An ideal father is one who is both caring
and understanding. To fit this mould, one must
express these
characteristics. The outlook and actions of King Henry IV (Shakespeare, Henry
IV
Part 1) and Joseph
Strorm (Wyndham, The Chrysalids), suggest characters who do not match the
mould of the
archetypical ideal father. King Henry IV was a father who thought not much of
his
son. He sees his
son as a riotous, irresponsible young man. King Henry tells Westmoreland that
he
is envious of
Lord Northumberland's son, Hotspur, and that he wishes he could be more
honorable. It
shows King Henry's lack of trust and grasp of his son
through conversations
with
others. The King
has a serious discussion with Prince Hal in act three, where he tells him that
he is
starting to
behave in the same way as King Richard, and since he is acting this way, the
people
will not want him
to be the King. The King has his own ideas on how he thinks that the Prince
should live, and
for that reason has made the relationship between them very difficult. If only
the
King would have
been more accepting, the Prince could have lived more like himself. Joseph
Strorm is a
father with very strict rules. He cares more about the physical make up of a
person than
he does about the
actual personality of the person. In the story a very cold side of Joseph
Strorm is
shown; he never
gets close to his son at all. The only conversation shared between Joseph and
his
children are
harsh and is often punishment. The way Joseph responded when David jokingly
wished for a
third arm showed that he cared more about his image and purity than he did for
his
own child. Both
King Henry and Joseph Strorm lacked the ability to look eye to eye with their
children. King
Henry did not like the way his Prince ran his life, and Joseph Strorm did not
care at
all about
anything other than if something was pure. These fathers both wished that their
children
could have been
more like themselves. Both King Henry IV and Joseph Strorm are miserable
fathers and
should reevaluate the way they deal with their children.
No comments:
Post a Comment