Fraught Decisions in Plato and Shakespeare

Dianne Rothleder Lecturer Loyola University Chicago USA, "Fraught Decisions in Plato and Shakespeare "
English | ISBN: 1786616270 | 2020 | 274 pages | PDF | 2 MB
In the reincarnation myth in Book X of Plato's Republic, the unnamed first soul, who has lived a good life and has been rewarded in the afterlife, chooses a new life and fate, and chooses catastrophically badly. He finds himself fated to eat his own children. Despite being warned to blame only himself, he wails and blames anything and everything else in his conviction that his fate is undeserved. Though he should not be shocked because he has made this choice himself, he is incredulous because he has completely misunderstood the nature of his choice. Starting with Plato's myth, this book looks at the errors this soul has made and considers these errors through both the Republic and a series of paired Shakespeare plays.