Human Conflict in ShakespeareRoutledge, 30 mars 2021 - 340 sidor Conflict is at the heart of much of Shakespeare’s drama. Frequently there is an overt setting of violence, as in Macbeth, but, more significantly there is often ‘interior’ conflict. Many of Shakespeare’s most striking and important characters – Hamlet and Othello are good examples – are at war with themselves. Originally published in 1987, S. C. Boorman makes this ‘warfare of our nature’ the central theme of his stimulating approach to Shakespeare. He points to the moral context within which Shakespeare wrote, in part comprising earlier notions of human nature, in part the new tentative perceptions of his own age. Boorman shows Shakespeare’s great skill in developing the traditional ideas of proper conduct to show the tensions these ideas produce in real life. In consequence, Shakespeare’s characters are not the clear-cut figures of earlier drama, rehearsing the set speeches of their moral types – they are so often complex and doubting, deeply disturbed by their discordant natures. The great merit of this fine book is that it displays the ways in which Shakespeare conjured up living beings of flesh and blood, making his plays as full of dramatic power and appeal for modern audiences as for those of his own day. In short, this book presents a human approach to Shakespeare, one which stresses that truth of mankind’s inner conflict which links virtually all his plays. |
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... whole, despite the many differences between plays which have so often tended to fragment Shakespearean criticism. In Part 1 I have described only certain major forms of human stress of which Elizabethans and their predecessors were ...
... whole question of what moral standards best fitted a man to take a worthy part in the social life of his time. The emphasis, here, was becoming more social than religious, and was associated of course with the Elizabethan concern with ...
... whole nations committed to their charge, so also before the Lord, they are priuate persons, to be called to account, not only for such things as they do in their publique gouernement, but also for such offences as they commit priuatly ...
S. C. Boorman. 33 componitur orbis? The whole world is giuen to followe the example of those that are aboue them in authoritie.34 The Elizabethan interest in the human problems of the ruler is also shown in the wellknown A Mirror for ...
... whole social order would be overthrown by that 'manyheaded monster', the common people of England.45 I would agree that the Elizabethan fear of the mob went even deeper than 'fears of invasion and civil war'; it is clear that many ...