Supernatural phenomena in The Tempest, Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night's DreamThe Oxford English Dictionary defines "supernatural" as something "that comes out of the ordinary course of nature; beyond, surpassing or differing from what is natural. » In light of this definition, I will discuss the plays The Tempest, Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night's Dream through three successive pairs, drawing distinctions and comparisons between each play and its other significant plays with respect to concerns certain aspects of the supernatural domain. In any discussion of two Shakespeare plays, the question of chronology deserves at least a passing nod. In the case of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, knowledge of the chronology of the plays is of paramount importance to understanding the differences in tone, language and relational dynamics between Oberon/Puck and Prospero/ Ariel/Caliban. A Midsummer Night's Dream came out around 1594-5, The Tempest around 1611-12, some seventeen years later. The development of Shakespeare's imagination, as well as his powers as a playwright and poet, are certainly evident in The Tempest: the language is richer and more convoluted, the tone darker, more brooding, as are the characters (a characteristic of Shakespeare's Jacobean style). phase), and the whole message of revenge transmuted into forgiveness and resignation is a remarkable departure from traditional Senecan motifs. Additionally, as is often seen in later plays, a particular character or group dynamic seen in an earlier play is updated, developed, and elaborated, in this case that of Oberon and Puck. In MND, Oberon is proud and imperious, but basically helps the course of true love to run smoothly in the end with the help of...... middle of paper...... The 20th century might consider a quaint dramatic expedient, a colorful and fanciful booga-booga quality, for For the lover of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater of the time, the world of fairies, ghosts, demons and witches was very real, and it is worth the It's worth keeping this in mind when reading and watching plays. To try to imagine that such things actually populate our world, really have their place somewhere in the immense chain of being, is to feel a very vital resonance that nothing in the so-called post-modern gray and bleak landscape does. will never be able to provide. .Works CitedBadawi, MM, Background to Shakespeare, London, MacMillan Education Ltd., 1981.Boyce, Charles, Shakespeare A to Z, New York, Roundtable Press Inc., 1990.All quotations for acts, scenes and numbers of lines refer to the Éditions Arden of the different pieces discussed in this monograph.