The Shakespearean Ethic

by John Vyvyan

With modesty and conviction, this edition offers a viewpoint seldomly considered: an unusual and exceptionally clear insight into Shakespeare’s philosophy. Appreciating the danger Shakespeare faced in writing at a time of major religious intolerance, this fresh examination demonstrates how subtly his plays allegorically explore aspects of the perennial philosophy. In doing so, it argues, Shakespeare raises the fundamental question of ethics. Both thought provoking and persuasive, this book also contrasts Hamlet with Measure for Measure and Othello with The Winter’s Tale in order to expose the dilemmas that confront its heroes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Shakespeare

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

Reviews

[Ygraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a wonderfully lucid and hugely insightful exploration of the moral groundworks upon which shakespeare's works are built, particularly the way in which vyvyan contrasts the degenerative tragedy, in which the hero chooses retributive justice over nobility or the higher self (which must by necessity lead to his death) and regenerative works, in which the hero chooses adherence to the self, fidelity to love and creative mercy (which must lead to a union with divinity).

[John Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turns Hamlet upside down. We are sucked in by Hamlet as by Satan in Paradise Lost. Thank you to D W Robertson of Princeton who long ago taught this approach, and made sense of Chaucer by way of the medieval passion play.

[Jessie B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had one of the best interpretations of Hamlet I have ever seen and a very interesting idea about the relationship between Shakespeare's tragedies and his romances.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it; apparently from 1958 and only recently discovered and made available for a wide audiencee; this is a welcome addition to the secondary literature on the Bard; some useful insights into the structure and inner workings of, mainly, the tragedies and comedies; am looking to reconnect with the works of Shakespeare this year, and this was a felicitous find; recommended.

"Any attempt to fit Shakespeare’s tragedies to the Aristotelean pattern is to lay them on a Procrustean bed, for Shakespeare worked out a pattern of his own. Much of this has been thoroughly mapped* and it would be supererogatory to go over well-trodden ground. But there are some other principles of construction in the tragedies which, so far as I know, have not been isolated and to which Shakespeare is remarkably faithful. I will summarise what I conceive these to be, and attempt to justify the statement later. FIRST: We are shown a soul, in many respects noble, but with a fatal flaw, which lays it open to a special temptation. SECOND: The ‘voices’ of the coming temptation are characterised for us, so that we may have no doubt that they will persuade to evil. THIRD: There is a temptation scene, in which the weak spot of the hero’s soul is probed, and the temptation is yielded to. FOURTH: We are shown an inner conflict, usually in the form of a soliloquy, in which the native nobility of the hero’s soul opposes the temptation, but fails. FIFTH and SIXTH: There is a second temptation and a second inner conflict, of mounting intensity, with the result that the hero loses the kingship of his own soul. SEVENTH: The tragic act, or act of darkness. EIGHTH: The realisation of horror. NINTH: Death. This is Shakespeare’s own way of conceiving tragedy, and it has little to do with Aristotle."

"The inversion of values is shown taking place in every tragic hero, but he is generally unconscious of it."

"The tragic act is never consummated in the physical world until the lordship of the inner world has been lost."

"This is one of the themes which runs through all Shakespeare’s tragedies: to kill someone is never the way out. Killing cannot, according to Shakespeare, be a solution; because, in the final sense, killing is impossible. The ghost always comes back:"

"SHAKESPEARE would appear to have worked out a dramatic pattern of regeneration which exactly balanced the tragic sequence. It is the same road travelled in the opposite direction, and the corresponding phases may now be summarised. FIRST: We are shown a soul containing the principles of strength which will enable it to pass the coming tests. SECOND: The voice or voices of the higher Self, which will help the hero in his temptations, are characterised for us. THIRD: There is a test or temptation scene, in which the hero triumphs, because he is true to the Self and faithful to Love. FOURTH: There is a confirmatory experience, tending towards inner sovereignty or lordship of the soul. FIFTH and SIXTH: There is a second test, and a second confirmation. SEVENTH: The act of creative mercy, including self-forgiveness. EIGHTH: An experience of enlightenment. NINTH: The symbolic union of love."

[Bobbie Darbyshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fabulous, fascinating book. I can’t remember what or who put me onto it – it was probably a theatre programme – but what a find! Anyone with any interest at all in Shakespeare, however unacademic they are, should find it an eye-opener. If Hamlet’s cruel rejection of Ophelia has puzzled you, here it is made brilliant sense of. If the Bard’s complex world view has eluded you, here it is made plain. I was gripped, uplifted, mysteriously consoled. I am one of those bonkers idiots who fervently want to believe that Christopher Marlowe, on the run from imminent arrest, torture and death for his atheistic statements, did not die in a pub brawl, but escaped via the Thames to Italy, where he wrote the Bard’s plays and tragically homesick sonnets. (Please don’t mock or argue with me – I’ve been wiped the floor with and sneered at before, and you are welcome to your precious Stratford Shakespeare and his second-best bed.) This book (published in 1959) doesn’t touch on the question of authorship. In plain, accessible prose, drawing on the text alone, Vyvyan explores the values of the writer, no matter his name, and shows what an enlightened and remarkable human being he was.

[Nicholasdm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an exceptional read. Vyvyan proposes a multi-dimensional view of Shakespeare's inner consciousness in an erudite fashion that is thought-provoking and well-argued. I retain few books, this is one!

[Ethan Monks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revelatory. A very original analysis of Shakespeare.

Suggests the poet was more concerned by ethics and “the good life” than he was by dramatic composition.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shakespeare balances his characters on the tip of a see-saw that teeters between vengeance or forgiveness, retribution or mercy, hate or love, ignorance or wisdom.

[Richard]

Mentioned glowingly in Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots (p. 13) as not only of value in characterizing Shakespeare's plays, "but is also the most original book about Shakespeare I have ever read."

[David A. Beardsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first in what would become a trilogy of works on Shakespeare and which are being reissued by Shepherd-Walwyn in the UK. Vyvyan makes a persuasive case that Shakespeare wrote from a deep understanding of and a concern for the human soul--how it can be pulled downward toward darkness and tragedy or raised up through love and forgiveness. This will open your eyes to a new appreciation of the plays.

[Nerd]

The best book on Shakespeare I've ever read, period.