SOURCE: Dubrow, Heather. “‘Upon Misprison Growing’: Venus and Adonis.” In Venus and Adonis: Critical Essays, edited by Philip C. Kolin, pp. 223-46. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.

In the following essay, originally published in 1987, Dubrow interprets the behavior and motivations of Venus and Adonis, and examines the ways in which Shakespeare dramatized the psychological elements of their characters.

Readers have long acknowledged certain similarities between Venus and some of Shakespeare's dramatic characters: she shares, we are told, the earthiness of Falstaff, the sensuality of Cleopatra, and the determination of comedic heroines like Rosalind.¹ Yet we have been slow to admit that the sophisticated techniques through which she is characterized represent yet another link between Venus and her counterparts in the plays. And we have been equally slow to admit the many regards in which her behavior mimes that of actual people.

I do not mean that Shakespeare's portrait of...