Символические значения в именах комедии В. Шекспира "Сон в летнюю ночь"

Abstract

В статье дан анализ символическим значениям в именах комедии В. Шекспира "Сон в летнюю ночь". = Shakespeares MND is about true love and felicitous marriage as essentials of both nat-ural and social order. With three interwoven plots, Shakespeares names and references reflect three types of sources, each with associative possibilities relevant to the basic themes. The main plot is about Athenian nobles whose names draw symbolic meaning from Greek mythology. It focuses first on Theseus and Hippolyta, whose approaching marriage symbolizes the settlement of domestic order, while dramatic tension emerges in the pairing of four young lovers. A second plot is about the “mechanicals” preparing entertainment for the noble wedding, whose names are figurative coinages associated with common trades and English life. The third plot is about the fairy world and the troubled marriage of its king and queen, whose names suggest an overriding hierarchy and order in nature – a significant reinterpretation of traditional folklore. This paper will describe various associative possibilities (iconic, indexical, and symbolic) of Theseus and Hippolyta, and will present a detailed classification of all names and generic references. It will illustrate a semiotic approach advocated in “Theoretical Foundations of Literary Onomastics” in The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming.