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 3
... brings up relate to its major themes and specific features . That the play very much concerns itself with the painfulness of the transition from Catholicism to Protestantism has been well observed . But such readings tend either to ...
... brings up relate to its major themes and specific features . That the play very much concerns itself with the painfulness of the transition from Catholicism to Protestantism has been well observed . But such readings tend either to ...
Page 52
... brings up a number of different prospective ways of considering what Hamlet should do . For Gifford , however , the proposition is never true . There lies nothing in it to spark debate . Those who think it are wrong and that is that ...
... brings up a number of different prospective ways of considering what Hamlet should do . For Gifford , however , the proposition is never true . There lies nothing in it to spark debate . Those who think it are wrong and that is that ...
Page 69
... brings up the frightening prospect of time's insignificance . We are forced to consider that it matters not how intervals of time are filled , and in the case of Agamemnon , the sacker of Troy , who has filled his time magnificently if ...
... brings up the frightening prospect of time's insignificance . We are forced to consider that it matters not how intervals of time are filled , and in the case of Agamemnon , the sacker of Troy , who has filled his time magnificently if ...
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