“What Fools These Mortals Be”

Abstract

Shakespeare’s treatment of the self-effacing solution is complicated. Self-effacing traits are among the “king-becoming graces,” which include “Bounty ... mercy, lowliness, devotion,” and “patience” (Macbeth, IV, iii); but, as we saw in the case of Henry VI, a predominantly self-effacing leader is unable to cope with a world full of aggression. Since not only kings, but all men live in such a world, self-effacing tendencies are regarded by Shakespeare and his culture as dangerous for a man, and they must be either subordinated to other tendencies or repressed. Self-effacing women are often as vulnerable as the men in the realistic plays, but self-effacing behavior is glorified in them and is, indeed, equated with “womanliness.” The women who are treated most negatively are those who are deficient in self-effacing traits, and a number of the comedies castigate or tame aggressive women. Self-effacing men are treated differently in the comedies than they are in the histories and tragedies. Since these are domestic plays that are more concerned with love than with power, the males do not have to be so aggressive. There is mockery of self-effacing behavior toward the opposite sex, whether the lover be male or female, but many of the self-effacing males are presented in a positive way, especially in their relations with other men. The most fully developed self-effacing males in Shakespeare are the poet of the sonnets, Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Duke Vincentio, Antony, Timon, and Prospero. The sonnets reveal how extremely self-effacing Shakespeare could be, which accounts for his sympathetic treatment of self-effacing males, and also how he hated this side of himself, which accounts for the mockery.