Portrayals of coercion and control tactics: from Juliet's father in Romeo and Juliet to shaping informed approaches towards unveiling them in the writing of historical fiction

Despite framing Romeo and Juliet within the theme of conflict, Shakespeare embeds across the play an impressive number of details which, when joined together, outline the architecture of a family governed by the coercion and controlling behaviours of Juliet’s father (the paterfamilias.) While taking into account recent developments in the understanding of the experiences of those subjected to abusive control and coercion within the family, I examine Shakespeare’s observations and his strategy for displaying them in Romeo and Juliet and I place them in the context of building a toolkit for writing historical fiction set in eras when the control of the family by the paterfamilias behind closed doors was deemed socially acceptable and was protected by the law. My presentation brings together the following elements: Criticism of historical fiction by historians for superimposing modern, feminist sensitivities on cultural values of the past and misrepresenting the real women of past eras. Recent understandings of the impact of coercion and controlling behaviours on those subjected to them in the family and using them as a lens for seeing and writing women of past eras who were subjected to such behaviours. A list of the elements which Shakespeare embeds in Romeo and Juliet to describe the controlling attitudes of Juliet’s father and viewing the scene of “disowning her” as the culmination of her being brought up in an abusive environment and as an attempt to coerce that’s gone wrong. I close my presentation with proposing an approach for outlining, in historical fiction, the pervasive presence of controlling behaviours in past eras. I also emphasize the significance of unmuting the experiences of victims and survivors of such behaviours and of developing in the readership the literacy that is necessary to witness and receive them