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1 results

  • 11 - Shakespeare’s King Lear and the Bible

  • Edited by Calum Carmichael, Cornell University, New York
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Literature
    Published online:
    13 March 2020
    Print publication:
    26 March 2020, pp 181-199

  • Summary

    One of the great Reformation debates during Shakespeare’s lifetime focused on the nature of “repentance” as represented in the Bible. The Biblical concept embraced the idea of a turn away from error and a return to righteousness (mostly as interpreted in later translations of the Hebrew Testament) and the idea of an interior change of mind or revision of one’s attitude toward patterns of behavior (mostly in the Christian Testament likewise as interpreted in later translations). Shakespeare dramatized these ideas in histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances throughout his career. This essay focuses on the dynamics of repentance in King Lear, where turning away and changes of mind engage with competing – but also sometimes complementing and mutually reinforcing – claims of ancient pagan Stoicism and Epicureanism in regard to fate, destiny, free will, and random change.