Renaissance Quarterly
Garrison, John S. Shakespeare & the Afterlife. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2018
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Full Title:
Garrison, John S. Shakespeare & the Afterlife. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2018
Article Type:
Book Review
Corresponding Author:
Sharon Emmerichs, Ph.D.
University of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska UNITED STATES
Corresponding Author's Institution:
University of Alaska Anchorage
First Author:
Sharon Emmerichs, Ph.D.
Order of Authors:
Sharon Emmerichs, Ph.D.
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Book Review
Garrison, John S. Shakespeare & the Afterlife. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2018.
Garrison’s Shakespeare & the Afterlife is a recent addition to the Oxford Shakespeare
Topics series and explores the many figurations and representations of the dead and the afterlife
in Shakespeare’s plays. In his introduction, Garrison informs us that “this book will reveal that
we find the subject [of Heaven and Hell] across both the plays and the poems” and his aim is to
show that notions of the afterlife were “very much on the minds of Shakespeare’s characters and
poetic speakers” (3). Garrison examines attitudes and ideas about death and the afterlife and how
they connect with early modern culture and Shakespeare’s plays.
The book consists of a preface, a list of illustrations, notes, an introduction, five chapters,
endnotes, suggestions for further reading, and an index. Much of the information Garrison offers
comes from already well-traveled territory—questions about purgatory in Hamlet have been
thoroughly covered in other texts, for example, and there are quite a few books and articles about
Shakespearean resurrections that do not make an appearance in the index. However, Garrison
does break new ground in some very innovative ways. His discussions of the Porter from
Macbeth as a key signifier for the play as a “cautionary tale” (24) and of Shakespeare’s
“reputation-as-afterlife” conceit resulting in negative outcomes are fascinating. I also appreciated
those moments when Garrison discusses how Shakespeare’s portrayals of death and the afterlife
both adhere to and break from common early modern beliefs, as in his analyses of Henry V and
Antony and Cleopatra. I particularly enjoyed the section entitled “Classical Underworlds” in
which he examines visions of the afterlife in Shakespeare’s plays that do not adhere to traditional
Christian theology. These discussions worked well to further Garrison’s wish to allow the reader
to “explore diverse representations within a single work or to look for connections across works”
(12).
One of the great strengths of this book is its examination of a broad spectrum of
Shakespeare’s plays and poetry. Garrison offers a multitude of examples from the tragedies,
comedies, histories and poems, demonstrating that Shakespeare’s use of the afterlife creates a
recognizable pattern across time and texts. That said, and despite Garrison’s rather sheepish
claim that any discussion of the afterlife in Shakespeare “inevitably returns us to Hamlet” (77), I
would have preferred less emphasis on the Danish Prince’s play. That field is well sowed and I
felt Garrison’s attention to the less well-studied plays offered more groundbreaking claims and
analysis. I recognize that it is difficult to resist the temptation—how can we discuss the subject
of the afterlife and not talk about Hamlet?—but Shakespeare gives us enough references in other
plays and poems to fill a complete book. I was so engaged in the discussions about Richard III
and Julius Caesar, Othello and The Tempest that I felt the book slowed whenever it turned back
to Hamlet.
The illustrations bring added interest to the text. I enjoyed the pictures from movies, stage
productions, contemporary texts and Renaissance art that accompany the chapters.
Unfortunately, these representations are printed in black-and-white ink at a low resolution, so it
is difficult to see much detail, but I appreciated the visual additions. The captions also are
informative and, at times, humorous (I especially enjoyed the caption, “An unruly Hamlet no
longer reflects his father’s desire to leave Gertrude out of the whole affair” under the photograph
of David Tennant on stage as Hamlet) (81).
The book offers no conclusion, and I would have liked a comprehensive “big picture”
look at the significance of the claims Garrison makes in Shakespeare & the Afterlife. However, it
does provide a “Further Reading” section, which I found useful. This section of the book does
the work of a literature review and a guide to tangential discussions. Ultimately, the book as a
whole lives up to the promise printed on its back cover to “encourage us to engage with the
author’s work with new insight and new curiosity” and I came away with a new appreciation of
how Shakespeare navigated the troubled waters of religious doctrine and cultural ideology in the
early modern period regarding death and the afterlife.
Sharon Emmerichs, University of Alaska Anchorage