Dynamism of Character in Shakespeare's Mature Tragedies

Forsideomslag
University of Delaware Press, 2003 - 327 sider
Dynamism of Character in Shakespeare's Mature Tragedies applies the systems theory of character to the analysis of the psychological and dramatic consistency of the main characters of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. The theory considers human behavior in terms of functional equilibrium between the stable properties of the mind, independent of the pressures of the sociocultural environment and the immediate situational context. What we call character thus denotes an autonomous configuration of psychological elements, which ensure the consistency and continuity of individual identity, despite the influence of the changing external circumstances. intuitive, and impressionistic approaches to character criticism, to the New Critical aesthetic readings of Shakespeare's plays which often ignore psychology as a valid interpretive perspective, and to the more recent cultural materialist readings that consider dramatic characters solely as functions of external, sociocultural forces. Piotr Sadowski teaches English literature at the American College Dublin, Dublin Business School, and Trinity College Dublin.

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Indhold

Preface
7
Shakespeare and Character Criticism
13
Toward Systems Theory of Character
26
Dynamism of Character
49
Characters in Action
81
Hamlet
98
Othello
164
King Lear
219
Macbeth
273
Notes
300
Bibliography
318
Index
324
Copyright

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Populære passager

Side 286 - It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great ; Art not without ambition ; but without The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou'dst have, great Glamis, That which cries " Thus thou must do, if thou have it ; And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone.
Side 282 - That shake us nightly: better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave , After life's fitful fever he sleeps well...
Side 144 - A murderer and a villain ; A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord ; a vice of kings ; A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket ! Queen.
Side 277 - Implored your highness' pardon and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he owed As 'twere a careless trifle.
Side 161 - That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
Side 105 - Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet. If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. Who does it, then? His madness. If't be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd; His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Side 251 - Hear, Nature, hear ! dear goddess, hear ! Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful ! Into her womb convey sterility ! Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honour her...
Side 115 - Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears.
Side 182 - I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice...
Side 150 - Pale as his shirt ; his knees knocking each other ; And with a look so piteous in purport, As if he had been loosed out of hell, To speak of horrors, — he comes before me.

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