Metatheater, Gender, and Subjectivity in Richard II and Henry IV, Part I

Metatheater, Gender, and Subjectivity in Richard II and Henry IV, Part I R. A. Martin It has often been remarked that in Shakespeare's second Henriad Richard II is a play which presents a medieval world while Henry IV, Part I, presents a Renaissance, or "modern," world, and C. L. Barber has persuasively characterized this shift as a movement from a static, ceremonial view of human life to a dramatic and historical one.l Perhaps the most important corollary of Barber's formulation is that men come to be seen as actors rather than as mere performers—men play roles rather than embody them. The differences in the characterization and presentation of men in these two plays are accordingly manifold and substantial. It has been less frequently remarked (in fact so far as I can tell, it has not been remarked at all) that the characterization and presentation of women in these two plays is equally different. In Richard II women are safe and maternal: they are not objects of sexual desire, and they certainly are not sexy. In Henry IV, Part I, on the other hand, they become at once alluring, sexually desirable, and problematic—even dangerous . In Richard II women generally support the patriarchal hierarchy and a code of honor based on the valorization of heroic death; in Henry IV, Part I, they oppose patriarchal values with sexual and domestic claims which affirm life, even at the expense of honor. In this paper I want to examine these two levels of difference and correlate the changes in the nature of role-playing and the characterization of women with a change in the construction of masculine identity. I will argue that in Henry IV, Part I, men become actors, not only in the eyes of their fellow men or in R. A. MARTIN is a doctoral candidate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he teaches literature, theater, and history. 255 256Comparative Drama the eyes of the audience, but, more importantly, in their own eyes. This means that a dimension has been added to the geometry of personal identity. In addition to the "vertical" axis along which society determines one's position in a patriarchal hierarchy, there is a "horizontal" axis of self definition. A gap has opened up between society and self which did not exist in Richard II, and this gap is represented in Henry IV, Part I, by the difference between male and female. This means that the movement from a homogeneous to a heterogeneous construction of the male psyche is figured here as the "invention" or "recognition " of a problematic and characteristic femaleness. Thus acting, or role-playing, becomes the mode of operation for a new kind of subjectivity, while gender is the material upon and through which it operates to constitute itself.2 The place to begin this inquiry is Richard II, where women are thoroughly assimilated to the existing values and hierarchies of a monolithic patriarchal state even when they might appear to be criticizing them. The Duchess of Gloucester, for example, endorses Bolingbroke's project of revenge with considerable passion when she says: O, sit my husband's wrongs on Herford's spear, That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast! (I.ii.47-48) Not only do these words constitute praise for Bolingbroke for aspiring to vigorous martial action in the pursuit of honor, but also they effectively criticize Gaunt for his cowardly inactivity. By articulating the code of heroic revenge the Duchess is being a better man than he is because she is supporting the patriarchal military and dynastic values which he himself has failed to support. Another example of female support for patriarchal values underlying an apparent or initial criticism of them occurs after Richard has been forced to abdicate and is on his way to prison. Although his Queen asks him rather sharply, "wilt thou, pupillike ,/ Take the correction, mildly kiss the rod,/ And fawn on rage with base humility,/ Which art a lion and the king of beasts?" (V.i.32-34), this reproach, perhaps somewhat surprisingly , does not lead to a quarrel: rather, it serves to show the depth of her unquestioned obedience to...