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 77
... look past the fact that such matters are , by the theology now orthodox , utterly simple and certain . Marcellus's note on folkloric beliefs regarding seasonal effects on spirits is of the same stamp ( I.i.162–69 ) . He would have ...
... look past the fact that such matters are , by the theology now orthodox , utterly simple and certain . Marcellus's note on folkloric beliefs regarding seasonal effects on spirits is of the same stamp ( I.i.162–69 ) . He would have ...
Page 148
... look before and after ( IV.iv.37 ) to the why and how , respectively . We must employ reason to look before toward the why - toward his father's murder and pain in purgatory and toward what righteousness demands , either of which to ...
... look before and after ( IV.iv.37 ) to the why and how , respectively . We must employ reason to look before toward the why - toward his father's murder and pain in purgatory and toward what righteousness demands , either of which to ...
Page 212
... look honestly at his world and into himself could scarcely be imagined . But Hamlet , now with no qualms about the shallowness of his feelings , never corrects this failure . Instead , he is evasive about his crimes and does nothing to ...
... look honestly at his world and into himself could scarcely be imagined . But Hamlet , now with no qualms about the shallowness of his feelings , never corrects this failure . Instead , he is evasive about his crimes and does nothing to ...
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 |
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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