Shakespeare References in Weekend

Marlene Fanta Shyer's novel Weekend contains a few Shakespeare references. The first is a reference to The Tempest, using a phrase that originated in that play. Marlene Fanta Shyer writes, "How could a bottle of Listerine disappear into thin air?" (p. 270). That line refers to Prospero's line, "These our actors,/As I foretold you, were all spirits and/Are melted into air, into thin air." There is a second reference to that speech in this book: "diamond necklaces didn't just vanish into thin air the way men did" (p. 298). The other reference is to Shakespeare himself, with Marlele Fanta Shyer writing, "Except in Shakespeare, people didn't just do away with themselves over unrequited love" (p. 271). It's an odd thing for her to write, because I'm not sure what play she is thinking of. Certainly not Romeo And Juliet, for their love is not unrequited. And certainly not Antony And Cleopatra. Or Othello. The characters in Julius Caesar also do not kill themselves over unrequited love. Nor does Lady Macbeth. Nor does Goneril. The only possibility is Ophelia. But there are problems there. First of all, we don't know for sure whether she killed herself or not. Certainly, at least one character believes she did. But even if she did, Hamlet's spurning of her is only one possible cause. A more likely cause is the knowledge that the man she loves accidentally murdered her father. This book also contains a character named Titania.

Weekend was published in 1987.