Father and Daughter in Shakespeare

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Recommended: Romeo and juliet context father and daughter relations

William Shakespeare, a poet and playwright wrote many tragedies of similar ideas of young people opposed to marriages. In the story of Othello, Desdemona’s father Brabantio always invites Othello over his house to listen to his stories. Brabantio never expected Othello to marry his daughter. From the beginning of the play Brabantio believes Desdemona is his property and she is only allowed to marry men that he chooses. Because Othello is a moor and not a Venetian Brabantio does not accept him. With the story of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet falls in love with Romeo who is the son of the Montague clan. Juliet is from the Capulet clan, the enemy of the Montague clan. Unfortunately Juliet is undecided between the two and forces herself to pick between Romeo and her family. In Othello and Romeo and Juliet the father-daughter relationships of Brabantio and Desdemona and Juliet and Capulet focuses on love and possess. Similar to Juliet, Desdemona has a dilemma of choosing a lover over her family. Both works can compare to one another because of the father disagreements and greed over their daughters.

Shakespeare uses Desdemona and Brabantio as a father-daughter relationship founded on love and possessiveness because he is manipulative on whom his daughter can or cannot marry. Desdemona should have the right to marry who she wants to spend her entire life with but at such a young age her father says he knows what is best for her. When Othello meets with Brabantio and shares the news with him, he is in disbelief. He claims Othello forced Desdemona to like him by drugging her or performing a love spell on her. Brabantio says, “She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted by spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; for nature so prepost’rou...

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...ily for Romeo and so does Desdemona. After all the disagreements and years of obedience it finally came to an end when the daughters made their own decisions. The decisions might of not been the best decisions since Desdemona and Juliet were both dead at the end however, at least they passed away with happiness, knowing they made the decision to marry a man without their fathers approval. The fathers come off as possessive and loving but the bond can often be too strong. Both dilemmas between choosing lovers and family ended in death and regret.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, and Alvin B. Kernan. The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. New York: New American Library, 1963. Print.

Shakespeare, William. "." William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. N.p., 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .

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