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THE CONVERSION OF OPPOSITES AND TRAGEDY IN SHAKESPEARE'S RICHARD II

THE CONVERSION OF OPPOSITES AND TRAGEDY IN SHAKESPEARE'S RICHARD II THE CONVERSION OF OPPOSITES AND TRAGEDY IN 9 §HAKESPEARE S RICHARD 11 IN HIS EARLY HISTORY PLAY RICHARD II, Shakespeare develops a novel idea of tragedy involving the protagonist's intellectual conversion of values into their opposites by defining the dynamic first within and then outside (and so against) the conventional de casibus/Whee1 of Fortune notion of tragedy. On-stage characters, most notably Richard himself, conceive of his ruin as a monarch's typical fall from the position of prosperity to that of adversity, complemented by Bolingbroke's corresponding rise from the nothingness of political exile to the majesty of monarchy. Intellectually and emotionally moving from king to anchorite and back again, from monarch to beg gar and back again, Richard however discovers an inner realm of poetic richness that appears to compensate personally for his decline. We shall see that Pico della Mirandola perhaps best articulated the philosophical doctrine authorizing humankind' s profoundly imaginative capability for the inner conversion and reconversion of antithetical identities. In Richard II, Shakespeare shows how under certain circumstances a capability that Renaissance writers such as Pico considered a vehic1e for dignifying humankind could become the catalyst of tragedy. Richard eventually finds that the rich inner life http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Explorations in Renaissance Culture Brill

THE CONVERSION OF OPPOSITES AND TRAGEDY IN SHAKESPEARE'S RICHARD II

Explorations in Renaissance Culture , Volume 25 (1): 1 – Dec 2, 1999

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Copyright 1999 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0098-2474
eISSN
2352-6963
DOI
10.1163/23526963-90000202
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE CONVERSION OF OPPOSITES AND TRAGEDY IN 9 §HAKESPEARE S RICHARD 11 IN HIS EARLY HISTORY PLAY RICHARD II, Shakespeare develops a novel idea of tragedy involving the protagonist's intellectual conversion of values into their opposites by defining the dynamic first within and then outside (and so against) the conventional de casibus/Whee1 of Fortune notion of tragedy. On-stage characters, most notably Richard himself, conceive of his ruin as a monarch's typical fall from the position of prosperity to that of adversity, complemented by Bolingbroke's corresponding rise from the nothingness of political exile to the majesty of monarchy. Intellectually and emotionally moving from king to anchorite and back again, from monarch to beg gar and back again, Richard however discovers an inner realm of poetic richness that appears to compensate personally for his decline. We shall see that Pico della Mirandola perhaps best articulated the philosophical doctrine authorizing humankind' s profoundly imaginative capability for the inner conversion and reconversion of antithetical identities. In Richard II, Shakespeare shows how under certain circumstances a capability that Renaissance writers such as Pico considered a vehic1e for dignifying humankind could become the catalyst of tragedy. Richard eventually finds that the rich inner life

Journal

Explorations in Renaissance CultureBrill

Published: Dec 2, 1999

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