SIMILARITIES AND DIVERGENCEIS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE VIEWS OF G. WILSON KNIGHT AND E. M, W. TILLYARD ON

THE THEME! OF HUMAN REGBNBRATION

There is order in the universe and cosmic laws and

moral laws derive from God. Shakespeare p l a y s are

illustrations of t he success and failures of human

responses to order. G . Wilson Knight and E. M. W - Tillyard

expand the concept of order from the common forum of

Elizabethan world picture.

Knight sees all moral laws as magnificent expressions

of order. In the prefatory note to

ma+. he comments:

Now, whereas Shakespeare's thought may o f t e n be

related t o philosophy of order and other

hierarchies, his action functions regularly as a

challenge to such concepts. Though the

philosophies themselves may be either medieval

or contemporary, w e can certainly relate the

challenge itself to Renaissance humanism, and

beyond that, to poetic genius. Anyone can

understand the necessity of order. We a l l know

how salutary it is, in any age, to pray for t h e

squire and h i s relations or other equivalents.

What only genius can do is to set going an

action which comes near to toppling over the

universe whilst simultaneously engaging our

sympathies. 1

A r t and morals express t h e longings for the

resolution of discord; each is an attempt to create a more

perfect order. Every Shakespeare play is about

regeneration and each of his endings is both a reminder of

a process taking place in the imagined world of the play

and a returning of the audience to the changing world of

real life,

Each play is an image of perfection in the sense of

completeness. As a work of art it is a beautifully

finished thing but it is never complete in itself since

the audience's degree of receptivity varies. Alan Hobson

supports the view of Knight. He writes: "A whole play by

Shakespeare, tragedy, no less than comedy, is a harmonious

order in which disintegration, disharmony, misrule,

deviation, perversion, murder, jealousy, and waste are

contained and actually cantribute to the artistic harmony.

What w e call the beauty of the play is the disintegration

of the parts.w2 Similarly each play describes human

behaviour and the dramatist indicates the principles

governing human behaviour. He relates the cosmic laws in

terms of art and principles of animation, motivation and

regeneration in terms of morals. The plats of u n a Lear

and t h e stories of the L a s t Plays substantiate t h e

complementariness of a r t and morals. The pilgrimage of

Cordelia and the divine interventions of the Last Plays,

Shakespeare's preoccupation w i t h forgiveness and

redemption leave the strongest impression that like

artistic creation, moral development must proceed by the

acceptance and consequent transformation of elements.

Knight interprets Shakespeare's symbols in terms of v

binary oppositions. In the Last Plays ha emphnsises the

opposition of tempest-symbolism to music and the hate

theme to love. As music is for the musician so is order

for charity. Discord and anarchy are symptoms of bad art

and bad morals. The ~nchiavellian philosophy of power

gave scope for usurpation which is an obvious

manifestation of disorder. Antonio and Sebastian are

typical Machiavellian villains, Caliban is an embodiment

of Montaiqnefs primitivism. The badness of bad morals and

bad a r t (as in the case of Sycorax) lies in unresolved

disharmonies, Officiousness and licentiousness make man

wretched and miserable, whereas responsibility and

independence make t h e m strong and magnificent. Services

and sacrifices enhance happiness which alone makes life

meaningful. Prospero creates a circle of joy and

fellowship through self-regeneration and othersf

regeneration. Shakespeare's primary objective of human

regeneration is a harmonious order in life and art.

The camplementariness of morals and art may be

demonstrated from Prosperors display of the masque and the

game af chess Ferdinand and Miranda play as prenuptial

entertainments. Prosperofs ambition was an orderly state

of affairs in the family life of the couple and the

domestic governance of Naples, But his aspiration cannot

be f u l f i l l e d unless Ferdinand and Miranda, upon whom he

wishes these blessings, themselves desire them. The royal

game of chess is a symbol of t h e superiority of reason

over passions. Patients and temperance are aspects of

morals which are promoters of unity in diversity. The

discourse Prospero delivers on civilisation has reference

to ar t . The creative endeavours of man suggest aesthetic

values of order. Art can create a new dimension of human

existence. Morals facilitate inward harmony because man

is rational, social, and religious. Restoration of order

through ar t and morals is t h e significance of human

regeneration.

Knight * s argument that Caliban is part of Prospero

may be seen from the paints of view of regeneration.

Prospero, the magus, was responsible for the usurpation of

Milan by Antonio. Prospero, the magician and researcher

in necromancy, violates the theology of order. H i s

vaulting ambition to attain perfection in h i s art amounted

to indulgence in irresponsibility. Therefore he is a

symbol of disorder inasmuch as Caliban is one of that

category. It is the regenerated Prospero who is a

representative of order. Caliban is incapable of

regeneration. Therefore Knight's proposition is partly

true and partly false, The analogy is striking and it

needs a critical study.

This view has been questioned by Rose Abdelnour

Zimbardo. She writes: "G. Wilson Knight has said that

Caliban is part of ProsperoFs nature, basing h i s argument

upon the speech at the end of the play wherein Prospero

owns Caliban as h i s , But Caliban is not part of Prospero,

he comprises t h a t element of the disorder that Prosperots

art cannot reach and. Prospero claims him as a deficiency

or limitation of h i s art . Caliban is actively opposed to

Prospero s order.

Caliban represents disorder which is opposed to

temperance, obedience and other qualities. His disordered

nature resisted them in Ferdinand and Miranda. Ever since

he pledged himself to slavery, he had decided to destroy

order and indulge in chaos.

Rose Abdelnour Zirnbardo disagrees on Knight's picture

of Prospero as Shakespeare's superman, Tillyard's

description of him as a regenerated King, Churton ~olins'

idea of Prospero as God and D. G . JamesJ conceptfan of him

as a poet. He maintains that Prospero is an artist of a

kind, who uses music the very symbol of order.

Preservation of order and form is the aim of h i s magic and

Rose's refutation of Knight is based on the reality that

Prospero is only a mortal, fallible, and irascible and a

bit ridiculous a t times, but always under necessity to

react violently against the forces of disorder. She

writes:

We might outline his role in this way: Prospero

at the beginning of the play is in a posi t ion in

which he can take h i s enemies who represent

disordered mankind since they are usurpers, out

of the flux of life--which is emphasised by

their voyage from a marriage f e a s t back to the

affairs of state. H i s enemies are Antonio and

Sebastian, the centre of the forces of disorder,

and Alonso and Ferdinand, who will be

permanently influenced by their experience; with

them is Gonzalo, who already stands on the side

of the forces of order. 4

In a sense Rose AMelnouris view is fascinating, She

looks at the plot from the point of view of contrast, not

emphasis. Regenerated Prospero, t h e good Gonzalo, the

blessed couple Ferdinand and Hiranda are creations of and

submitters to a system of order in contrast to Antonio and

Sebastian, Stephano and Trinculo, with Caliban in the

centre, who are creators of disorder. If the project of

Prospero is three-fold, restoration of ~ilan, a royal

matrimonial alliance for Miranda and a peaceful death, the

stress is on human regeneration. Reconciliation with

Alonso was necessary to the conjugal prosperity of Miranda

and Ferdinand, A peaceful life implied self-reconciliation

and reunion with God through forgiveness in the posi t ive

sense- That means human regeneration is the point of

emphasis and order is considered a facet of human

regenaxation.

E . M . W . Tillyard argues t h a t the order which prevails

in the heavens is duplicated on earth, the King

corresponding to the sun. Disorder in the heavens breeds

disorder on earth in the physical sublunary organisation

and in the commonwealth of men. When Shakespeare calls

degree the ladder to all high designs, he visualises

another correspondence in mind: that between the ascending

grades of man in h i s social s t a t e and the ladder of

creation or chain of being which stretched from the

meanest piece of inanimate matter in unbroken ascent to

the highest of the angels.

When an ~lizabethan audience heard the words 'Chaos,

where degree is suffocated," the educated people at least

would understand chaos in a more precise sense than w e

should naturally do. They would understand it as a

p a r a l l e l i n the state to the primitive warring of the

elements from which the universe w a s created and into

which it would f a l l i f the constant pressure of God's

ordering and sustaining will ever relaxed.

The Elizabethan idea of world-order was basically a

medieval philosophy. The theologians and cosmologists

made relevant modifications and updated the thoughts.

Shakespeare presented t h e s e ideas i n order to please

the cultured minds of the Elizabethan audiences.

E. M . W . Tillyard clarifies that the Elizabethan conception

of world order was in its outlines medieval although it

had discarded much medieval detail. The universe was a

unity, in which everything had its place, and it was a

perfect work of God. Any imperfection was t h e work of

man; for with the fall of man the universe underwent a

sympathetic corruption.

The actual order of the world presented itself to the

Elizabethans under three different, though often related,

appearances--a chain, a series of corresponding planes,

and a dance to music.

E, M, W. Tillyard's picture of the chain of beings

could be illustrated as fallows.

As a chain, creation was a series of beings

stretching from the lowest of inanimate objects

up to t h e archangel nearest to the throne of

God. T h e ascent was gradual, no step was

missing; and on the borders of the great

divisions between animate and inanimate,

vegetative and sentient, sentient and rational,

rational and angelic, there were the necessary

transitions. 5

Obviously Shakespeare learnt the doctrine of t h e

great chain of Beings from the book of Genesis in The

Bible and Plata's pesublic. Though Shakespeare knew

little L a t i n and less Greek, he made use of the

translations of the Chr- and the u.

Order implies intelligence; the absolute intelligence

is God. Man partakes of t h e intelligence; man is

rational, simple, and spiritual. Man is at the same time

a corporal being: man is a composite of body and soul.

Therefore, man can regenerate physically, improve mentally

and spiritually. Human regeneration is part and parcel of

the reality of order. There is a definite time for man's

coming into existence; man undergoes a range of

metaphysical growth till he dies. E. #S. W, Tillyard

logicizes thus:

All growth implies destruction and recreation.

Any important mental growth implies them very

markedly; they are jointly inherent in any vital

change. Thus it is that the man is most alive

who is the readiest to forgo the lazy comforts

of his own habitual ways of thinking, and, when

confronted with a new situation, to recast the

contents of his mind. Such a recasting is

invariably painful, although it brings its

reward. Tragedy symbolises this process, and

those who witness tragedy are encouraged to

heighten their own vitality by re-enacting the

same process. In this sense tragedy goes

outside drama. 6

This quality he finds in Shakespearean tragedy. T h e

notion of tragedy implies human regeneration,

E. M. W. Tillyard gives a very obvious example for

t h e concept of human regeneration as a prologue to the

Last Plays, for the spectacular feature of the Last Plays

is human regeneration, Tillyard further thinks that in

the last three plays n, T h e w , and

The the old order is destroyed as thoroughly as in

the main group of tragedies. E. M. W. Tillyard excludes

Pericm. He remarks:

Examining the base plots rather than the total

impression of the last three plays , we find in

each the same general scheme of prosperity,

destruction, and recreation. The main character

is a king, A t the beginning he is in prosperity.

He then does an evil or misguided deed. Great

suffering follows, but during their suffering or

at its height the seeds of something new to

issue from it are germinating usually in secret,

In the end, this new element assimilates and

transforms the old evil, The king overcomes h i s

evil instincts, joins himself to the new order

by an act of forgiveness or repentance, and the

play issues into a fairer prosperity than had

first existed. ' There exists a continuity of the same theme from the

early comedies, through the tragedies to the Last Plays.

In the early comedies there are symbols of human

regeneration, the spring season being the m o s t predominant

one, In the tragedies there is an emphatic transmutation

of disposition which the heroes and heroines express in

wards, and they show goodwill to live up to that standard

even though some of them fail to survive. In the final

plays there are instances of symbolism and expressions of

human regeneration.

The responses of G l Wilson Knight and E . M , W . Tillyard

to the theme of human regeneration in Shakespeare's L a s t

Plays display an assertion of a moral order. They show

that Shakespeare is closer to medieval traditions.

Antonio the traitor is represented poised between

Sebastian and Prospero who are the good and bad angels

respectively.

Rec~nciliation, according these critics, is the

virtue that affiliates human beings to God. A forgiving

person vanquishes his enemy nobly. Theref ore

reconciliation to a divine revenge is transferred to a

civil or moral realm. In the spiritual realm the

oppressed cry to God, who alone can dole out justice

indiscriminately. He alone can convert evil into good.

He alone can shower graces to convert an obstinate sinner

into a repentant person. Furthermore, sanctification of

human life is enhanced in the measure mercy is distributed

to fellow-beings disinterestedly. An analogy may be

suggested. A flower does n o t reserve its beauty and

fragrance only to the garden or to t h e caretakers. The

fortunes of nature are shared appropriately by the good as

well as the bad. civilization demands forgiveness of

evil: likewise, vices are to be eliminated and replaced by

public virtues and culture demands reconciliation with

enemies.

The virtuous wight suffer like Job, the wicked might

prosper like the green bay-tree, But God allows evil also

a time. Misfortunes may be occasions to test the sense of

perseverance of the suffering or to expedite repentance in

the evil doers. In a l l t h e s e cases God transforms the

folly of men. Human regeneration is the natural cross.

T h e Last Plays are therefore aesthetic testaments of

the paschal mystery: incarnation, passion, death, and

resurrection. G . Wilson Knight and E. M. W. Tillyard

converge on this mystical plane of reality.

James Walter is in general agreement w i t h certain

points of the above stream of thought. He comments:

In the eschatological perspective that joins the

aesthetic one in the Epilogue, all human words,

deeds, and creations depend for their final

meaning and their only substantiality on their

subordination to the work of Mercy. Hence the

poet-prophet must release the audience from the

confines of the play's beauty in itself and move

them to use their freedom to realise a l l the

meanings of what they have witnessed. BY

interpreting the play in their consequent

thought and through their deeds of love, the

audience w i n a freedom that is identical with

Prosperofs freedom to renew every traveller to

h i s isle with the oblation of a broken heart.8

According to Dover Wilson is not a

subject of argument or explanation; it is to be accepted

and experienced, This play is at once the completion

and the obverse of m a f&m. In Shakespeare

succeeded in showing Truth at its bleakest and most

terrifying, as Beauty. In me Ternnest he succeeded in

showing Beauty, at its surest, most magical and most

blessed as Truth. Keats perhaps inspired Dover Wilson to

discover the t w o aspects of eternity in these plays,

E. M. W, Tillyard's philosophy and the vision of

J. Dover Wilson synchronize on the theme of human

regeneration. Aesthetics elevate the mind, it is a facet

of spirituality. Beauty consists in the intrinsic value

of anything or in a behaviour which is the revelation of a

disposition, T r u t h means reliability: God alone is fully

trustworthy and loyal, Beauty ultimately is God and all

beautiful things are manifestations of the Absolute

Reality.

Shakespeare, according to Dover Wilson, unveils the

picture of humanity as being capable of and actively

involved in regeneration. They hold in unison that the

purpose of human existence is to discover happiness and

that this can be achieved through the elimination of the

ugly and the false in thoughts, words, and deeds. In two

passages (Antony gazing on the sunset clouds, and Prospero

in the "our revels now ended speechn) Dover Wilson finds

the expression of what is to him the most essential aspect

of Shakespeare's s p i r i t .

To dream, to meditate, to lose ourselves i n

thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls, to

love the gay appearances of the world and know

then as illusions--this temper of an ironic

mind, of a happy, en joying and yet melancholy

nature, expresses itself in a secret rhythm, as

cadence, a delicate and dream-like music which

is, for me, the loveliest poetry of the world.9

~irgil K* Whitaker in h i s appraisal of The Teapest

endorses the views of G . Wilsan Knight and E.M.W, Tillyard

on the theme af human regeneration. We states: ageginning

about the turn of the twentieth century Shakespeare shows

a heightened interest in the philosophical-theological

interpretation of life contained within the Christian

heritage.lt10 In his opinion Tho is another

confirmation of these trends, for in this play,

Shakespeare develops a political theme in a manner as is

suitable to tragi-comedy and in essentially Christian

terms. Be tries to show--by presenting a series of

rebellions--that evil men, found inevitably in primitive

as well as civilized societies, impede the establishment

of an ideal political state. Seen in this light, the play

reveals itself as a direct refutation of t h e cultural

primitivism embodied in Montaigns's concept of the noble

savage, It is also an indirect refutation of other

contemporary philosophies based upon an example of

primitive goodness. Similarly Dean Ebner remarks,

'iShakespeare seems to make the positive assertion that any

improvements in human nature necessary to the

approximation of an ideal society must come, no t through

the power of human knowledge, but through the exercise of

Christian virtue,

In Artist Richard G .

Maulton comments on the Elizabethan philosophy of order

which Knight and Tillyard fbund applicable to

Shakespeare's concept of human regeneration.

Shakespeare is n o t satisfied with the easy

morality which converts all its villains before

the fall of t h e curtain. In the play, as in

actual life men are seen divided into two

classes: those in whom evil is only accidental,

to be purged out of them by the discipline of

experience and those in whom t h e evil seems to

be part of their nature and a l l the working of

events upon them serves only to drive it deeper

in. A l m s 0 is by h i s doom driven to ecstasies

of remorse: why? because he has before had a

heart that could feel compunction. 12

Human nature is imperfect and fallible, but the sense of

order in it compels the disordered persons to regenerate.

Human regeneration through suffering is the theme of

the major tragedies. The Last Plays are perfect tragedies

by virtue of this theme which functions like the strand of

Shakespeare plays. A critical survey of prominent

elucidations may be undertaken so as to focus attention on

G . Wilson Knight and E. M. W, Tillyard.

A. C, Bradley gives a fatalistic approach to tragedy.

There may be intellectual perception of t h e error of

judgement in the tragic hero, Regeneration is only an

intellectual value, n o t a lived value, That means the

tragic hero enjoys freedom to live up to or n o t to live up

to the insight, but he is not capable of exercising it as

an act of fulfilment, However, he admits that Shakespeare

tragedies evince the correlation among character, motive,

and action. He defends Shakespeare's tragic philosophy

that character is destiny; there is poetic justice which

raeans virtue is rewarded and evil is punished in the light

of the principle of justice. The Bradleyan conception of

poetic justice is the artistic harmony between character

and fate. He finds in Shakespearean tragedies a painful

mystery of suffering .

Janet Spens explains the concept of regenerat i o n in

tragedy.

Recently tragedy has been put in terms of the

mental experience of rebirth. This new notion

is in itself more congenial to the modern mind

than the old one but it is unfamiliar still and

cannot as yet compete with something less

cangenial and more familiar. Next, the terms in

use are multivocal when it cames to describing

the process of the mind. It may well be that

tragedy renders other experiences also and we

lack the vocabulary to cope w i t h this situation.

A theory lacking technical terms and expressible

only through arbitrary circumstances is at a

disadvantage, to say the least. And, l a s t l y , to

define the literary kinds thus psychologfcally

is to run all sorts of r i s k , is to leave

restricted safety for a realm where conjecture,

has every chance of flourishing. Nevertheless I

believe that t h e notion of the kinds can still

.promote the business of criticism and that of

the different not ions the psychological one

stands the &st chance of ultimate aceeptance.13

C , H. Herford has his own views about the theme of

human regeneration in Shakespeare's plays. He writes:

Shakespeare's tragedies do not suggest the

morose temper of a pessimist: his most terrible

picture of t h e power of evil gives us the

ineffable vision of goodness in Cordelia and in

Desdemona, and it is rightly seen that though

they perish miserably the world which produced

them cannot he hopeless; the vital thing is not

that they were happy or unhappy; but that they

existed at all. And it is significant that this

free and open nature is the constant mark of his

tragic heroes as if Shakespeare had been most

impressed by the kind of calamity which befalls

such natures as his own, l4

S . F. Johnson has elahorated on the theme of human

regeneration in Shakespeare4s major tragedies. He points

out t h a t nlbzd&& and the other tragedies contain the theme

of human regeneration in that the heroes recognize their

error and in that they are wiser if n o t finer for their

sufferings. "35

S. F . Johnson analyses the concept of regeneration in

Hamlet. His first observation is that there is no

spiritual development since Hamlet has been shown to be

deeply religious throughout the play. The second idea is

that he enjoyed quietism which is not religious

enlightenment: it means a mental state of tranquillity,

As he observes, mrHa~let is ready for anything that will

come along; he has not acquired a new and liberating

mastery of h i s own fate."'' Quietism is the doctrine that

religious perfection on earth consists in positive and

uninterrupted contemplation of God.

He disagrees with Bradley's view that t h e following

speech betrays only the fatalistic attitude of Hamlet:

We defy augury, There is a special providence

In the fall of a sparrow. (I.v.82)

He rejects also the view of Roy Walker, who believes

that Hamlet is an instrument of providence, heavens'

scourge and minister, and that what was required of him

was acceptance of h i s own nature with all the complexities

and contradictions. He challenges and repudiates Ray

Walker's second argument that Hamlet's attitude amounted

to ~mysticismw and so it must wait upon inspiration.

A. A. smirnov proposes a historical interpretation

of the theme of human regeneration in Shakespearean

tragedies. He argues that every tragedy is illuminated by

an affirmation of life: Lear's suffering leads to a

spiritual regeneration, OthelloOs to a rebirth of faith in

Desdemona's purity and in human nature at large Antonyf s

death, to an enlightening revelation of the universal

historical process. Enlightened Antony dies like a Roman.

He says "1 am dying, Egypt is dyingm (Antony and C-

1V.xv.l). Shakespeare unceasingly strove towards an

understanding of the l i fe process i n all its extant and

profundity. He explored the depths of human suffering,

and through h i s understanding pointed the way to ethical

and social values, Shakespeare rejected the medieval

notion of predestination and man's mission on earth.

Having faith, like all other great humanists, in the

innate goodness of human nature, he believed that if man

were allowed to develop naturally and fully in accordance

with the needs and demands of the society, he would

achieve not only happiness but social perfection.

Smrinov further writes that a sense of the tragic

permeates the Last Plays, each of which contains socio-

moral dramatic conflicts which bring the protagonists to

the verge of ruin. The regeneration of these characters

is rooted in the moral character of human nature.

Shakespeare delineates individuals from the soc ia l and

moral angles: their rights, their relations to the family,

the sta te and the rest of society. He always stresses the

social roots of the problem.

T h i s view is more of a materialistic kind and

Shakespeare was not perceiving man as t h e measure of

everything. He goes beyond the terrestrial values of

human relations, He upholds the folly of the cross, and

believes that the rarer action is in virtue than in

vengeance. Love and forgiveness are unconditional which

involve a supramundane relation to God. Professor

Smrinov's argument carries conviction but is merely a

partial one.

G. Wilson Knight and Tillyard loom large in t h e

interpretation of Shakespearean tragedy and its completion

in the Last Plays. The theme of human regeneration runs

imperfectly through the major tragedies and reaches the

peak of excellence in the Last Plays. There are

ostensible p o i n t s of agreements in their views on the

tragedies as miniature regeneration plays.

Tragedy is imitative in nature and cathartic in

function. It imitates the death of the hero. The

physical ruin is the conventional nature of the tragic

hero. Before death, the hero may be purified by virtue of

reason and religion. suffering ennobles and purifies the

tragic hero. This is magnificently depicted in the Last

Plays where death is evaded but agony of the soul is more

painful than the torture in dying, Renewal follows

destruction according Knight and Tillyard.

Regeneration is the richest term to express Knight's

concept of resurrection and Tillyardis idea of recreation.

The spiritual regeneration is a prelude to the physical

one. The resurrection of the body and soul is implied in

Knight's description that Shakespearean tragedy transcends

the tragic, The same is suggested in the dialectical

determinism: Prosperity, destruction and recreation

propounded by Tillyard.

The two critics jointly hold that the tragic heroes

regenerate in the sense that they attain self-recognition

(according to Knight) and self-discovery (according to

Tillyard). They tide over the religious sense of

repentance. Hamlet and Othello achieve a new spiritual

poise at the close of their lives,

E. C , Pettet epitornises the cornon features of their

views. He says that the romances are distinguished from

t h e comedies because they contain suffering and

destruction. They are distinguished from t h e tragedies

because they embody a f i n a l phase of prosperity and

reconciliation. The purificatory function of suffering

and the immortal nature of the human soul are the

essential facets of tragedy according to them. This truth

is vaguely pictured in t h e tragedies but magnificently

portrayed in t h e -st Flays.

Knight describes tragedy as a great truth of life

showing in it, in one sense, a fall and in another sense a

rise. The fall consists in renewal leading to the

resurrection of the hero, In the Last Plays this t r u t h is

shown to be a mystic experience by Knight, whereas it is

developed as a biological fact of t h e nature of man by

Tillyard. The former belongs to the metaphysical plans of

reality, the latter belongs to the natural plane of

reality.

E. M. W, Tillyard distinguishes three kinds af tragic

feeling, any or all of which may be present in a tragedy:

f%hat produced by the suffering of a hero, w i t h or without

tragic flaw: that produced by sacrificial purgation,

involving something of a religious response, and that

produced by renewal consequent on destruction.

He perceives an organic and even necessary connection

of the tragedies with the Last Plays. He traces in them a

comaran pattern of prosperity (happiness), destruct ion

(suffering) and recreation (renewal), He discovers self-

discovery in Othellors confession to Ludavico that he

loved Desdemona too well but not wisely.

It may be suggested that in W s ~ e a r e ' s W t P l w

Tillyard examines the relationship of the Last Plays with

the tragedies, The theme of rebirth, which is the seminal

truth of the Aeschylean Trilogy, inspired Shakespeare to

cultivate it in the tragedies and harvest it in the Last

Plays. He holds that the myth of fertility is extensively

displayed in The Winter's T a . The regenerative quality

is abundantly brought out in the tragedies where

Shakespeare portrays the horror of evil and the

possibility of redemption and in the Last Plays he

demonstrates how evil is redeemed. In varying degrees

Shakespeare creates a symbolic awareness of the beauty of

normal humanity after it has been purged of evil--a

blessed reality under the evil appearance of suffering.

G I Wilson Knight argues that Shakespeare's vision of

the depths of man's suffering, of the essential tragedy of

his lot, remains as his deepest insight into human

destiny. The Last Plays complement and confirm the

ultimate truths conveyed by t h e tragedies. Human

regeneration is in potency here and now, it is in act only

in resurrection. That is what Knight meant by h i s dictum

that Shakespearean tragedy transcends the tragic.

Knight and Tillyard have influenced several other

Shakespeare critics. A perusal of the following views

drives home to the readers the impact of their criticism

on the relevance of human regeneration in t h e major

tragedies.

Alan Siobsan writes that Lear has learned to feel with

and for others through the terrible suffering but the

fullness of self-sacrificing love would be too much to

expect. Lear is born again, but as a new born-child.

Devouring self-love has given way to devouring love.

Altruism has been born and possessiveness disappears, but

there is little time for the flowering of the altruism.

Irving Ribber is of the view that the suffering of Lear

and Gloucester is preserved with all the immediate

intensity in order to emphasize that the process of

regeneration is a purgatorial one. nKincr. L e u asserts the

perfection of God's harmonious order and the inevitable

triumph of justice over the forces of evil preying upon

and destroying themselves. In the process they subvert

the good, but finally good must be vict~rious. In such a

world man must subject h i s will to the will of God,

patiently enduring whatever may came, with only faith in

the perfection of the divine plan to sustain him."18

Riboner indicates that specifically in this play

Shakespeare affirms the possibility of human salvation,

and that he does this by placing in an imaginative setting

the regeneration from evil of two aged men. In t h e

vagueness of the setting Shakespeare creates the feeling

that the stage of Lear is in the entire world, and in the

double action he reminds us forcefully t h a t the life

journey of Lear may be the life-journey of every man.

In Kina ];em Shakespeare's emphasis is upon the

process of human regeneration, self-knowledge,

penance and expiation for s i n upon which he had

touched only lightly in the final scene of

m. That Shakespeare now chose for his

hero an old man was appropriate, for h i s concern

is with a spiritual rebirth for which man never

can grow too old. Shakespeare just poses

dramatically the physical age of h i s hero

against the new manhood he attains through

suffering: he affirms that Lear's four score

years of pride and self-deception were merely

the prelude to l i f e and not true life at all. 19

Human regeneration is the basic message of Pinu Lew

according t o David Horowitz. In h i s opinion "endurance is

made possible by the stoic recognition of maturity; it is

a knowledge that what is not lost cannot be found, an

aesthetic recognition that life is a 'defect perfection,'

its perfection seen as, in some essential way, lodged in

its defect; for the ground of every spring is a winter , of

every birth, a death.w20

G. K. Hunter interprets m g J . m as the central

Shakespearean statement. wThe word which most clearly

leads the modern eye straight from *a Lsar to the Last

Plays is the word 'reconciliation. ' is seen as

the greatest of tragedies because it not only strips,

reduces and assaults human dignity but because it also

shows w i t h the greatest force and detail the process of

restoration by which humanity can recover from this

degradation. Lear i s exiled from h i s throne, h i s friends,

h i s dependents, h i s family, even from his own reason and

from his own identity.~21

The insanity and exile are expressions of corruption.

It is self-induced moral strain that caused his

derangement, The love and constancy of cordelia

accelerated his self-perception that 'ripeness is allof

According to M. C . Bradbrook is a Christian

Play: is set in pagan times and Shakespeare has

totally abstracted the Christian hope, though he has l e f t

t h e Christian ethics. Every doctrinal expectation is

contradicted. "Yet this is a most religious play, in the

sense that it deals with ultimate suffering and finds no

answer to the mystery of evil. But the solution to the

problem of justice is seen in the vanishing of this

problem. w 2 2

Lear ends his life in self-discovery. A similar

restoration of tho self has been effected by Job. He

encountered an undeserved tragedy while Lear was doled out

a tragic measure of existence. Critics have compared

The Book of Job and U n a L w from the perspective of

human regeneration. Dover Wilson points out that lqW

Bnpk sf Job is a marvellous poem on the meaning of the

universe, a theme which is handled artistically and not

philosophically, exactly as Shakespeare handles it in

. But the former embraces more than the fatter;

it includes the recovery as well as the anguish.n23

Human regeneration in ufi is a glimmering

cultural evolution. Macbethts inward call f ~ r rebirth is

projected symbolically, when Macbeth speaks to the doctor

of physic:

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,

Raze out the written troubles of the brain

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuffed busorn of that perilous stuff

which weighs upon the heart?

(m II.ii.58ff)

It may be said then that in Shakespeare has

achieved a superbly poetic morality play on the theme of

anbition, deadly sin, worldly ruin, death and damnation.

At the same time, the deeper spiritual interests which

dominate almost all the other plays of h i s maturity appear

to have in some of the speeches what might be called a

mystical purgatorial start.

Uldy Macbeth had suppressed grievous burdens of s i n

in her subconscious mind, when they sought an outlet and

relief in the unconscious level of her life. Sonnambulisn

is an expression of the unconscious state of mind. It

illustrates the human psychology that human behaviour

concentrates on goals and unmet needs. She aspired

therefore for deliverance from the bondage of s i n but the

force of habit impeded the easy exoneration from the

consequences of sin.

Here is the smell of blood still. ~ l l the

perfume of Arabia will not sweeten this little

hand. Oh, Oh, Oh. (V.iii.1)

The doctor of physic confirms the need for human

cooperation with the divine invitation for the fulfilment

of regeneration. He stresses it in the following speech:

Foul whispering are abroad. Unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their

secrets

Mare needs she t h e divine than the physician.

(V.ii.48ff)

In the final soliloquy of Macbeth there are elements

of human salvation. He recognizes how he has undone

himself and the world, how he has unmade his life,

reducing it to no more than

a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets h i s hour from the stage

And then is heard no more, (V.v.28ff)

In the light of the ~nglican theology the

protagonists' painful spiritual condition is a healthy

sign of regeneration. William Perkins writes on the

relevance of despair: "In the Renaissance thinking,

despair can produce two opposing spiritual states. On the

one hand, unqualified despair, doubting God's power to

grant remission for one's sins and demonstrating a lack of

faith results in eternal damnation. But on the other

hand, qualified despair can be positive, marking the very

start of onefs spiritual r e o o ~ e r ~ . ~ ~ ~ Luther and Calvin

found a kind of self-despair as prerequisite to salvation,

Protestant sermons stressed the need for fallen humanity

to be aware of its unworthiness, to be rehrn through the

experience of positive despair to a complete dependence on

God. According to Robert Burton, despair could affect

even God's best ,children. nIn the devotional literature

of Shakespeare's time the spiritual struggle of working

through a deep troubled conscience to arrive at a renewed

faith in God was a process much di~cussed.~

There is human regeneration in the major tragedies

which are preludes to the regeneration plays. ~espair of

the heroes is no f ndication of their spiritual damnation.

Theologians like Acquinas and calvin upheld that it is

natural for man to experience the fear of despair but it

is a factor for trust in God. "Despair must indicate s i n

to the theologian; yet theology recognizes that despair

may exist without unbelief. Despair, Aquinas argues,

refers to an inclination of the soul.n For despair must

form part of the process of salvation. "It is right that

the world should for a time appear to the travailing soul

like a beautiful flower. 25

The suffering which arises out of the sense of mortal

inadequacy and affliction has to do w i t h the health of the

soul: 'despair8 as Reinhold Norden puts it, Rhas a greater

affinity with repentance than complacency has with

faith.u26 The foolish arrogance of the spirit can only be

beaten down. Calvin declares : Rby that proof of man s

frailty which drives h i m to invoke the strength of God, 27

and the thought i s commonplace in Elizabethan devotional

literature that God permits h i s children to encounter

evils on earth

to the end that they dote not upon a secure

estate here, but rather through adversity and

affliction he maketh them weary of this world,

that they may desire heaven he maketh them to

know themselves to be but wretched men; as of

themselves, and to have all their help from

him. 28

The consciousness of sin is at one with the

cansciousness of God. Therefore the tragic heroes

transcend the negative state of despair. They regenerate.

In the theatre the negative power of despair w a s

dranntised in Marlowers Doctor F a u s t u . For other

characters, however, despair can revive hope by taking

away everything but trust in Gadl Unlike Faustus those

predestined to be saved will progress out of despair to

arrive at true repentance, forgiveness and remission of

sins. This process is shown by Edgar's treatment of his

father in m u u: Gloucester must be brought to

understand the need to trust in divine providence. The

puritans believed that heaven alone determines the timing

and conditions of birth and death, our ltcoming hithern as

well as our "going hence." One can suggest several

reasons why Shakespeare frequently presents characters who

struggle with their despair. It was a concern of

widespread interest for t h e Elizabethan audience. It

often affected men in an extremely emotional and therefore

highly dramatic manner. It is a theme in the epistle of

Saint Paul to the Corinthians and Shakespeare might have

had a predilection for it from the point of view of human

regeneration. you n o t know that you are God's temple

and that God's spirit dwells in you: If anyone destroys

God's temple God will destroy him, for God's temple is

holy, and that temple you areM [Cor. 3 . 6 and 6,ll),

G . Wilson Knight and E. M. W. Tillyard appreciate the

suitability of txngi-comedy as an effective vehicle to

convey the thene of human regeneration. Tillyard writes

that unlike the tragedies which do not reserve a full A c t

for self-discovery, the Last Plays devote the final A c t

exclusively for human regeneration. The joy of

reconciliation replaces the sorrows over the deaths in the

tragedies. The cheers over the reunions remove the cups

of woes. However he remarks:

There was no absolute need, in expressing the

last part of the tragic pattern, to depart from

the realistic methods of the tragedies proper,

even though it may have been convenient to mark

off the theme of recreation from that of

destruction, by a change of manner. But by

adding variety of character treatment to variety

of plot Shakespeare could powerfully enrich h i s

means of expressing h i s sense of different

worlds. And this was the main reason for his

new treatment of character. 29

Dover Wilson disagrees with Knightr& theory of

'Shakespearean Progress.' He argues that the Last Plays

literary form is only an adoption of a nascent genre

invented by John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont and that it

represents Shakespeare's poetic conversion, n o t a

religious one.

Dover Wilson's contention is weak because the theme

of human regeneration is a faithful portrait of human

nature and the genre of tragi-comedy is a realistic

initation of the working of the human mind. In the light

of Emmnnuel Kantfs The C r l t ~ a u e s P re Reason . I f u a l l men

enjoy the transcendental appreciation. He shows that we

a l l experience the same world: we a l l have the same

structure in our mental perception. Thus a unitary self

prevails which makes possible the objective nature of our

experience. If every individual had a different concept

of space and time, solipsism would be the only

alternative; we would live in a purely private world, and

no definite judgements i n science and mathematics could be

made.

Knight and Tillywrd maintain that the Romances

complete the pattern of tragedy which always suggests

rebirth. This pattern is displayed in -terrs T u .

According to Tillyard, the resurrection theme is

explicitly projected in me T-. Both opine that

Cariolnnus makes a transition to the Last Plays. Their

point of stress is that Shakespeare had started the theme

of human regeneration in Utonv and Cleonatra and

Corialanus and consummated it the Last Plays.

Wilson Knight makes an analogy between tragedy and

the rhythm of life. nLife flows and ebbs in rhythm.

There are necessary rhythms of creation and destruction

throughout animal life and natural evolution. w30 He shows

how in plants and animals the twin processes of creation

and destruction take place. There are the principles of

the survival of the fittest and 'might is righti as normal

courses of the vegetative life and sentient life

respectively. In the personal life of man these necessary

rhythms of creation and destruction take after the

following realities. (I) Self-assertion and (2) Self-

sacrifice, In self-assertion man vindicates h i s rights

through pursuit of righteousness. Man acts according to

the moral determinism of doing good and avoiding evil.

Self-sacrifice assumes its course in the moral trajectory

of sin, suffering, repentance, penance, forgiveness, and

redemption. In self-assertion man proves himself superior

to the rest of creation by surmounting tho urges of the

lower nature. He is conscientious and gives everyone h i s

due. We gives to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God

what belongs to God. In man's perseverance as a moral

baing he regenerates himself as a spiritual being by

exercising mortifications. By practising the moral

trajectory he elevates himself to a state of enlightenment

and d i v i n e grace which flower into mystic regeneration.

Mortification and resurrection are therefore like two

facets of the same reality of human regeneration,

Growth i n wisdom is a process that demands of man

self-assertion and mortification. The same truth is

described by Tillyard in an attractive analogy. He

imagines the benevolence of an individual who is

susceptible to refinement. He offers himself as a plant

being pruned constantly by a gardener who also facilitates

heliotropism, phototropism, and geotropism. The plant co-

operates with the plan of the gardener. In the event of

development in culture and civilization man has to

sacrifice many comforts, preferences and egoism in

thought, word, and deed. The nobility of reason and

sublimity of faculties can be achieved only through proper

attitude and behaviour.

Human regeneration is an attitude, not an act ,

according to Knight and Tillyard. In self-assertion the

suffering penitent s e e k s t h e Kingdom of Gad and its

justice. In this option he endeavours to remove the

impediments to regeneration, one may not succeed one

hundred per cent to transcend the ordinary human

judgement- Y e t God's reward to the penitent is

commensurate with his fervour and efforts for

regeneration.

Amaresh Datta is an important name in Shakespeare

criticism. H i s comments on Shakespearean tragedies and

their relation with the Last Plays have a reference to the

similarities in the respanses of Knight and Tillyard. He

agrees with them that the tragedies enclose the seminal

form of human regeneration and that they sprout and

vigorously mature in t h e L a s t Plays. Suffering is

metaphorically a refinery and regeneration is the

fulfilment of a natural as well as supernatural order.

Amaresh Datta writes:

Tragedy certainly shows at the end reversal of

fate but the process it symbolises is n o t that

of the biological l a w of life but of a more

mysterious spiritual principle leading each aan

to the realisation of h i s own destiny.

Sometimes it may bring in a feeling of

regeneration but that is no specific aim of

tragedy. Tragic delight does not arise out of

the enactment of a natural law by the tragic

characters in a play, but out of a half-

understood and half-felt operation of a

spiritual principle that stands justified by the

action and suffering of - the tragic heroes. 31

In the Last Plays alone there are provisions far

miscellaneous experiences, diverse situations, variety of

characters, profuse symbols and lavish mythical

references, The final vision that evolves from P_ericles,

-, ma Winterra T m , and The Te- is the

existence of a close affinity of the natural and the

supernatural with the human dimensions of reality. They

show how the universe is a well-fused and integrated whole

where God's immanence and transcendence accentuate human

regeneration.

The picture of death in Shakespeare has generated

much discourse. It is not the clinical aspect that

Shakespeare dramatises because it only describes death as

the stoppage of the functions of the brain and heart. He

is not concerned w i t h the psychological aspect of death

because it only draws death as a passive state of mind in

slumber, a dreamless condition of the human mind. It is

not h i s purview to explain death as a physiological

process because it can only show that every seven years

several cells in the human body die and therefore death is

a process, not an act,

Shakespeare recognizes t h e dignity of man and

therefore death is a ceremony where all persons

participate in and are united i n t o a whole. Obviously

Shakespeare looks on death from the point of a view of

finality; man is the temple of the s p i r i t and hence death

is a phenomenon of the transition of the spirit from the

body. He regards death as an eschatological departure of

the immortal soul from the mortal cage into i t s eternal

destiny. Shakespeare perceives death from the Christian

cultural stance, according to critical consensus. The

question under discussion is this: how do G . Wilson Knight

and E. M. W. Tillyard look at the cultural heritage of

death.

Shakespeare's dramatization of death is found best in

the words of Robert Stevenson:

In h i s histories and tragedies set in Christian

times and countries 31 persons die on the

stage. Hone, however, dies with so much as the

name of Christ on h i s lips. Only one mentions

the name of God at the hour o f his death--King

Henry VI. If all Shakespeare's Christians d i e

as did Hamlet with no other fast comment than

V h e rest is silencew priest's omission of any

appropriate words expressing Christian faith

when officiating at Ophelia's burial service

merely conforms with an observable pattern in

his plays. 3 2

An eminent Shakespeare critic John Bayley maintains

that in Shakespeare tragedies death is very much a part of

human life. He argues that major tragedies profess

the idea of human regeneration in the sense of the

resurrection of the soul to its original abode. Death is

only a necessary passage of the human soul to enter into

immortality. m3 Shakespeare tragedies reiterate that

death is the beginning of a higher state of existence and

that it is the symbol of fulfilment through human

regeneration,

Human regeneration is ultimately based on faith in

God. In Shakespeare and in the whole cast of the medieval

mind, there is the constant supposition of a fourth

dimension--the relation of human choice to the suprahuman

world, principally the divine force but also the angelic

and the demoniac.

Throughout the thinking of the Middle Ages there was

the pervasive feeling that human conduct takes place in a

set of circumstances which are partly by human planning

(chronos) but partly and principally by divine planning

(kenos) . The "divinity which shapes out endsfm is

conceived as an infinite p o w e r guiding all things to a

definite destination. Such guidance, far from conflicting

with human free will, actually employs and directs free

will, making of it one of the agents which fulfil t h e

divine plan. Besides, limited human intelligence cannot

know fully what the results of huaaan action will be.

As agents of human a f f a i r s , the medieval mind also

accepted angels and demons; these were never looked on as

mere personification or mental embodiments of the p o w e r s

of good and evil within man. They were thought of as real

and intelligent substances, lower than the divine but much

more powerful than man, as able to communicate some of

their powers to men, They were considered able to league

themselves to men to accomplish certain f o m s of good and

evil. The fullest use of this belief is made in mcbea,

perhaps t h e moot sensible treatise on demonology in t h e

language. It is Banquo who speaks for the more sane and

balanced medieval view on man's dealings with the demons:

Often times to w i n us to our harms

The instruments of darkness tell us truths

Win us w i t h honest trifles to betray us

In deepest consequence. (UcbeW X.iii.123ff)

T h e 'instruments of darkness are n o t only t h e

witches, but also the 'murdering ministers' and

'metaphysical aid' which Macheth and h i s wife believe to

be as real as themelves.

In The WofLifelsoson Knight sees Shakespeare

moving from problem plays and tragedies to myths of

immortality in his final plays, which are not to be read

as pleasant fancies: rather as parables of a profound and

glorious truth. Knight sees Shakespeare working out a new

mythology, which makes use of both pegan and ~hristian

myths but recombines them in a new way. Numerous other

critics have followed Knight's lead, and unquestionably it

is in the interpretation of the Last Plays that ritualists

have been most influential. By offering an interpretation

which includes and welcomes such striking features as the

vision of Jupiter, the resurrection of Thaisa, Perdita's

pastorals, and Hermione's 'ras~rrection,~ they have

broadened and deepened our understanding of these playa.

Yet in a way they have been so successful to t h e point

that the plays in their analyses have seemed to lose their

literary character and to become literally myths. Colin

Still's interpretation of The T e m w s t as a mystery play is

a case i n point. Richard Wincor has treated the romances

as if they were merely 'festival playsf of the St- George

variety. 34

Wilson night has proposed that incense be burned at

their performances. Knight's most interesting follower,

D. G. James accepts h i s view that the Last Plays seek to

create a personal mythology but then argues that they

fail: *'the making of a mythology is too great a work for

one mind, though that mind be Shakespearef s. m35 He shows

how Shakespeare's myths conflict love with royalty,

regeneration with evil. He criticises Knight's myth of

resurrection and shows that it is weakened by attempts at

plausibility. But he does not indicate how the qualities

which produce the failure of t h e plays as a 'Ihuman

mythologym might contribute to their success as works of

art .

The Greek myths of the immortality of the human soul

can be traced back to the dialogue of Socrates on the

meaning of death, This spiritual heritage was enriched by

the philosophers of the succeeding ages. In the wake of

Catholicism t h i s school of men modified and reinterpreted

some arguments on the relevance of physical survival in a

transcendent state of existence.

Louis D. Nordstorm describes the course of the

dialogue between Socrates and his disciple Phaedo.

Sacrates bade Cabes tell Evenos, an absent friend, to

follow him soon; when Cabes expressed surprise at this,

Socrates said that Evenos would be willing to die, since

he was a philosopher, but would not commit suicide. He

would not take the latter course because all men were in

the custody of the gods and could not dispose of

themselves as they would, I v C a b e s pointed out that God

cared well for human beings and that they are his

possessions, Man should n o t seek to escape from life; yet

socrates himself was willing to accept death. mr36

Socrates undertook to show his friends why he hoped

for some good after him death. He maintained that

philosophy itself is the practice of death: he explained

that by showing that both death and philosophy w e r e one

for the true philosopher who is indifferent to the

pleasures of the body. Since reason d e a l s with pure

concepts which are obscured by the bodily senses, and

operates best when nothing bodily disturbs it, the

philosopher, in the pursuit of knowledge is necessarily

trying to escape from t h e budy. There is thus hope for

achieving a state of perfect knowledge after death, when

the soul will be totally free from t h e body. Socrates

showed that the philosopher would possess true wisdom and

courage, being indifferent to the things of the body. Ha

related the philosopher's striving to myths which promise

bliss to purified souls after death.

The not ion of the immortality of the soul fills a

large place in the structure of man's religious beliefs.

The idea of survival after death has grown in significance

with the growth of religions.

To the earlier Hebrews, Sheol, the abode of the dead

was a dim and shadowy realm lying remote from this world,

a ghostly region aver which yahwehgs rule did not extend.

For the Greeks and Hebrews t h i s belief had no ethical

moaning and man's ghost had no relation to his earthly

mode of life.

In the ancient Egyptian thought the ethical aspect of

the belief in immortality was emphasized. Accordingly,

the soul had a land beyond the grave when the soul was

rewarded or punished for the deeds done on the body. But

it is in Christian religion that the sp ir i tua l and ethical

implications of the belief in immortality are most fully

developed.

The notion of immortality implies three conditions,

namely:

1) The soul continues to exist after the decomposition

of the body.

2 ) That the soul maintains its individuality and remains

conscious of itself and its destiny.

3 ) That this survival is illimited.

Science cannot give any positive evidence far

immortality. If science could show that personal

consciousness is bound up with the present bodily

organism, the hope of a survival after death would be

excluded, But it is one thing to hold that there is a

functional relation between mental and cerebral processes

and it is totally a different thing to declare that

thought is a function of the brain. Dependence of mind on

brain, in the materialistic sense, is impassible. This

being so, the claim of the soul, to exist apart from the

body cannot be ruled out as impossible. Science cannot

disprove any possibility of the survival of the soul t o o .

So far as science is concerned the problem is an open

one. Now it remains to ask whether philosophy can shed

further light upon the question. Philosophers have sought

to command the idea of immortality by metaphysical

arguments and by ethical considerations.

The idea of inmortality remains the object of faith

rather than of reason, And the final ground of our faith

and hope must be the character of God himself from whom

a l l spiritual life proceeds. It is surely a legitimate

trust that the Father of S p i r i t will not destroy t h e

aspiring soul that draws its being from himself, but will

in the end bring it to its goal and grant fulfilment. An

ethical God must be the conserver, not the destroyer of

values. This claim of fa i th in inamortality rests mainly

in the intrinsic character of the spiritual life. Human

regeneration is a supernatural phenomenon; human mind

cannot comprehend a l l aspects of the truth and human

language cannot exhaust all ideas related to the same

t r u t h .

Knight's theory on the myth of immortality has two

ramifications: 1) Myth of reunion of the souls of the

departed in a higher sta te of existence; 2 ) myth of

fertility which refers to the death and resurrection of

nature as a symbol of human regeneration.

Tillyard also interprets the Last Plays in terms of

the myth of fertility. Both of them discern in the L a s t

Plays mythical symbuls and religious formalism.

Knight strengthens h i s thesis with instances of the

myth of fertility in me W- # R T u . There is the

contrast of wintry passion and tragic catharsis with the

rebirth of the year and summer time festival. The long-

lost l a s s Perdita, is a seed sown in winter but it is

growing.

Perdita makes meaningful references to D f s and

Proserpine and the blossoms of spring. Besides the

seasonal myths of fertility there are also the Christian

concepts of death and resurrection in Winter's U.

The oracle of A p l l o and its decisive message corroborate

the relevance of ritual, Hermoine descends to the

repentant and suffering Leontes. She is shown as a

marbled and memorial statue new-waked in the royal

chapel by PaulinaCs music. Temples, chapels, oracles,

resurrections, and the rhythms of the seasons, of death

and rebirth enhance the mythical symbols and religious

formalism.

With reference to tho final plays, El M. W. Tillyard

uses the terms 'mythr and *mythicalg in a particular

sense. "The words 'mythC and 'mythical' refer to the

universal instinct of any human group, large or small, to

invest almost always unconsciously certain stories or

events of place or persons real or fictional with an

uncomon significance.

Myths appeal to emotion rather than to reason. They

have an indefinite past when rational explanations were

neither available nor apparently wanted. A myth is Less

ahistorical than a legend and it is less concerned with

tldidacticismuf than a fable, but a l l three farms are

fictitious stories, many of which have persisted through

oral transmission. n37

E. 14. W. Tillyard writes: "The gods of Greece and

Rome occur very frequently in the L a s t Plays and are

certainly mars than mere embroidery. Apollo is the

dominant God in The Wi&lferls T a and his appearance in

Perditars speech is meant to quicken the reader to

apprehend same unusual significance. He appears as the

bridegroom, whom the pale primroses never know but who

v i s i t s the other flowers, Not to take the fertility

symbolism as intended would be a perverse act of caution.

Perdita should be associated with them, as symbol of the

creative powers of nature, physical fertility and healing

of nature and recreation of the mind.

He adopts pagan myths of fertility to embody h i s

Christian idea. An epitome of the Dionysian myth of

fertility may be attempted. S i r James Frazer furnishes

adequately relevant information in GoUen _Bfiu$&+

Accordingly, in antiquity the civilized nations of Western

Asia and Egypt pictured to themselves the changes of the

seasons, and particularly the annual growth and decay of

vegetation as episodes in the life of gods. They

celebrated the God's mournful death and happy resurrection

with dramatic rites of alternate lamentation and

rejoicing.

L ike other gods of vegetation Dionysus was believed

to have died a violent death, but was brought back to life

and his sufferings, death and resurrection were enacted in

h i s sacred rites. "His tragic story is thus told by the

poet Nonnus. Zeus in the form of a serpent visited

Persephane and she bore him Zagreus, that is, Dionysus, a

horned in fant . Scarcely was he born, when the babe

mounted the throne, for the treacherous T i t a n s , their

faces whitened w i t h chalk, attacked him but he evaded

their assaults by turning himself into various shapes. He

assumed the likeness successively of Zeus and Cronus, of a

young man, of a lion, a horse, and a serpent. Final ly in

the form of a bull he was cut to pieces by the murderous

knives of his enemies. His Cretan myth, runs thus. He

was s a i d to have been the bastard son of Jupiter. The

Cretan King, going abroad, Jupiter transferred the throne

and sceptre to the youthful ion ye us, not knowing that his

wife Juno cherished a jealous dislike of the child. He

entrusted Dionysus to the care of guards upon whose

fidelity he thought he could rely. Juna, however, bribed

the guards and amused the child w i t h rattles. A cunningly

wrought looking glass lured him into an ambush, when her

satellites, the T i t a n s , rushed upon him. They cut him

limb from limb, boiled his body with various herbs, and

ate it. But h i s sister Minerva, who had shared in the

deed, kept his heart and gave it to Jupiter on h i s return,

revealing to him the whole history of the crime. In h i s

rage, Jupiter mads an image in which he enclosed the

child's heart, and then built a temple in h i s honour. In

this version a euphemistic turn has been given to the myth

by representing ~upiter and Juno (Zeus and Hera) as King

and Queen of Crete.

Shakespeare, according to E, M. W . Tillyard's

interpretations of the Last Plays, employed the pagan myth

of fertility as a means t o convey the universal aspiration

for regeneration of the human person which Christian

culture claims as faith in resurrection. In the light of

the Christian heritage the myth of fertility assumes an

eschatological significance. I t develops the richness of

religious belief on the strength of divine revelation,

A s per h i s interpretation Marina, fmogen, Perdita, and

Miranda, who endured misfortunes and survived fatal

separation, represent human regeneration in the full sense

of the myth of fertility which assumes the dimension of

the belief in resurrection.

e Tegppsst is the supreme play among the L a s t Plays.

Prospero the regenerated ruler of Milan symblises a new

order of things that has evolved out of destruction in

the form of suffering. Prospero is the Saviour and

me Tem~est world emerges a purged state on account of the

regeneration of the inhabitants who are stranded there,

Prospero8s reconciliation w i t h his enemies, far the

regional status of Miranda, his self-improvement and

benevolent resumption of the dukedom confirm the truth

that regeneration is possible only through the cross.

Henry Douglas Wilde discusses the relevance of

h e T theme: human capability of transcending

adversity and transforming pain. Man living in t h e

hurricane of the twentieth century should learn to develop

the potential of wisdom, freedom and order within himself.

In Shakespeare's island symbol of man the myth-function

rises out of the sea of being. Radiant gems of unrealised

human potential of discretion, freedom and a sense of

order are latent within man, Under the guidance of

Prospero, opportunity would be afforded for the growth of

brotherly enlightenment. The L a s t Plays display that a

humanistic attitude of life alone can avoid destruction of

a world that places undue faith in science and technology.

I t may be judged from references in and

e Winter's Tale as well as me Te- that Shakespeare

included a much greater span of time and cultural area in

h i s plays than the episodes of Greek and Roman history he

dealt with i n n, -, 3ulius

Cae-, and mtclnv and Cleoeatrw. It is clear that the

poet-mystic was intimately cognizant of the transmission

of wisdom lore in the eastern Mediterranean regions of

Egypt, Phoenicia, Libya, and Chaldea. His reference to

1 ~ 1 - as "Prince of Tyrew carries overtones when we

recall the fact that Pythagaras was a Tyrenean. In

The WiDter's Tale Florizel in h i s fabricated story of

Perditafs origin, presents her as from Libya and as the

daughter of a King. The reference to Dido in me T e e s t

links our thought with Carthaga, known in ancient times as

Tunis, Theseus in A M i m e r Niahtis ID- is Duke of

Athens, that city of prehistoric origins traced back to

Egyptian civilization, and with Eleusis, site of the

mysteries, so much a part of its history.

This accounts for the myth-like Promethean quality i n

Prospero, oriented, as h i s name implies, to the future,

"1 hope forward." Indirectly, the Promethean theme of

Aeschylus reappears in the hero of T h e m . Be is the

image of authentic man whose regeneration fire of

enlightenment, gained by an ordeal of self-transcendence

in defiance of the lordly Zeus, works with the magic of

art to release mankind from enslavement to delusions.

Prospero, like the poet himself whose alter ego he is,

lived to awaken in others the capacity of vision and self-

responsibility required f o r the future drowning of a

peaceful world.

Among these suggested meanings we should include that

of Proepero's daughter Hiranda, a name indicating the act

of wonder and therefore Platonically linked to the birth

of wisdom,

We have been considering Shakespeare and h i s wisdom-

hero, Prospero, in the light of the prophetic tradition.

We have now reached the point where tho massive import of

Tbe T e may be viewed and felt in its relation of the

humanistic crisis of the late sixteenth century in Europe

and likewise of our time. In both cases the question of

the kind of man the existing culture produces, becomes a

dramatic issue in itself,

The relation of all this to The Temogst can be seen

when we consider the fusion of history, ethics and

psychology in C v w as an intended counterforce to the

enfeebling licentiousness and casuistry of Italian

thinking in the 16th century. The political aspect of

that trend was powerfully set forth in biachiavelli8s view

of man as naturally brutish and requiring government by

fear and force. To Shakespeare and the Platonic tradition

of the philosopher-king this swing of the pendulum was as

dangerous as the blind faith which had ravaged Europe with

torture scarcely a century before.

The sensual traits of man depicted in the lower

characters of The w e s t , from tho subhuman Caliban on

up, call for stringent discipline. Even ~erdinand, the

idea l object of 14irandar s love, is not permitted to take

things too much for granted. Nevertheless at no time does

Prospero assume any of these characters to be incapable of

guidance towards self-improvementl Without exception,

strings of their own higher possibilities begin to occur

during the experiences he arranges for them.

The result is t h a t the entire process shines before

us in its sysrbolisn as an example of benevolent sp ir i tua l

energy working creatively with the l a w s of nature for

human redemption. There is no trace of cynicism, brutality

or revenge in Prosperof s conduct of affairs, despite h i s

needed sternness in dealing with Caliban and a tendency to

roughness or abruptness in manner in his initial manner

towards Ariel. In so far as this latter trait is a

failing, he amends it when Arial gently proposes an

attitude of mercy and tenderness toward the schemers who

would wrong him.

These general considerations lead to a closer look at

Prospero's ordeal in eccepting the loss of his dukedom.

Undoubtedly his deep studies had prepared him for a

philosophical acceptance of h i s humiliation. Nevertheless

the path which he, like a l l such heroes, must travel

involved a superrational adjustment 'dying' to, or ceasing

to be identified with, h i s mortal selfhood and its

circumstances. In the face of a l l outer turns of fortune

he must stand aside, firm in h i s awareness of the eternal

principle within h i m , the presence of nProvidence.m

Wisdom is often regarded as n flight of the poetf s

whimsicality appearing in the characters. Nevertheless

h i s serious intention is made evident by his consistency

and by the ensuing consequences. T h e result is an

awakening of wholeness, It is for these reasons of total

harmony of being that the discovery and occupancy of

Prospero's island represents the ageless quest of a l l

mystics, the heart of the teaching of all sages.

Shakespeare's overall theme in marrest points

forward to the eventual victory of man as a conscious

embodiment of the universal life, converting into sublime

opportunities the very limitations, conflicts and defeats

which he endures. Prospero's island is closely allied in

meaning to Budha's likening of man's consciousness to an

island to which he should resort for reflective self-

awakening and ultimate mastery of existence. The island

is the point of conjunction between man's particular and

universal attributes of selfhood,

A prophet is an inspired human messenger of God in

order to interpret contemporary events fram the d i v i n e

plan. His discourses are on ethics and spirituality and

the main theme is often the urgency of conversion, Human

regeneratfan has been the consistent theme of the prophets

of all times. Shakesparefs tragic heroes are miniature

prophets and the heroes of the L a s t Plays are real

prophets: they guide others like the good shepherds.

Prospero is not only Shakespeare's superman, he is also

the greatest of h i s prophets.

Henry Douglas Wildeos philosophy bears out the truth

in Wilson Knight's views. T h e quality of earthly life is

a prelude to t h e perfect life of man beyond the grave.

The outer turns of fortune purify the inner man. Horal

trajectory enables man to restore the spiritual integrity

of the sinner. The truth can be expressed only as a myth.

He endorses the views of E. M. W. Tillyard. In the

appearance of evils man encounters the reality of good.

As man is more of the spirit than the body, he can

retrieve the sanctity of the intellect and the will.

Moral determinism and freedom empower man to repossess

whatever is lost. There is no dichotomy between

terrestrial life and supramundane life. There is a

transcendental relationship between them and it can be

adequately expressed in terns of myths.

Derek Traversi is a staunch supporter of the mythical

interpretation of t h e L a s t Plays. He says: "Death and

birth, the new and the old, are now seen to be more

closely connected than ever in a single, continuous

process.n38 Birth refers to fertility. 'Birth to a

celestial life is suggested by the deities Juno and Cores

in m-~esg while Miranda in her wedded life symbolizes

biological fertility. w39 This is quite in conformity with

the interpretation of the Last Plays as myths of

fertility, by E. M. W. Tillyard. This is one aspect of

the vocation of a man to be reborn i n t o a higher state

of existence: heavenly life according to Christian

eschatology.

G. Wilson Knight's interpretation of the Last Plays

as myth of immortality corroborates the meaningful

explanation of human life as a prelude to life

everlasting. Death is the end of biological life and a

necessary passage of t h e soul to a glorious and

supramundance s t a t e of existence in God through God and

for God. Derek Traversi comments further, when, as a

final tribute to the storm, the sailors insist that the

ship be cleared of the dead, the symbolic action is taken

a decisive step further; for the burial of Thaisa at sea

is not only a sacrifice on the part of Pericles, but is

seen to imply the elimination of emphasis trying to make

itself felt in Periclest dispositions for the funeral.

Thaisa's death, though the result of the "terrible child

birth to which she has been exposed, has found issue,

beyond the suffering which it has involved in the creation

of a new life.tt40

The consignment of Thaisa's body to the sea,

destroyer and preserver, aims at giving the idea of death

as a transforming of remoteness. The imaginative quality

conveyed in the use of 'oozeu to indicate the sea in the

transmuting musicality of 'humming water' a suitable

introduction to the burial of Thaisa with her 'casket and

jewelsr whilst the mention of the satin coffin and t h e

rich rspicesf by which her body is preserved from the

temporal actian of the elements and disposed for the

coming resurrection contributes to the creation of a

subtle effect of harmony.

In pericles and me Winter's Ta& Shakespeare has so

long been concerned with problems of life and death. We

now envisions the sister mystery of birth; birth amid the

chaotic sea of time, beneath the black thunder of

mortality. He considers C- and me T e w as

complex plays and the themes are mainly the ultimate

themes of birth, love, God and the universal mystery of

terrestrial life which is only a sleep, the greater

consciousness in which mortality is only such stuff as

dreams are made an.

Derek Traversi demonstrates the correlation of birth

and death, rnyths of fertility and immortality in his

comments on pericleg. He stresses the relevance of

religious experience and its objectivity in the symbol of

Diana at Epherus. Human life is finite; man does not reap

t h e fruits of h i s actions adequately. Justice demands

rewards and punishments commensurate w i t h human behaviour.

If these are not doled out in this life, right thinking

assumes the form of rnyths. If revelation is limited,

through these myths Shakespeare strengthens the hope for

happiness that is the goal of human existence. He gives

us a higher dimension of life through an aesthetic realm.

G. Wilson Knight and E. M, W . Tillyard are honoured by

Derek Traversits appraisal that the last scene of W c l e s

(V.iii) brings the chief protagonists together before the

altar of Diana at Epherus. The final reunion of ~ericles

with his w i f e , of which Marina is once o r the

instrument, takes place i n the presence of the 'gods' to

whom she has in the intervening years, dedicated herself.

H i s opinion is that nPsricles begins by recalling the

death of Thaisa in childhood and the bringing forth of

their maid child: the self dedication of ~arina to Diana

is also referred to, as are the better s tars which have

preserved her from adverse fortunes and restored her

finally to her father's care. Hearing her own story thus

repeated Thaisa faints. Cerimon, taking up the prevailing

symbolic imagery describes how he found her early in the

blustering morn upon the shore with rich jewels in her

coffin, and how, having restored her, he placed her in the

holy temple. Thaisa's recovery from her swoon is also

simultaneously the awakening into a new condition. She

gropes her way towards tho truth , learning for

enlightenment upon her obecure understanding of the

central symbolic situation by which birth and death,

united in common exposure to adversity, are seen as

related aspects of a single process issuing in a new life.

E. MI W . Tillyard propounded the fertility aspect of

the theme of human regeneration in Shakespeare's L a s t

Plays. In the widest sense it means spiritual rebirth,

renewal of an individual in the s p i r i t of God, baptism and

a sacramental life. Human regeneration in truth and in

the Holy spirit is implied in the symbols of fertility and

immortality.

G , Wilson Knight and E. M. W. Tillyard both deal with

the theme of human regeneration in Shakespeare*~ L a s t

Plays. They gleaned from them resemblances of insight,

self-renewal, reunion, forgiveness of s i n s , resurrection

of the body and immortality of the soul. Frank Kermode

epitomises the various facets of the theme of human

regeneration: "All the Romances treat af the recovery of

lost royal children, usually princesses of great, indeed

semi-divine, virtue, and beauty; they all bring important

characters near to death, and some times feature almost

miraculous resurrectianst they all end with the healing,

after many years of repentance and suffering, of some

disastrous breach in the lives and happiness of princes,

and this final reconciliation is usually brought about by

the agency of beautiful young people; they all contain

material of a pastoral character or otherwise celebrate

natural beauty and its renewal . w 4 1

Knight has done the most toward relating Shakespeare

to the Christian origins of h i s dramatic tradition and to

the Christian tradition generally. In Principles of

Shakespearean Production he sees "the Christian Mass as

the 'central trunkt of Shakespearean tragedy: Each of

Shakespearefs tragic heroes is a miniature Christ. That

is why he has urged the importance of Romeots tragic

ascent, his little Calvary. w 4 2

The responses of Knight constitute the famous theory

of human regeneration in the light of the myths of

immortality and fertility. It is allegorical in

interpretation and theological in quality. It From

Christian allegory G. Wilson Knight evolved a mystical

slant in h i s exegesis of the L a s t Tillyard

worked o u t a development of tragedy into a scheme of

nprosperity, destruction and reconciliati~n.~~ This aspect

of tragedy he qualifies as tragi-comedy. is empirical

in a p p r o a ~ h , ~ ~ He illustrates the t h e m e on the strength

of the myth of fertility. "Knight's mystical and

allegorical interpretation complements, Tillyard's

empirical and teleological exposition of the Last play^,^

Critical analyses of their responses engage cogitation and

association of ideas on human essence and human existence.

notes

~ilson G. Knight, The S h m s ~ e a r e a n Ternnest

(London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1953) v i i .

Alan Hobson, rile: S-re and

221.

Rose Abdelnour Zimbardo, "Form and Disorder in ThS:

-It 125.

Ibid.

-ets Task Plavs 17.

Ibid. 21.

James Walter, "From The Tempest to Epilogue:

Augustine's Allegory in Shakespeare's Dramata, 98,

Dover Wilson, a1 Shakemeare London :

Methuen and Co., 1931) 201.

lo Virgil K. Whitaker, m a r e t . Use of 1.e-

(San Marino: Huntington Library, 1953) 11.

Dean Ebner, "The Tempest: Rebellion and the Ideal

State," -m 16 (Spring 1965): 161.

Richard G . Haulton,

(London: F a b e r and Faber, 1967) 57.

l3 Janet Spens, d of

e t 6 wlv c (London: OUP, 1916) 3 4 .

l4 C . B. Herford, u k e t c h of Recent In-tiaatiom

(London: 1923) 3 5 ,

S. F. Johnson

l6 1bid. 178.

l7 Shakesmarers P r a e n PI.- 32.

Irving Ribner, -ns in S&&eavearean Traaedv

( N e w York: Barnes and Noble, 1960) 136.

l9 Ibid.

20 David iiorowitz, -care: An Ex-al View

(London: Tavistock Publ., 1965) 32.

21 G. K. Hunter, IrThe Last Tragic Heroes, " -near%, eds. John Russel Brown and Bernard Harris

(London: OUP, 1966) 12.

2 2 #. C . Bradbrook, eare: The Poet

Worla (London: Widenfeld and Nicalson, 1978) 191.

2 3 Dover Wilson, "The Enchanted Island : Twentieth

Century Interpretations of The Tempest," ed. Hallet Smith

[London: CUP, 1981) 93.

24 William Perkins, m& 1.455-69f f (London: 1951) :

6-8

25 Aquinas Thomas, 11 I 11 IC XX

and p. 2 2 5 .

26 fohn Norden, 's Practice, 18th

edition (1920) 5 6 .

27 Calvin John, mtita,ltiom (iii-viii) 2 .

28 Sermons (1640/viii, Section 111) 2 8 9 .

29 -as~eue I m t plam 7 2 .

30 Wilson G . Knight, ~ r i n c i ~ e ~ of

(London: 1936); revised and enlarged as

production (1964) 154-

31 Amaresh Datta, a 0

(Delhi: W. D. Pvt. L t d . , 1963) 18,

32 Qtd, in Hartinan Nijhoff, R. ~ronkin

(1958) 30.

3 3 John Bayley, -e and Tra- (London:

Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981) 51.

3 4 Richard Wincor , "The Romances, It W e w r r e n r

W w (Oct. 1950): 26.

35 D. G . James, Sce~tici- Poetry (London: OUP,

1937) 12.

36 -are I 6 mt plavs 11.

37 E. M. W. Tillyard,

((London: Chatto and Windus, 1961) 10.

38 Derek Traversi, eare: The Last Phase

(landon: Hollis and Carter, 1955 ) viii.

39 Wilson G. Knight,

(London: Hethuen and Co. Ltd., 1953) 2 6 8 .

40 Derek Traversi, -ear=: The mt P w 41.

41 Frank Kerrnode, are, SDencer. Do-

[London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971) 2 2 0 .

42 4 22 (1946): 107. 4 3 Northrop Frye, W e s ~ e a r e ' s Ro- ( N e w York:

New York UP, 1965) 119.