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 19
... remains while they themselves do not ; they reach a state of both being and not being , a state where rigid laws of logic do not apply , where heaven and earth are united , where we tap into infinite possibility . So , contrary to the ...
... remains while they themselves do not ; they reach a state of both being and not being , a state where rigid laws of logic do not apply , where heaven and earth are united , where we tap into infinite possibility . So , contrary to the ...
Page 134
... remains in the realm of the Not to be , and is banished from our serious consideration as soon as it is raised . In its place , once again , is delay , as Hamlet intends to move forward with his efforts to wake his morally sleepy mother ...
... remains in the realm of the Not to be , and is banished from our serious consideration as soon as it is raised . In its place , once again , is delay , as Hamlet intends to move forward with his efforts to wake his morally sleepy mother ...
Page 202
... remains something quite dissatisfying for us . A Hamlet who does not try is a rather sorry substitute for the one we know , and it is by this feeling that Shakespeare conveys what has been lost with the fall of Catholicism . Its habits ...
... remains something quite dissatisfying for us . A Hamlet who does not try is a rather sorry substitute for the one we know , and it is by this feeling that Shakespeare conveys what has been lost with the fall of Catholicism . Its habits ...
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