"Hamlet's "Too, Too Solid Flesh
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16609668 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Chris Hassel (corresponding author), R Chris Hassel R Chris Hassel |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 609-622 |
| Publication date | 1994-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sixteenth Century Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0361-0160 • E-ISSN: 2326-0726 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2542637 |
| OpenAlex | W2519837315 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 1 |
From Lutheran perspective, the sexuality Hamlet complains about in Ophelia and Gertrude more appropriately describes the concupiscence and self-will of Hamlet's own self-absorption. In expounding his theology of grace, Luther repeatedly calls this spiritual illness the prudence or wisdom of the flesh. In this context the primary symptom of Hamlet's too, too solid flesh is his frustrating, paralyzing desire for perfect knowing and perfect doing, desire John Donne once calls the carnality of the understanding. Hamlet's fear of death and his dread ofjudgment, his uneasiness with all frailty in men and women, and his stubborn bondage to external, physical, intellectual, and spiritual goods are among the other symptoms that Luther associates with this concupiscence. Only at the end, and only then imperfectly, does Hamlet's glutting with death and imperfection, the inevitable rashness and indiscretion of human knowing and doing, begin to reconcile him to accept his own mortality and attest to a divinity that shapes our ends / Rough-hew them how we will
Art · Biology · Flesh · HAMLET (protein complex · Literature · Horticulture · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
| Citations per year | 0.23 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2020 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |