SOURCE: Semon, Kenneth J. “Pericles: An Order Beyond Reason.” Essays in Literature 1, no. 1 (spring 1974): 17-27.

In the following essay, Semon argues that Pericles conveys a world where moral rules do not apply and where most of the characters respond to events with a sense of unexplained wonder. According to the critic, the only exception to this rule is Gower, who offers a strictly moral perspective that is inadequate in explaining the play's unusual events.

Like the tragedies, Shakespeare's last plays work toward evoking the dramatic effect of admiratio, or wonder.¹ But the effect of wonder in the tragedies depends upon the actions of a central character, usually those leading to the suffering and death of a great man; whereas, in the last plays, wonder derives from the fantastic and unexpected nature of events. The experience of wonder unique to Pericles derives not only from the nature of events...