Dynamism of Character in Shakespeare's Mature Tragedies
by Piotr Sadowski
Dynamism of Character in Shakespeare's Mature Tragedies applies the systems theory of character to the
analysis of the psychological and dramatic consistency of the main characters from Hamlet, Othello,
King Lear, and Macbeth. The theory considers human behavior in terms of functional equilibrium
between the stable properties of the mind, independent of the pressures of the sociocultural environment and the
immediate situational context. What we call "character" thus denotes an autonomous configuration of psychological elements,
which ensure the consistency and continuity of individual identity, despite the influence of the changing external
circumstances. Systems theory of character thus offers an interesting alternative both to the traditional, intuitive, and
impressionistic approaches to character criticism, to the New Critical aesthetic readings of Shakespeare's plays that often
ignore psychology as a valid interpretive perspective, and to the more recent cultural materialist readings that consider dramatic
characters solely as functions of external, sociocultural forces. Piotr Sadowski teaches English literature at the American
College Dublin, Dublin Business School, and Trinity College Dublin.
