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 xii
... tell them and not to tell them ; they wish to tell them to one who is strong enough to hear them and yet not too strong to despise them " ( Newman , Position of Catholics in England , VIII.7 ) . Compare Rosencrantz : " You do surely bar ...
... tell them and not to tell them ; they wish to tell them to one who is strong enough to hear them and yet not too strong to despise them " ( Newman , Position of Catholics in England , VIII.7 ) . Compare Rosencrantz : " You do surely bar ...
Page 79
... tell Why thy canoniz'd bones , hearsed in death , Have burst their cerements , why the sepulchre Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again . What may this mean , That thou , dead ...
... tell Why thy canoniz'd bones , hearsed in death , Have burst their cerements , why the sepulchre Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again . What may this mean , That thou , dead ...
Page 80
... tell us , and we need seek no further information . What do we need a ghost come from the grave to tell us ? Nothing . All is redundant from the first scene on . Thus when Hamlet tries to tell Horatio that there are more things in ...
... tell us , and we need seek no further information . What do we need a ghost come from the grave to tell us ? Nothing . All is redundant from the first scene on . Thus when Hamlet tries to tell Horatio that there are more things in ...
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