LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

BAUE: REDEMPTIVE THEMES IN SHAKESPEARE 15
GOSPEL
Every preacher knows how difficult it is to say the same thing in fresh way
week after week, and make the work of Christ on the cross and in His
resurrection from the dead vivid and compelling.
Here the plays of Shakespeare can provide homiletical helps. There are
six plays, all comedies or romances (which were originally classified as
comedies) in which a “resurrection” is actually portrayed in the action on
stage. Here follows a plot synopsis of each of those plays, with emphasis on
the dead coming to life again. The Easter season is a “week of weeks”, that
is, seven Sundays in all. Suppose you preach the Gospel lesson on Easter
Sunday, you might consider working in one of the six “resurrection plays” of
Shakespeare on each of the following six Sundays of Easter.
1. Much Ado About Nothing
This play contains a double love story. The subplot, with its development of
a love affair between the verbally-sparring Benedick and Beatrice, often
attracts the most attention. The main plot, however, centres on Claudio and
Hero who are about to marry. The malcontent Don John hates Claudio, and
sets up a scene in which his servant makes love to Hero’s maid in the
window of Hero’s bedroom. Claudio observes this and is convinced that he
has seen Hero being unchaste. At the wedding, he humiliates her publicly.
The innocent, stricken woman collapses and “dies”. A friar advises Beatrice
to “publish it that she is dead indeed” (IV.i.204). Meanwhile the bumbling
sheriff Dogberry arrests Don John’s servant by chance, and the plot to
deceive Claudio about Hero’s supposed unchastity is uncovered. Claudio is
now penitent, and makes confession at Hero’s tomb. There, Hero’s father
makes Claudio promise to marry a cousin of Hero’s. The “cousin” is of
course Hero herself. At the wedding, she unmasks to the astonishment of all,
and says, “One Hero died defil’d but I do live” (V.iv.63).
How to apply this in a sermon? Consider this powerful ending, in which
Shakespeare combines Christian themes of resurrection and wedding. In
Scripture, the Resurrection of our Lord and the Wedding of the Lamb are
discrete events. In Much Ado, Shakespeare conflates climactic events from
the first and second advents of Christ.
2. Twelfth Night
Twins Viola and Sebastian are separated by a shipwreck. Each thinks the
other is dead. Viola, washed up on the coast of Illyria, grieves the death of
her brother. She disguises herself as a boy, “Cesario”, and enters the service
of Olivia. Olivia sends Viola/“Cesario” on an errand to Duke Orsino. Viola
falls madly in love with Orsino who is madly in love with Olivia who has