What shakespeare is saying about disobedience to authority?

Answer 1

It would have been very dangerous for Shakespeare to suggest that people should disobey their rulers. Such an idea would have landed him in jail and would have had his play banned. He does portray disobedience of this kind in Henry VI Part II with the Jack Cade rebellion, but he does not portray the rebels in a very favourable light. People who overthrow any government by violent means, such as Macbeth, Richard III, Brutus and Cassius, or Claudius, with the sole exception of Richard II, end up in deep trouble. (And Shakespeare and his company almost got themselves in deep trouble over Richard II)

On the domestic front, children who disobey their parents, particularly in matters of love and marriage, tend to be treated sympathetically. Everything works out well for Lysander and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and for Anne Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor. In both of these cases, the parent is shown to be a fool. things do not work out so well for Romeo and Juliet, and the message of All's Well that Ends Well is that Bertram should have obeyed the commands of his king in the matter of his arranged marriage.

Between husband and wife, The Taming of the Shrew is a solid statement in favour of the authority of a husband. The Merry Wives of Windsor is the exact opposite, showing the husbands to be fools and the wives to be astute and totally in charge. In general, though, dominating married women don't do so well in Shakespeare: witness Goneril, Lady Macbeth or Lady Gloucester from Henry VI Part II. Before they're married (Rosalind, Beatrice) and after they are widowed (Constance, Countess Rousillion, Elizabeth in Richard III) it's ok for them to be strong and powerful.

Although Shakespeare does not often show servants disobeying their masters, sometimes they do. Pisanio in Cymbeline and Hubert in King John refuse to commit murder on the command of their masters. A servant in King Lear goes further and attempts to prevent Cornwall from blinding Gloucester, killing Cornwall in the process. All of these servants are shown sympathetically.

Finally, Shakespeare has fun with the caricature of the foolish constable with Dogberry and Elbow, and goes deeply into the question of the authority of legal institutions in Measure for Measure (and to a certain extent in Merchant of Venice).

In general, one is safest to stick with the following rule: Shakespeare shows us all kinds of people in all kinds of situations to entertain us and to get us to think, not to lecture us on morality. In essence, then, Shakespeare says nothing about disobedience to authority, except that it sometimes happens, and sometimes that's good and sometimes not so much so.