Book contents
- Shakespeare and Emotion
- Shakespeare and Emotion
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Text
- Introduction
- Part I Contexts
- Part II Emotions
- Chapter 13 Fear
- Chapter 14 Grief
- Chapter 15 Sympathy
- Chapter 16 Shame
- Chapter 17 Anger
- Chapter 18 Pride
- Chapter 19 Happiness
- Chapter 20 Love
- Chapter 21 Nostalgia
- Chapter 22 Wonder
- Chapter 23 Confusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 23 - Confusion
Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale
from Part II - Emotions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2020
- Shakespeare and Emotion
- Shakespeare and Emotion
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Text
- Introduction
- Part I Contexts
- Part II Emotions
- Chapter 13 Fear
- Chapter 14 Grief
- Chapter 15 Sympathy
- Chapter 16 Shame
- Chapter 17 Anger
- Chapter 18 Pride
- Chapter 19 Happiness
- Chapter 20 Love
- Chapter 21 Nostalgia
- Chapter 22 Wonder
- Chapter 23 Confusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
What is confusion? And what does confusion have to do with emotion? This chapter argues that Shakespeare’s depictions of confusion elucidate the care with which he ties affective states and bodily conditions together with rational and intellectual processes. Confusion is a state that grips Shakespeare’s characters in their entirety. Deeper still, Shakespeare’s representations of confusion reveal one of the baseline assumptions in his understanding of human emotional life: no affect, passion, or emotion can ever appear on its own, in isolation. In Shakespeare’s view, feeling always involves mixture and mingling – that is, some degree of confusion. Tracing the contours of a philosophical tradition that illuminates the limitations and affordances of confusion, this chapter explores Shakespeare’s depiction of confusion in such plays as Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and Winter’s Tale, but focuses on Cymbeline, a play in which the lived, felt state of confusion takes centre stage.
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- Information
- Shakespeare and Emotion , pp. 330 - 343Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020