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 70
... course of things actually tightens it : " The end is crown of every work well done " ( II.vi.1-11 ) . The addition of Horatio's death and Hieronimo's vengeance to that course does not change it but rather intensifies it , makes it even ...
... course of things actually tightens it : " The end is crown of every work well done " ( II.vi.1-11 ) . The addition of Horatio's death and Hieronimo's vengeance to that course does not change it but rather intensifies it , makes it even ...
Page 91
... course of our actions . Hence this moment in the speech is only part of its general pattern , which we examined in the last chapter , of Hamlet's trying to imagine he is engaged in some sort of meaningful deliberation . He tries to ...
... course of our actions . Hence this moment in the speech is only part of its general pattern , which we examined in the last chapter , of Hamlet's trying to imagine he is engaged in some sort of meaningful deliberation . He tries to ...
Page 108
... course of his very efforts to circumvent it . In fact , this pattern reflects the uses of the metaphor in literary history ; the deterministic implications of the theater metaphor had for a long time been resisted even as they were put ...
... course of his very efforts to circumvent it . In fact , this pattern reflects the uses of the metaphor in literary history ; the deterministic implications of the theater metaphor had for a long time been resisted even as they were put ...
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