Navigating Shakespeare’s Moral Compass

Abstract

At a time when some feel that Western civilization is at a moment of crisis – and in which many are taking stock and looking for meaning – this chapter introduces a book which looks, as so many previous generations have looked, to the great literature of the past for some insight, and perhaps even for some guidance. Crucially responding to the call to update the methods and assumptions of literary analysis, this chapter builds on the author’s previous books, Shakespeare’s History Plays (2012) and Shakespeare and Cognition (2015) in seeking to move beyond historicism by adapting concepts taken from latest psychological research. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first outlines history Moral Foundations Theory (“MFT”), pioneered by Jonathan Haidt. The second refines the latest thought on literary character and cognition, before expanding on how it might be usefully employed in approaching the question of morality in Shakespeare’s plays.

Evangelical literary tradition and moral foundations theory

“…As Neema Parvini notes in his study of MFT and Shakespeare, “Fairness concerns itself with proportionality, not equality. It is a question of reciprocity – ‘just desserts’, what one deserves – rather than egalitarian distribution” (2017, 246). Thus, Glorious Appearing 's remaining Christian characters call Jesus's bloody vengeance “the greatest show on earth” (2004, 146) as “Nonbelievers are reduced to abject bodies onto which God's promises to the faithful are inscribed […] no longer humans, people deserving of compassion and empathy” (Chapman, 2013, 76).…”