'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'The Tempest' in the mirror of changing critical approaches

Cornelia Kaltenbacher

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2008
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9783638049870
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Comparative Literature, grade: gut, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine", language: English, abstract: Shakespeare is one of the most analysed and "criticised" poet in the historyof literature. Why Shakespeare? The answer is easy. He is not only mostanalysed but also the most popular dramatist that has ever existed.Shakespeare's drama has been fascinating his audience and readers through thecenturies. The plots of Shakespeare's drama seem to be simple, dealing withhuman and social themes like love, marriage, murder, intrigue, complot andrevenge. On a first sight, they remember us of a good and entertainingHollywood Film. But is this all what Shakespeare has to say through hisdrama? Did he really intend to write commercial plays, without giving a deepersense to his literary work? I don't think so. I think Shakespeare achievedthrough his "simple" plots to get deeply into the minds and souls of hisaudience, in order to make them conceive the complexity of their own lives andfeelings. I do not intend to find out his personal message in the drama or tointerpret his intentions. I will rather concentrate on his work and try to find out, what kind of message Shakespeare's comedy transmitted to his audience andabove all to his experienced readers, better said, to his literary critics. My papershall reveal the complexity and the deep psychological meaning ofShakespeare's comedy. Returning to my first question why Shakespeare? Iwould like to answer it, by quoting one of my favourite critics, Northrop Frye: "For all that has been written about it, Shakespearean comedy still seams to me widely misunderstood and underestimated, and my main thesis, that the four romances are the inevitable and genuine culmination of the poet's achievement, is clearly less obvious to many than it is to me." 1I consider Frye's assumption on Shakespearean comedy the adequate answer tomy question. In this paper I intend to seek the deep sense of A MidsummerNight's Dream and The Tempest, by posting them in a mirror of changing critical approaches, beginning with the mythological view, continuing with thepolitical and new critical perspective and ending with my personal notes. Mymain purpose in this paper is to demonstrate that Shakespeare's comedy doesnot only have a delighting function but also exercises a deep psychologicalimpact on the old and new generations. In my opinion he was not only a geniusof the drama, but also an initiator of the renaissance of mythical and archaicvalues in the modern world.