On The Shakespeare’s Theater Illusion

In the history of criticism of Shakespeare’s drama, there were a tendency of script criticism, which regarded script as drama, and ignored the unique characteristics of Shakespeare’s theater and the audience’s way of looking. However, on the one hand, Shakespeare’s script was written for the thrust stage theater of his ages and the script undoubtedly was of theatricality; on the another hand,as the place of seeing and the environment of the experience of theater illusion, the thrust stage theater of Shakespearean disciplined the perceptive manner. Therefore, this article tries to find out the generation mechanism of the theater illusion and particular perceptive manner of the audience in the Shakespearean theater, taking the study of the type of thrust-stage theater as the entry point.At the part of introduction of this article, based on the analysis of the critics’ opinions and definitions of the Shakespeare’s theater illusion, we defined the theater illusion as a sensory illusion which is held by audience voluntarily, with the feelings of both true and false. And we put the script on the right position in the experience of theater illusion.This article is divided into four sections. The first chapter "The Shakespearean Theater and the Relationship between Seeing and Performance" mainly analyze structure features of the Shakespearean thrust-stage theater where the performance area stretch into the auditorium and the audience surround it in three sides, where audience and performance closely connected with each other because of the theater’s settings.The second chapter, titled by "The Presentation Manners of Scene and Spectacle in Shakespearean Theater and the Generation of Theater Illusion", analysis three scene and spectacle’s representation manners, included "empty space", word-scenery and body spectacle, which mainly resorted to audiences themselves to create the drama situation and experience the theater illusion voluntarily. Under the mode of communication between stage and auditorium, the audience in Shakespearean theater was a person with participation way of looking. Besides, the particular communication principles and the means of emotion expression in Shakespearean theater which was a public sphere, the crowd of audience who share experience with each other and the "Threshold" state affected the generation and the experience of theater illusion. In the third chapter, "Audience in the Shakespearean Theater and Characteristics of Theater Illusion", focused on these elements and mainly discussed about the audience’s sensory manner and the characteristics of Shakespeare’s theater illusion.At the last part of this article, the fourth chapter "The Theatricality of Shakespeare’s Script and the Script’s Ways to Generate and Sustain the Theater Illusion", we discussed about the importance of the Shakespeare’s language rhetoric in script, such as metaphor, pun and verse, which can mobilize the perception of audience to generate the theater illusion; and the importance of continuous and alternative scene narrative way in the script, which sustained the theater illusion experience.Based on our study in this article, we find that Shakespeare’s thrust-stage theater and the mechanism of the theater illusion is originality in the history of western theater. With the difference of Greek theater’s magic illusion and the separate of the proscenium stage theater where spectator turn to silence and negative, the mechanism of Shakespeare’s theater illusion is not only an experience unified the body and the mind of audience, but also mobilized the audience’s imagination and the feeling of participation at the largest extent and then enhance the audience’s creative ability. In the course of theater illusion, the most creative audience participates actively in the event of drama, and creates new experiences of self.