Shakespeare Against War

[headline]Throughout his career Shakespeare, although steeped in expert knowledge of military matters, weighted his plays towards a desire for peace Whilst Shakespearean drama provides eloquent calls to war, more often than not these are undercut or outweighed by compelling appeals to peaceful alternatives conveyed through narrative structure, dramatic context and poetic utterance. Placing Shakespeare's works in the history of pacifist thought, Robert White argues that Shakespeare's plays consistently challenge appeals to heroism and revenge and reveal the brutal futility of war. White also examines Shakespeare's interest in the mental states of military officers when their ingrained training is tested in love relationships. In imagery and themes, war infiltrates love, with problematical consequences, reflected in Shakespeare's comedies, histories and tragedies alike. Challenging a critical orthodoxy that military engagement in war is an inevitable and necessary condition, White draws analogies with the experience of modern warfare, showing the continuing relevance of Shakespeare's plays which deal with basic issues of war and peace that are still evident. [bio]Robert White FAHA is Emeritus Winthrop Professor of English at the University of Western Australia. His publications are mainly in the field of early modern literature, especially Shakespeare, and also Romantic literature. Monographs include Keats's Anatomy of Melancholy (Edinburgh University Press 2020); John Keats: A Literary Life (2010; 2012); Pacifism in English Literature: Minstrels of Peace (2008); Natural Rights and the Birth of Romanticism in the 1790s (2005); and Natural Law in English Renaissance Literature (1996). Other works include Avant-Garde Hamlet (2015); Shakespeare's Cinema of Love (2016); Ambivalent Macbeth (2018); and A Midsummer Night's Dream: Language and Writing (2020).