Wonder, amazement, and surprise

beginning a stunning story

pp. 9-16

in: Adam M. Cohen, Wonder in Shakespeare, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

It seems reasonable to begin a sustained study of wonder in Shakespeare's plays with a close look at Miranda. "Miranda" means "wonderful" or "admirable" in Latin, and she is wonderful both as a subject and as an object. Her instinctive response to the rapidly changing tempest-tossed world around her is wonder, awe, admiration, and astonishment, and she is also a wonder to behold because of her beauty, her array of virtues, and her innocence. This chapter will begin by evaluating the young woman who Ferdinand refers to as "Admired Miranda!" and then it will draw a series of concentric circles around her. The first of these will show that the play she inhabits is a wonderland in many different ways; the second will highlight the centrality of one type of wonder mentioned in The Tempest and in a variety of other plays; and ultimately I will suggest that homologies existed between Shakespearean wonder and the wonder traditions—both religious and secular—that influenced his culture.