Shakespeare's critique of violence
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the ways in which political action produces and reproduces violence in the context of Shakespeare's four plays: Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, Henry V, and The Merchant of Venice. I address Shakespeare's representation of violence as a set of problems that demand our urgent responses to the justness of certain kinds of political action. To this end, I center my chapter discussion around four concepts relevant to political action and violence: order, regicide, war, and law. Chapter one calls into question Roman order in Titus Andronicus; Chapter two explicates the practice of regicide as it relates to hospitality in Macbeth; Chapter three addresses Henry's justifications for war in Henry V; Chapter four examines violence and contamination of the law in The Merchant of Venice. I contend that Shakespeare's critique of violence in the sphere of political action necessarily makes us to respond to current anxieties about the problem of violence.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
White, Purdue University.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature|Theater
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