I
am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were
I but where ‘tis spoken.
How! The
best!
-Ferdinand/Prospero
The Tempest Act
I, scene ii Line 432
That’s young
Prince Ferdinand with the beginning part of today’s line and Prospero with the
retort of How! The best! This of course from The Tempest and it’s the
scene where Prospero and Miranda first meet Ferdinand. Miranda, who’s falling
in love with Ferdinand at first sight has been marooned on the island with her
father since she was a very small child. Now she’s a young woman and this is
pretty much the first young man she’s ever seen or heard. He’s replying to her,
and Prospero has begun to question his statement about being the best. The
scene becomes sort of the classic deal of the father questioning the daughter’s
first boyfriend.
Now I’ve seen this played out in zillions of sitcoms and
movies where the father is the hard-ass making life difficult for the young
guy. But I have to say, speaking from my experience as the young guy and my
experience as the father, I can’t much relate to this scene. I never remember a
father of any girl I dated (not that there were that many) trying to intimidate
me or give me a hard time. And I don’t think I ever gave much of a hard time to
any of the boyfriends of my two daughters. I dunno, maybe I’m just not
remembering this stuff. But for all the good things I say about Will and what a
good job he does of illustrating the human experience, this is one piece of it
that I’m just not so sure about.
What do you
think? Is it just me, or the way I’m remembering it? Do fathers of daughters
generally intentionally intimidate boyfriends? The funny thing is that Will did
have two daughters. I wonder how much of Prospero he drew from his own life
experiences. Now that is a good question. I wish to heck we knew a little more
about this guy so that we could do more than just wonder!
So that’s
today’s question. Does this scene (and all the others since then) about the dad
giving the hard time to the boyfriend have any basis in reality? Or is it just
a concoction of Will and Hollywood? And if it does have basis in reality, how’d I
miss that in my life? I guess only I can answer that last part. You worry about
the first part.
In the
meantime, tomorrow we can look forward to our first taste of Antony and Cleopatra.
3 comments:
What a great topic! I'm fascinated that this goes as far back as Shakespeare. I think that answers your question about whether this has a basis in reality or not: it's just timeless. It's so timeless that my father didn't even have to say or do anything, his mere presence or the prospect of him meeting my boyfriends scared them half to death.
I think this probably happens in some peoples' realities. I guess you were too chill to put yourself through such a scene.
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