Shakespeare's Mirrors

Introduction: Shakespeare's Mirror Metaphors

Prologue: "The Mirror of All Martial Men," (Living up to Stereotypes)

Mirrors in the Cultural and Historical Context of Sixteenth Century England

Henry VI, Part One

1. "Amorous Looking-Glass:" The Self-Infatuation of the Regal Perfomer in the Early Histories

Richard III and Henry VI, Parts Two and Three

Richard II

2. "Dissembling Glass of Mine:" Female Self-Evaluation within the Patriarchal Genre of Courtship Comedy

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Comedy of Errors

The Taming of the Shrew

Love's Labour's Lost

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Merchant of Venice

As You Like It

3. "The Mirror of All Christian Kings:" Increasing Tension between Classical Action and Christian Passivity

Henry IV, Part Two

Henry V

Julius Caesar

4. "The Mirror up to Nature:" Hamlet's Metaphysical Redirection of the Purpose of Playing Hamlet

Metatheatre Subverting the Classical Tradition

Shakespeare's Rivalry with Ben Jonson

Hamlet's Pauline Education at Wittenberg

The Gravedigger Scene as Christian Exegesis

Venetian Mirrors and the Representation of the Self in the Context of the Revolutionary Social and Scientific Environment of the Sixteenth Century

5. "Glassy Essence:" The Fraudulent Hypocrisy of Impious Authority

Troilus and Cressida

Measure for Measure

Timon of Athens

6. "Spacious Mirror:" The Epic Futility of Political Activity in a World Without Redemption King Lear

Macbeth

Antony and Cleopatra

Coriolanus

7. "My Glass, Mine Own:" Human Play and Identity Reconciled Through Performative Faith Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Cymbeline

The Winter's Tale

The Tempest

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Henry VIII

Epilogue: "Through A Glass, Darkly"

Bibliography