Shakespeare’s Use of War and Peace
Jorgensen, Paul A. 1953. Huntington Library Quarterly 16, no. 4: 319–52.
This article asserts that Shakespeare should be investigated as a treatise on how Renaissance England visualized war and peace, suggesting that readers’ focus should fall on Shakespeare’s entire body of work as opposed to isolated texts. The text’s main argument follows that war in Shakespearean plays should not just be valued for its entertainment just as peace should not be viewed simply as a “reasoned, calm, and internal” constant in the absence of conflict. Instead, the nuances that inform both should be explored in order to truly appreciate the social tension Shakespearean works seek to capture.