Mother's Day "Deep Dives" via New York Shakespeare - panel discussion

REGARDING MOTHERS IN SHAKESPEARE, video of our discussion with Rodney Hakim, host of “Deep Dives” at New York Shakespeare, is now available in two parts at YouTube:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/THvwuGYKQcA?si=fgn2EceaGkiQN8AJ Part 2: https://youtu.be/7-g43NcarOM?si=1WaoNEnAUgGtknTJ

There are things I wish our discussion might have had more time for.... These include:

1. Among reasons for mothers often being absent in Shakespeare plays, one may have been that both monarchs Shakespeare lived under had their mothers executed. I might have extended this idea: If one is writing plays that one may perform before the monarch, one might downplay or omit the presence of mothers in deference to them.

2. Some assume that Lady Macbeth was never a mother, but in fact she refers to having nursed a babe, and often uses milk and nursing figuratively. Lady Macbeth in 1.7:
“I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.”

3. In Hamlet, there are many references to pregnancy and mothers:

Gertrude has a rich character arc, from the wife of a king who had an affair with her husband’s brother, and married the brother after her husband’s death, to the mother who speaks of her “sick soul” in 4.5:

“So full of artless jealousy is guilt
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.”

She disobeys Claudius when he tells her not to drink from the chalice, perhaps attempting to save her son from what she may suspect is poison. I explore her character arc in one of my most popular blog posts:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/10/gertrude-as-recipient-giver-of-gifts.html


I believe when Hamlet tells Gertrude in 3.4, “when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you,” he may be implying a comparison between his mother as a widow, and the widows in the biblical tales of the Prophets Ezekiel and Elisha in 1 Kings 17:7-16, 17:17-24, and in 2 Kings 4:1-7, a tale about a widow’s efforts to save her sons from the burden of a dead father's debts. These I explored in a previous series:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/11/hamlet-to-gertrude-when-you-are.html

Polonius’ (“you’ll tender me a fool,” 1.3) worries about Ophelia getting pregnant and embarrassing him;

Hamlet to Polonius regarding Ophelia:
“Let her not walk i' th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but not
as your daughter may conceive.” (2.2)

Polonius’ reply:
“How pregnant sometimes
his replies are!” (2.2)

Hamlet calls Claudius his mother:
“My mother! Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is
one flesh; and so, my mother.” (4.3)


Hamlet uses the phrase “my mother” about 12 times, and in a figurative sense,  “pregnant” (or “unpregnant”) twice.

Ophelia in 4.5 speaks of rue: “We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays.” Many have noted that rue was long considered an abortifacient. (See here
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4254050

and here.)
https://medicalhealthhumanities.com/2017/11/26/ophelias-rue/

But even without these extra ideas, the discussion went very well!
You can hear us Sunday on Instagram:

Pauline Kiernan, from Liverpool,
Royston Coppenger, from Hofstra University,
host Rodney Hakim of New York Shakespeare,
and me, from Minnesota

Please consider joining us! 

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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

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