| The past 400 years have seen a fruitful development of critical study of William Shakespeare,however,due to very few biographical records of the playwright,there have still been lots of doubts about“the Bard of Avon”,whose name has rocked the whole world of English language and English literature.Much research and many disputes have been focused on the facts of his true appearance,marriage,sexual deal,religious inclination,“the lost years”,etc.,to which,unfortunately,few convincing answers have been proposed so far.In addition to a lack of biographical records,another important cause also contributes to the phenomenon,that is,the poet and playwright,who writes 38 plays,154 sonnets and 2narrative poems,sticks to an usual ambiguity in the expression of his Christian belief in almost all of these texts.Since the beginning of the 20th century,a number of prominent literary critics,with T.S.Eliot and Northrop Frye included,have initiated a study on the relationship between the Christianity,the archetypes of the Bible and the western literature;encouraged Shakespearean scholars have then carried out a number of research on the association of the works of Shakespeare to the Bible.The majority of these scholars tend to believe that between the Bible and the plays of Shakespeare and between the Christian background and the playwright himself,if the influence of the Scripture is not exaggerated unreasonably,there has always been a very close spiritual correlation.In the tradition of western culture,Free Will,originally as a Christian concept and undergoing a development of over 1,600 years,has been intimately connected with“freedom”and“liberty”that were later brought into philosophy,ethics and general use.In effect,no matter whether it was a Christian age or post-Christian age,the debate on the concept has never ceased,from the time of St.Augustine,Thomas Aquinas,Erasmus,Martin Luther and John Calvin,to that of Kant,Hegel and Nietzsche,the fruits of which have then helped to shape a critical tradition covering theology,philosophy and ethics.Different understanding and interpretations of Free will and the Predestination?or the Grace?,as a pair of opposing concepts in Christian doctrines,have caused famous and influential debates between Augustans and believers of Manichaeism and Pelagianism in the age of church fathers,and between Luther and Erasmus in the Reformation,have defined the succession of theological thoughts of Augustine,Luther and Calvin and have in essence built the gap of chief doctrines of the Protestantism?the Anglicanism included?and the Roman Catholicism.Therefore,the dissertation,based on the correlation of Free Will,one of the essential Christian concepts,and Grace,Sin and Salvation,with the approaches of character analysis and of Christian Ethics adopted,intends to review the religious elements conveyed by the background,theme and character and fate of the heroes and heroines of the plays of Shakespeare,to paint a panorama of his dramatic world from the perspective of Free Will and to define a spiritual Shakespeare hidden between the lines of his works.The exposition follows two principles:that the different ways dramatis personae judge and use their Free Will reflect virtually their recognition and acceptance of“God and Man”relationship,namely,their ultimate concerns?or religious beliefs and spirituality?that vary from their daily concerns or earthly concerns,and that the study of the concept of Free Will in literary texts leads to the interpretation of the ultimate concerns of the authors'own.With the plays of Shakespeare as the subject of the study,the overview of the fate of the heroes and heroines and the theme while put in the dimension of Free Will,may result in a discovery of the notion of Free Will and Christian inclination of the playwright,who lived and wrote in the background of the Church of England.“The Introduction”of the dissertation illustrates the source and value of the subject,that is,an interpretation of Shakespeare's plays from the perspective of Free Will needs a study on the background of their composition,the misunderstanding of the playwright's religious identity and three characters of Free Will,namely,its eternity,universality and openness.Then follows an introduction to the source and growth of the concept of Free Will in the history of Christian doctrines,an illustration of key terms that will be frequently mentioned in the main body of the dissertation?including the Predestination,Synergism,Monergism,Soteriology and Christian Humanism?,and an analysis of the current conditions of the relevant study home and abroad.The main body of the dissertation consists of three chapters.In accordance with the traditional chronology of Shakespeare's plays,dramatic works of three genres–histories,pure tragedies and tragicomedies–are selected as texts for close reading.A detailed study of the concept of Free Will suggested in these plays is then done through a thorough analysis of their themes and characterization.Chapter One studies two tetralogies of Shakespeare.On the basis of an introduction to the political myth and religious connotation of first tetralogy and the theme of“salvation”of second tetralogy,a detailed analysis of the fall and salvation of four Christian kings–Henry VI,Richard III,Richard II and Henry V,whose wills are either bonded or freed–is made in the context of Christian doctrines.Chapter Two studies pure tragedies of Shakespeare.Based on the category of Shakespeare's tragedies of A.C.Bradley,nine tragedies are selected in this chapter,and tragic heroes like Caesar,Macbeth and Lady Macbeth,King Lear,Othello,Hamlet,Coriolanus,Antony and so on are discussed in terms of their characters and fates.An analysis,from the perspectives of Free Will as gift of Grace,Free Will in man's judgment and Free Will in use,is made to examine the acceptance,recognition and preference of Shakespeare,while writing in the atmosphere of the Church of England,of Free Will and the Predestination,the two opposing Christian concepts.Chapter Three studies Shakespeare's tragicomedies.In the Reformation of the 16thh century,the disputes,conflicts and split of Christian denominations were mainly caused by different beliefs in Sin and Salvation,reason and faith,and Free Will and its necessity.Analyzed in the structure of Free Will and Grace,Free Will and Sin,Free Will and Salvation,the chapter reviews the characters and fates of dramatis persona of senior age in three tragicomedies–The Tale of Winter,Cymbeline and The Tempest–and figures out the last possible answers Shakespeare,as a humanist and a Christian simultaneously,might offer in his late works.Based on a close reading of Shakespeare's plays of three genres and an in-depth analysis of the characters and fates of dramatis personae,main conclusions drawn in the dissertation are as follows:first,the view of Free Will suggested in first tetralogy of Shakespeare is in nature sympathetic of that of Erasmus,hence opposed to that of Lutheranism,Calvinism and the Anglicanism;second,as opposed to first tetralogy,the view of Salvation related to that of Free Will suggested in second tetralogy,composed years later,inclines to be that of the Anglicanism;third,the view of Free Will suggested in Shakespeare's pure tragedies can be regarded as the revelatory thoughts on the relationship of the Fate and the Will of the playwright,who is examining further the relationship of God and Man;and fourth,the view of Free Will suggested in Shakespeare's tragicomedies expresses a pursuit for Free Will off the bondage when the playwright's career came to the end and he began to feel the age.In terms of the definition and interpretation of Free Will in Christian context,the religious belief suggested in different plays of Shakespeare composed in different stages may have undergone invisible changes,or shown a self-contradictory inclinations,which in effect agrees on the Christian identity observed by many modern Shakespearean scholars,namely,“a claimed member of the Church of England and a hidden sympathizer of the Roman Catholicism”.Therefore,as opposed to“Will in the Bondage”defined by Martin Luther,Shakespeare and his view of Free Will can be named“Will off the Bondage”,that is,Shakespeare,who may be far less faithful than the expectation of the readers,probably does not own“true faith”held by Augustine and Luther;Shakespeare,who believes that man after the fall still owns liberty and ability to do good,and that Free Will of his and men's can lead them to a cooperation with God which will bring about their salvation eventually,is inclined to agree with the view of Free Will of Erasmus;and Shakespeare,exemplified by this view of Free Will,may own a hybrid faith that should not be defined specifically by Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism,and his motive and intention of aritistic creation may rise above any one religion. |
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