The Metamorphoses of Shakespearean Comedy

by William C. Carroll

This book argues that the idea of metamorphosis is central to both the theory and practice of Shakespearean comedy. It offers a synthesis of several major themes of Shakespearean comedy--identity, change, desire, marriage, and comic form--under the master trope of transformation.

Originally published in 1985.

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Genres: Shakespeare

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Daniel Gallimore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a readable and compelling exploration of a much cited theme of Shakespearean comedy, namely loss and change of identity, in both its understanding of Shakespeare's major source (Ovid's 'Metamorphoses') and its analyses of a key selection of the plays that includes the late romances. Carroll writes: 'Turn a man into an ass or a prince into a frog and your lesson will be lost unless you leave him a human mind in his animal shape. Otherwise he won't know that he has been transformed, then, but only human beings can experience metamorphosis; the recognition of transformation signals the human presence.' (p. 5) Irrespective of arguments about animal consciousness, the first chapter on metamorphosis, especially, reverberates through the force and quality of its argument with this change dynamic, which we can see can affect readers and audiences as well as the actual characters.