What is it about?
Philosopher Hannah Arendt and poet W. H. Auden enjoyed a friendship over several decades that began with an exchange, both private and public, about the nature of forgiveness. This essay uses their conversation to consider the role of forgiveness in Shakespeare's play "The Winter's Tale," which has been the subject of many philosophical and theological readings.
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Why is it important?
Shakspeare's play about forgiveness has much to teach us about the difficulty of forgiving others and situations in which forgiveness may not be appropriate or may require additional time.
Perspectives
I have been reading and engaging with Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale for three decades. I continue to find it the most beautiful, mysterious, and complex of Shakespeare's works. Along with "King Lear," it is my favorite play by Shakespeare. I have also been reading Hannah Arendt for two decades and keep returning to her work on plurality, forgiveness, drama, and storytelling as key aspects of politics. Writing this essay was a chance to think in a new way about Arendt and Shakespeare. It was also very exciting to delve into W. H. Auden' s lectures and poetry about Shakespeare.
Julia Lupton
University of California Irvine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Judging Forgiveness: Hannah Arendt, W. H. Auden, and The Winter’s Tale, New Literary History, January 2014, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/nlh.2014.0041.
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