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 59
... sort of ignorance or weakness . " If a man cannot hold his drink but does not know this about himself , his sin is venial . But if drunkenness becomes habitual , ignorance and weakness cease to be excuses and the sin regains its mortal ...
... sort of ignorance or weakness . " If a man cannot hold his drink but does not know this about himself , his sin is venial . But if drunkenness becomes habitual , ignorance and weakness cease to be excuses and the sin regains its mortal ...
Page 83
... sort of trying , arduous good deed that would not only serve the divine will but would also help exempt the Ghost from a certain amount of its due time in purgatory . And yet as soon as we look to these possibilities the absurdity of it ...
... sort of trying , arduous good deed that would not only serve the divine will but would also help exempt the Ghost from a certain amount of its due time in purgatory . And yet as soon as we look to these possibilities the absurdity of it ...
Page 116
... sort of show , with good works and deservings , " whereby we may first provoke him to love us , " for " God loved and chose us in Christ , not only when we were his enemies ... but also before the foundations of the world were laid ...
... sort of show , with good works and deservings , " whereby we may first provoke him to love us , " for " God loved and chose us in Christ , not only when we were his enemies ... but also before the foundations of the world were laid ...
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