「変容」の恐怖 : シェイクスピアの『真夏の夜の夢』について
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概要
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Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has multiple plots: one of four young lovers, one of mechanicals of Athens, one of Fairy King and Queen, and one of Theseus, duke of Athens and his new bride Hippolyta. A critic once remarked, "Shakespeare has lavished his art on the separate excellencies of the different parts, but has not sought to show them growing out of one another in a process analogous to that of symphonic 'development'." The former two plots themain plots of the play, actually ,however, when closely looked at, turn out to share a common, deeply resounding theme, that is, 'fear of "translation"' or 'fear of loss of identity.' (Fairies and people in the other two plots function as a kind of frame: they watch what's happening or listen to what has happened to the characters in the two main plots, comment on them and sometimes even act on them.) In this paper, I would like to show how the main two plots are working together to give the picture of that kind of fear, which seems, in this play, inseparably intertwined with human innate fascination towards getting 'translated' into another being. In addition, I would like to point out that although the play-within-the play performed by the mechanicals at the end of the play appears rather trifle and boring, or even superfluous, but that this play-within-the play is nothing but Shakespeare's elaborate design to relieve the audience from the above-mentioned fear. And last but not least, I would like to add that I owe much of this analysis to Rene Girard's brilliant and inspiring reading of this play.
- 2003-03-31