Drake eScholarShare
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   DSpace Home
    • Drake Theses and Dissertations
    • Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   DSpace Home
    • Drake Theses and Dissertations
    • Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Alchemy In Selected Plays Of Shakespeare

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    DD1977LLC.pdf (8.0 Mb)

    Date
    1977-01
    Author
    Carney, Linda L.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Subject
     Alchemy in literature; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--King Lear; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Hamlet; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Julius Caesar; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Macbeth 
    Abstract
    Alchemy, as a philosophical system incorporating elements of religion, psychology, and myth, provided a rich matrix of imagery and associations. The mean of certain allusions and processes in Shakespeare's plays are clarified and extended by reference to alchemical concepts. Research includes examination of primary alchemical texts, a survey of historical and critical comment on alchemy, exploration of alchemical metaphors in selected plays of Shakespeare, and an intensive examination of Hamlet. Citations from alchemical texts are compared to specific passages in Shakespeare's works, not as sources, but as explanatory analoques. Historical evidence indicates that alchemy was more eclectic, more pervasive, and more influential than previously judged. In both its exoteric and esoteric aspects, it held a significant place in the developing thought patterns of mankind. The material of esoteric alchemy was man himself. The alchemists assumed a world which operated as chemical process, a Nature which tended toward perfection but might be diverted, and a method through which man could participate in the restoration and rejuvenation of himself and his world. Alchemical references are implied in the metaphorical use of blood as tincture in Julius Caesar and Macbeth. Cordelia is related to the Paracelsian idea of balm in King Lear. Alchemical imagery associated with the processes of tincturing, surfeiting, healing, and magic is found in other selected references. Hamlet participates in a process of restoration which includes both his destruction and his fulfillment. His actions are linked to the passage of time and a movement through various stages which may be compared to the steps of the alchemical process: dissolution, separation, putrefaction, fixation, and projection. His world, like the world of the alchemists' is full of the potentialities of taint or tincture. Alchemy is examined as an essentially dramatic and poetic complex of ideas suggesting the possibilities of transformation.
    Description
    141 leaves. Advisor: Grace Eckley
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/2092/843
    Collections
    • Dissertations

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Ripening stories : Ripeness is all; the rest is silence -- Shakespeare 

      Wheeler, Norman R. (Drake University, 1977-11)
      This is a collection of short and longer stories entitled Ripening Stories dealing with rural and small town settings in Michigan, and a year which I spent in Europe. The Michigan stories concern my experience working ...
    • Thumbnail

      Teaching Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to High School Sophomores 

      Collier, James Morrison (Drake University, 1970-01)
    • Thumbnail

      Re-imagining Shakespeare - Hamlet (program 1) 

      Culver, April; Haupert, Matt; Tourville, Luke; Foley, Kate; Isacksen, Benn (2011-07-19)
      William Shakespeare was no stranger to collaboration. More than a few of his plays were co-authored with fellow dramatists or adapted by others in the process of publication, while performances of his works have always ...

    Browse

    All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Login
    DSpace software Copyright © 2014  Duraspace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback