Shakespeare´s orchards and the Rosalind-principle E-Book

Bernd-Peter Liegener

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 56

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This is a paper on two pairs of twinned plays by Shakespeare. The role of nature as healing agent is described. A comparison between green and human nature shows that in an Elizabethan view assumed female properties can be matched to properties of nature. Performing a spacial analysis we find an enormous potenial for creativity in intermediate spaces. Be it between patriarchal and natural space or between what was seen in Shakespeare´s time as male or female behaviour.

Leseprobe

Shakespeare´s Orchards and the Rosalind-Principle

IMPLICATIONS OF NATURE´S ROLE IN THE PLAYWRIGHT´S WORK

B.- P. Liegener

© 2023 Bernd-Peter Liegener

ISBN Softcover: 978-3-347-87351-3

ISBN Hardback: 978-3-347-87352-0

ISBN E-Book: 978-3-347-87354-4

Printing and distribution on behalf of the author:

tredition GmbH, An der Strusbek 10, 22926 Ahrensburg, Germany

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. The author is responsible for the contents. Any exploitation is prohibited without his approval. Publication and distribution are carried out on behalf of of the author, to be reached at: tredition GmbH, department "Imprint service",An der Strusbek 10, 22926 Ahrensburg, Germany.

Table of Contents

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Green nature

2.1 Elizabehtan views on green nature

2.2 The twinned plays

2.3 Human interaction with green nature and intermediate spaces

3. Human nature

3.1 Parallelism and difference to green nature

3.2 Intermediate space in human nature- the Rosalind-principle

4. Conclusion

References

Abstract

Nature plays an important role in some of Shakespeare´s plays, while in others its occurrence seems almost negligible. This thesis investigates the interplay between his characters and nature in order to identify and prove its healing function for conflicts of human society. Using the concept of spaces, I identify orchards as intermediate between cultural and natural spaces. I take an historically informed approach combined with a presentist view in order to prove the healing function of natural space in two sets of twinned plays, each of them consisting of a tragedy and a matched comedy. I will demonstrate that intermediate spaces in Shakespeare are powerful places of creativity and rebellious ideas. After finding that human and green nature can be regarded as mutual reflections, I look for a parallel to the almost magical power of orchards in human nature. I introduce a scale between assumed male and female behaviour. Rosalind in As You Like It marks an intermediate position on this scale, which shows equivalent effects to the ones of orchards. The effective and powerful temporal adoption of an intermediate position between commonly assumed gender roles is dubbed the Rosalind-principle.

1. Introduction

Tityre tu, patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi…

You, Tityrus, lying relaxed under the spacious roof of the beech…

These words are the beginning of Virgil´s bucolica. It was written in the last pre-Christian century and is probably the most famous work of pastoral literature in the classic period. Having strong roots in 3rd century´s Eidyllia, (the Greek word means originally "small pictures" and is the origin of the English word "idyll") written by Theokritos of Syracuse (Segal 1981), it depicts nature as a place of peace and wellbeing. This idyllic idea of nature can be related to the age-old human longing for the Golden Age (Ryberg 1958). Hesiod wrote down different versions of the old legend about 700 years before Christ (Most 1998): In the very old days of Golden Age the world was a paradise. Due to human misbehaviour, according to the myth, times changed and after a Silver and a Bronze Age we live today in the Iron or Ferrous Age of violence, toil and misery. In modern terms this is called the Anthropocene. And, as a matter of fact, we have to concede that human presence and actions have resulted in environmental changes from the earliest times on.

In this essay I want to find out which relation and mutual influence between humans and nature can be detected in some of Shakespeare´s work. Can nature change and possibly improve human fate? Which human attitudes towards nature do his characters display and how do these attitudes contribute to shaping nature? And what can we learn from Shakespeare with respect to our modern ways to deal with nature? There are two overlapping aspects of nature on which I will focus in this paper. I will investigate "green", environmental nature and human nature. Is there a relation between these two forms of nature? Nature, especially in contrast to urban areas, is often described as "green space"(e.g. Swanwick et al. 2003). But nature does not only occupy space on the surface of our earth but also in our minds. Accordingly, I want to use the concept of spaces in my paper, and formulate two theses. First thesis: In Shakespeare´s plays natural space can function as a healing agent. Not denying the temporally restricted access to natural space for Shakespeare´s protagonists I want to examine also intermediate spaces between nature and culture, represented by orchards, and their influence on humans. Second thesis: human and green nature are viewed as reflecting each other. I want to see, if I can find also a reflection of intermediate spaces like orchards in human nature. Due to analogies in 16th century´s male perceptions of green nature and female nature, my intention is to show that this intermediate space could be located between the expected patterns of male and female behaviour.

As starting point I will give a short survey of spatial analysis of Shakespeare. Habermann and Witen (2016) compiled in their book seven categories for spatial analyses of Shakespeare: structural/topological space, stage space/setting/ locality, linguistic/poetic space, social/gendered space, early modern geographic space, cultured spaces/contact zones, and the material world/cultural imaginary. As other spaces used for analysis of Shakespeare can be named Cleopatra´s "theatrical space, wherever she goes" (Bronfen 2016), the political arena, the theatrical stage and the psychic realm (Wald 2016), more generally the "psychic spaces that take their shape and colour from the characters’ mental dispositions" (Brönnimann 2016), the private and female space (Ziegler 1990), and the sea as a geopolitical space and as a dramatic agent in the play itself (Klein 2016). Laine (2018) used a patriarchal and a natural space, focussing on their borderlines. Space has often been regarded as "social product" (Lefebvre 1991), individuals of the society, e.g. pedestrians create (urban) space (De Certeau 1984). But can space also have influence on societies? While Lotman (1979) postulated two vertical (social) spaces, Mahler (2016) stressed the "vertical organization of social space", introducing a third, temporary, space, which prepares the characters "for their social (comic or tragic) restitution". He postulated a "spatial disorder" as beginning of the plays, i.e. a "disappointment" of one or more characters from their position in the social order. The "enclave", the temporal space, is to be needed to resolve this disorder. As "healing factors" he sees time and love. The spaces themselves are listed as the heath, madness, the mask, disguise, fiction, and exile, but also forest/nature.