Spirits Finely Touched

Armed with a fresh analysis of Shakespeares inherited resources for articulating anxieties rooted in philosophical doubt, Skulsky shows that in four playsHamlet, Measure for Measure, King Lear, and Othellothe drama of doubt in search of an exit gives its own kind of urgency to the more familiar Shakespearean drama of action and motive. From Skulskys study, the four plays emerge as insidiously telling exercises in challenging our working faith in the objectivity of moral choice and the possibility of knowing other minds. In particular, Skulsky notes that Shakespeare takes calculated risks with our personal interest in his heroes by assigning them disturbing convictions as well as contemptible actions. In one of the plays, such convictions end by looking just as threatening as they do at the outset. In the others, Shakespeare offers a special kind of affirmation and compassionan affirmation designed to stand against the worst of pessimism, and a compassion that makes room for the worst of the damned.