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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... Thomas More are from The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, 15 vols., ed. Clarence Miller et al. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963–86). All references to John Calvin are from Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., trans ...
... Thomas More are from The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, 15 vols., ed. Clarence Miller et al. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963–86). All references to John Calvin are from Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., trans ...
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... Thomas More ardently refuted William Tyndale's denial of human spiritual mobility; Tridentine Catholicism found that any recipient of God's grace “might as well reiecte the same”; Francisco Suarez in his Metaphysical Disputations ...
... Thomas More ardently refuted William Tyndale's denial of human spiritual mobility; Tridentine Catholicism found that any recipient of God's grace “might as well reiecte the same”; Francisco Suarez in his Metaphysical Disputations ...
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... Thomas Rogers, The English Creede (London, 1585), 64. 21 Beza, The Popes Canons, trans. T. Stocker (London, 1584), sig. Diii; William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, ed. Henry Walter (Cambridge: Parker Society #45 ...
... Thomas Rogers, The English Creede (London, 1585), 64. 21 Beza, The Popes Canons, trans. T. Stocker (London, 1584), sig. Diii; William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, ed. Henry Walter (Cambridge: Parker Society #45 ...
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... of obscurity and disconnected the sacrament from the divine. Thomas More in his attack on Frith held that the literalist interpretation must stand because utter epistemological breakdown would ensue otherwise: all articles of faith would.
... of obscurity and disconnected the sacrament from the divine. Thomas More in his attack on Frith held that the literalist interpretation must stand because utter epistemological breakdown would ensue otherwise: all articles of faith would.
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... Thomas Harding, and Thomas Hill pointed out, the Eucharist epitomized how Catholics stood on what is, Protestants merely on what is not.5 In confirming the meaning of “is” as an absolute adhesion between two things, admitting nothing ...
... Thomas Harding, and Thomas Hill pointed out, the Eucharist epitomized how Catholics stood on what is, Protestants merely on what is not.5 In confirming the meaning of “is” as an absolute adhesion between two things, admitting nothing ...
Contents
Purgatory and the Value of Time | |
The Theater of Merit | |
Chastity and the Strumpet Fortune | |
The Be Protestantism and Silence | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
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 Limited preview - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
action actor Arthur Dent audience Becon Calvin Calvinistic Catholic Catholicism Christ’s Christian Clarendon Press Claudius Claudius’s common revenger concept conscience contingency dead death display doctrine Drama dream Early Modern England empty overstatement English Recusant Literature English Renaissance example father feeling fols Fortune’s Fulke Gertrude Ghost grief Hamlet Hamlet Studies happen heaven Hecuba Horatio human idea improvisation John John of Salisbury killing King Laertes logic Mark Thornton marriage means merely merit meritorious mother nature never one’s Ophelia Oxford University Press papists Parker Society person’s Peter play play’s Polonius possible prayer Princeton University Princeton University Press Protestant Protestantism Purgatory Reformation repentance Richard role Routledge scene seems sense sexual Shakespeare Quarterly Shakespeare’s Tragic Shakespearean Tragedy soliloquy soul speech strumpet Fortune suicide theater metaphor things Thomas Thomas Becon thoughts trans true truth whore whoredom William William Perkins William Tyndale Yale University Yale University Press York