シエイクスピアにおける擬人性の問題

概要

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In the old English period gender was grammatical and it was restricted by the form and inflection of adjectives or nouns. In those days gender had no relation with sex. Later when articles and descriptive adjectives had lost their distinctive endings for gender and case, natural gender was established in place of grammatical gender. Natural gender is greatly influenced by the psychological force, not by the form of adjectives or nouns. Shakespear appeared at the period when natural gender was going to be established. The aim of this paper is to show what are the remarkable characteristics of ‘gender of animation’ revealed in Shakespear. The first thing to be noted is that the same noun personified is often given different sex. Secondly, masculine gender is superior in force and number to feminine gender in Shakespear’s personification.