Day 119: What I Learned: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Penguin Shakespeare from kobobooks.com

I'm learning that it's no fun to be a female in any of the societies that Shakespeare describes, whether they're versions of his own or versions of other times or places. Women do not come out on top. In this case, one princess is the victim of incest at the hands of her father (which, the audience is assured, is mostly her fault), while another is won in a jousting contest, only to be tossed into the sea in a trunk after she gives birth to her daughter. The daughter, also a princess, is abandoned, ordered to be murdered, captured by pirates then sold into prostitution at a brothel, while everyone argues about who gets to rape her first. It's all kinds of awful.

But don't worry, little Princess Marina (Get it? Because she was born at sea?) is so virtuous and good that she's able to fend off her would-be rapists. Because that's the real lesson here. That if a woman is virtuous enough, she won't get herself raped. And if she DOES get raped, well, you can fill in the blanks about her virtue...

So what did I learn? I learned, once again, FUCK YOU, SHAKESPEARE!