I have been reading this book, "Domination and Defiance: Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare", and of you take away the traditional roles of the father and replace it with the more modern way that mothers are more likely to also have to play the role of the fathers (single mothers... or someone like Cindy who refused to allow George any say in how Casey was handled)... it really is very enlightening to what Cindy and Casey's relationship was like.
There are four types of Dominating Fathers...
The reactionary... Unwilling to release their daughters into adulthood, the reactionary fathers studdornly refuse to acknowledge that their daughters have grown up. Instead of moving on to the next stage of their lives, they cling tenaciously to their old power and authority. In politics, people seldom give up power willingly. So it is in the politics of the family.
The mercenary... The mercenary fathers prize their daughters as valuable possessions, failing to see them as individuals. Instread of allowing them the freedom to develop into mature women, they cling tightly to their daughters, unwilling to release their treasures to other men.
Interesting outtake from the book...
But by far the most reprehensible father is Polonius, who is not only mercenary, but a crafty manipulator. He uses everyone, including his own offspring, to aggrandize himself and increase his power. Act II, scene i, reveals much about Polonius's relations with his children. He sends Reynaldo to Paris to spy on his son, and Ophelia rushes sutifully in to report her most recent encounter with Hamlet. This scene demonstrates his blantant disregard for their privacy. He does not respect them as individuals; they are only pawns in his elaborate game of power and intrique.
The Egocentric - Like mercenary fathers, the egocentric fathers dominate their daughters, but for different reasons. While the former treat their children as objects to be sold, traded, or manipulated, the latter perceive their offspring as parts of themselves. In Jungian terms, they suffer from inflated egos, the inability to distinguish between self and other.
Another interesting outtake...
The lauguage of many fathers in Shakespeare demonstrates the degree to which they suffer from this blurring of ego boundaries. Lenato, in Much Ado, is crushed by Hero's aparent betrayal and loss of chastity, suffering even more deeply because he identifies with her. A widower with an only child, until now he has conceived that much-loved child as part of himself. The plethora of first person pronouns in the following passage demonstrates the depth of his identification:
Grive'd, I, I had but one?
Chid I for that a frugal natures frame?
O, one too much of thee! Why had I one?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not with charitable hand
Took up a beggars issue at my gates,
Who smirched thus and mir's with infamy,
I might have said "No part of it is mine;
This shame derives itself from unknown loins?
But mine and mine I lov'd and mine I prais'd
And mine that I was proud on, mine so much
That I myself was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her - why, she, O, she is fall'm
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again.
Devastated by her disgrace, which he feels as his own, he wishes her dead.
This view of their daughters as extensions of themselves is characteristic of Shakespeare's fathers. They refer repeatedly to their offspring as parts of their own bodies. This explains in part their shock and amazement when their daughters act independently, choosing to leave them for other men. Such defiance is as incredible as it would be for their arms and legs to disobey them.
Lear acknowledges even the hateful Goneril as "my flesh, my blood, my daughter." For her rejection and Regan's, he feels first utter amazement, later complicity, for his daughters drew their lives from his loins. Their fate is his fate, their value system the one he taught them: "nothing will come of nothing."
The third type of dominating father is the jealous father... I have to think a little bit more about this type before I can use it to apply to Cindy and Casey's relationship... It's quite complex.
I do see Cindy being a lot like the reactionary, mercenary and egocentric father types in this book though?
Casey would fall into the defiant daughter category... "Selfish Defiance: Revenge and Domination... which I will get to in a little while.
