Rape and Civilization in Shakespeare
No offense threatens the fabric of civilization as profoundly as rape because no offense threatens as profoundly the equality of citizens. Under the old understanding of sex…
No offense threatens the fabric of civilization as profoundly as rape because no offense threatens as profoundly the equality of citizens. Under the old understanding of sex…
Shakespeare wasn’t a theologian, but he was influenced by theology. This shouldn’t be altogether controversial. A friend of mine, a professor of English Literature specializing in Shakespeare,…
The Elizabethan Reformation was, paradoxically, a period of persecution, tolerance, and reconciliation between English Protestants and Catholics as they saw the coming impact of secularism. While “Protestantism…
Its presence there hadn’t struck me before, But I like to see the ladder where I left it, Legs splayed between the orange trees: Now that all…
Macbeth is a short play compared to the rest of Shakespeare’s masterful canon. That doesn’t take away from this masterpiece of tragedy—though it has caused some to…
For both William Desmond and Eric Voegelin, Plato’s concept of the metaxu or metaxy is of paramount importance. Described by Plato in the Symposium and other works,…
We shall try fortune in a second fight. - Brutus Act 4 of the Julius Caesar has shown us that in a world devoid of divine providence,…
R.V. Young. Shakespeare and the Idea of Western Civilization. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022. How should we read Shakespeare? Some people say not…
The word “merry” occurs twice in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The first time in Act 2.4, where Portia asks her servant to tell Brutus that she is “merry”…
William Shakespeare’s The Life of Henry V addresses perirenal questions concerning the human condition and the justifications for war.[1] Shakespeare’s play illustrates how the causes of war…
Perhaps an apology might be necessary for the sheer audacity of beginning any essay with such a question and with such a seemingly absurd claim. Of course,…
A few years ago, students at the University of Pennsylvania removed a large Shakespeare portrait from a staircase that students and faculty members in the English department walk…
“Without being compatriots, they were all Romans. When everyone became a Roman citizen, Rome ceased having any citizens; and when being a Roman citizen became equivalent to…
Act 2 of the Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar[1] opens with a reference to Act. 1.2.140. According to Brutus, Cassius is wrong about blaming men for fateful events (2.1.2-4).[2]…
“[I]f Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.” As a dramatic account of the origins and limits of political authority, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar…