Shakespeare A to Z | Plays: The Romances
Four of Shakespeare’s late plays are customarily classified as romances. The term romance can have more than one meaning, however. One definition of a romance is an adventure story, but the adventure—the hero or heroine faces monsters, prisons, shipwrecks, fiendish villains, and other dangers—is only part of the enduring appeal of this genre*. For one thing the perils in a romance’s world are not just physical but also psychological, often involving lost identities and unrelieved suffering. At the same time, the romance offers reassurance by guaranteeing that the...
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