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, Volume Introduction by Harold Bloom . Incest, Shelley remarked, is the most poetical of circumstances. Patricide is a close second, and haunts Shakespearean tragedy. Anyone among the educated in Shakespeare’s audience would have known that Plutarch reported the gossip in Suetonius that Julius Caesar was the father of Marcus Brutus. Shakespeare loves to be elliptical and leaves out of the text of Julius Caesar that dark rumor, yet he implies it between the lines. Incest and patricide are the founding taboos of Oedipal tragedy. Why is Hamlet blocked from cutting down Claudius? Doubtless revenge tragedy is beneath the sublime consciousness of Hamlet, who disdains worn-out conventions. And yet taboo is also part of the plot, on a deeply repressed level. How far back does the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius go? Hamlet calls it adulterous and incestuous, and Shakespeare does not disclose the answer. Hamlet, in his darkest conjectures, well may wonder if he is not the phallic son of Claudius. Shakespeare’s Brutus and his Julius Caesar are portrayed as having much in common. Father and natural son alike are imperious, scorning common men and mundane aspirations. As dramatic characters, both are rather cold, and this is much the coldest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Its fire belongs to the taboo of patricide, the true action of the play. Hamlet, the most intelligent figure in all of literature, cannot be explained simply upon the basis of taboo, even that of father-murder. It may be that his transgressions, and his spiritual heroism, are larger. The wretched Claudius hardly is a fit agonist to contend with Hamlet. His spiritual struggles transcend Elsinore and seek to oppose the spirit of injustice in heavenly realms. And yet he is finally responsible for eight deaths, including his own, leaving the stage finally bare of all its speaking parts except for Horatio, Fortinbras and the fop Osric. xv
xvi Volume Introduction by Harold Bloom Freud’s weird study, Totem and Taboo, postulates a Primal History Scene in which the Totem Father is slain and devoured by his many sons, who are a horde of enemy brothers. The dead Father then becomes more revered than the living one had been. Transformed into an ancestor god, he becomes a religious icon. Freud repeated this pattern in his Moses and Monotheism, which outrageously says that the Hebrews killed Moses and then founded Judaism upon his martyrdom. Clearly Freud amalgamated the Totem Father, Moses, and Dr. Sigmund Freud, founder of the New Judaism of his own, supposed science. That is a perpetually challenging story of taboo and its discontents.
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Page 6 and 7: Bloom’s Literary Themes THE TABOO
Page 8 and 9: , Contents . Series Introduction by
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Page 13 and 14: xii Series Introduction by Harold B
Page 18 and 19: Confessions of an English Opium Eat
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Page 41 and 42: 24 Bram Stoker published perceive D
Page 43 and 44: 26 Bram Stoker Arthur placed the po
Page 45 and 46: 28 Bram Stoker Van Helsing to Lucy
Page 47 and 48: 30 Bram Stoker how spontaneous and
Page 49 and 50: 32 Bram Stoker they are avoiding se
Page 51 and 52: 34 Bram Stoker of castration to all
Page 53 and 54: 36 Bram Stoker 15. Richardson, p. 4
Page 55 and 56: 38 Allen Ginsberg exuberant tone, l
Page 57 and 58: 40 Allen Ginsberg Most people who c
Page 59 and 60: 42 Allen Ginsberg “negro streets
Page 61 and 62: 44 Allen Ginsberg Loafe with me on
Page 63 and 64: 46 Allen Ginsberg Following the cha
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48 Allen Ginsberg in music and lite
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JULIUS CAESAR (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE)
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Julius Caesar 53 suggest how his ex
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Julius Caesar 55 not, Cassius; yet
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Julius Caesar 57 Caesar: Thou, too,
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Julius Caesar 59 attach crucial imp
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Julius Caesar 61 called up in our m
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Julius Caesar 63 III Peter Gay note
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Julius Caesar 65 labour” (96). On
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Julius Caesar 67 effect suggestive
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Julius Caesar 69 “the phenomenon
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Julius Caesar 71 NOTES 1. In Moses
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Julius Caesar 73 17. I am suggestin
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Julius Caesar 75 Lacan, Jacques. É
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78 D.H. Lawrence In letters written
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80 D.H. Lawrence as the only means
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82 D.H. Lawrence what is left of th
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84 D.H. Lawrence Chapter XVI of Lad
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86 D.H. Lawrence the oppressive Sir
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88 D.H. Lawrence grew increasingly
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90 D.H. Lawrence Ford, Kermode, Cla
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92 Vladimir Nabokov upon subject ma
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94 Vladimir Nabokov and discrete wh
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96 Vladimir Nabokov imagination. Wh
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98 Vladimir Nabokov that the point
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100 William Golding show how an aut
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102 William Golding wavers between
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104 William Golding was the protect
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106 William Golding Already he has
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108 William Golding or intuition of
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110 William Golding Jack keeps his
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112 William Golding 3. Ibid. 4. Joh
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114 Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer himsel
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116 Geoffrey Chaucer is indeed a
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118 Geoffrey Chaucer [B&G 510]. The
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120 Geoffrey Chaucer fashionable dr
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122 Geoffrey Chaucer the three male
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124 Gwendolyn Brooks baby tears and
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126 Gwendolyn Brooks mother-eye”
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128 Gwendolyn Brooks corner “tave
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130 Gwendolyn Brooks of the aborted
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132 Gwendolyn Brooks Johnson, Barba
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134 Eugene O’Neill Sophocles’ O
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136 Eugene O’Neill are themselves
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138 Eugene O’Neill even extending
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140 Eugene O’Neill to provoke cha
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142 Eugene O’Neill to defeat the
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144 Sophocles the dialogue is a cop
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146 Sophocles in himself. “The sh
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148 Oscar Wilde breaking out it sho
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150 Oscar Wilde Dorian is described
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152 Oscar Wilde death: “So I have
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154 Oscar Wilde disillusionment, an
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156 Oscar Wilde WORKS CITED Behrend
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158 The Poetry and Prose of Sylvia
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166 William Faulkner on the grounds
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168 William Faulkner imprecation an
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170 William Faulkner life-long remi
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172 William Faulkner degree of accu
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174 William Faulkner an equally pha
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176 William Faulkner [It] abounded
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178 Philip Roth and possible death
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180 Philip Roth of one conversation
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182 Philip Roth physically. At one
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184 Philip Roth for many years, see
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186 Philip Roth many ways, the irri
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THE SATANIC VERSES (SALMAN RUSHDIE)
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The Satanic Verses 191 himself desc
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The Satanic Verses 193 a meditation
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The Satanic Verses 195 It is easy t
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The Satanic Verses 197 WORKS CITED
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200 The Poetry of Anne Sexton himse
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202 The Poetry of Anne Sexton proph
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204 The Poetry of Anne Sexton ANNE
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206 The Poetry of Anne Sexton home.
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208 The Poetry of Anne Sexton to be
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210 The Poetry of Anne Sexton The s
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212 The Poetry of Anne Sexton “ad
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214 The Poetry of Anne Sexton comin
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THE PROSE WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFT ,
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The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift 2
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228 Thomas Hardy ‘Woman is truly
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230 Thomas Hardy Appearing in 1895,
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232 Thomas Hardy all, ‘quite a Ma
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234 Thomas Hardy * * * Tess, then,
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236 Thomas Hardy Tess Durbeyfield g
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238 Thomas Hardy the ground, the mo
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240 Thomas Hardy not only intensity
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242 Thomas Hardy which the matrons
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244 Thomas Hardy the marriage consu
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246 Thomas Hardy translation of two
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248 Thomas Hardy true lovers of thi
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250 Thomas Hardy 24. Viola Klein, T
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252 James Joyce adores the Most Ble
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254 James Joyce character. However,
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256 James Joyce The idea that Irish
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258 James Joyce Gibbons, Luke. “
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260 Acknowledgments Wagner, Geoffre
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262 Index Beauvoir, Simone de, 227
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264 Index Evans, Robert C. on “Th
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266 Index Huizinga, Johan Homo Lude
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268 Index in “A Rose for Emily,
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270 Index patricide and Freud, xvi,
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272 Index Norman Cowan in, 179-180,
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274 Index Angel Clare in, 228-231,
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