Thinking Through Shakespeare
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- £25.99
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- £25.99
Publisher Description
How Shakespeare’s exploration of central human questions—about identity, politics, religion and right and wrong—explains his lasting power, popularity and relevance
In the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson famously argued that Shakespeare is enduringly popular because he “is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life.” Johnson’s view largely prevailed until the late twentieth century, when it was challenged by a growing scepticism about the existence of a general human nature. In Thinking Through Shakespeare, eminent literary critic David Womersley pushes back against this change by exploring how Shakespeare’s plays think through—and invite us to think through—deep human questions of lasting importance.
Thinking Through Shakespeare explores four perennial human problems: personal identity, the distinction between civilization and barbarism, the relation between political power and religious authority and the tension between means and ends. It examines the history of these problems, from antiquity to today, and traces how Shakespeare engages with them in the great tragedies—Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear—but also in his other plays. Without arguing that human nature is universal or unchanging, or that Shakespeare has some special access to timeless wisdom, the book makes the case that his drama is powerful because it serves as a forensic tool, probing rival perspectives on questions that have preoccupied many people in many societies over many centuries.
By revealing in new ways how Shakespeare’s plays are animated and driven by central human problems, and why he should again be viewed as the great poet of human nature, Thinking Through Shakespeare opens up a richer understanding and appreciation of his work.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Oxford English literature professor Womersley (Divinity and State) delivers an impressive examination of the central human questions Shakespeare explored in his plays. Womersley argues that the playwright's works remain relevant not because Shakespeare possessed some "timeless esoteric wisdom" but because he used drama to probe human nature; he wasn't interested in reaching final conclusions but rather invited readers to think through questions of identity, politics, religion, and ethics. Struggles with identity, for example, play out in comedies like Much Ado About Nothing, which Womersley says presents the question of whether identity is "a seed (which already contains its potentialities) or a shell (which needs to be filled from the outside)." Questions about the meaning and vitality of political institutions arise in Macbeth, a play about a general who murders the king to seize the throne, as Shakespeare demonstrates how competing ideas about republicanism and divine monarchy took shape in social life. King Lear, Womersley says, shows that moral character is not fixed but changes over time as individuals contend between making decisions based on the means of actions and the ends of them. Womersley's elegant prose and thoroughly detailed critical analyses lead to thought-provoking interpretations. It's a smart testament to the staying power of Shakespeare.
