`Physiognomy is the belief that the inner person is expressed by outer appearance. Shakespeare both uses this belief as a quick way of establishing character identity and also occasionally exposes it as misleading.

`Physiognomy is the belief that the inner person is expressed by outer appearance . Shakespeare both uses this belief as a quick way of establishing character identity and also occasionally exposes it as misleading . Physiognomy

Shakespeare '92s plays , long are recognized by literary critics as relying upon stereotypes of race , gender , and social class for dramatic or comedic impact , often incite , in the modern reader , a kind of cognitive dissonance concordant with our age '92s admonitions toward tolerance and understanding . However , the resonance of the Elizabethan mind-set , replete in Shakespeare '92s canon

on every from alchemy to eroticism , forms a crucial key for understanding Shakespeare '92s comedies and tragedies

Physiognomy , an erstwhile science of '93character determination '94 rampant in the Elizabethan Age (and also before and after this age offers a glimpse into a peculiarity of the Elizabethan mind , indicating Shakespeare '92s further recourse to the cultural platitudes and popular science of his day

Though Macbeth offers the well-known lines '93there 's no art to find the mind 's construction in the face " Shakespeare (and his audience evidently believed otherwise , or at the very least depended on their abilities to suspend their disbelief in Physiognomy for purposes dramatic or comedic catharsis most probably , though , the belief that a person '92s physical appearance not only indicated , but determined personality and moral characteristics in the Elizabethan age operated not as a theatrical convention , merely , but as a social convention which persisted beyond the confines of the theater

One simple (and universal ) manifestation of physiognomy - '97 beards and other facial hair - '96 shows a straightforward approach to the Elizabethan vision of physical character determination : '93Beards were also quite common on the Renaissance stage[ .] These are not , however the only "texts "from the period that equate being a man with having a beard[ .] medical treatises , physiognomy books , poetical works , and tracts on gender . In many of these texts , moreover , facial hair is not simply imagined as a means of constructing sexual differences

Physiognomy Page -2-

between men and women it is also a means of constructing distinctions between men and boys . Thus , it would appear that boys were considered to be a different gender from men '94 (Fischer , 2001 ,

. 155 ) Certainly the idea that outward appearance indicates an inward truth or reveals '93criminal intent '94 is a cornerstone for the dramatic tension and conflict in Richard III . '93Lady Anne repeatedly likens Richard to an animal , her initial curse on his future offspring to be of "ugly and unnatural aspect (1 .2 .22 ) highlights the conviction , typical of the period , that the union of a human with an animal will result in the birth of monstrous progeny '94 (Olson , 2003

In determining background information for Richard III , notions of physiognomy appeared in records and literatures Shakespeare likely found at his disposal : '93 Thomas More 's History of Richard III (written 1513-1518 ) and [ .] Edward Hall 's and Raphael Holinshed 's , describe Richard as...