Pericles: The Romance Of Incest, Abandonment, And Prostitution

Pericles: The Romance of Incest, Abandonment, and Prostitution

In William Shakespeare’s reconstructed text, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, the loaded topics of incest, familial abandonment, and prostitution hold a vital part in the plot line for the play.. With such material being used in the writing of this work, one can hardly imagine this romance being anything less than gripping, orinteresting with the perversity. Written in 1607-1608, this particular romance branches off the tradition style of romantic plays in some ways. Traditionally, love conquers death and good triumphs over evil. However, at the end of this play, one questions whether or not things end happily ever after. The critic Ben Jonson states, “Pericles is a mouldy tale… and stale.” In contemplating all the differentaspects of the play, like incest, familial abandonment, and prostitution, this play can hardly be considered something that is dry and stale. Through the overall content of this romantic play, Pericles definitively proves to be an enthralling and edgy tale.
“This king unto him took a fere/ Who died, and left a female heir/ So buxom, blithe, and full of face/ As heav’n had lent her all his grace,/ With whom the father liking took, / And her to incest did provoke.” Therefore, the play begins with the readers familiarized to Antiochus, his daughter, and the incest in which they partake. The Presenter, John Gower, continues his tetrameter couplets, by stating the other conditions around the King and his daughter’s relationship. Any prince can try to win the hand of the princess, if only hecan answer the riddle; however, if they fail to guess correctly, they suffer a most terrible fate of death. Therefore, as the readers are told in the stage directions, “[A row of heads is revealed],” which further explains how “successful” previous suitors have been in the task of the riddle. With this knowledge, Pericles enters the scene trying to gain for himself a bride, and he propositions tohear the riddle. However, the incredulity of the situation is plain when Pericles reads the riddle aloud, “I am no viper, yet I feed/ On mother’s flesh which did me breed. / I sought a husband, in which labour/ I found that kindness in a father. / He’s father, son, and husband mild; I mother, wife, and yet his child/ How this may be and yet in two, / As you will live resolve it you.” The readergleans the realization that Pericles, and the rest of the suitors, are stuck in a very difficult situation. Do they accuse the king and his daughter in front of the whole court, which would mean death, or does he become beheaded in his silence?
In looking in Scene 1, alone, the audience is already captured by the absurdity of what is taking place before them. Incest is usually viewed as aperverted and twisted act that causes people to secretly talk about the family. The same can be seen of Antiochus and his daughter in that one gets the sense that the king’s subjects are already aware, since the king presents his crimes by means of a poem. In order to spare his life, Pericles loyal subject Helicanus decides it is better for the prince to flee than to deal with the king’s riddle and wrath.However, the audience later discovers in Scene 8 of a strange occurrence with Antiochus and his daughter. “His daughter with him, both appareled all in jewels, / A fire from heaven came and shriveled up/ Their bodies e’en to loathing, for they so stunk/ That all those eyes adored them ere their fall/ Scorn now their hands should give them burial.” This bizarre act of incestuous individualsturning into burned ashes may seem to go along the lines of a romance in that good clearly overcame the evil. It could also be claimed that the two lived such sinful lives here on earth that before they even died, they were forced to journey to the hellish underworld. In either manner, one can obviously see how the extraordinary nature of events would be sure to flare interest within the story from...