THIS THING OF DARKNESS: SHAKESPEARE’S DUALISMS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

It was in Shakespeare’s age – now usually referred to as the early modern period pre cisely for this reason – that many of our own current cultural patterns were shaped, and Shake speare’s works certainly served as one conduit. A concept that has proved to be highly influential is the nearly invariably gendered and hierarchized spirit/matter dichotomy, which lies at the basis of Renaissance Neoplatonism. This paper will strive to identify the most pertinent facets of Shakespeare’s work that resonate well with the dualistic traditions extant in Renaissance Neo platonism, analyze their possible meanings within the contexts offered by these religious and philosophical systems, and hopefully discover their further implications for understanding both Shakespeare and certain aspects of so-called Western cultures, especially in terms of politics, gender, and sexuality. It is hoped that the paper will demonstrate that the Neoplatonic concept of matter and its spirit/matter dichotomy exerted a formative influence not only on Shakespeare and his age, but the ages that followed as well, our own included. This insight offers implications for further research not only in literary criticism, but also political and cultural studies.