Interplay

Abstract

If Shakespeare’s characters are neither variations of himself, nor factors in some argument or parable, nor people determined by particular physical or psychological features, how can they be defined? One answer would be to say that their ‘characters’ depend on the words they choose, their affective imagery and field of reference, their patterns of thought as presented in syntax, rhythm, metre, rhetorical structure. Thought-processes show the individual energies of mind and suggest a physical involvement in the moment by moment concerns of the drama. To know the characters they play, actors must be patient and search out the smallest cues and wait for inspiration or intuition, or happy accident, to give a sense that they are on, what is for them, the correct track. However, this answer still leaves a great deal unexplained.