by Sandra Piddock

Created on: July 30, 2011

In her book, ‘The Shakespearean Marriage: Merry Wives and Heavy Husbands,’ Lisa Hopkins remembers the words of her English teacher, a redoubtable spinster of the parish who introduced the subject of marriage in a pithy, no-nonsense manner. ‘All (Shakespeare’s) comedies end with marriage, and all (his) tragedies begin with them.’ That’s an accurate benchmark for marriage in Shakespeare’s plays.

Shakespeare obviously didn’t read the manual on ‘How to write a good fairy tale,’ because, in his plays, none of the married couples are destined to ‘live happily ever after.’ And there’s the rub, to borrow a line from ‘Hamlet.’ Shakespeare didn’t write stories, though he told a good tale which still resonates almost 500 years later - he wrote about life and the human condition.

Life as Shakespeare knew it and saw it was Elizabethan life, and the attitude to marriage was totally different to modern aspirations and perceptions. Marriage was a merger of important families, more of a business arrangement than a lover’s match, and this comes across in the plays. On the rare occasion where marriage comes about through love alone, it often ends in tears.

The two most obvious examples of this are in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Othello.’ In both cases, the marriage is against the wishes of the parents, to someone they consider unsuitable. The Montagues and Capulets are families at war, so marriage between the families is unthinkable. When the unthinkable happens and the young couple end up dead as a result, the parents see the error of their ways, but of course, it’s too late for the ‘star crossed lovers.’

Lady Capulet would have Juliet marry her parents’ choice, Paris, who is wealthy and would provide Juliet with everything she wanted – apart from love. However, Juliet is already secretly married to Romeo, so she cannot marry Paris. Juliet consults Friar Lawrence, who conducted the marriage and offers her a potion to take on her wedding day. It’s a strong sedative that will make Juliet appear dead, and once the wedding is off because of the bride’s premature demise, the Friar will help Romeo and Juliet to escape from Verona and live happily together.

Like all good plans, something goes wrong, and Romeo doesn’t receive the message about the plan. He just learns that Juliet is dead, and poisons himself at her

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