Dr. White discusses Charles Dickens’ great gift for characterization, which extended even to very minor characters. He gives specific examples of this from David Copperfield, including the based-on-life character of Miss Moucher. Next, Dr. White discusses some of the author’s literary devices, including his masterful foreshadowing and the device of having a double perspective from the narrator: David experiences things as a child, and the elder David who is narrating looks back on it as an adult, giving an adult’s perspective. Indeed, Dr. White points out, the novel is somewhat autobiographical, and Dickens in examining David Copperfield’s life examines his own. Useful or important passages of the novel are read and explained. Dr. White discusses the overwhelmingly female world that David is born to, giving him no male figure to look up to. This section ends with a look at the scene in which Copperfield discovers that his mother is going to be remarried to Mr. Murdstone.
In this introduction to Charles Dickens and David Copperfield, Dr. White discusses the beloved author’s great success early in life with his very first novel and how it came about from his job as a journalist. He speaks about Charles Dickens’ special preference for David Copperfield and his belief that it was Dickens’ very best novel, giving anecdotes of people in his life who were singularly touched by the novel and the realness of his characters. Dr. White describes the serial format in which Dickens’ novels appeared and how they affected his writing. Dr. White discusses Dickens’ influence on the great writers of the twentieth century, especially of the Russian school, and his amazing ability to write children and bring the reader into the child’s point of view – an ability that shows, in Dr. White’s opinion, that there was some part of the great author that must have never truly grown up. From here Dr. White segues into a discussion of the importance of fairytales in a child’s formation, for fairytales help children discover the moral order. He characterizes Dickens’ works as fairytales for adults.
The final act of the play takes place back in Sicily, where the story began. The anticipation of the reunion of the daughter to her father and the two kings does not happen on stage, but off stage. The reason is that it is impossible to have two climatic scenes at the same time. The second reunion will suffer. But this is not the highpoint of the play. In the chapel where the final scene takes place, is a beautiful, almost life like statue of a woman. It is Hermione, the presumed dead wife of King Leontes. She moves. She comes to life. She is resurrected. It is magical. This is the only time in all of Shakespeare’s works that he withholds information from the audience. We are stunned. And the purpose of this moment is to bring us as close to heaven as possible and the day when we will all be resurrected to life and reunited with those we love. Christ taught us what we need to know to attain salvation through stories, through parables. It is in our nature to listen and learn. We are created with this. Listen to the Master, trust and obey.
In this enlightening lecture, Dr. White comments on how the modern adaptations of The Merchant of Venice turn a beautiful comedy into a tragedy of Shylock, thus ruining the play’s comedic purpose and message. He sets about refuting this false view and showing the audience what Shylock’s real place in the play is, disclosing his true role as the villain or problem of the play, and how he comes to be in that position to begin with. He discusses the role of outsiders in Shakespeare’s great comedies in relation to Shylock, and refutes the charge of racism leveled against the playwright, pointing out among other things that there were hardly enough Jews in England in Shakespeare’s time for him to conceive a driving hatred of them. An exposition of Shylock’s intense hate of Antonio and all he stands for leads into a brilliant discussion of the problem of usury within the context of the play and the fundamental disorderedness of usury in general.
The most famous speech in the play, perhaps in all of English literature, appears in Act Three. The question is about suicide. Hamlet’s pattern of thought now brings him to this. In the first act when he speaks of suicide, he decides not, it is against God’s law. Now he considers the act. Now dealing with an abstract question. There is nothing that is good or bad but only thinking makes it so. There is no pattern to life, only fortune, whimsy, and change. Hamlet cannot act because he believes in nothing. Hamlet gives voice to the turmoil in Shakespeare’s own life. He himself was overwhelmed, full of doubt, was not sure what to believe. He was on the verge of loosing balance. This is the playwright working it out in art. When Hamlet rebukes Ophelia, he severs his last link with sanity. Shakespeare used virtuous women in his tragedies for the spiritual health of the men. Hamlet’s treatment of her is the mark of how far he has fallen. This act is the center of the play, where the climax takes place. For the fist half of the play, there is thought without action. Now there is action without thought.
In “The False Tragedy of Shylock” the modern view of Shylock as a tragic hero is skillfully refuted and Shylock’s character and fate examined. Dr. White explains the play’s themes of the Old Testament idea of justice vs. the Christian idea of mercy and tackles the difficult subjects of usury and anti-Semitism fairly and from a truly Catholic viewpoint. He shows that Shylock, while not a good character, is not a two-dimensional, stereotypical scoundrel, but a rounded, lifelike villain with emotions and affections. Dr. White shows how deep his hate for Antonio runs, how the basis of his conflict is the bare fact of his being an outsider, not specifically that he is a Jew, and how he brings his fate upon himself by his demand for justice.
