‘The Time Is Out of Joint’: Metaphysical and Cultural Entanglement in Hamlet and The Spanish Tragedy

Abstract

“‘The Time is Out of Joint’: Metaphysical and Cultural Entanglement in Hamlet and The Spanish Tragedy” explores clashing cultural and religious identities through the use of ghosts and the afterlife in William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd's hallmarks of the revenge tragedy genre. The essay examines the collision of worlds as temporal and doctrinal boundaries are blurred to explore the cultural disorientation at the time the plays were published. Through the framework of New Historicism, the tension between old and new worlds--Classical and Elizabethan in The Spanish Tragedy, and Protestant and Catholic in Hamlet--is explored through the use of ghosts, anachronistic worldviews, and theological disparities. The essay seeks to dissect how each author depicted the conflicting eschatologies of the early modern period through their plays, signaling a cultural clash through the intrusion of ghosts and violation of boundaries. Overall, it examines how the supernatural is employed to replicate the unique cultural landscape and explore theological incongruities in the theatrical space.