Title: Christian settings in Shakespeare's tragedies /
Authors: Waters, D. Douglas, 1929-
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
Year: 1994
Subjects: Shakespeare, William,; Shakespeare, William, Religion.; Christian drama, English History and criticism.; Drama Religious aspects Christianity.; Christianity and literature.; Tragedy.; Religion in literature.
Abstract: Showing no propagandistic concern for theology, Shakespeare's tragedies with Christian settings (R3, R2, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, and Hamlet) are secular, sympathetic treatments of human downfall caused mainly by evil in external situations in the universe and society. In this book, D. Douglas Waters - defining Shakespeare's tragic vision - sees evil mainly in terms of cosmic and societal forces and only partially in terms of the weaknesses of the tragic figures. The scope of Waters's study is to analyze the tragic structure of several plays, to oppose present-day deemphasis on the genre of tragedy in discussions of Shakespeare by some structuralists and poststructuralists, and to stress Shakespeare's tragic mimesis (as artistic representation) and our response to it - our intellectual, moral, and emotional clarification of pity and fear for the tragic heroes and/or heroines.^
Contents: Introduction: Tragedy in Shakespeare -- Mimesis, Shakespeare the dramatist, and his texts -- Philosophical implications of Shakespeare's tragedies -- Catharsis as clarification -- Romeo and Juliet as tragedy -- Catharsis as clarification in Macbeth -- Othello, recent interpretations, and tragedy -- Mimesis and catharsis as clarification in Hamlet -- The conclusion.