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Jungian Shakespeare: Coming Down to Earth in King John, Twelfth Night, and Cymbeline

Author(s) : Joel Crichton

Reviews and Endorsements

A captivating book that manages to bridge the distance between theory and practice in a carefully studied and personal reading of three of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic plays. Crichton’s application of Jungian analysis offers the reader many neglected entry points into the texts, as well as into their value beyond the stage. Jungian Shakespeare is a thoughtful reminder that these works reveal their meaning reluctantly. I shall welcome this book to my own library and certainly recommend it to my students - it provides so many untouched keys to meaning and power in a play we know a little about, another we know quite well, and a third we hardly know at all. It rewards anyone dedicated to thinking about Shakespeare in new ways, and exploring their potency through their mystery.
Peter Hinton-Davis, O.C., is a stage director and educator. Since 1985 he has directed over 250 productions of classical and contemporary work. In 2009 he was made an officer of the Order of Canada

Joel Crichton constructs from Shakespeare’s opus a trilogy of plays and writes a commentary that illuminates the plays and the Jungian notion of individuation as incarnating archetypes in the here and now. The argument consists in part in wonderful story-telling, also in an evocative gathering of associations and amplifications, and in hard-won brilliant insights about grounding light in darkness, embodying idealism into sensibility, and rendering what functions demonically into forms that can nourish a just society.
Craig E. Stephenson, author of Possession, Anteros: A Forgotten Myth, and Ages of Anxiety

As a playwright, this immensely readable book gave me new tools for approaching Shakespeare’s text; it also provided insight into how a play may be considered a character itself: a complex psychology that is, through its structure and action, engaged in the messy struggles of being human. Beyond its obvious value to Shakespearean and Jungian scholars alike, this is a tremendous resource for theatre practitioners – especially directors and actors – who are tackling the challenging works of King John, Twelfth Night or Cymbeline. But the insights provided here may reframe an artist’s approach to any of Shakespeare’s plays, transforming perceived “bugs” in any play’s structure, narrative or formal devices into “features” that can hint at the play’s own internal psychology.
Kevin Kerr, University of Victoria; Playwright and Co-Founder of the Electric Company Theatre

With a witty and multifaceted grasp of the complexities of marrying two jealously different endeavors, Crichton offers a stunningly compelling way into Shakespeare’s most enigmatic plays while redeeming the lenses provided by the heritage of Jungian depth psychology.
Susan Rowland, PhD, Pacifica Graduate Institute, author of Jungian Literary Criticism

This book is a must-read for teachers, directors, actors, and all ‘students of Shakespeare.’ While critically informed, it takes us on an accessible journey, full of discovery. It encourages rich engagement with—even celebration of—the dissonances of character, theme, and story in Shakespeare’s work. I am inspired to dig into the play I barely know in a new way, and for those I know well, I revel in ‘reconsideration.’ For theatre artists, embracing the ideas here will lead us toward robust, active productions, full of characters' foibles, layers, passions, and guts. I’ll engage with this book again as I reconnect with other plays—as director or as audience!
Jan Selman, FRSC (Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada), Professor and past Chair, Department of Drama, University of Alberta