Shaking One's Fist

[poliphilo]

People in Charles Reade's novels regularly shake their fists at one another- or at the heavens- and when they do I find myself thinking "And now we're in theatreland"- but I suppose fist-shaking must once have been a real thing.

I can't think I've ever seen it done- not in real life, that is.

So was it once a real thing or was it always just a theatrical and literary convention?

And, finally- supposing it was once a real thing- why and when did people stop doing it?

Comments

[cmcmck]

I don't think they have- look at the reaction to an EDL demo some time!

[poliphilo]

Interesting. Yes, there does tend to be a lot of fist waving at demos. But that's ritualised behaviour- theatrical- I don't see it happening in private life.

[oakmouse]

Some of my older relatives shook their fists when I was a kid, but usually as a joking gesture, a mock threat or a tease, rather than in genuine anger. These were people born between 1884 and 1901, some in Britain, some in the US of British parents or grandparents.

[poliphilo]

So for their generation it was already a slightly absurd thing to do. My guess- and it's only a guess- is that the gesture was brought into disrepute by actors in 19th century melodrama.

[oakmouse]

That certainly makes sense. I know that actors as far back as Edmund Kean were ridiculed for using extravagant gestures on the stage, and I can well imagine that kind of thing bringing fist-shaking into the realm of absurdity.