This last part of Dr. White’s conference on David Copperfield opens with a discussion of an episode at David’s school which emphasizes the importance of boys’ early friendships and how David chooses a bad model in Steerforth, who defies his teacher and leads the boys in rebellion. The other possible friend for David, Traddles, is presented by Dr. White as an important character by reason of his normality and decency. Dickens’ talent for foreshadowing is again touched upon, then Dr. White explains the duality running through the novel: David very often much choose between two people, and he always seems to choose the wrong one. Dr. White presents Uriah Heep as David’s “dark side,” and shows the influence of Scripture on Dickens. He treats of the meaning of marriage as illustrated by David’s rather foolish first marriage, and presents a central theme of the novel springing from this and other situations throughout the book: that one’s emotions must be educated and disciplined if one is to be happy. The lecture ends appropriately with a discussion of the ending of the book.
The role of good literature is to teach life lessons without having to live those lessons. The story of Othello is one of those lessons. In the final Act, the deadly deeds are done. Othello, now convinced that he is god-like takes his wife’s life to prevent her from sinning again. His delusion has reached its logical summit. Once the fact of her innocence is revealed to him, he understands he has committed murder, and can no longer look upon her beautiful corpse. He now fears Judgment Day, not because of what he has done, but because he fears her look of pure innocence upon him. This will be his torment, and he cannot endure it. He calls for demons to take him away. He acknowledges his crime. He deserves punishment. He learns the lesson too late. She is gone. He is dammed. In his final moments, he regains composure, becomes a soldier again. He is a divided man. Once the defender of justice, he became the offender of justice. He has no home in Cyprus, no home in Venice, no home in his native land. He takes a dagger, stabs himself, and dies with a kiss on Desdemona.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a Russian novelist who lived and wrote in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He is considered by many to be the greatest writer since Shakespeare who has a profound understanding of human beings. Dostoyevsky was immersed in the modern world and gives a depiction of a world of modern horrors. His work is extremely dark. He could see the coming Russian revolution a half a century before it occurred, with its millions of victims. He was obsessed with the irrational actions of man. Raised in a religious home that studied the Bible and knew the lives of the saints, he later left the faith and became a socialist and atheist. He was, as he says, a product of the times. Arrested for being a revolutionary he was sentenced to death, sent to Siberia, placed in front of a firing squat, black sack over his head, ready to die. The guns never fired. The men had received a reprieve from the Czar. He returned to the Faith, changed his political views from revolutionary against the state to revolutionary Christ and the truth. His last five novels deal with human nature at its best and its worst.
Dr. White explores the theme of leadership and crisis of authority in this lecture on Shakespeare’s “dark comedy.” He uses the example of a recent scandal at the Naval Academy where he taught to show the consequences of the failure of authority, and ties this into the irresponsibility of the authority figures in Measure for Measure. Dr. White then discusses Shakespeare’s evident Catholicism, how it influenced his work and life, and how it made his plays relevant and popular for all time, despite the protestations of modern critics, who twist his words, and modern schools, who take his works off their students’ reading lists. From there, Dr. White gives examples of how the playwright worked around a ban against mentioning God in the theatre. Finally, he discusses the pattern of the play’s settings and their significance, as well as the main conflict of the piece.
Dr. White continues his discussion of the results of incompetence in authority figures as represented in Measure for Measure, showing how the corruption of their society affects the characters, especially Isabella, who seeks refuge in the restraint and order of a convent. The character of Claudio is discussed as “the only sane and sensible character in the play.” Dr. White discusses the biblical references and Christian imagery in the play, and proves it to be, in one sense a Christmas play. Special attention is given to Isabella’s decision to grant forgiveness to the man who wronged her, bringing the idea of Mary’s Fiat to the play’s climax and resolution. The lecture closes with a few thoughts on Shakespeare’s Catholicism and Dr. White’s conviction that, in the words of a contemporary Protestant minister, “Master Shakespeare died a Papist.”
In this, part one of Dr. White’s first discussion of Macbeth, he reveals that there were dozens of strange stories and myths surrounding this particular Shakespeare tragedy. He goes on to set the stage with a brief background comparing the different characteristics of tragedy vs. comedy; then details Shakespeare’s Catholic heritage and how it influenced the spiritual conflict that is a part of all the poet’s great tragedies.
