Shakespeare Writes His Dramas
Article abstract: Shakespeare writes his dramas, creating a literary legacy that transcends cultural and temporal barriers.
The Birth and Evolution of English Drama
The dramatic arts in Western Europe witnessed a rebirth following a long period of dormancy after the sixth-century suppression of Roman theater by the Catholic Church. Ironically, this same institution seeded the revival by incorporating semidramatic elements into church liturgy by the tenth century. By the twelfth century, these nascent forms evolved into elaborate dramas celebrating various church festivals. Gradually, by the early fourteenth century, these plays transitioned from church to street, with craft guilds presenting biblical stories through popular Corpus Christi plays. Additionally, saints’ plays and morality plays, featuring allegorical narratives of the human spiritual journey, flourished during this period.
Influences on Shakespeare
These early dramatic forms greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who likely witnessed the Corpus Christi plays in his youth. By the early sixteenth century, the performance of Roman comedies adapted to English customs became common in schools. At the same time, classical tragedy, particularly influenced by Seneca, began to shape English drama. Preceding Shakespeare were playwrights like Robert Greene, known for Greek romance adaptations, John Lyly, famous for his courtly language, Thomas Kyd with his popular play The Spanish Tragedy, and Christopher Marlowe, whose powerful and aspirational style left a significant impact on subsequent dramatists.
Shakespeare's London
Arriving in London in the late 1580s, Shakespeare entered a city of approximately two hundred thousand people, the largest in Europe at the time. Due to concerns about public gatherings and the spread of bubonic plague, theaters were constructed in the suburbs to bypass strict city regulations. The Theatre, the first public theater, opened in 1576, followed by others like the Curtain and the Rose. The Burbage family played a pivotal role in the theater scene, notably with the creation of the Globe in 1599, which became a key venue for Shakespeare's works.
Shakespeare's Rise in Theater
By the time Shakespeare began writing plays around 1589, the theater had transformed into a thriving yet not wholly respectable enterprise. Although commoners like Shakespeare, lacking university education, were viewed suspiciously, he quickly rose to prominence. By 1594, he was a partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an esteemed acting company. His association with influential figures like the Burbages helped him gain financial success and respectability, marking his rapid ascent in the theatrical world.
The Prolific Playwright
Shakespeare's oeuvre includes historical tetralogies such as Henry VI and Richard III, exploring themes of civil strife and kingship. His comedies, from the joyous A Midsummer Night's Dream to the poignant Measure for Measure, showcase the complexities of human nature and romantic love. Shakespeare's tragedies, including Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear, delve into the darker aspects of the human experience with profound eloquence. His romances like The Tempest revisit tragic themes with a more hopeful perspective, demonstrating his versatility as a playwright.
Preserving Shakespeare's Legacy
Despite his indifference to publishing his works, Shakespeare’s plays were posthumously compiled in the first Folio edition of 1623 by John Heminges and Henry Condell. Although not definitive, this collection preserved his dramatic legacy for future generations. Critic Harold Bloom lauded Shakespeare for his unparalleled mastery of language and his profound character portrayal, which transcends the confines of his plays. His unique "negative capability," as described by John Keats, allowed him to imbue his characters with genuine voices and perspectives, ensuring his works remain immortal and universally relevant.
Further Reading:
- Andrews, John F., ed. William Shakespeare: His World, His Work, His Influence. A comprehensive exploration of Shakespeare's impact across time.
- Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. An annotated collection of Shakespeare's complete works.
- Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. A significant contribution to new historicism concerning Shakespeare's era.
- Kahn, Coppèlia. Man’s Estate: Masculine Identity in Shakespeare. A feminist critique of masculinity in Shakespeare's plays.
- Loomba, Anita. Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama. An analysis of race in Renaissance drama and Shakespeare's influence.
- Wells, Stanley. Shakespeare: A Life in Drama. Offers a critical introduction to Shakespeare's literary achievements.
Shakespeare and Psychoanalysis
Throughout the century, psychoanalysts have studied Shakespeare's works to deepen their understanding of psychic conflict and to hone their interpretive skills. Literary scholars have turned to psychoanalysis to solve perennial problems in interpreting Shakespeare's text.
In a letter to his friend Wilhelm Fliess (15 October, 1897), Sigmund Freud sketched out his first formulation of what he would come to call the Oedipus complex, then promptly went on to show how this notion could be used to interpret some notorious cruxes in Hamlet. Freud linked, through the triangular structure of the Oedipus complex, Hamlet's hesitation to avenge his father, his pangs of conscience, his hostility to Ophelia, the sexual disgust expressed to Gertrude, and his final destruction (1900a, 4: 264-266). "There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (1910c, 11: 137n.): Freud's favorite quotation from any source, according to Jones, was this tribute to the complexity of existence, from Hamlet.
The nature of Freud's attachment to Shakespeare's work is also conveyed in his association of a "special cadence" in his own dream speech, with a cadence in Brutus's speech of self-justification in Julius Caesar. "As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him." (1900a, 5: 424) Freud shed light on the unconscious conflict over gender and ambition that fractured Lady Macbeth's psyche, and on Shakespeare's technique of splitting a character in two "she becomes all remorse and he all defiance" (1916d, 14: 324).
In Shakespeare criticism, after classic papers by Ludwig Jekels, Ernest Jones, Theodor Reik, Hanns Sachs, Wangh (Faber, M., 1970) and others, there has been a proliferation of essays, applying various aspects of psychoanalytic theory to Shakespeare's texts: dream theory, the structural model, incest fantasies, primal scene fantasies, and the symbolizing and creative functions of the psyche itself. There are several English bibliographies that catalogue these works, including those by Norman Holland (1964), D. Wilbern (1978), and Murray Schwartz and Copelia Kahn (1980). "On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love" (1912d, 11: 179-190) has featured in the discussion of obstacles to love regularly encountered in comedy. "Mourning and Melancholia" (1916-1917g, 14: 239-258), has been used in thinking about ambivalence toward the lost object and severe depression in tragedy or in a comedy like Twelfth Night. Freud's"On Narcissism" (1914c, 14: 69-91), and the thinking that grew out of it on the structure of the psyche and its roots in infantile development, have influenced many recent interpretations of Shakespeare's plays. "Negation" (1925h, 19: 235-239) has been useful to Shakespeareans as it explores one way in which the psyche negotiates its own internal contradictions.
Beyond Freud, Jacques Lacan's "mirror stage," Donald Winnicott's "transitional object," Margaret Mahler's "separation/individuation," and Erik Erikson's "basic trust" have generated new psychoanalytic readings of Shakespeare's plays. Of the classic psychoanalytic essays on Shakespeare, Ernst Kris's essay, "Prince Hal's Conflict" (Faber, 1970) has remained a model of sophistication. Integrating elements of the play's language, characterization, and plot with corresponding elements of psychic structure, Kris, examining the play's sources and speeches, recognizes Shakespeare's exceptional genius for historical and psychological observation. More recently, psychoanalysis has influenced the critics who see Shakespeare as a dramatist whose "plays and poems do not merely illustrate his identity but are in each instance a dynamic expression of the struggle to re-create and explore its origins" (Schwartz, 1980, xv-xvi). In this spirit, Janet Adelman (1992) has analyzed masculine identity and "fantasies of maternal power" and of "the maternal body" in Shakespeare.
Psychoanalytic criticism of Shakespeare has dominated the application of psychoanalytic theory to the arts and has articulated debates over the nature of applied psychoanalysis. One side insists that Shakespeare's text be treated with respect for its genre, for its formal and aesthetic properties, for its artifice, so that we must not invent an unconscious or an infantile neurosis for a character, or do wild analysis on the author; we must not go beyond the language of the text. Another position responds that a text is the product of the human psyche, which always uses the unconscious and its desires in creativity. Perhaps the most fruitful psychoanalytic interpretations of Shakespeare occupy a middle ground wherein the text is evidence and arbiter, but where the characteristically Shakespearean illusion that a stage person has interior being, with motives that he himself does not fully understand, is recognized and explored.
MARGARET ANN FITZPATRICK HANLY
See also: Failure neurosis; Hamlet and Oedipus; Literature and psychoanalysis; Mythology and psychoanalysis; Negative capability; Parricide; Primal fantasy; "Theme of the Three Caskets, the."
Bibliography
Adelman, Janet. (1992). Suffocating mothers: Fantasies of maternal origin in Shakespeare's plays. "Hamlet" to "The Tempest." New York: Routledge.
Faber, M.D. (Ed.). (1970). The design within: Psychoanalytic approaches to Shakespeare. New York: Science House.
Freud, Sigmund. (1900a). The interpretation of dreams. Part I. SE, 4: 1-338; The interpretation of dreams. Part II. SE, 5: 339-625.
. (1910c). Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood. SE, 11: 57-137.
. (1912d). On the universal tendency to debasement in the sphere of love. SE, 11: 177-190.
. (1914c). On narcissism: an introduction. SE, 14: 67-102.
. (1916d). Some character-types met with in psychoanalytic work. SE, 14: 309-333.
. (1925h). Negation. SE, 19: 233-239.
. (1950a). Extracts from the Fliess papers. SE, 1: 173-280.
Holland, Norman N. (1966). Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare. New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Kris, Ernst. (1952). Psychoanalytic explorations in art. New York: International Universities Press.
Schwartz, Murray and Kahn, Copelia. (1980). Representing Shakespeare. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.
