Suffocating Mothers

390 Pages·1991·19.638 MB·English

by  Janet Adelman

SUFFOCATING
MOTHERS
SUFFOCATING
MOTHERS
FANTASIES OF MATERNALORIGIN IN SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS,
_____HAMLET TO THE TEMPEST _
JANET ADELMAN
~1 Routledge
i
~
Taylor&FrancisGroup
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Published in 1992 by
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LibraryofCongress catalogingin publication data
Adelman,Janet.
Suffocating mothers : fantasies ofmaternal origin in
Shakespeare's plays, Hamletto the Tempest/Janet Adelman.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-90038-7 (HB) ISBN 0-415-90039-5 (PB)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Knowledge-Psychology.
2. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Characters-Mothers.
3. Masculinity (Psychology) in literature. 4. Mothers and sons in
literature. 5. Psychoanalysis and literature. 6. Body, Human, in
literature. 7. Fantasy in literature. I. Title.
PR3065.A37 1991
822.3'3-dc20 91-29716
CIP
British Library cataloguingin publication data
Adelman,Janet
Suffocatingmothers : fantasies ofmaternal origin
in Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet to The Tempest.
I. Title
822.33
ISBN 0-415-90038-7
ISBN0-415-90039-5 pbk
Publisher'sNote
Thepublisherhas gonetogreatlengthstoensurethequalityofthisreprint
butpointsoutthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalmay beapparent.
To my father, who taught me that there was nothing I
couldn't think about,
Tomyhusband,whoselovingsupporthasmadethisproject
possible atevery stage since its inception,
To my sons, who have patiently listened to me say "when
the book is finished" for as long as they have been alive,
And to the memory ofmy mother.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
IX
A Note on Texts Xl
1. Introduction 1
2. Man and Wife Is One Flesh: Hamlet and the
Confrontation with the Maternal Body 11
3. Is Thy Union Here?: Union and Its Discontents
in Troilus and Cressida and Othello 38
4. Marriage and the Maternal Body: On Marriage
as the End of Comedy in All's Well That Ends
Well and Measure for Measure 76
5. Suffocating Mothers in King Lear 103
6. Escaping the Matrix: The Construction of
Masculinity in Macbeth and Coriolanus 130
7. Making Ddect Perfection: Imagining Male
Bounty in Timon ofAthens and Antony and
Cleopatra 165
8. Masculine Authority and the Maternal Body:
The Return to Origins in the Romances 193
VB
viii / CONTENTS
Notes 239
Author Index 364
Index to Shakespeare's works 370
Subject Index 377
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been a long timein the making. The first finished essay
incorporated into it-theessayon Coriolanus-was written in 1975
76;thefirstruminationsaboutGertrude'sroleinHamletandinShake
speare'scareerstartturning up in mylecturenotesin 1972.Duringall
these years, I have incurred a great many debts; it is a pleasure to
recordthemostpublicandnameableofthemhere,though Iamkeenly
aware of all those that I have left out.
Throughout this book's long inception, I have been blessed in my
friends and ininstitutionalsupportofvarious kinds. TheUniversityof
California has given me sabbatical leave time, sabbatical supplements
in the form ofHumanities Research Fellowships, research grants, and
travel funds. At a crucial moment (1976-77), the American Council
ofLearned Societies gave me the study fellowship that enabled me to
pursue my psychoanalytic interests in London at Hampstead Clinic
and Tavistock Clinic; both of these clinics generously allowed me to
sit in on seminars for trainees and to learn from conversation with
their faculty and students. At another crucial moment (1982-83), a
fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundationgave me the leisure (and
the confidence) toconfronttheblankpagesofwhatwould becomethe
central chapters on Hamlet and on King Lear. And from thestart, my
students and colleagues in the Department of English have provided
me with an extraordinarily challenging and supportive atmosphere in
whichtowork. Mydevelopinginterestinpsychoanalyticcriticismwas
nurturedbyseveralyears'worthofwonderfulconversationswithBrent
Cohen, my student, co-teacher, and dear friend, whose loss to the
profession during the lean years Istill mourn. Carol Christ, my oldest
friendandintellectualcomradeinthedepartment,firstmademerealize
that psychoanalysis might provide me with a language for what Ihad
been unable to talk about in my work on Antony and Cleopatra.
IX
x / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Amongthe manyothercolleagueswhohaveenrichedmylifeatBerke
ley from the start, Ithink especially ofAlex Zwerdling,Jonas Barish,
and Paul Alpers; as department chair and the first to read many of
these pages, Paul Alpers's respectful and affectionate skepticism gave
me just what I needed to go on.
During the early stages of work, I was both exhilarated and chal
lengedbyawonderfulgroupofpeopleworkingintheareasoffeminist
and psychoanalytic criticism of Shakespeare; my debt to Coppelia
Kahn, Murray Schwartz, Gayle Greene, Peter Erickson, Meredith
Skura, and Carol Neely will be obvious on every page. My debt to
Carol Neely in fact predates our work in feminism and Shakespeare:
first at Smith College and then at Yale, Carol always went before me,
demonstrating how to think passionately and lucidly about literature.
LongconversationswithJaneFlaxandwithNancyChodorowenabled
metotakecertainkindsofpersonalandintellectualrisksinmythinking
and writing; their continuing friendship is one ofthe wonderful side
effects of my excursion into psychoanalysis. At several crucial mo
ments,C.L.Barberwastheretoencourageme;morethananyoneelse,
hewasthe"goodenoughmother"thatenabledthisbook,asheenabled
the work of a whole generation of psychoanalytic critics. William
Germano has been everything I could have dreamed of in an editor,
and more: his belief in this project and his willingness to wait for it
sustained me in the final years; his friendship is one ofits most unex
pected benefits. And above all, there are four dear friends-Elizabeth
Abel, Stanley Cavell, Madelon Sprengnether, and Richard Wheeler
who have been gracious presences in my head throughout the writing
ofthisbook,enablingitevenwhenwehadnothadanaudibleconversa
tion in months. Icould not have written this book without imagining
them as its readers; in a deep sense, it was written for, and to, them.
A
NOTE ON TEXTS
All references to the following plays are to the Arden Shakespeare
editions (London: Methuen):
1 Henry VI, ed. Andrew S. Cairncross (1962)
2 Henry VI, ed. Andrew S. Cairncross (1957)
3 Henry VI, ed. Andrew S. Cairncross (1964)
King Richard III, ed. Antony Hammond (1981)
Hamlet, ed. HaroldJenkins (1982)
Troilus and Cressida, ed. Kenneth Palmer (1982)
Othello, ed. M. R. Ridley (1958)
All's Well That Ends Well, ed. G. K. Hunter (1959)
Measure for Measure, ed.J. W. Lever (1965)
King Lear, ed. Kenneth Muir (1959)
Macbeth, ed. Kenneth Muir (1972)
Coriolanus, ed. Philip Brockbank (1976)
Timon ofAthens, ed. H. J. Oliver (1959)
Antonyand Cleopatra, ed. M. R. Ridley (1954)
Pericles, ed. F. D. Hoeniger (1963)
Cymbeline, ed. ]. M. Nosworthy (1955)
The Winter's Tale, ed.J. H. P. Pafford (1963)
The Tempest, ed. Frank Kermode (1954)
With the exception of The Two Noble Kinsmen, references to all
other plays and poems are to William Shakespeare: The Complete
Works, gen. ed. Alfred Harbage (Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books,
1969);referencestoTheTwo NobleKinsmanaretotheSignetedition,
ed. Clifford Leech (New York: New American Library, 1977).
Xl