'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'The Tempest' in the mirror of changing critical approaches
Cornelia Kaltenbacher
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 history
of literature. Why Shakespeare? The answer is easy. He is not only most
analysed but also the most popular dramatist that has ever existed.
Shakespeare’s drama has been fascinating his audience and readers through the
centuries. The plots of Shakespeare’s drama seem to be simple, dealing with
human and social themes like love, marriage, murder, intrigue, complot and
revenge. On a first sight, they remember us of a good and entertaining
Hollywood Film. But is this all what Shakespeare has to say through his
drama? Did he really intend to write commercial plays, without giving a deeper
sense to his literary work? I don’t think so. I think Shakespeare achieved
through his “simple” plots to get deeply into the minds and souls of his
audience, in order to make them conceive the complexity of their own lives and
feelings. I do not intend to find out his personal message in the drama or to
interpret 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 and
above all to his experienced readers, better said, to his literary critics. My paper
shall reveal the complexity and the deep psychological meaning of
Shakespeare’s comedy. Returning to my first question why Shakespeare? I
would 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.” 1
I consider Frye’s assumption on Shakespearean comedy the adequate answer to
my question. In this paper I intend to seek the deep sense of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream and The Tempest, by posting them in a mirror of changing critical approaches, beginning with the mythological view, continuing with the
political and new critical perspective and ending with my personal notes. My
main purpose in this paper is to demonstrate that Shakespeare’s comedy does
not only have a delighting function but also exercises a deep psychological
impact on the old and new generations. In my opinion he was not only a genius
of the drama, but also an initiator of the renaissance of mythical and archaic
values in the modern world.
