Handy, Michael_MENG_2009

Title Handy, Michael_MENG_2009
Alternative Title THE CONTEXT OF COPERNICAN ASTRONOMY WITHIN SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS: THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE EARLY MODERN AUDIENCE
Creator Handy, Michael
Collection Name Master of English
Description Criticism of Shakespeare's cosmology has largely focused on the narrative importance of astrology within the plays. Those few scholars who investigate the evidence of the Copernican astronomy in Shakespeare's plays often attempt to portray the playwright as a Copernican disciple, but analysis of Shakespeare's work as a dramatist gives a more plausible explanation for the undercurrents of Copernican astronomy that appear in his plays. Shakespeare's work reflects the understanding and tastes of his audience. The evidence of the new astronomy in Shakespeare's plays implies that the theory was beginning to take root in the British cultural consciousness; thus the new astronomy shows that continental thinking directly influenced Shakespeare. Coriolanus moves through the play of his name in a physical and emotional pattern that mimics the eccentric orbit of Mars, which Johannes Kepler finally resolved by proposing the elliptical orbit. Ulysses famous Degree Speech in the third scene of Troilus and Cressida allows two different Copernican interpretations. The language in the speech focuses on the sun, which implies a heliocentric cosmos. However, critics generally read the speech to espouse Ptolemaic principles, but the play's ironic structure inverts that very order to further displace the Ptolemaic system and replace it with the Copernican. The centrality of the sun forms the basis of Copernican astronomy. Shakespeare relates the sun to kingship in the histories with the symbol of the Sun-King. The Great Chain of Being requires that the king remain atop the human hierarchy, signaling the sun's lordship atop the cosmic hierarchy as Copernicus proposed. The astronomical passages in Shakespeare's plays prove that Shakespeare's audience understood the tenets of Copernican theory, and therefore that the new astronomy became ingrained in early modern thinking over a hundred years before the scientific establishment endorsed the theory.
Subject Literature; English literature--Research; Playwriting; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616; Theater
Keywords British literature; English literature; Copernican astronomy; Chain of being (philosophy)
Digital Publisher Stewart Library, Weber State University
Date 2009
Language eng
Rights The author has granted Weber State University Archives a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce their theses, in whole or in part, in electronic or paper form and to make it available to the general public at no charge. The author retains all other rights.
Source University Archives Electronic Records; Master of Arts in English. Stewart Library, Weber State University
OCR Text Show
Format application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6dk4g76
Setname wsu_smt
ID 96759
Reference URL https://digital.weber.edu/ark:/87278/s6dk4g76