RT Article
T1 Free Will in Hamlet?
JF Christianity & literature
VO 67
IS 2
SP 253
OP 270
A1 Oser, Lee 1958-
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/157643480X
AB I argue that the Shakespeare of Hamlet was influenced by the debate between Erasmus and Luther on the question of free will. I approach this debate as a record of the tensions within Christian humanism and as a “conceptual source text” for Hamlet. I detect the debate's resonances in the play's thematic investigation of the will, as well as in how the playwright yokes together the conflicting worlds of literature and theology, humanism and reform. I hold that while Shakespeare deploys Erasmian strategies of ambiguity and silence with respect to the highest mysteries, he also assimilates Luther's suspicion of the pretensions of consciousness.
K1 ERASMUS, Desiderius, d. 1536
K1 Erasmus
K1 HAMLET (Play : Shakespeare)
K1 Humanism
K1 Luther, Martin, 1483-1546
K1 Luther
K1 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
K1 Shakespeare
DO 10.1177/0148333117723340