04-26-2002, 02:10 PM
I think that you have to remember that when Shakespeare wrote his plays, there was no concept of psychoanalysis. Today, we have Freud, Jung and Skinner, to mention a few, to thank for explaining how the internal mind works. In Shakespeare’s time he needed a mechanism to display unconscious thought that would be able to manifest itself on stage. Shakespeare couldn’t just write a screenplay and have someone do CGI to fill in the blanks for internal thought.
Since not only was Shakespeare unfamiliar with internal workings of the mind, as we now are all too familiar with, but also his audience had no concept of these things, he had to rely on contemporary folklore and methods, witches, ghosts, fairies...etc. to expand his character’s dimensions.
Often in Shakespeare you see one character as a narrator, someone who sets up the scene that is about to unfold for the audience. In a similar and quite ingenious manner, these specters serve the same purpose and supply much needed background for what the “flesh and blood” characters are going through on stage.
Wait, what was the question???
Since not only was Shakespeare unfamiliar with internal workings of the mind, as we now are all too familiar with, but also his audience had no concept of these things, he had to rely on contemporary folklore and methods, witches, ghosts, fairies...etc. to expand his character’s dimensions.
Often in Shakespeare you see one character as a narrator, someone who sets up the scene that is about to unfold for the audience. In a similar and quite ingenious manner, these specters serve the same purpose and supply much needed background for what the “flesh and blood” characters are going through on stage.
Wait, what was the question???
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