ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 of this book focuses on Shakespeare’s representation of natural disaster, meteorological anomalies and extreme weather brought about by the Little Ice Age (c. 1300–1850). The author uses the phrase ‘natural disaster’ in a general sense but also teases out the tension between natural and unnatural in a coincidence of opposites. Natural or unnatural disasters evoke fear, expose human vulnerability and raise questions about survival and the characters’ exposure to forces unknown or beyond human control in a veritable landscape of fear. Bodies, homes, properties and daily habits of life are thrust into uncertainty or disarray. Weather anomalies, for Shakespeare, also function as portals or passageways to something unpredictable and wild. These passageways connect to and bring into view parallel realms of darkness and shadows. Momentarily, the characters peek into the dark corners of the natural world, the recesses of nature and nature’s hiding places. The author’s discussion of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest demonstrates in particular that, when disasters happen, intensely psychological and cultural states of fear emerge, but the harrowing experience in a hostile environment also serves to bring about change and a dislocation of habits of mind.
