Shakespeare's Tragic SkepticismYale University Press, 2008 M10 1 - 304 páginas Readers of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies have long noted the absence of readily explainable motivations for some of Shakespeare’s greatest characters: why does Hamlet delay his revenge for so long? Why does King Lear choose to renounce his power? Why is Othello so vulnerable to Iago’s malice? But while many critics have chosen to overlook these omissions or explain them away, Millicent Bell demonstrates that they are essential elements of Shakespeare’s philosophy of doubt. Examining the major tragedies, Millicent Bell reveals the persistent strain of philosophical skepticism. Like his contemporary, Montaigne, Shakespeare repeatedly calls attention to the essential unknowability of our world. In a period of social, political, and religious upheaval, uncertainty hovered over matters great and small—the succession of the crown, the death of loved ones from plague, the failure of a harvest. Tumultuous social conditions raised ultimate questions for Shakespeare, Bell argues, and ultimately provoked in him a skepticism which casts shadows of existential doubt over his greatest masterpieces. |
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... action go forward in these plays is a nostalgic attachment to those very convictions skepticism denies. In these dramatic explorations one can sometimes come upon a denial of denial itself. The result is a contest of feelings and ideas ...
... action go forward in these plays is a nostalgic attachment to those very convictions skepticism denies. In these dramatic explorations one can sometimes come upon a denial of denial itself. The result is a contest of feelings and ideas ...
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... action issuing from character, or in character issuing from action.'' But un- like many less keenly observant critics who have come in Bradley's wake, he himself admitted that this idea ''was an exaggeration of a vital truth'' because ...
... action issuing from character, or in character issuing from action.'' But un- like many less keenly observant critics who have come in Bradley's wake, he himself admitted that this idea ''was an exaggeration of a vital truth'' because ...
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... after all, it is only by believing in that logic that we are able to carry on in life. Yet significant gaps and paradoxes disrupt the sequences of action in these plays and bring such coherence and meaning into Introduction.
... after all, it is only by believing in that logic that we are able to carry on in life. Yet significant gaps and paradoxes disrupt the sequences of action in these plays and bring such coherence and meaning into Introduction.
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... action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god''—is hardly himself to be identified with the most cynical and hateful of all his characters. But the Iagowho is so cruellycontemptuous ofthose, like Othello, who think life is ...
... action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god''—is hardly himself to be identified with the most cynical and hateful of all his characters. But the Iagowho is so cruellycontemptuous ofthose, like Othello, who think life is ...
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... action and language of the plays he invites his audiences to question, from moment to moment, the inherited, standard truths of his time. He also allows his audiences to view fearfully the results of abandoning the prop of such beliefs ...
... action and language of the plays he invites his audiences to question, from moment to moment, the inherited, standard truths of his time. He also allows his audiences to view fearfully the results of abandoning the prop of such beliefs ...
Contenido
2 Othellos Jealousy | |
3 Unaccommodated Lear | |
4 Macbeths Deeds | |
The Roman Frame | |
Selected Bibliography | |
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Términos y frases comunes
action actor already Antony appears asks audience become beginning believe body bring Brutus Caesar called Cassio cause character Cleopatra comes continue Cordelia course crime critics daughters death deed denies Desdemona different doubt Duncan earlier effect evidence expect expressed fact faith false father feel find first follow force future ghost give Hamlet hand hear heart Holinshed human Iago Iago’s idea identity imagination Kent killed kind King Lear Lady language Lear’s lives look lost Macbeth madness meaning merely mind Montaigne murder nature never observed off once Othello perhaps play plot present reason reference relation remark reminds represented revenge role royal says scene seems seen sense Shake Shakespeare skepticism social soliloquy sometimes speaks stage story suggested tells theater things thou thought tion tragedy true truth witchcraft witches witnesses