Shakespeares Mirrors

Clear mirrors and The Geneva Bible, revolutionary innovations of the Elizabethan age, inspired Shakespeares drive towards a new purpose for drama. Shakespeare reversed the conventional mirror metaphor for drama, implying drama cannot reflect the substance of human nature, and developed a method of characterization, through metadrama, self-awareness and soliloquy, to project St. Pauls idea of conscience onto the Elizabethan stage. This revolutionary method of characterization, aesthetic existence beyond performance, has long been sensed but remains frustratingly uncategorized. Shakespeares Mirrors charts the invention of a drama that staged the unstageable: St. Pauls metaphysical conception of human nature glimpsed through a looking glass darkly.