著者
大久保 健治
雑誌
大妻比較文化 : 大妻女子大学比較文化学部紀要 = Otsuma journal of comparative culture
巻号頁・発行日
vol.5, pp.5-39, 2004

Evidence that Homers two epics "Odyssey" and "Iliad" each consisting from 24 songs have 12 themes, each song another theme and those 12 are all taken up for the second time in the same order, can be seen in my monographs in the "Otsuma Journal of Comparative" No. 1 and No. 2. Homeric themes with the way of description come to life again in Shakespeares plays and Goethes novel. For example five Homeric themes man can find out in "Hamlet" and eight of them in Goethes Hamlets novel "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre" too. Themes in these authors are the same, but their way of description are different from each other, in the case of Homer principally through occasions but in Shakespeares plays through inner life, and in Goethes novel through both. While the themes in Goethes novel are 1) enemy 2) characters 3)hope 4)goddess 5)parent 6)children 7) health and 8) marriages, those in "Hamlet" are 1) parent 2)children 3)health 4)marriages and 5) death. Four of those are the same as those in Goethe except the last one. This is one of 12 themes from Homer too. Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that themes in Shakespeare and Goethe come from Homer. Shakespeares plays consist of five acts without exception. Based on my examination each act of Shakespeares play has one of Homeric themes and the order of each 5 themes in five acts is the same as in Homer. In concluding, I should emphasize, that Shakespeares 39 plays all can be divided into groups according to the themes. To take an example "Hamlet" comes under the same groups "Lear", "The Merchant of Venice", etc.