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영어

The Bible was appreciated as a great work of literature and an artistic inspiration for Renaissance writers. Yet a controversy concerning the question of how Shakespeare himself regarded the Scriptures has not come to an agreement among scholars. Quite a few scholars read Shakespeare’s biblical references as didactic reinforcement of Christian doctrine. Shakespeare employs various biblical elements in his plays, yet he often deconsecrates them in terms of Renaissance humanism, turning upside-down Christian theology or the patriarchal pattern of the Bible in his tragedies. This paper explores how Shakespeare deconsecrates some biblical elements in King Lear, with focus on Act 4 scene 7. The so-called reconciliation scene demonstrates the subversion of the biblical story of ‘prodigal son’ into the story of prodigal father in which father asks for his daughter’s forgiveness. The play also deconstructs the biblical account of creation and order through differentiation and division in Genesis, and suggests Cordelia, a symbol of all-producing and all embracing “nothing,” as our new Savior whose commandment is “Love, and be silent.”