By Amy Engle What’s Up with the Bard’s Missing Mothers?

Let’s Brainstorm! How many Shakespeare plays can you think of that have mothers? How many have fathers/father-figures? Why do you think there is such a drastic difference?

Plays with Mothers All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry V Henry VI, part one Henry VI, part two Henry VI, part three King John Macbeth Merry Wives of Windsor Pericles, Prince of Tyre Richard II Richard III Romeo and Juliet Titus Andronicus The Winter’s Tale

Let’s Look at the Facts Shakespeare wrote around 40 plays Of those 40, about half of those have mothers Only 3 of Shakespeare’s plays have a significant mother character: Gertrude in “Hamlet” The Duchess of York in “Richard III” Volumnia in “Coriolanus”

Mother/Son Relationships Mothers use sons to accomplish their own ends Negative/Dysfunctional Neglectful Cold Cruel

But Why? Shakespeare possibly had problems with his mother He wanted to demonstrate male dominance over women He was simply depicting every-day life Fathers are more necessary for certain plots

Moms in Today’s Media Think about the movies and novels that are out today, or while you were growing up (Disney). Is there significant number of missing mothers in the media? Why/why not? What kind of impact does that make? When there are mother characters, how are they depicted?

Works Cited Arehart-Treichel, Joan. Nurturing an Alien Concept for Shakespeare’s Mothers. 18, Aug., Web. 21 Nov., Jensen, Michael P. Shakespeare’s Missing Mothers Web. 21 Nov., Tsujimot, Aileen Miyuki. Where are the Mothers? Web. 21 Nov., 2010.