Aesthetic Dignity

Harold Bloom constantly uses the phrase "aesthetic dignity" throughout The Invention of the Human and throughout many of his other works. But despite seeing it repeated over and over, I’m not sure I have a grasp on what "aesthetic dignity" fully means. 

From what I gather, it has something to do with the aesthetic worth of a text, which exists in the structures and ambiguities of language. When I was searching the term, I stumbled upon an excerpt in Bloom's F. Scott Fitzgerald that related the aesthetics of Scott Fitzgerald to Keats theory of Negative Capability, and that helped things click for me.

Relating the idea of "aesthetic dignity" to Shakespeare's plays, I can understand how the beauty and complexity of his language and associations lend to what it is we find so fascinating and unending in his work. That is to say, the space in which we find ourselves that exists between a readily comprehensible and available reality, and that of higher truth and greater existence; which we sense but cannot grasp through any means other than the aesthetic. 

In his discussion of Cymbeline, Bloom says that "this poem is a dark comfort, but its extraordinary aesthetic dignity is the only consolation we should seek or find in Shakespeare" (631). This quote helped to realize where the merit lies in these last four plays. They are either muddled with plot or contain no plot at all (which has similar implications), they contain characters that embody less complex personalities or are merely spirits, and extraordinary and absurd events occur at an alarmingly frequent rate. But the ambiguity that underlies it all is exactly what makes them so fantastic.

Shakespeare composed these plays intending to force us to see through and above. These are naked plays; it is easiest to cast of superfluities and transcend the trifles of plot and realistic characterization. What we are left with is purely aesthetic. 

We have to accept uncertainty and ambiguity for their aesthetic power. Keats says “the sense of Beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration”. Negative capability implies the ability to appreciate or understand that which is not implicitly there, but outlined through speech that creates the space for it to exist in our imaginations; speech and form that is elevated to the highest aesthetic.

Aesthetic dignity.

 In these plays that many perceive as problematic or inferior to his earlier work, we are most able to revel in Shakespeare’s aesthetic quality. This is the genius of Shakespeare that shines through these plays; to transcend reality while simultaneously embodying elements that are more real than anything that could be described in realistic terms. In them we find that he truth cannot be accessed through the scrutiny of plot. The true play is not the play at all, but lies within that which is omitted, in that which we discover through our own transcendence and appreciation of Shakespeare’s aesthetic prowess. 

Perhaps I am looking at a potential paper topic...