『심벨린』에 나타난 ＂신성한 자연＂의 질서

Abstract

In Cymbelin, Shakespeare explores with his profound poetic intuition the underlying reality of life, which is presented with new intensity as the order of “divine nature” within the traditional romance framework. Thus a deeper understanding of the natural order provides a key to unlock the door to a wider critical horizon of the play, one of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic plays. It also presents an answer to the central problem of the last plays: what value can be attached to a life where everything passes away? Imogen, like Perdita in The Winter’s Tale, and, to a lesser extent, Miranda in The Tempest, is the key figure as a symbol and embodiment of the natural order. Her presence binds up in an indissolvable union the apparently hopelessly varied plot threads and the seeming incongruity, and her unshakeable virtue provides the standard by which all other actions are measured. Not only does the natural order restore family relationship between husband and wife, father and daughter, father and sons, but it eventually affirms an ultimate bond that joins all of the characters in the brotherhood of one family. At the end of the play, the natural order completely brings us to the recognition of not only what we are but also of what we have become, one family including all of humanity. It brings us to the total union with the heart of the world - the end of individuation.