I've been looking at Shakespeare's plays through Mythological Criticism and Archetypal Criticism, which I explained in one of my earlier
posts. Shakespeare's plays have some very interesting underlying stories and beliefs.
Some major myths are:
There are also some very interesting archetypes which Shakespeare uses. One
example would be his connection of 'black' to bad in his plays, contrasting good and evil.
I'm going to be looking at different conventions Shakespeare uses in Myths and Archetypes. Many times Myths in Shakespeare are not beliefs we share with Shakespeare's characters, such as belief in Apollo. Frequently Archetypes are harder to notice, as two things seem logically connected, but are actually only connected in our minds. I also want to look into different criticisms such, as Carl Jung and his shadow archetype.
Through Myths and Archetypes we are able to find a richer deeper world inside of Shakespeare's plays, realizing social constructions and beliefs that help us realize the world we have created around ourselves. As well as using many of these constructions, Shakespeare also contributes to them, including ideas such as '
star-crossed lovers.'
