Pericles: Prince of Tyre

This is one of William Shakespeare’s romantic plays written near the end of his life. While it is touching, I felt it was too contrived, losing its appeal. It is a wonderful tale of love lost and regained, but the circumstances are hard to believe and relate to. The ending was also easy to figure out half way through the story.

Young prince Pericles falls in love with the princess of Antioch, but the king tries to kill him, sending his chamberlain to pursue Pericles back to Tyre and kill him. Pericles takes a trip to escape the king’s wrath and ends up in Tharsus, where he helps alleviate a famine. He then goes on a sea voyage to escape the king’s assassin, and is shipwrecked and washed ashore at Pentapolis. There he enters a jousting contest and wins the heart of the king’s daughter, Thaisa. They marry, Thaisa becomes pregnant, and they agree to return to Tyre.

On the voyage back to Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to a daughter, whom they name Marina because she was born at sea. Thaisa dies in childbirth and Pericles buries her at sea in a wood coffin. Pericles stops off at Tharsus and leaves Marina there because he is afraid she might die in a storm at sea as well. After 12 months in Tharsus, Pericles returns to Tyre a broken and lonely man, having lost all that he loves.

However, Thaisa’s coffin washes ashore at Ephesus. The coffin is brought to Cerimon’s house, where he uses an ancient Egyptian ritual to restore her back to life. She takes up residence in the temple of Diana as a vestal virgin, convinced she will never see Pericles again.

Marina grows up in Tharsus, but the woman taking care of her becomes jealous of her beauty and seeks to kill her. The murder plot is thwarted but Marina is captured by pirates of Valdes who sell her to a brothel in Mytilene. Meanwhile, the story is spread that Marina is dead, making Pericles’ anguish greater. Pericles becomes so depressed he sets out to end his days wandering about.

Marina, meanwhile, refuses to be a prostitute and maintains her virginity. Many who try to seduce her end up being converted to living righteouly. She escapes the brothel and finds refuge teaching music to the children of the nobles. Pericles’ ship arrives at Mytilene and he is reunited with his daughter. He refuses to believe that she is truly Marina, but is finally convinced and rejoices in finding his long lost daughter.

Pericles then receives a vision from the goddess Diana who tells him to go to Ephesus and worship at her temple. He obeys the vision and finds his wife Thaisa living in the temple. Again, he refuses to believe that she is really his wife since he buried her at sea with his own hands. He is finally convinced and he embraces her and the family is joyfully reunited.

Pericles and Thaisa return to Pentapolis to rule in place of Thaisa’s dead father. Marina and her husband Lysimachus return to Tyre and reign on Pericles’ throne. The play ends with the narrarator, Gower, giving the moral of the tale, explaining how each character is an object lesson. As for Pericles, Thaisa, and Marina, the moral is that those who live righteous lives will be able to withstand the hatred of evil men and the harsh misfortunes of life.