Shakespeare's Philosophy: Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays (Paperback)

by Colin Mcginn (Author)
Key Phrases: Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, King Lear (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Shakespeare's famous phrase "All the world's a stage/ And all the men and women merely players" reflects a common sense of the self shared by many philosophers. So begins McGinn's project of tracing Shakespeare's philosophy through six of his great plays, while arguing that the great English bard can be fairly regarded as a philosopher. Without seeming at all dusty, the book examines Shakespeare in relation to Hume, Wittgenstein and such major philosophical questions as nothingness, language, causation and the nature of knowledge. McGinn makes a credible case that the essays of Montaigne as well as skepticism and naturalism had a clear influence on Shakespeare's writings, bringing unexpected freshness to topics that are well-worn in high school curriculums. Most interesting is McGinn's earnest delight in rediscovering Shakespeare's characters, such as the tragic Cordelia and the indecisive Hamlet. McGinn's gift, aside from his clear and beautiful prose, is in recognizing Shakespeare's genius in creating true and recognizable people, who ring as true to modern audiences as they did to his contemporaries. "He told us how the world looks from the perspective of itself. And the world never looked the same again." This conclusion implies that just as Shakespeare the playwright still moves his audiences, so, too, can Shakespeare the philosopher. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Shakespeare's plays are usually studied by literary scholars and historians and the books about him from those perspectives are legion. It is most unusual for a trained philosopher to give us his insight, as Colin McGinn does here, into six of Shakespeare's greatest plays––A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest.

In his brilliant commentary, McGinn explores Shakespeare's philosophy of life and illustrates how he was influenced, for example, by the essays of Montaigne that were translated into English while Shakespeare was writing. In addition to chapters on the great plays, there are also essays on Shakespeare and gender and his plays from the aspects of psychology, ethics, and tragedy.

As McGinn says about Shakespeare, "There is not a sentimental bone in his body. He has the curiosity of a scientist, the judgement of a philosopher, and the soul of a poet." McGinn relates the ideas in the plays to the later philosophers such as David Hume and the modern commentaries of critics such as Harold Bloom. The book is an exhilarating reading experience, especially at a time when a new audience has opened up for the greatest writer in English.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (November 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060856165
• ISBN-13: 978-0060856168
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #300,033 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Why Do You Dress Me In Borrowed Robes?", January 7, 2007

By	Stanley H. Nemeth (Garden Grove, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shakespeare's Philosophy: Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays (Hardcover)

Though occasionally insightful in its readings of specific passages, McGinn's book suffers from a questionable approach, the effort to discover the meaning behind Shakespeare's plays by dressing the author in borrowed clothes, the too tight doublet and hose of the smaller Montaigne or the completely inappropriate straightjackets of Hume or Wittgenstein. Thus, for McGinn, Shakespeare emerges as a sort of skeptical naturalist, a thesis difficult to maintain if one considers the plays in their entirety, neither neglecting nor distorting passages that undermine such a narrow view.
Consider as a signal example McGinn's reading of Hamlet's refusal to kill Claudius at prayers. McGinn comments that Hamlet is worried "Claudius will go to heaven if killed now, instead of to the hell he deserves. This has seemed to everyone like a rationalization rather than a genuine reason...." Not so fast! Such eminent commentators as Maynard Mack and C.S.Lewis have taken Hamlet at his word and seen this decision as the very climax of the play. Hamlet was charged with killing the king, not with damning his soul. In such arrogant God-playing, the Prince ironically misses the perfect opportunity, as we - though not he - learn, for Claudius tells us in his closing couplet that he has not, in fact, been able to pray. If McGinn had applied to this event his shrewd insights about the opacity that is man's lot instead of his contemporary secular bias, he would have come up with a reading more respectful to the details of the Shakespearean text.
A similar "updated" vision coupled with inattention to textual detail can be found in McGinn's treatment of Cordelia. When she says, "No cause," most commentators do not think, like McGinn, that she's giving voice to a Hume-like theory of randomness. Critics more at home with older culture recognize that she indeed has no cause, but only an excuse for a cause should she treat her repentant father with disdain. Equally problematic is McGinn's judgment of Cordelia in the play's opening scene. Even though he concedes her "manifest integrity," he finds her not "entirely blameless." She should have, like any consumer of current self-help books, walked on eggshells, avoided offending her proud father, and thus averted tragedy. Despite McGinn's concession, he is here to a certain extent blaming the victim, something the play refuses to do. A glance at Kent's remarks in this scene about the need to speak truth to power when "majesty falls to folly" or the play's closing admonition to "speak what we feel, not what we ought to say" strikes me as fatal to McGinn's view.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Narrow But Insightful, June 12, 2007

By	Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shakespeare's Philosophy: Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays (Hardcover)

It's doubtful that anyone who has an enduring interest in Shakespeare and his plays would doubt that the Bard was of a philosophical bent. Certainly, one of the reasons Shakespeare has endured is that his characters speak deeply to the heart of what it means to be human. So, having the observations of an experienced philosopher on Shakespeare's work is quite appealing. Fortunately, Mr. McGinn doesn't disappoint.

In fact, the book is much like one would expect from a serious philosopher. He opens with a chapter on the themes he is going to pursue, outlining his ideas and defining his terms. He follows with chapters on six major plays (Midsummer, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Lear and The Tempest). Then, he offers four chapters on general topics such as gender and ethics. Finally, he wraps things up with an examination of Shakespeare's genius.

Overall, McGinn's analysis of the plays is quite insightful. The first few pages of his chapter on Hamlet made me think about the opening scene of the play (Bernardo & Francisco on the ramparts) in a new way. He has a powerful ability to take a single philosophical idea and dig deeply into a play. This can open up important new avenues of thought.

Still, feeling the weight of McGinn's intelligence in his writing, a reader does have to be careful in thinking that he has cut down to the heart of the plays. Though enlightening, in some ways, McGinn's views are narrow because he has a particular purpose that reflect his own interests. For example, McGinn sees Montaigne's influence on Shakespeare very clearly and there can be no doubt Shakespeare read Montaigne and this impacted his work; however, McGinn's highlighting of Montaigne cannot help but put other influences into shadow.

It is also true that to be completely convinced by the philosophical assertions McGinn has made it would be necessary to see how his work in useful in understanding the other thirty or so plays. He only talks about six in detail, remember, which leaves an awful lot of ground unplowed. It would be interesting to see McGinn's take on the rest of the canon.

To a reader with some background in Shakespeare, McGinn's work is a valuable addition to the scholarship surrounding the Bard. And, despite its philosophical topics, you don't have to be a professional to read, enjoy and understand this book. It is definitely worth reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Was there a Question?, September 30, 2007

By	T. McLaughlin "Interpretive delirium" (Chatham, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shakespeare's Philosophy: Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays (Hardcover)

I recommend this book, it contains many interesting insights. However, I think a more apt subtitle would have been: "Some Meaningful Discoveries" and a more apt title would have been "Philosophic Questions Raised in Some of Shakespeare's Better Known Plays". Within these boundaries, it's quite good. Of course, it doesn't add anything to Shakespeare, or not very much. And I'm not sure that comparisons to lesser lights like Hume, Wittgenstein, Freud and even Montaigne are very illuminating. When you recall your state at the end of a good production of King Lear or Hamlet, it's hard to think what needs to be added, except maybe explanations of archaic expressions, and that's pretty minor. With Shakespeare, all we ordinary mortals can do is to point out interesting things about the landscape and method, as Helen Vendler did in her wonderful book on the sonnets. Still, I think if you love Shakespeare, you'll like this book. It reminds you of those troubling questions and revelations your first experience of Shakespeare's plays evoked. The cultural world of our collective imagination is not going to be re-defined by Professor MeGinn's book. If this was all you had of Shakespeare, it wouldn't be much, but as an amplification of the experience you've already had, it's not bad.

Some of his most insightful observations had nothing to do with the study of philosophy, for example, the uniqueness and authenticity of each major character. This would make an excellent topic for a book: how real these men and women are. Very few characters in literature have a life of their own the way Hamlet, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Othello and many others do. They are like historical figures, as definable and at the same time as mysterious as Lincoln or Charles II or Napoleon or Josephine are. I thought this was a very good observation.