- Frye, Northrop. Fools of Time:
- Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. Canada: U of Toronto P, 1967.
Contents: Ruminations on the nature of tragedy and kinds of tragedy. Despite the sub-title, Shakespearean tragedy is not really the primary focus of the book; there's a great deal about myth, Greek tragedy, Shakespeare's history plays, and the tragedy of Shakespeare's contemporaries. And much of the book is devoted to categorizing and classifying kinds of tragic plots and characters.
Evaluation: Frye is a renowned literary scholar whom I respect, but I don't feel that his arguments deepened my understanding of Shakespeare's work. One reason may be that Frye doesn't offer an extended examination of any one play or character. Instead he is constantly comparing and categorizing. Here's a sample paragraph which happens to mention Macbeth:
In each of Shakespeare's three social tragedies, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet, we have a tragic action based on three main character-groups. First is the order-figure: Julius Caesar in that play; Duncan in Macbeth; Hamlet's father. He is killed by a rebel-figure or usurper: Brutus and the other conspirators; Macbeth; Claudius. Third comes a nemesis-figure or nemesis-group: Antony and Octavius; Malcolm and Macduff; Hamlet. It is sometimes assumed that the hero, the character with the title-role, is always at the centre of the play, and that all plays are to be related in the same way to the hero; but each of the heroes of these three tragedies belongs to a different aspect of the total action. The nemesis-figure is partly a revenger and partly an avenger. He is primarily obsessed with killing the rebel-figure, but he has a secondary function of restoring something of the previous order. (17)It seems to me that I don't need Frye's commentary in order to understand that Macbeth is a rebel and an usurper, or that his actions disturb the social and natural order.
Bottom Line: For fans of Frye.