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Essay about The invention of the Human

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The Invention of the Human

In his recent book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), Harold Bloom argues that Shakespeare’s characters provide the full measure of his continuing legacy. Shakespeare, Bloom maintains, created self-conscious characters who breathe life. Shakespeare’s characters are so alive, possess such "interiority," that they catch themselves looking at themselves. This quality is the essence of becoming human—to know we know, to be aware we are aware, to sense our own presence on the stage of life.

Prior to Shakespeare’s ascendancy on the English stage, Bloom argues, there was no concept of the individual self, just types. These types persist in Shakespeare’s plays as residual stock characters displaying …show more content…

Hamlet and Falstaff, larger than life, have altered life. Arguing that Shakespeare has "rejected the transcendentalist conception of reality," Bloom asserts that these two characters overreach the boundaries of their dramatic assignments and affect the consciousness of the larger culture (Bloom 5-6). This argument goes beyond the traditional notion of Shakespeare’s influence on language, literature, and life. Extending his life through his characters, Shakespeare continues to affect the way we perceive ourselves and others. Hamlet’s and Falstaff’s perceptions of reality are ours, though we may see through the glass more darkly.

Bloom’s ideas of character transcending dramatic form and Shakespeare "inventing us" can pose special problems for readers of the histories. Steeped in the study of Romantic poetry and criticism explored in his earlier books, from The Visionary Company (1961) through The Ringers in the Tower: Studies in Romantic Tradition (1971), Bloom has carried forward the Romantic idea of regarding the characters as the ultimate way to understand Shakespeare. Rather than treating the plays from a new historical perspective in which "Shakespeare" may be the convergence of historical and social forces, focused on a particular time and place, Bloom tells us that Shakespeare and his characters

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