Manipulating The Supernatural William Shakespeare s...

Manipulating the Supernatural It is human nature to be drawn toward people that we can relate to. Because of this Shakespeare made his characters as relatable as possible to the audience members of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century and their views on life so he could generate more recognition for his plays. Throughout Shakespeare s plays, Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he appeals to the audience by relating to their human nature. One of the major observations of human nature that Shakespeare likely made and incorporated into his plays is the human desire to be drawn toward the seemingly supernatural and unknown. In the first of the two plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello sets a stage consisting of two dimensions: a typical perception of late fifteenth century England and a supernatural fairy world that is capable of supervising the other. The ubiquity and punctuality of all of the fairy characters as well as the presence of their magical artif acts displays the extent of which there are supernatural aspects in play. Inversely in Othello, there is a large presence of manipulation while still suggesting some supernatural elements but not admitting the story to them. In both Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare suggests a connection between the conventional understanding of manipulation and the supernatural aspects of the play by displaying the parallel outcomes of each. During the turn of Shakespeare’s success around 1595, it was his