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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... marriage with Helena recalls theCatholic caricature of Luther's marriage; his compact with the devil is such as anapostate might have made (E. Wolff, Faust and Luther, 1912: L. P.Smith, 2:212). Ican't buythis package, but acknowledge ...
... marriage, casuistry, and providence.It isaclash Protestantism is bound to win, but only in a Pyrrhic victory where weare prompted to mourn for the loser. Thecommon thread running through all these issuesis that of contingency. Tome ...
... married that father's murderer. This were badenough. But he also exists in a world wherehe is the kingkiller of akingkiller, and he is nothing else, except the destroyerof hiscountry; in themanner common to revengers, he will ...
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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 |