No Subject

[Blue Rose]

I beleive that Pericles could not have possibly witnessed any sort of incestuous feelings in him, because there is no object to target his incest on. I'm implying here that Pericles had no one in his life, with whom he could have possibly experienced any kind of incestuous relationship. <br>About self-realization, I think he is not fleeing for the fear of death. When he flees Tyre, trying to escape Antiochus, it is to save his life off course, but more importantly to save the truth - the truth of the secret sexual relationship of the king of Antiochus and his daughter. He is constantly on a mission, a mission of self-discovery. He is brave and tries to win himself love and respect. When turned down by constant misfortunes, he is brought to realize the importance of family and loved ones in life. I think this is the essence of his journeys - an awakening to the things that are most important to him.

[Unregistered]

Some critics have suggested that pericles is running away from his own feelings, throughout the play. These feelings are said to be of fear: fear of his own incestuous desires which the riddle has awakened in him. Obviously this is a Freudian analysis, but most striking about the play to my mind is that Pericles is constantly on the run, and always there is this fear of being caught and ruined: I think this pursuing and fleeing theme is the main impetus of the play, and what more difficult and ever present thing to flee from than knowledge of the self. I think this is what is happening to Pericles.<br>

[byquist]

Freud would have us all behaving and thinking like fools, so I don't put much of his monkey-business into Shakespeare plays or anything else.

On another note, the intro about the riddle is just a start-up. The real content of the play involves his wife and daughter, as you know, and how fate tosses him around and nearly totals him; then redeems and brings all he rightly deserves back to him (unfortunately after many lost years). To me it's a play about destiny and fate; somewhat akin to Prospero's experience.

Pericles seems to me a very judicious, honest, kind and loving person; not running away from much of anything; just preserving his head from being cut off.

[kelby_lake]

I'm really quite fond of this play. To me, the play is about father-daughter relationships. We have three pairs: the incestuous bondings of Antiochus and daughter; the fond playfulness of Simonides and Thaisa; and the separation and later reconciliation of Pericles and Marina.

I don't think that the incest at the beginning suggests that Pericles wanted to commit incest- he hasn't had any experience of fatherhood yet. It is meant to be a perverse corruption that punishes him and then finally is punished itself.

The sea is a very important symbol as well, with a birth and death at sea and two shipwrecks. The sea is very much the "sea of troubles" that Hamlet talks of and it is often against Pericles.