Impressions of ‘Character’

Abstract

Response problems, as I have said, take us beyond character. But they all refer back to character, directly or indirectly, since a play’s every word is channelled through a dramatic speaker. We must therefore consider the mode of existence of a dramatic character, and ask how an audience engages with a Hamlet or Lear. In this chapter I shall argue that in creating his tragic heroes Shakespeare often used impressionistic devices that leave the spectator in uncertainties. Just as Troilus exclaims ‘this is, and is not, Cressid’ (v. 2. 144), we are bewildered by the Hamlet or Lear that we think we know: I propose to examine our relationship with the characters, our special ways of ‘knowing’ them, after which we shall be ready to ask more searchingly how we respond. It will be assumed that the reader is familiar with recent work on dramatic character — with historical criticism and with the replies it provoked.¹ And, now that the historical dust has settled, I shall also assume that we may guardedly speak of Shakespeare’s characters as life-like.