Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.
(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)
Inner players: A Jungian reading of Shakespeare's problem plays
Abstract
The question of what makes great art has intrigued us for nearly as long as the art itself has cast its peculiar spell over our minds and souls. Only recently have we begun to understand something of the way in which the human psyche works, thanks to the work of Dr. Freud and those who came after him. According to Carl Jung, consciousness is a relatively recent part of human evolution. We are still evolving into conscious beings, so that each individual's progress is a microcosm of the whole of humankind. Shakespeare and other great artists tap into the collective unconscious, the place where all our archetypes are stored, waiting to be brought to light and integrated into our conscious mind. His work is so powerful because it is a reinactment of the inner drama that all of us experience on an unconscious level, in the process of individuation. The problem plays present an unusually fertile field for Jungian tillage. Like a face glimpsed in a crowd and then lost, these plays seem to hint at truths that cannot quite be grasped. Viewed through Jung's lens, the puzzles fall into place with remarkable clarity, each revolving around a specific critical axis that allows us to see the form and structure that elude us in other readings. My argument is that, from a psychological view, Jung furnishes us with what is, to date, the best map of Shakespeare's work in these plays. Shakespeare, on the other hand, as the universal poet, proves the validity of Jung's theories by furnishing material that yields to analysis by Jung's methods. This work is meant to champion Jung, not Shakespeare, who needs no champions. I hope to bring the work of two giants together in an effort to add something to our common understanding of both.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature|Theater|Personality psychology|Psychology
Recommended Citation
Porterfield, Sally F, "Inner players: A Jungian reading of Shakespeare's problem plays" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9219483.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9219483