Shakespeare and Food: Examples of Sir Thomas More, Coriolanus, and Pericles

셰익스피어와 음식-『토마스 모어 경』, 『코리올레이너스』, 『페리클리즈』를 중심으로

This paper approaches Sir Thomas More, Coriolanus, Pericles in terms of the relationship of food to national identity. These three plays examine ways in which food is essential to what constitutes English national identity, and food shortages give rise to riots thereby throwing everyday life into disorder. In Sir Thomas More food shortages are caused by foreign foodstuff and foreign habits of consumption. Rioting Londoners fear that the European foreigners' strange dietary habits would do harm on English food, the English body and English economy. In Coriolanus starvation is the primary trigger for the enmity between the senators and citizens. Menenius employs the fable of the belly to quell the hungry citizens' anger and to emphasize the senators' role as a store of nutrition to feed the body, that is, the citizens. Coriolanus' contempt for the body's need comes to a devastating end. In Pericles the famine is brought about by the gluttonous consumption of specific foods. The problem of greedy consumption becomes that of living in the cannibalistic situation where mothers are willing to eat their children and married couples one another. Pericles feeds the hungry people with bread, and is also saved from starvation by the fishermen after shipwreck. In this way the three plays provide the examples of Shakespeare's notion on healthy food and feeding.