The Thraldom of Oizys: Shakespearean Negotiations with Suffering

Swayamdipta
Das and Soham Ganguly
(M.Phil Scholars, Dept. of
English , University of Calcutta)

This paper is an endeavour to examine Shakespeare's perspectives in grappling with the

quintessential philosophical problem of suffering in the world , especially in his comedies. It
tries to see how Shakespearean characters ratiocinate and try to come to terms with morbid
suffering, be it of the mind or of the body, and what attitudes they embrace, adhere to, and even
betray in their effort to do so.
With this end in mind, the words and actions of the characters are analyzed through the
lenses of variegated philosophical and theoretical positions, most notably to make an effort to
find out whether the playwright exhibited any proclivity towards any particular stance, such as
that of negative utilitarianism as espoused by Karl Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies,
or even possibly one of philosophical pessimism, as seen in Arthur Schopenhauer's The World As
Will and Representation (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung), and also hedonistic psychology.
Our paper would look into plays like Twleth Night , A Midsummer Nights Dream and The
Tempest and examine how the economy of pain is produced via a path of ever deferential
happiness. Pain is only deferred happiness and this deferred jouissance is in fact posited via a
transference path that sees his characters traverse a path of impossible pleasure. Comedy from
this perspective can be seen as sorting out the economy of pain retroactively via its concomitant
impossible pursuit of absolute jouissance. The paper would thus look into the philosophical
dimensions of pain in the comedies of Shakespeare and show how the comic in Shakespeare is
often posited retroactively as an ontology of pain in search of deferred happiness.

Bio-Note
Soham Ganguly is an M.Phil( JRF) Scholar at University of Calcutta. He passed his Masters in
English Literature from Presidency University. He is currently working on H.P. Lovecraft.
Swayamdipta Das is an M.phil Scholar at University of Calcutta. Having passed his Masters
from Presidency University in English Literature, he is currently working on the novels of Paul
Auster.
Email id- swayamdiptadas22@gmail.com
Contact no. 9007537706 (Swayamdipta Das)
9874163126 (Soham Ganguly)