Shakespeare’s Faerie Art of Enchantment through Tolkien’s Lens: A Historiographical Introduction

Abstract

This thesis seeks to illuminate why Shakespeare’s use of faerie elements and stories have proved recurrently enchanting, and what specific kinds of arts of enchantment he employed. Shakespeare drew on fairy tales and fables from classic and medieval sources to create “shadows” and disrupt horrors so as to inspire hope in his audiences. By creating a dizzying succession of frames, he draws audiences into his stories and moved them to realize that they are governed by the same mysteries. Fairy stories, as argued by Tolkien, are fundamentally concerned with human nature, desire and longing and their highest function includes consolation through Eucatastrophe, in ways juxtaposed to tragedy’s shown to be inspired by Hamlet’s exposition of the three ethical, mirroring subfunctions of theatre. These results are corroborated via a survey of insights from documentaries featuring 37 directors, actors, and scholars.