#  "Shakespeare Against Philosophy" in Shakespeare 

 





July 07, 2017

 

 

 The essay ["To be, or not to be": Shakespeare Against Philosophy](/%20http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450918.2017.1343376) was published in the Routledge journal Shakespeare:

 This essay hazards a new reading of the most famous passage in Western literature: “To be, or not to be” from William Shakespeare’s *Hamlet*. With this line, Hamlet poses his personal struggle, a question of life and death, as a metaphysical problem, as a question of existence and nothingness. However, “To be, or not to be” is not what it seems to be. It seems to be a representation of tragic angst, yet a consideration of the context of the speech reveals that “To be, or not to be” is actually a satire of philosophy and Shakespeare’s representation of the theatricality of everyday life. In this essay, a close reading of the context and meaning of this passage leads into an attempt to formulate a Shakespearean image of philosophy.



 

 

 



 

 

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