Shakespeares Late Plays Romances, Tragicomedies, Problem-plays

The initial (first folio) division of Shakespeares plays was confined to three genres: comedies, tragedies and histories. However, later critical insight discovered problems of analysis, so that a fo rth genre was introd ced in the classification of the plays, that of romance. !o r plays are generally incl ded in this gro p: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winters Tale and The Tempest. However, it is very diffic lt to clearly incl de them in a specific genre, several names being sed, in time, to define them, and several other plays incl ded or e"cl ded from the gro p by vario s scholars. Th s, it is generally acknowledged that the gro p of fo r plays mentioned above present a series of resemblances in style and belong to the last period of creation. #s for the name to be given to the category, critics never f lly agreed between $romance% or $tragicomedy%, often preferring other names: $late plays%, $romantic tragicomedies%, etc. ROMAN !S AN" TRA#$ OM!"$!S: Historically, the name $romance% was sed to refer to a gro p of plays incl ding Cymbeline, Pericles, The Winters Tale and The Tempest at the end of the nineteenth cent ry, by &dward 'owden: There is a romantic element about these plays. In all there is the same romantic incident of lost children recovered by those to whom they are dear . . . In all there is a beautiful romantic bac ground of sea or mountain. The dramas have a grave beauty, a sweet serenity, which seem to render the name comedies! inappropriate . . . "et us, then, name this group, consisting of four plays, . . . #omances. ('owden ()**) The term $romance%, therefore, refers to tales abo t heroes and their + ests which involve the intervention of magic. #t the end of the romance there is, s ally re nion (families or,and lovers are re nited) and harmony after s ffering and distress, since the hero needs to pass thro gh a series of tests and trials. -n Shakespeares plays, some of these conventions are respected, in the sense that, in all the plays there are .o rneys, often involving storms and shipwrecks in which families or lovers are separated, the intervention of magic (The Tempest), of spirits and gods (Cymbeline, Pericles, The Tempest) helping the heroes, even if, sometimes, in a rather artificial manner, for instance, Pericles finds his lost wife thro gh the intervention of 'iana and, in Cymbeline, /osth m s dreams of his dead ancestors and 0 piter. 1orthrop !rye tries to give an ampler definition of $romance% with reference to Shakespeares plays and he mentions the $scaling down% of characters2 the foc s on magic, artifice and improbability co nterbalanced by emphasis on emotion to the detriment of verisimilit de2 a tendency to refer to former theatrical conventions and the appearance of p ppet shows, 1

the feeling that they are mere p ppets on strings. This idea is reinforced by the /rolog e 3 4ower in Pericles and the presentation of facts in a sort of d mb5show: $First, theres a noticeable scaling down of characters $ that is, the titanic figures li e %amlet, Cleopatra, &alstaff and "ear have gone. "eontes and Posthumus are 'ealous, and very articulate about it, but their 'ealousy doesnt have the si(e that )thellos 'ealousy has* were loo ing at people more on our level, saying and feeling the things we can imagine ourselves saying and feeling. Second, the stories are incredible* were moving in worlds of magic and fairy tale, where anything can happen. +motionally, theyre as powerfully convincing as ever, but the convincing ,uality doesnt e-tend to the incidents. Third, theres a strong tendency to go back to some of the conventions of earlier plays, the ind that were produced in the ./01s* we noticed that 6eas re for 6eas re used one of these early plays as a source. Fourth, the scaling down of characters brings these plays closer to the puppet shows I 'ust mentioned. If you watch a good puppet show for very long you almost get to feeling that the puppets are convinced that theyre producing all the sounds and movements themselves, even though you can see that theyre not. In the romances, where the incidents arent very believable anyway, the sense of puppet behaviour e-tends so widely that it seems natural to include a god or goddess as the string puller. 2iana has something of this role in Pericles, and 3upiter has it in Cymbeline* The Tempest has a human puppeteer in Prospero. In The Winters Tale the ,uestion Whos pulling the strings4! is more difficult to answer, but it still seems to be relevant.! (!rye) 1orthrop !rye, however, admits that more plays can be incl ded in this gro p of $romances% s ch as , he says, 5easure for 5easure, diffic lt to classify elsewhere. #nother element that defines Shakespearan romance is its resistance to satire. Satire is associated with tragicomedy in its seventeenth cent ry development, b t not romance that denies satire. Shakespeare, nlike his yo nger contemporary !letcher who had a preference for tragicomedy, is caref l not to fall into satire, and his plays, tho gh prod cing moments that hover aro nd the grotes+ e or b rles+ e and take risks with tone, p ll back from the cynical worldview of satire.% TRA#$ OM!"%& The term derives from /la t s, referring to the nconventional mi"t re of kings, gods and servants in his 6mphitruo. The genre is diffic lt to define, and playwrights have been aware of the possibility to mi" comedy and tragedy since early 7enaissance, by writing tragedies with happy endings or plays in which there were several plots, some serio s, some comic. $8y the end of the (9th c. these two kinds had drawn together and were more or less indisting ishable. 8y this time, 2

anyway, we find an increasing mingling of tragic and comic elements, the se of comic relief in tragedy, and what might be called tragic aggravation or heightening in comedy.% (0.#.: ddon). The -talian playwright 8atista 4 arini is s ally cited as the one from whom tragicomedy originated. 0ohn !letcher, following 4 arini, wrote in his preface to The &aithful 7hepherdess $# tragicomedy is not so called in respect of mirth and killing, b t in respect it wants deaths, which is eno gh to make it no tragedy, yet brings some near it, which is eno gh to make it no comedy. . .% /lays like Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, The Tempest (according to 0eanette 'illon) may be considered tragic5comedies, tho gh they are more commonly incl ded in the area of romance. 5easure for 5easure and Troilus and Cressida are not s ally deemed as romances, and can be seen as tragicomedies. 5easure for 5easure has a forced happy ending, and Troilus and Cressida does not have a happy ending at all. Sean 6c&voy prefers the term $ mi'ed genre% plays, for these two. PRO(L!M PLA%S) #t the end of the nineteenth cent ry, !.S. 8oas (();9) s ggests another category, that of $problem plays% in which he incl des 6lls Well That +nds Well, 5easure for 5easure, Troilus and Cressida and %amlet. He s ggests that these plays are too complicated, with elements from comedy and tragedy, b t not clearly belonging to any of them, and with an insistence of problems of conscience. 86ll these dramas introduce us into highly artificial societies, whose civili(ation is ripe unto rottenness. 6midst such media abnormal conditions of brain and of emotion are generated, and intricate cases of conscience demand a solution by unprecedented methods. Thus throughout these plays we move along dim untrodden paths, and at the close our feeling is neither of simple 'oy nor pain$ we are e-cited, fascinated, perple-ed, for the issues raised preclude a completely satisfactory outcome, even when, as in 6ll9s Well and 5easure for 5easure, the complications are outwardly ad'usted in the fifth act. In Troilus and Cressida and %amlet no such partial settlement of difficulties ta es place, and we are left to interpret their enigmas as best we may. 2ramas so singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies. We may therefore borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as 7ha spere9s problem:plays.8 (!.S. 8oas) <. =awrence accepts the idea that the definition of some of the plays is problematic, b t ses the term $problem comedies% and incl des in this gro p 5easure for 5easure, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, 6lls Well That +nds Well. He arg es that the term $problem plays% is sef l for those plays that do not fall into the category of tragedy, b t are too serio s and analytic to fall into the theme of comedy. He accepts the fact that painf l and tragic complications may appear in comedies, as well, as it is often the case in 3

Shakespeares comedies, b t the difference between comedies and problem plays relies in the fact that, if in comedies these complications are of secondary importance (s ch as Shylock in The 5erchant of ;enice), in problem plays, they are the controlling interest. Similarly, whereas the love tro bles of 7osalind and >iola in comedies are seen as romantic entanglements, the s ffering of -sabella (5easure for 5easure), or Helena (6lls Well That +nds Well) are of tmost serio sness. -n fact, even if the ending of some problem plays is marriage, like in comedies, they lack the festivity and celebration of comedies, and we have the feeling that the final marriage or marriages are not the sol tion to the problems of the play. -n fact, <. =awrence insists, the o tcome proposed by the playwright is not the only possible o tcome and the same characters in the same sit ations may reach different concl sions 3 either in tragedy or in comedy. *!AT+R!S) <itho t trying to impose a certain terminology, we will refer to a set of conventions that are common for Shakespeares late plays: Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, Pericles, The Tempest, 5easure for 5easure, Troilus and Cressida. (. /olitical plots: tyrannical r lers, n. st laws, corr ption, plotting, the weakening of a thority from vario s reasons (.ealo sy or love, giving p responsibility). 6any of these plays deal with nfit r lers: /rospero and the ' ke of 5easure for 5easure delegate their power only to be either displaced from the system (/rospero) or to see the ab ses committed by the one they left in their place to r le (the ' ke). :ymbeline is totally s bmitted to the will of his ? een, whereas =eontes ( The Winters Tale) is blinded by .ealo sy and driven towards tyranny and in. stice. -n Troilus and Cressida, the love plot is s bmitted to the political machinations devised by @lysses. A. =ove, co ples separated, cross5rank co ples, p rs it by loathsome s itors, threat of infidelity. =ove is the main theme of s ch plays and there is an insistence on love tro bles, on .ealo sy (The Winters Tale), incest (Pericles), opposition from parents (The Winters Tale), prostit tion and threats of rape (Pericles, 5easure for 5easure), n. st acc sations of infidelity (Cymbeline), separation of lovers (Troilus and Cressida, Pericles). -n the end, in most cases (e"cept for Troilus and Cressida) there is harmony, re nification of co ples and marriages, b t often, these marriage do not come with the promise of happiness and seem more of an artificial resol tion of conflicts: #ngelo accepts marriage with 6ariana to escape p nishment while = ci s is married to a prostit te as a p nishment for his deeds (5easure for 5easure). 6arriages are often artificial: /rospero devises the enco nter between 6iranda and !erdinand (The Tempest), the ' ke marries -sabella (5easure for 5easure), /a lina is married to :amillo (The Winters Tale), and 6arina to =ysimach s, b t we do not have the certainty that there is act al love, or only mere political nion. B. :hildren often bear the promise of reconciliation and harmony . Their marriages nite families and states that were in conflicting sit ations: 6iranda and !erdinand in The Tempest, !loriCel and /erdita in The Winters 4

Tale, whereas 6ariana in Pericles saves her father with her intelligence, wisdom and virt e. D. There is often a lapse of time from the beginning of the action, the resol tion coming later, when children grow: The Tempest, The Winters Tale and Pericles. E. The role of women (lovers, sisters or da ghters) becomes very important. They are determined, intelligent and virt o s. They have the co rage to stand p to tyrannical leaders in sit ations in which men do not: -mogen defies her father, :ymbeline, for the sake of her h sband, -sabella defies #ngelo to save her brother from prison and death ( 5easure for 5easure), /a lina defies the tyrannical =eontes to save her mistress ( The Winters Tale) and 6arina, tho gh sold to a brothel, keeps her virt e and t rns everyone who comes to see her into a virt o s man. However, tho gh women are remarkable, they are often mistreated: Hermiona is n. stly acc sed by her h sband to have been nfaithf l ( The Winters Tale), -mogen, n. stly slandered by -achimo, is s pposed to be killed nder her h sbands orders (Cymbeline), -sabella, the virt o s woman who wants to save her brother, is falsely offered salvation by #ngelo only if she accepts a night with him, while the same #ngelo deserted the woman who loved him beca se she lost her dowry (5easure for 5easure), 6arina is saved from death by pirates, only to be sold to a brothel ( Pericles). The final re nions at the end seem only artificial concl sions to scarring conflicts: Hermione is re nited with her h sband and lost da ghter, b t beca se of her h sbands .ealo sy, she lost a son and years of her life, Thaisa is separated from /ericles and her da ghter, -sabella has to marry the ' ke ( 5easure for 5easure) tho gh, at the beginning, she wanted to be a n n. Tho gh intelligent, determined and virt o s, the women need to finally s bmit to the will of men. -n concl sion, Shakespeares late plays are m ch more serio s and grim to be incl ded in the gro p of comedies, b t their protagonists, tho gh often resembling the famo s tragic heroes of Shakespeare, lack their grande r to be incl ded in that gro p.