The Unnatural Scene

Fifty years after its original publication in 1976, this excellent analysis of the psycho-social dimensions of Shakespearean tragedy shows how the Shakespearean tragedies develop the idea of a conflict between nature and social structure. The idea has its roots in Shakespearean comedy, to which the book makes continuous reference. Both the comedies and the tragic theorists are used to help describe a coherent vision which is seen to animate all Shakespeare’s tragic plays. Michael Long’s interpretation draws on a wide range of modern thinking as well as Elizabethan ideas of comedy, holiday and misrule. The author argues that the plays, including those which are sometimes categorized as ‘Problem Plays’, create a tragic vision which always remains inter linked with the vision of the comedies.