Dynamism of Character in Shakespeare's Mature TragediesDynamism of Character in Shakespeare's Mature Tragedies applies the systems theory of character to the analysis of the psychological and dramatic consistency of the main characters of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. The theory considers human behavior in terms of functional equilibrium between the stable properties of the mind, independent of the pressures of the sociocultural environment and the immediate situational context. What we call character thus denotes an autonomous configuration of psychological elements, which ensure the consistency and continuity of individual identity, despite the influence of the changing external circumstances. intuitive, and impressionistic approaches to character criticism, to the New Critical aesthetic readings of Shakespeare's plays which often ignore psychology as a valid interpretive perspective, and to the more recent cultural materialist readings that consider dramatic characters solely as functions of external, sociocultural forces. Piotr Sadowski teaches English literature at the American College Dublin, Dublin Business School, and Trinity College Dublin. |
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Page 9
... motives and goals of their behavior in interaction with other charac- ters in the context of the plays ( chapters 4-7 ) . The main advantage of systems theory of character in its present formulation is its formal rigor and coherence , a ...
... motives and goals of their behavior in interaction with other charac- ters in the context of the plays ( chapters 4-7 ) . The main advantage of systems theory of character in its present formulation is its formal rigor and coherence , a ...
Page 17
... motives ' " in the behavior of the characters , toward a more aesthetic response , through which Knight distanced himself from Bradleyan character analysis as " too entwined with a false and unduly ethical criticism . " 17 For Knight ...
... motives ' " in the behavior of the characters , toward a more aesthetic response , through which Knight distanced himself from Bradleyan character analysis as " too entwined with a false and unduly ethical criticism . " 17 For Knight ...
Page 19
... motives of people's behavior , we need an objectivized , theoretical frame of reference , with clearly defined assumptions about the functioning of the human mind , about the relations between individual personality and the social en ...
... motives of people's behavior , we need an objectivized , theoretical frame of reference , with clearly defined assumptions about the functioning of the human mind , about the relations between individual personality and the social en ...
Page 20
... motives and emotions remain unanswered.28 Bernard McElroy , writing in 1973 , also argues that Bradley's critics were wrong in their assumption that character study was distorted and harmful because it ignored the overall design of the ...
... motives and emotions remain unanswered.28 Bernard McElroy , writing in 1973 , also argues that Bradley's critics were wrong in their assumption that character study was distorted and harmful because it ignored the overall design of the ...
Page 53
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Contents
7 | |
13 | |
26 | |
Dynamism of Character | 49 |
Characters in Action | 81 |
Hamlet | 98 |
Othello | 164 |
King Lear | 219 |
Macbeth | 273 |
Notes | 300 |
Bibliography | 318 |
Index | 324 |
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Common terms and phrases
acter action appear attitude audience avenger balance Banquo behavior Bradley Cassio cause character types characterological Claudius Claudius's context Cordelia crisis critics daughters death Desdemona dramatic dynamism of character Edgar Edmund Emilia emotional endodynamic character endostatic example exodynamic exostatic external fact father feelings filial Fortinbras gender Gertrude Ghost Gloucester Gloucester's Goneril Gonzago play Grene Hamlet hand heroic honest Honigmann Horatio human husband Iago Iago's individual interactions justice Kent killing King Lear king's Knight L. C. Knights Lady Macbeth Laertes Laertes's lago Lear's literary loyalty Macduff madness McElroy ment mental mind moral motives murder namic nature Ophelia Othello partner plot political Polonius Polonius's possible prince prince's principles psychological reaction reason relations revenge Roderigo role Rosencrantz and Guildenstern scene sense sexual Shakespeare's Shakespeare's Mature Tragedies Shakespeare's Tragic Imagination Shakespearean Tragedy situation social sociological power static character static person statism thou tion traditional unconscious villain wife Wilson Knight
Popular passages
Page 286 - It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great ; Art not without ambition ; but without The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou'dst have, great Glamis, That which cries " Thus thou must do, if thou have it ; And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone.
Page 282 - That shake us nightly: better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave , After life's fitful fever he sleeps well...
Page 144 - A murderer and a villain ; A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord ; a vice of kings ; A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket ! Queen.
Page 277 - Implored your highness' pardon and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he owed As 'twere a careless trifle.
Page 161 - That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
Page 105 - Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet. If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. Who does it, then? His madness. If't be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd; His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Page 251 - Hear, Nature, hear ! dear goddess, hear ! Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful ! Into her womb convey sterility ! Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honour her...
Page 115 - Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears.
Page 182 - I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice...
Page 150 - Pale as his shirt ; his knees knocking each other ; And with a look so piteous in purport, As if he had been loosed out of hell, To speak of horrors, — he comes before me.
References to this book
Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency: Not to be John E. Curran No preview available - 2006 |