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 22
... possible not to be . " 10 John of Salisbury , in turn , said that the fact of providence did not cancel the fact that a stone thrown in the air might not fall : things in the future " are capable of not having been . " Such conviction ...
... possible not to be . " 10 John of Salisbury , in turn , said that the fact of providence did not cancel the fact that a stone thrown in the air might not fall : things in the future " are capable of not having been . " Such conviction ...
Page 77
... possible , that you can do nothing to change that which will necessarily befall you . The hardness of this notion is not an issue in Richard III , Macbeth , or Julius Caesar , but in Hamlet Shakespeare has made it one . Horatio in ...
... possible , that you can do nothing to change that which will necessarily befall you . The hardness of this notion is not an issue in Richard III , Macbeth , or Julius Caesar , but in Hamlet Shakespeare has made it one . Horatio in ...
Page 131
... possible , and think on a revenge which while not proportionally spectacular would be somehow outside the common and thus capable of something good , it would be unavailable to Hamlet , simply by virtue of the fact that Hamlet is not to ...
... possible , and think on a revenge which while not proportionally spectacular would be somehow outside the common and thus capable of something good , it would be unavailable to Hamlet , simply by virtue of the fact that Hamlet is not 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 |
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