The Supernatural in Three Plays

In all three plays, the role of the supernatural is to force the human characters to take certain action or to come to some awareness that there is a greater power at work in the world than that of mere human power. In all three plays, one from Ancient Greece, one from Elizabethan England, and one from the United States of the mid-20th century, the elements of the supernatural are used by the authors to show that human beings need guidance from powers greater than themselves, but at the same time that guidance can bring great suffering.

Fiddler on the Roof is far more joyous and hopeful than the other two plays. It is generally a comedy, while the other two plays are tragedies. The God of the Jewish world of Stein's play is finally a loving supernatural force. His manifestations in the world of the characters are forces which help the people lead happier and more productive lives. The supernatural world of the Jews in this play is one in which they take an active part. They see themselves as partners with God, with the supernatural, in both the suffering and the celebration of life. Suffering is not seen as some mysterious or meaningless event sent from the supernatural, but a lesson or a test which will make them stronger and closer to God.

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mily in Stein's play are driven to live a fuller and more joyous and religious life with loyalty to traditional ways of life. And Hamlet is driven to take the action of justice that he would not have taken if it had not been for the intervention of the ghost of his murdered father. In the story of Hamlet, however, the power of the supernatural is far more upsetting than it was in Stein's play. The Jews in Stein's play take the presence and role of God as to be expected, whether it is frightening or pleasing. But in Hamlet's story, the Ghost is fully terrifying and is not seen as fitting in at all with the common understanding of God. For example, Mehl writes that the coming of the Ghost "suggests at the same time such an extreme state of emotional tension and hysteria induced by the Ghost that we already begin to doubt whether Hamlet is still quite master of his own words and actions: (Mehl 37). Of course, that is the very point of the supernatural---it comes to upset human beings and to get them to change their behavior in some way. The Jews in Stein's play are mostly open to whatever signs come from God, but Hamlet is locked into his thinking and worrying and is not about to take the action of justice without the intervention of
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Approximate Word count = 1472
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)