Friendship in William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens - Research Paper Example

?Conventions of friendship in William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens in relation to ideas of friendship in the Renaissance Introduction The Life of Timon of Athens, one of the most obscure and difficult works by William Shakespeare, celebrates the ideas of friendship in the Renaissance. Interestingly, this play is regarded as an unfinished and imperfect one by the Shakespearean critics and there are questions challenging Shakespeare’s sole authorship of the play. However, the play The Life of Timon of Athens, which spans various dramatic genres, has been celebrated for its discussion of the Renaissance concept of art, of ancient Greece, of misogyny, and more importantly, of friendship and homo-sociality. In the intensity of its focus on homo-social relations and its exclusion of women, play The Life of Timon of Athens is remarked as unusual, but it makes a true representation of the ideas of friendship in the Renaissance. The presentation of male friendship in the play has attained serious critical attention and the readers are able to recognize that Timon’s investment in his male friends and his loss of friends symbolized by his vanished gold are central to the ideas of friendship in the Renaissance. It is fundamental to maintain that gold in the play is the essential instrument of ‘friendship’ and it takes the place of the phallus, which is not only the phallus as absence, castration, or fear of feminine, and maternal power. As Karen Newman maintains, “Timon of Athens’s world of male/male love and passionate friendship speaks through Plutarch and the ‘wild’ figure of Alcibiages, whose relation with Timon and his phallic, golden gifts adumbrates another view of Jacobean gift giving.” (Newman, 387) This paper undertakes a reflective exploration of the conventions of friendship in William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens in relation to the ideas of friendship in the Renaissance in order to demonstrate how the conventions of friendship in the play are connected with Renaissance ideas of friendship. Conventions of friendship in Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens and the ideas of friendship in the Renaissance One of the major concerns of the studies in Renaissance literature has been to investigate the link between the conventions of friendship in the literary works and ideas of friendship in Renaissance. William Shakespeare is a dramatist who has dealt extensively with the conventions of friendship all through his literary career, by means of his sonnets, long poems, comedies, tragedies, romances, and histories. Significantly, the theme of friendship has been a central concern of the playwright and his famous works personify the theme of friendship through the friendship of Hamlet and Horatio in Hamlet, Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It, and Hal and Falstaff in the Henry IV plays. Therefore, it is an indisputable fact that Shakespeare’s plays deal with the theme of friendship and it is substantiated by his iconographic representation of false friendship in his late tragedy The Life of Timon of Athens. One of the most essential aspects of the concept of friendship as presented in this play is that Shakespeare presents it in contrast to the existing ideas of friendship in the Renaissance. As Graham Hammill observes, “While humanist models of male friendship emphasize the equality of friendships and the permanence of the bonds between them, early modern English drama stages friendship as exactly the opposite.” (Hammill, 924) Therefore, it is fundamental to comprehend that Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens provides a contrasting idea of friendship to the prevalent conventions of friendship during the Renaissance. One of the distinguishing features of the representation of friendship in Shakespearean plays, especially Timon of Athens, is the fact that they reflect the general method in Renaissance literature to represent friendship (frequently between males) in opposition to love and heterosexual union in marriage. Timon of Athens is a play which deals exclusively with the theme of friendship in the Renaissance schema of representing the idea of friendship. As Clifford Davidson argues, Timon of Athens can be realized as an emblematic Renaissance tableau of the responsibilities and potential dangers of friendship. “The realization that iconographic tableaux appear at central points in the drama of Shakespeare no longer seems to involve radical critical perspective… [According to him,] the emblematic nature of Shakespeare’s art can very properly be studied through the iconography of false friendship in Timon of Athens.” (Davidson, 181) In his 1980 essay on the play, Clifford Davidson makes the crucial declaration that the protagonist of this play should be realized as a Renaissance symbol of failed friendship. Therefore, Shakespeare’s skills in portraying the idea of friendship in the Renaissance through the prevalent themes of his plays become palpable in the play Timon of Athens. The pretentious nature of male friendship is a common theme in the Renaissance literature and Shakespeare’s portrayal of this theme suggests that friendship was on the wane and was becoming all the time more deceitful. One of the underlying premises of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens is the theme of false friendship which gives evidence to Shakespeare’s treatment of the Renaissance principle of friendship. Despite the fact that the Humanist scholars of the Renaissance attempted to interpret friendship as the most natural relationship of the human beings, it was rather a fictional and artificial relationship during the period than a true, natural and sincere relationship. The concept of friendship as revealed in the play exposes the true nature of friendship during the Renaissance period and maintains that the ideas of friendship of the overriding Humanist tradition are a fakery. Significantly, the literature of the Renaissance period reflected the various aspects of the ideas of friendship as purported by the Humanist thinking, and Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens reflects a significant aspect of this question. As MacFaul maintains, “The Humanist ideology of friendship tries to make friendship the most important thing in the world; the fact that it cannot ever really be the centre of the world – after all, it can hardly even be defined – enables the emergence of a new way of looking at individuality in the literature of this period.” (MacFaul, 1) Therefore, the ideal of friendship is one of the chief components of the Renaissance literature and Timon of Athens reflects the theme of false friendship. An investigation of the conventions of friendship in Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens leads on to the realization that the protagonist of the play, Timon, is fascinated by this sacred concept of Renaissance and he believes the friendship is an essential component of a good man. The social world in Shakespearean plays generally offers chances of complex interactions of the individuals which remain the basis of fellowship or friendship and the groups of people in these plays have certain common interests which bind them together. It is fundamental to realize that the play Timon of Athens exhibits certain kind of limitation in conception as well as execution of friendship and the protagonist of the play is hardly influenced or shaped by his friends. MacFaul makes it clear when he maintains that the play attempts to simplify the role of friendship or relationship. “The play clearly exhibits a desire to separate and simplify human relationships, which means that none of these relationships can have real force or meaning. This may of course be the point of the play – that relationships, particularly, friendship, lose their value if you demand that they be clear and simple.” (MacFaul, 143) Therefore, the most essential theme of the play Timon of Athens is friendship and every action by the various characters is determined by the spirit of friendship, which makes the social world of the play comparatively small. In fact, friendship is presented as a need for the protagonist in Timon of Athens, which makes it the central theme of the play. Thus, as Karl Klein observes, every character in the play fix the attention on Timon as a magnate and social mogul, and these characters include the Lords with their obsession about gifts, the Jeweler who hope to make him a financially reliable customer, the Poet and the Painter hoping to make him a liberal patron of the arts, etc. “They address his alienated self, alienated from his individual personality. Timon himself does everything to present his alienated self to them, calling this friendship.” (Klein, 8) Thus, Timon himself makes his concept of friendship palpable to his friends in his speech on friendship (I.2.81-96). In this speech, the protagonist formulates an image of friendship which is based on his own needs of friends. “O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods / themselves have provided that I shall have much help / from you: how had you been my friends else? Why / have you that charitable title from thousands, did / not you chiefly belong to my heart? I have told / more of you to myself than you can with modesty / speak in your own behalf; and thus far I confirm / you.” (Act I Scene ii. 81-7) Therefore, Timon creates a stylized picture of friendship which declares that he believes in the necessity of friendship. Significantly, picture of friendship which Timon creates presents to his friends his ‘needs’ and expectations of friends, and it suggests that Timon takes friendship for granted. “His later misanthropy is based on a category error, and on the expectation that others will see the world as he does. Timon believes that without true friendship – that evanescent and ultimately un-demonstrable thing – society is worthless… But Timon himself has emptied out the concept of friendship, proved it hollow by his too purist attitude.” (MacFaul, 145) At this point, it is essential to maintain that the notion of friendship according to the protagonist of the play is a combination of idealism and foolishness. This idea becomes obvious from a close analysis of Timon’s eloquently imprudent hymn to friendship. As Soellner and Williams purport, “Timon’s notion of friendship combines idealism and foolishness… The idea of basing friendship on need (an idea that Timon does not actually practice) runs counter to classical and Renaissance conceptions of friendship.” (Soellner and Williams, 71) In fact, Timon’s hymn to friendship (I.2.81-96) is highly wrongheaded and it reflects the combination of idealism and foolishness in his concept of friendship. “O you gods, think I, what / need we have any friends if we should ne’er have need of ’em? / They were the most needless creatures living, should we ne’er / have use for ’em; and would most resemble sweet instruments hung / up in cases, that keep their sounds to themselves.” (Act I Scene ii. 87-91) However, it is important to realize that Timon’s idea of friendship has better theoretical grounds when he makes his arguments for the sake of equality of friends. Thus, the classical thinkers of friendship also agree on the need for equality of friends and they maintain that the concept of friendship should be based on an acceptance of essential equality of friends. Thus, Timon makes his decries of etiquette when his guests turn up for the dinner and greet each other on the order of superiority. “Nay, my lords, ceremony was but devis’d at first / To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, / Recanting goodness, sorry ere ’tis shown; / But where there is true friendship there needs none. / Pray, sit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes / Than my fortunes to me.” (Act I Scene ii. 15-20) Whereas the Shakespearean plays in general provide a wider social network or world to present the theme of fellowship or friendship within the central plot, there is no sense of wider social world around the theme of friendship in Timon of Athens, because friendship itself is the central theme of the play. In the play, the central character, Timon, also undergoes a similar emotional status of having insufficient input of wider social world of friendship. As MacFaul clarifies, Timon suffers from the emotional limitation of the wider social world of friendship “as a result of his attempt to make fellowship the centre of his life (whilst thinking of it as true friendship). He is certain of its absolute value, and preens himself not a little on being an exemplary friend.” (MacFaul, 143) This complexity in the understanding of friendship is obvious from Act I. Scene I of the play where Timon establishes that there is a bond between men. Although Timon makes an unusual act of generosity when he gives a good part of marriage portion to his servant Lucilius, he considers it merely as a normal thing. “To build his fortune I will strain a little, / For ‘tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter: / What you bestow in him I'll counterpoise, / And make him weigh with her.” (Act I Scene i. 147) One of the most essential explanations of friendship in the play is that it is fundamental element of social life and without true friendship society is incomplete and insignificant. It is a fact that the protagonist of Timon of Athens considers that friendship is the basic characteristic of every society and he demands that the other characters in the play also recognize this fact. In fact, the later misanthropy in his life is based mainly on this category error. To him, friendship is a short-lived and ultimately indemonstrable thing, but it is an inevitable thing in the social life. “Breath infect breath, / That their society, as their friendship, may / Be merely poison!” (IV. i. 30-2) However, it is also essential to recognize that the protagonist himself has emptied the concept of friendship, by his too traditionalist ideologies and attitudes. Significantly, the emptiness of friendship of pleasure or utility is obvious from the empty banquet in Act III Scene vi. “This is Shakespeare’s most frequent technique when someone presses too hard at the concept of true friendship – to show its emptiness, and the bafflement of those who naively believed that there was something detachable from utility or pleasure at the core of friendship.” (MacFaul, 145) In a profound examination of the concept of friendship in Renaissance literature, it becomes lucid that the prevailing beliefs, customs and practices, etc of the Renaissance society contributed heavily to this concept, and it is mainly influenced by the relationship between homo-social and homoerotic desire. Significantly, the strong cultural and intellectual emphasis on friendship during Renaissance blends its idealist and realist tendencies. It is important to recognize that the Renaissance ideas of friendship were directly influenced by the classical ideals if friendship, especially Aristotle’s concept that friendship is a communion of virtue. As David West observes, “Renaissance humanists tended to believe that the higher spiritual ideals of friendship could only be attained between men or sometimes in any same-sex relationships ipso facto presumed asexual… The Renaissance’s ‘homo-social’ ideal of friendship is represented in similarly ambiguous terms in the life and writings of Francis Bacon.” (West, 60) Significantly, the Renaissance’s ‘homo-social’ ideal of friendship is represented in the contemporary texts and productions and Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens is an important play which reflects this concept. An understanding of the sources of the play by Shakespeare confirms that the playwright deals with a theme which is familiar in the Renaissance period in England. “The story of Timon was widely familiar during the Renaissance in England and elsewhere. It has been admirably sketched by Willard Farnham… The earliest substantial account of Timon occurs in a digression in Plutarch’s Life of Antony.” (Charney, xiv) Therefore, it is fundamental to establish that the major themes of the play Timon of Athens are associated with the general mood of the socio-cultural setting of England during the Renaissance period. Shakespeare reflected the major concepts of friendship in Renaissance by the representation of male friendship in the play Timon of Athens. A detailed examination of the concept of friendship in the play Timon of Athens indicates that the playwright attempts to create a symbolic Renaissance tableau of the responsibilities and potential perils of friendship in the play. It is an indubitable fact that the plays of Shakespeare widely make use of the iconographic tableaux, representing the themes of the contemporary socio-cultural aspects of the period, in order to develop the central themes of his plays. Clifford Davidson makes it clear when he argues that “the emblematic nature of Shakespeare’s art can very properly be studied through the iconography of false friendship in Timon of Athens… An iconographic analysis of Timon of Athens illustrates how the play revolves around visual tableaux which illuminate the classical understanding of friendship – an understanding which Shakespeare valued most highly.” (Davidson, 181) A reflective analysis of the theme of friendship in the play confirms that the protagonist relied too much on the false appearances of friendship and he was affected by the negative aspects of this friendship. It is fundamental to comprehend that irony and the deception are essential components of the art of the play and they play a major role in the presentation of the theme of friendship as well. As Davidson purports, the major character in the play is a decidedly significant icon of failed friendship and this becomes obvious from his epitaph which read: “Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft: / Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! / Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: / Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass and stay not here thy gait.” (V.iv.70-73). There is a clear indication of the icon of failed friendship in the deterioration of the protagonist from the beginning stage of the play where he believed himself to be epitome of friendship to the closing scene of the play where he is presented as a totally disenchanted man. Whereas he attempted to create artificial bonds of loyalty and friendship, he failed to realize the nature of false friendship. “Timon would never have come to such an end if he had not experienced the failure among his acquaintances of the great Renaissance ideal of friendship.” (Davidson, 182) Conclusion The representations of friendship by the Renaissance writers reflect the socio-cultural elements of the period and William Shakespeare is an important playwright of the period who celebrates the ideas of friendship during the Renaissance. The explosion of ‘friendship literature’ during the Elizabethan England is indicative of the relationship between the concept of friendship in the Renaissance and literature of the period. As Michael Martin suggests, the societal structures relaxed in the Renaissance have contributed to the appreciation of the qualities of friendship during the period. In fact, the conventions of friendship were greatly popular during the Renaissance period and the major playwrights of time, including Shakespeare, reflected the various aspects of the concept. “Indicative of the popularity of friendship literature is the fact that it was parodied by some of the very playwrights who popularized it… To this list we might add Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, an anti-friendship play if ever there was one.” (Martin, 235) Significantly, the representations of friendship in the play and in the culture have several commonalities and the playwright is effective in reflecting the general characteristics of the age on the subject of friendship. A reflective exploration of the conventions of friendship in William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens confirms that these conventions are closed connected to the Renaissance ideas of friendship. Works Cited Charney, Maurice. “Introduction.” The Life of Timon of Athens. William Shakespeare. London: Cambridge University Press. 1957. P xiv. Davidson, Clifford. “‘Timon of Athens’: The Iconography of False Friendship.” Huntington Library Quarterly. Vol. 43 Iss. 3. 1980. Pp. 181-200. 15 March 2011. . MacFaul, Tom. Male Friendship in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Cambridge University Press. 2007. P 1. Martin, Michael. “The Merchant of Venice and the Good of Friendship.” The Merchant of Venice: With Contemporary Criticism. Joseph Pearce. (Ed). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. 2009. P 235. Newman, Karen. “Rereading Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens at the Fin de Siecle.” Shakespeare and the twentieth century: the selected proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association. Jonathan Bate, et al. (Ed). London: World Congress, Los Angeles, 1996. University of Delaware Press. 1998. P 387. Shakespeare, William. The life of Timon of Athens. Forgotten Books. 1957. 15 March 2011. . Klein, Karl. “Introduction”. Timon of Athens. William Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001. P 8. Hammill, Graham. “Tom MacFaul: Male Friendship in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries.” The Journal of British Studies. Vol. 47. Iss. 4. 2008. Pp. 924-925. Soellner, Rolf and Gary Jay Williams. Timon of Athens, Shakespeare’s Pessimistic Tragedy. Ohio State University Press. 1979. P 71. West, David. Reason and Sexuality in Western Thought. Cambridge: Polity Press. 2005. P 60. Read More