep rooted sense of s elf. By presenting her
thought process on paper, the novelist only proves that teenagers have complex understanding s
of reality and their surroundings, in spite of their lack of experience. Jacobson presents
parenthood at its utmost point, during a most co nfusing time, that is the child’s adolescence,
which can gather around the teenager and his or her parents a certain tension that most often is
left unexpressed , and frustration can appear on both sides. Thus, the daughters in the play and
the novel reflec t the issue of parenthood and family similarly and differently, according to each
of their contexts. Regarding the father figures of both The Merchant of Venice and Shylock is
My Name , Shylock is, without any doubt, the model by which the character Strulov itch is
constructed, as they both spread throughout their origin texts, through their multi -faceted and
menacing presence in their respective stories. However, in what concerns Shylock, he is
inserted in the novel, where he gets his voice back and has the chance of explaining his
reasoning behind the decision s portrayed by The Merchant of Venice . He has a mysterious, but
compelling presence in the novel, as it seems that , with Jacobson , he attains a rather
philosophical aura, gathered through history, with each reading or staging of the play.
Another character that seems to have transcended time and space is Prospero, who
receives his place of glory in the collective and cultural memory of the literary sphere. Just as
in the case of Shylock, with Atwood , Prospero is portrayed through his counterpart, Felix, who
appears as manipulative and domineering as the original character created by Shakespeare. In
regard to the relationship of Prospero and Felix with their respective children, this portrayal is
done diff erently with Atwood. Sociologically speaking, this father –child dynamic is
distinguished mainly by a certain lack of maternal connection, since the mother usually offers
moral guidance and, in the exclusion of such a figure, Miranda , Prospero’s daughter, has to
cope with those feelings on her own , as her father seem s to be emotionally unavailable , because
of his quest for revenge. Moreover, in the current world portrayed in Hag-Seed , rather than
social behavioral psychology, mental health is called into que stion, as Felix, the epitome of
Prospero in the novel , deals with grieving and strong feelings of retribution, as he alienates
himself, only to live secluded, exactly like Prospero, with Felix actually being aware of that.
The parent -child relationship rec eives a twist with Atwood, as Felix loses his daughter, who is
also named Miranda, only for him unconsciously to be in search for a child . Thus, as I have

76 already proved, through emphasis on the different types of prison that exists, including the
mind its elf, Atwood deals with sorrow and unconventional types of parent -child connections.
Unconventional portrayal could also be an appropriate description for the way s in
which Jeanette Winterson deals with forms of parenthood in her adaptation of The Winter’s
Tale, entitled The Gap of Time . Through her novel, Winterson highlights the family
relationships and the significant impact of the time passing , which the current culture takes into
account when it comes to social interaction s. Thus , compassion is one of the outcomes of this
passing in time with both the play and the novel, as people forgive and forget, repent and
attempt to solve previous mistakes. In regard to atonement, it is safe to say that, in both The
Winter’s Tale and The Gap of Time , parents are t he ones to be subject ed to asking for
forgiveness, with both Leontes and his contemporary counterpart, Leo, trying to make amends
after abandoning their children. While the play focuses solely on the performative side of the
story, portraying rage and jeal ousy as they are destroying families and long -lasting friendships,
then the novel has a psychoanalytical side to it, with the characters receiving space for
explanations and the past circumstances that brought them on the verge of madness. However,
as alre ady mentioned, children are going to be the solver s, with both Shakespeare and
Winterson depicting childhood innocence and lack of experience to be the answer s to the
adult’s unending problems.
In spite of Shakespeare not having sociological or psychoanaly tical terminology during
his time in order to further express his character’s mental processes, he seems to have
anticipated the studies that his characters would be assigned to. With each protagonist
constructed in a contemporary setting , I have only stre ngthen ed the idea that Shakespeare
created ageless patterns of behaviors with his characters. The portrayal of parents in connection
to their children and the expansion of their relationship is of utmost importance to analyze with
both the Shakespearean pl ays and the contemporary novels, since they are frames for
understanding modes of living and the way people interact with each other. Therefore, it is
most fascinating to observe how , in fact , the differentiation between past and present is
obtained on the child’s part, while the mother and especially the father are represented almost
in the same manner. Indeed, Shakespeare conferred much attention to the children he inserted
in his plays, with them having key roles throughout the action of his plays; howev er, the reality
was different and most often than not, the children were unable to express most of their feelings.
On the other hand, nowadays, children, be the y younger or older, are encouraged to express
themselves freely and to make choices for themselv es. With all the confusion during
adolescence and lack of hope, some of the decisions the youth would make are bound to upset

77 their parents , but nowadays this is considered part of their identity developmental process ,
through which they must pass.

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