C
Exploring new depths
Shakespeare is nothing if not many-faceted. Any apparent
opinion of his pinned down in some play must face continual
modification from reading others. The positive view of
understanding and reason emerging from A
Midsummer Night's Dream,
As
You Like It,
King
Lear and
Timon
of Athens is
qualified and refined in Othello,
and further modified in Hamlet.
Serious criticism of nature can be found in
Othello
and
Romeo
and Juliet; nature
will, however, meet us again in a different light in
The
Tempest.
The differences between men and women have been addressed
in such plays as Antony
and Cleopatra,
As
You Like It,
and Twelfth
Night. We
have skipped two plays well worth a discussion:
All's
Well That Ends Well preaches
patience and forgiveness; The
Merchant of Venice measures
the distance of care and consideration from hardhearted
revenge. In both plays the male protagonists represent
greed, anger and ingratitude, while the women show
magnanimous understanding. But Shakespeare has also written
two plays about men who become heroes. We will examine
their achievements in chapters 12 and 13.