Paper Summary:

This paper explores the wider symbolism of the "manacle of love," the bracelet with which Posthumus presents Imogen when he secures her hand in marriage. The writer explains that with this act, Shakespeare opens the play outwards from the realm of romance to that of tendentious subversion of the value of female sexuality and political energy. Through the rest of the play, the real and metaphoric values of the manacle continue to resonate as it passes through the hands of three different characters.

From the Paper:

"As a foundational myth, Cymbeline is a family romance that embodies the desire of being freed from one's historically-defined origins through a "right marriage," the execution of which is related directly in many of Shakespeare's later plays to a discourse that is misogynistic in its open attacks on women as the originating forces within the emerging culture. Focusing on the machinations associated with "marrying" of Cymbeline's daughter Imogen, who eventually takes the ill-fated Posthumus as her mate of choice, the play traces most obviously the trajectory of the husband's treatment of his young wife."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Greenblatt, Stephen, et al., eds. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: Norton, 1997.

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