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Othello, Macbeth , and King Hear R M Christofides Shakespeare and Equivocation Language and the Doom in Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth , and King Hear PhD Cardiff University 2008 UMI Number: U584315 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U584315 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not currently submitted^candidature for any degree. Signed ........... .. (candidate) Date STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed (candidate) Date .... .. STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated^Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. S igned ffl. : ... .. (candidate) D ate m / p .i / o Z. STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the tide and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed (candidate) D ate Contents List o f figures i Abstract ii A cknowledgements iii Introduction 1 An Outline of the Thesis 1 Methodology 11 Locating the Thesis 15 A Note on Typography 21 H a m le t and the Symbolic Order 22 Introduction 22 The Ghost’s Equivocal Provenance 25 Claudius the Father/Uncle 39 Hamlet’s Death and Judgement 58 Conclusion 66 O th e llo 's Language: The Supplement and the A n ti- L o g o s 68 Introduction 68 Othello’s Equivocal Identity 70 Iago the Anti-Logos 86 Othello’s Judgement and Damnation 101 Conclusion 109 M a c b e th and the Trace of the Other 110 Introduction 110 Imperfect Manhood 113 Imperfect Time 121 Imperfect Speakers 128 The Soliloquy of Doom 143 Conclusion 151 King Lear and Deconstruction: Christianity and 153 P a g a n ism Introduction 153 Christian Words in a Pagan Universe 155 Christ-like Cordelia 167 Cordelia the Pharmakon 178 Conclusion 186 C o n clusion 188 Summing Up 188 Implications 192 F igures 198 Bibliography 226 List of Figures Figure 1 198 The Tetragrammaton, The holie Bible (London: Richard Jugge, 1568) F igure 2 199 Adam names the animals, Holy Byble (London: Richarde Iugge, 1576) F igure 3 200 The Fall, The Holy Bible (London: Christopher Barker, 1584) F igure 4 201 Tudor Christ painting, St. Teilo’s Church, St. Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff, South Glamorgan F igure 5 202 “The Three Living and the Three Dead” painting, Charlwood, Surrey Figures 6 & 7 203, 204 “The Three Living and the Three Dead” painting, Peakirk, N orthamptonshire Figures 8-10,12-14,18, 22, & 28 205-207 Stained glass depiction of the Last Judgement, St. Mary’s Church, Fairford, 209-211 Gloucestershire 215, 219 225 F igure 11 208 Mosaic of the Last Judgement, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Torcello, Venice Figures 15,17, 20, 21, 24, 25 212, 214 Doom painting, St. Nicholas’s Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire 217, 218 221, 222 F igure 16 213 Doom painting, Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, West Midlands F igure 19 216 Doom painting, Broughton, Cambridgeshire F igure 23 220 Doom painting, South Leigh, Oxfordshire F igure 26 223 Doom painting, Broughton, Buckinghamshire F igure 27 224 Doom painting, Beckley, Oxfordshire i Abstract Equivocation is a condition of language that runs riot Hamlet,in Othello, Macbeth, and L*w. Whether as ambiguity or dissimulation, equivocation propels the plots of these plays to their tragic finales. The Doom as depicted in pre-Reformation churches is invoked in the plays as a force that could end both equivocation and tragedy. However, Shakespeare withholds this divine intervention, allowing the tragedy to play out. Chapter One outlines the thesis, explains the methodological approach, and locates the thesis in relation to the major fields of Shakespeare studies. Chapter Two focuses on the equivocal position of father-and-not-father occupied by Claudius and the Ghost in Hamlet, and the memento mori imagery in the play that reminds the audience of the inevitability of death and Judgement. Chapter Three on Othello examines Iago’s equivocal mode of address, a blend of equivocations and lies that aims to move Othello from a valued insider to a detested outsider in Venice. Chapter Four argues that linguistic and temporal equivocations are the condition ofMacbeth, where the trace of the future invades the present and the trace of vice invades virtue. In both Othello and Macbeth, the protagonists, in their darkest moments, summon images of apocalyptic damnation. Chapter Five proposes that the language of King Lear deconstructs the opposition between Christianity and paganism, and interprets Cordelia as both Lear’s poison and remedy. Furthermore, it analyses the moment when Lear enters the stage carrying Cordelia’s dead body as an equivocal invocation of the Doom. The methodological approach to this thesis draws on Derrida’s conception of language as differential and without access to any divine guarantees that could anchor meaning. The tragedies, then, can be understood in relation to language: they are denied the divine force that could fix, resolve, and stabilize them. l/?v' " 1 ^ - Acknowledgments I acknowledge Cardiff University’s financial support for several conference trips, the help over the years from my colleagues, lecturers and tutors at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, and the excellent assistance provided by the staff at the British Library, Westminster City Library, and Cardiff University libraries. A special mention to all those who care for the churches I visited. Their unheralded work made my research a pleasure. Thank you to my dazzling supervisor, Professor Catherine Belsey, for her expert guidance. Thanks too to my photographer, Dr Jodie Matthews, for going steady with me. Most of all, my thanks and praise to my parents. Nothing I can write can do them justice. I kiss your hands in awe. ie/ "> ' ''4 ,-CV' I. 1'" : ' ; P ■Y"J a < s - f. /'-O. : - , , , \ . , l : , fp I 11) l/p y •-/ '\ r „ ( " x ■' ' /- / h . > a I... >i \ n( T r ',U;, / S) '• r r, r ,r fy ) 7 ' m r M " V 'A/ |jl/i ' .‘'(aft ' * (? f • ; s r j • > ' • . f . r j " • : 111 Introduction An Outline of the Thesis This thesis proposes that equivocation, as ambiguity or dissimulation, is a condition of language that runs untamed in the tragedies of Hamlet, Othello , Macbeth , and King Hear. A deus ex machina that could end both equivocation and tragedy is invoked in the language of the plays in the form of the apocalyptic Judgement depicted in pre-Reformation depictions of the Doom. However, Shakespeare ultimately keeps this divine intervention off-stage, allowing the tragedy to play out. As a result, equivocations, which are resolved in the comedies, propel the plots to their tragic conclusions. Equivocation was topical in 1606 when Father Henry Garnet, implicated in the Gunpowder Plot of the previous year, was tried before the King’s Council at Guildhall. He justified his opaque answers at the trial on the basis of his adherence to the Jesuitical doctrine of mental equivocation, which allowed him, he claimed, to fulfil his obligation to his inquisitors but still observe the covenant of the private confession that revealed the plot against King James I. One reason for datingMacbeth as late as 1606 is the widely held belief that Shakespeare’s hell-porter alludes to Garnet’s trial: Knock, knock. Who’s there, i’th’other devil’s name? — Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O! come in, equivocator.1 The hell-porter’s imaginary newcomer arrives there because he has been unable to equivocate to heaven. Equivocation, from the Christian perspective of the four tragedies in question, occurs in a fallen world. But rhetorical art cannot hoodwink God: the Last Judgement, the definitive, unequivocal separation of the saved from the damned, is the point when all equivocation comes to an end. 1 William Shakespeare, Macbeth , ed. by Kenneth Muir, The Arden Shakespeare (London: Methuen, 1962), 2.3.7-12. All references are to this edition, unless otherwise indicated. 1 Early-modern Bible illustrations imply just such a difference between mortal language and the language of God. Woodcuts from the first page of Genesis suggest, in some cases, the transparency of language before the fall, its singular meaning, and, in other cases, the opacity of a fallen language where meaning runs riot. One woodcut shows the Tetragrammaton, the Hebraic name of God always rendered without vowels to emphasize its ineffability, placed above creation (figure 1). Several other versions have instead Adam naming the animals overseen by the Tetragrammaton (figure 2). Before the Fall, Adam could not misname the animals because the unequivocal truth of his choice was guaranteed by God. However, these prelapsarian images are replaced in some editions with a depiction of the Fall. Adam and Eve stand by the Tree of Knowledge, their disgrace written in English on the scroll that links them to the tree. The unspeakable, ineffable Tetragrammaton sits above them in the sky (figure 3).
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