Mother's Day After-Party: Mothers in Shakespeare, Part 2
IS IT FAIR, for educators to hijack Mother’s Day as an occasion to examine the rich diversity of mother figures in Shakespeare, and also at times, their absence? I would say yes. Educators often treat such occasions as “teachable moments” when they invite students to study some text or artifact so as to better come to understand history and their culture. In Act 4, scene 4, Hamlet says, How all occasions do inform against me [...]. Sure He that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unused. (4.4.34-41) [1] Such teachable moments should not be wasted, unused. Educators have at their disposal many resources which can work a kind of alchemy to turn occasions like Mother’s Day into gold. - Biology teachers can glimpse in wonder at the workings of the human body that allow conception and breast-feeding; - teachers in the human sciences can explore Freud’s ideas about the centrality of relationships to mothers...
