A Comparison of the Supernatural in Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Midsum

Supernatural Phenomena in The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Midsummer Nights Dream The Oxford English Dictionary defines supernatural as something that is out of the ordinary year of nature beyond, surpassing, or differing from what is natural. In light of this definition, I shall be discussing the plays The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and A Midsummer Nights Dream through three successive pairings, drawing distinctions and comparisons surrounded by each play and its significant others as relate to some aspect of the supernatural realm. In any discussion of two Shakespeare plays, the issue of chronology deserves at least a passing nod. In the case of The Tempest and A Midsummer Nights Dream, knowledge of the chronology of the plays is of paramount importance in understanding the differences in tone, language, and the relationship dynamics between Oberon/Puck and Prospero/Ariel/Caliban. A Midsummer Nights Dream came out roughly 1594-5, The Tempest around 1611-12, some seventeen years la ter. The development of Shakespeares imagination, as well as his powers as a playwright and poet, are certainly evident in The Tempest The language is richer and more convoluted, the tone darker, more brooding, as are the characters (a indication characteristic of Shakespeares Jacobean phase), and the whole message of revenge transmuted into forgiveness and resignation is a remarkable departure from traditional Senecan motifs. Also, as often seen in the later plays, a particular character or group dynamic seen in an earlier play is updated, expanded, and elaborated upon, in this case that of Oberon and Puck. In MND, Oberon is royal and imperious, but basically helps the course of true love run smooth in the end with the help of... ...20th century might consider a ancient dramatic expedient, a colorful, fanciful, booga-booga quality, for the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre-goer of the time, the world of fairies and ghosts and demons and witches was rattling much a real one, an d it pays to bear this in mind when reading and attending the plays. To exertion and imagine that such things really people ones world, really have a place somewhere in the immense chain of being, is to feel a very vital resonance within that nothing in the gray, bleak, so-called post-modern landscape can ever provide. Works Cited Badawi, M.M., Background to Shakespeare, London, MacMillan Education Ltd., 1981. Boyce, Charles, Shakespeare A to Z, New York, round table Press Inc., 1990. All act, scene, and line number citations refer to the Arden editions of the various plays discussed in this monograph.