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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Page 43
... Gertrude's Niobe act may seem quite different , one composed and the other passionate , they are actually on the ... Gertrude , too , as regarding empty seeming as not only the normal but also the only conceivable practice . How else ...
... Gertrude's Niobe act may seem quite different , one composed and the other passionate , they are actually on the ... Gertrude , too , as regarding empty seeming as not only the normal but also the only conceivable practice . How else ...
Page 195
... Gertrude would be in a position to intervene in and fix the broken relationship of the lovers ; assuming she wanted ... Gertrude's repudiating Claudius . And then there is the immediate and obvious happy result of her not remarrying ...
... Gertrude would be in a position to intervene in and fix the broken relationship of the lovers ; assuming she wanted ... Gertrude's repudiating Claudius . And then there is the immediate and obvious happy result of her not remarrying ...
Page 198
... Gertrude is as unreceptive to his advice as she was to her first husband's excellence ; but it is also futile because the problem here is one which by its nature cannot be fixed . Hamlet's Thomist optimism that people can condition ...
... Gertrude is as unreceptive to his advice as she was to her first husband's excellence ; but it is also futile because the problem here is one which by its nature cannot be fixed . Hamlet's Thomist optimism that people can condition ...
Contents
The Be the Eucharist and the Logic of Protestantism | 18 |
Purgatory and the Value of Time | 65 |
The Theater of Merit | 103 |
Copyright | |
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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 |
Common terms and phrases
action actually answer appears audience become believe called Calvin Calvinistic Cambridge Catholic Catholicism cause Christian Claudius comes common concept conscience contingency course dead death determinism display doctrine Drama dream Early effect effort Elizabethan England English example existence expression fact faith fall father feeling Fortune Gertrude Ghost God's Hamlet happen heaven hope Horatio human idea imagine inner John killing kind King lack Literature living logic London Mark marriage matters means merely merit mind move nature never Ophelia Oxford particular performance person play Polonius possible prayer Princeton proportion Protestant Protestantism providence Purgatory Quarterly question reason Reformation remains Renaissance revenge Richard Robert role scene seems sense Shakespeare soliloquy soul speech Studies tell theater things Thomas thoughts Tragedy true truth trying turn University Press whore York