Human Conflict in ShakespeareRoutledge, 30 mrt 2021 - 340 pagina's 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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... never appear in isolation from its circumstances and setting. Every major character in a Shakespeare play starts its stage life in a primary situation, which includes other characters; this character's original nature and situation are ...
... never purely rational, for they are affected always, to some degree at least, by irrational forces beyond the complete control of reason; that, indeed, completely rational judgements (if such were possible) would mark a man as divorced ...
... never satisfied. Therefore no earthly thing but some supernal [divine] power sure it is.23 Thus love between Man and Woman was a state wherein the man was divided between the rational and the irrational, and the woman felt herself to be ...
... never completely lose touch with reality, for to enjoy it one must retain a sense, no matter how slight, of the mundane world; otherwise, how can one feel oneself to be in the fantasy, and so enjoy it to the full as a relief from that ...
... Badde bysytyth [assails] hym euere to hys dampnacion, And God hathe govyn Man fre arbitracion [choice] Whethyr he wyl hymself saue or hys soule spyll [destroy] 2 Here is the essence of the human condition; the never-ceasing.