Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency: Not to BeBuilding on current scholarly interest in the religious dimensions of the play, this study shows how Shakespeare uses Hamlet to comment on the Calvinistic Protestantism predominant around 1600. By considering the play's inner workings against the religious ideas of its time, John Curran explores how Shakespeare portrays in this work a completely deterministic universe in the Calvinist mode, and, Curran argues, exposes the disturbing aspects of Calvinism. By rendering a Catholic Prince Hamlet caught in a Protestant world which consistently denies him his aspirations for a noble life, Shakespeare is able in this play, his most theologically engaged, to delineate the differences between the two belief systems, but also to demonstrate the consequences of replacing the old religion so completely with the new. |
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... audiences continueto respondto Hamlet's problems—or Hamlet's problematic. Apparently unhaunted and undaunted by predestination and justification by faith, our culture seems vexed andperplexed by anequally doctrinal Oedipus complex ...
... audiences alike, they're subjects parexcellence. Everyone is definable as an “actor”in a “theater” fromwhich they cannot—except histrionically!—declare their independence. Can autarchic Renaissance man,whichFaustus and Hamletinitially ...
... audience willbeduty bound to“unfold.” Muchof Hamlet's procrastination is cognate with thebiding ofthe apparently unproductive timetaken by the extended vocational preparation required formaturing some great project—or interpretation ...
... audience, especially hisfather, come to nothing and alienate him from everyone else. Unable to conceive the futility ofall his aspiration and selfassertion, he fails torealize what emerges as the absolute wayofthings. He is and ever has ...
... audience;he seeshimself asdirecting forthebenefit of hisdead father a “Tragedy” meanttosurpass anything Seneca might have conjured up,and imagines theapplause of his Scarlet Mistress inthe clouds forhis “plot.”But of course heachieves ...
Contents
TheLoss of Contingency 2TheBe the Eucharist and the Logic of Protestantism | |
4The Theater of Merit 5 Chastity andthe Strumpet Fortune 6 The BeProtestantism and Silence | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency: Not to Be John E. Curran Jr Limited preview - 2016 |
Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency: Not to Be John E. Curran Jr Limited preview - 2016 |
Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency: Not to be John E. Curran Limited preview - 2007 |