Through Shakespeare's Eyes: Seeing the Catholic Presence in the Plays

by Joseph Pearce

Fulfilling the promise he made in his previous book, The Quest for Shakespeare, bestselling literary writer Joseph Pearce analyzes in this volume three of Shakespeare's immortal plays — The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet and King Lear — in order to uncover the Bard's Catholic beliefs.


In The Quest for Shakespeare, which has been made into an EWTN television series, Pearce delved into the known biographical evidence for Shakespeare's Catholicism. Here the popular and provocative author digs into the plays, which were written and first performed during the English crown's persecution of Catholics. English history and literature were taught for generations through the prism of English Protestantism. Of late both of these fields have been dominated in universities and academic presses by modern scholars with filters and interpretations of their own. Though the evidence for Shakespeare's Catholicism has been studied before now, thanks, in part, to the unique contribution of Joseph Pearce, the Bard's genius is being analyzed in the open air of the public arena, the very place where Shakespeare intended his dramas to entertain and edify.

Genres: Catholic, Shakespeare, Nonfiction, History, Religion, Literary Criticism

225 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR

Joseph Pearce (born 1961) is an English-born writer, and as of 2004 Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of Catholic figures. Formerly aligned with the National Front, a white nationalist political party, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1989, repudiated his earlier views, and now writes from a Catholic perspective. He is a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.

Reviews

[Marco Moysén · Rating 4 out of 5]

Termino por entender que uno lee cualquier obra de Shakespeare casi ciego. Es necesario entender el contexto histórico y como se refleja en el metateatro y las alegorías católicas que acostumbraba usar para descubrir lo que se está leyendo. Me gustó.

[Justine Olawsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Pearce is always a lot of fun to read, because he is so passionate about his subjects and so colorful with his use of language (I don't mean "colorful" euphemistically; rather, he just writes so vividly and variedly that his words leap off the page).

I thoroughly enjoyed this follow up to The Quest for Shakespeare (which I'm currently about halfway through), wherein Pearce looks at all the evidence that not only the World's Greatest Glover™ John Shakespeare but his son William as well remained lifelong practicing Catholics in the face of constant and increasing persecution against the Faith in Elizabethan England. Through Shakespeare's Eyes, then, takes the premise laid out in the former book and explores three of Shakespeare's plays through the lens of a faithful Catholic playwright.

The three plays that Pearce chooses are "The Merchant of Venice," "Hamlet," and "King Lear." And herein is my only real quibble with the book: More than half of the content is devoted to tracing the threads of orthodox Christianity woven through "The Merchant of Venice" - a play for which I personally have little use. "Hamlet" is given far less space, and "King Lear" less space still. Personally I would have preferred to dig less deeply into far more plays; however, Joseph Pearce's authorial prerogative prevails, and I am grateful for the book and insights he provides.

I think anyone who appreciates the work of the Bard and/or the Catholic faith and/or the localized history of religious persecution in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries will find much to value and delight in in this book.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pretty much love everything Joseph Pearce writes. And I love pretty much everything Shakespeare wrote. So this was an awesome book.

[SiSApis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise explication of "The Merchant of Venice," "Hamlet," and "King Lear," unpacking the rich resonances of these plays when considered in the context of the hotbed of Catholic persecution that was Shakespeare's England. It also includes a good orienting introduction, an appendix with a whirlwind summary of his previous book, which made the case for Shakespeare's Catholicism, and a final chapter on why Protestants shouldn't "fear" this understanding of Shakespeare (well, duh! it's not as if he's suddenly a different person or his writings are changed one whit; he's the same brilliant English wordsmith we always knew and loved; we just know him a little better and get an extra layer of richness in our understanding of his brilliant works!).

It's funny, because years ago, when I wasn't even Christian let alone Catholic, but already had loved Shakespeare pretty much all my life (as of 3rd grade when I sneaked over to the "big kids side" of our school library and read "Midsummer"); having performed in and/or directed several of his plays but (being the good student of current trends in theatre) basically never having read anything whatsoever about Shakespeare himself, I was analyzing a play I was working on and had the odd thought, from several indications in that script, "Hey--Shakespeare must have been a Catholic." Knowing just a tad about the circumstances of the deadly hostility towards Catholics in his day, I thought about some of his other plays I knew intimately, and realized, "Wow, yup, he clearly was, and brilliantly skating the thin ice there!" Having never delved into literary criticism, I had no idea this was at all controversial; it seemed obvious, and interesting, but not terribly important at that time, since I'd been taught to take each play as a "world unto itself" and ignore anything else (I know, as if!). A little older and maybe just a TAD wiser, it's nice to take this little "Catholic's eye tour" through these three extremely well-known plays. The "Lear" and "Hamlet" thoughts were much along the lines of my previous "discoveries," although more detailed and fleshed out, but the "Merchant" exploration held some real surprises. It is unfortunate that I don't think this play could ever be done in such a way as to express what Shakespeare was really trying to say with it, in our current culture. Too bad, really, because it is really beautiful (and, in fact, viewing it this way actually "fixes" the problems that otherwise perennially plague modern productions of it).

I do hope Professor Pearce will give us some more of his pithy tours of the Catholic resonances in the other plays; they are well worth reading to enrich our performances and productions. In particular, he teases us in this book with several mentions of "The Tempest"--having directed and performed in more than one production of this play, I would be extremely interested in Pearce's "Catholic lens view" of it.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this book had aimed to be an examination of Christianity in Shakespeare's plays, it would be excellent, deserving at least another two stars. However, what it purports to be is something else -- a literary argument for Shakespeare's crypto-Catholicism, and this it utterly fails to be. (Judging a book charitably sometimes means judging it by what it aims to be, rather than what it could be!) Though the author pillories postmodern lit crit, he is himself a master of it, going through the same process of free association to get the Shakespeare he desires out of the plays. The author's complete lack of familiarity with Anglican theology completely disqualifies him from drawing meaningful distinctions between the theology of the contemporaneous established church and sincere Roman Catholicism. At times this leads him to totally miss the point of a play (such as with the Merchant of Venice, where he misses that the entire point of the play is to be a parable of forensic justification, a thoroughly Protestant idea!), at other times to make laughable arguments (when one of Shakespeare's characters warns that the devil quotes scripture to his own end, the author calls it a critique of sola scriptura, even though the misuse of scripture is a theme of countless Protestant sermons and treatises!); elsewhere, Hamlet's insistence that his friends swear on the sword is allegedly a clear rejection of salvation sola fide! It is hard to conceive of someone applying a more wooden and ignorant understanding of Protestantism to this question.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author of this book is quite knowledgeable regarding Shakespeare, but he tortures his argument to portray Shakespeare as a crypto-Catholic. I do not care one way or the other about Shakespeare being Catholic (or agnostic, or ...), and would have gladly read the author's assertions, had he kept them consistent.

The book opens with a discussion of The Merchant of Venice. The author indicates that it is likely that Shakespeare had recently witnessed the hanging and quartering of Roderigo Lopez, a Jew. He discusses Shylock's hatred of Christianity as villainy, then moves on to indicate that the real issue of the enmity between Shylock and Antonio is that of usury as a business practice, which was considered vile. Having initiated this argument, he then shifts to discuss Shylock as a masked portrayal of Puritanism in contrast to Antonio's Jesuit-ness. Eventually the argument moves back to usury. In the next chapter, the author indicates that the Muslim character in the play also represents Puritanism as well. The argument shifts perspective so much that it is terribly hard to follow.

Overall, the book feels quite glib, going wherever the author feels he needs to go, even if the current direction of the argument disagrees with prior assertions. This book feels like an attempt to force Shakespeare into a form that is dictated by the author's belief-system, rather than an attempt to explore or highlight features of Shakespeare's work.

[Marcos Junior · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um dos melhores livros de crítica literária que já li. Realmente, muda a perspectiva e não tem como ler Shakespeare da mesma forma depois deste livro. A quantidade de evidências nos próprios escritos do bardo são provas convincentes que não só ele era católico, como suas obras são melhor compreendidas com a chave católica.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book from Joseph Pearce on the bard. The argument of his Catholicity remains strong. The chapters on Hamlet resonate well for me as it is my preferred play. I expect to use this edition I own for further reference and possibly read again.

[Amanda Witt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful way of examining the coded messages, only King Lear, Hamlet and Merchant of Venice are looked at in this book.
Requires the background/history understanding of the religious environment of Shakespeare's time

[Cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful look at The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and King Lear, from the perspective of seeing Shakespeare as a Catholic. Pearce's Roman orthodoxy is occasionally obnoxious, but mostly this book really helped make sense of these plays. I plan to read Pearce's other book (about Shakespeare's life) and his others on different Catholic authors; he seems to have made a career, both as a writer and as a college professor, out of reinterpreting authors with a Catholic slant. I wish this perspective had been more widely available when I took my required Shakespeare class in college (1997-2000), as it would have added a great deal to that experience. It is a rather quiet revolution of views on the Bard and his work.

We were fortunate to see the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of Hamlet the month after I read this book, and I do believe I got more out of it than I would have if I hadn't read it.

[A G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Pearce instead of stumbling and walking ahead like those who refuse to see, has found the truth about Shakespeare's beliefs, faith, convictions, and his soul and philosophy. He finds strong evidence and testimonies of the few close friends who endured the tortures and persevered with fortitude till the end bearing witness to what 'is' recognizing what 'seems'. Shakespeare's plays shine bright in a naughty world. He holds up the mirror to the world, he helps us to look within : our conscience, the soul, the passions, the battle between vice and virtue and existential questions which no man can ignore. Shakespeare was a believer, a believing catholic. Joseph Pearce has delved into the catholic psyche of the Bard. It is so obvious to those who do not want to look the other way.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize it would be focusing so much on only a few plays. I thought there would be an overview of all of them really. It was hard because I'd never read Merchant of Venice before and he focused a lot on that play right off the bat. But, it was an enlightening book and easy to understand even though I don't have much knowledge about Shakespeare's life and have not read all of his plays.

[Cristina Montes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still need to be convinced of the book's premise that Shakespeare was a closet Catholic. I don't have any problems, though, there being Catholic themes in Shakespeare's plays whether he was Catholic or not (because after all, Catholic stuff were part of almost everyone's stock knowledge at the time Shakespeare wrote). I like the book's discussion of Hamlet best.