Shakespeare’s plays have been picked apart by scholars for every imaginable reason. Some look at character, theme, and plot, while others look for ideas about identity and sexuality. Anti-Stratfordians (also known as Anti-Shakespeareans) look for textual clues in his plays to suggest alternate (or at the very least, dual) authorship. A Nashville man has taken this kind of analysis in a new direction: trying to pin down Shakespeare’s attitude towards religion.

Shakespeare’s Religious Language - A Dictionary is a compendium of all religious or quasi-religious words and references in Shakespeare’s plays. Counting recurrences of “God” or “zounds” (a slang version of “His Wounds”), the author doesn’t draw any hard conclusions, but creates a reference for others to attempt to draw their own. Ghosts and the occult certainly figure highly in plays such as Macbeth, but I’m not sure their presence is indicative of any spiritual affiliation on The Bard’s part. In a similar vein, I don’t think his use of historical figures indicates any major political bent. In both cases, these ideas seem to serve dramatic rather than ideological purposes. In short, God and the afterlife had a place on Shakespeare’s stage as long as they served a higher power: the play.

Posted Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:26:32 and filed under Religion, Theories, Macbeth. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.