In part one of Dr. White’s commentary on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, he points out that this particular comedy makes obvious references to the 12 days of Christmas, with the “twelfth night” as the end of festivities. And the plot of the play is also connected to the Feast of the Epiphany, i.e., seeing the truth where others fail to see it. This play contains a host of strong-willed characters and numerous cases of mistaken identity wherein they are unable to see the truth about themselves. It’s a play that reminds us we are human. A great comedy, according to Dr. White, but one sprinkled with sorrow and sadness.
T.S. Eliot changed the face of poetry with Four Quartets, his four-part poem based on musical string quartets that features four instruments. The four instruments in the musical version are replaced with four voices in the poem. The Quartets deal with: air, earth, water and finally fire. The poems are based on his life’s experiences. The final quartet is about Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost appeared as fire from the sky to inflame the Apostles and Our Lady with the full enlightenment of Christ’s life and message. Modern man is in his many sins is punished by fire in the form of aerial incendiary bombs that fell over London during WWII, which Eliot personally witnessed. He reasons that we will be redeemed by the fire of suffering given to us by God in this life to avoid the suffering of fire in the next. Receive the fire of the Holy Ghost and burn with love of God. Suffering is redemptive. The fourth Quartet is a hidden sonnet: seven lines and seven lines instead of the usual 14. Sonnets are always love poems, thus this too is a love poem. Four Quartets is considered the greatest lyric poem of the twentieth century.
In part two of his commentary on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Dr. White describes how Shakespeare’s characters bear a striking similarity to those found in Greek mythology, namely Echo and Narcissus. Twelfth Night, White tells us, is filled with similar instances of self-love. But, interspersed with dramatic readings, he also points out that there is life in the play, whereby love breaks out of selfishness. Dr. White sees it as a play filled with truthfulness, in which characters eventually see what is real, i.e., what is actually there. This ultimately leads to a happy ending as they learn to care about someone other than themselves. He ends the commentary with a question and answer session.
This last part of the brilliant conference on Moby Dick begins with a continuation of the discourse on materialism in the American way of life. Dr. White discusses how materialism stunts personality and how, in our culture, even rebels against the bland comfort of common life all rebel the exact same way. The point is made that true, healthy diversity and individualism can come only from the Catholic Faith. Dr. White then makes a thorough investigation of the Calvinistic conception of God against which Melville protests in Moby Dick through the character of Captain Ahab. He shows that Ahab’s fury against this Calvinist God is justified, going through three aspects of the Calvinist religion which alienate men from God. The natural responses to this alienation, worship of nature and destruction of nature, are then discussed and Captain Ahab’s adherence to the latter response analyzed. Dr. White explains the nature of Ahab’s madness; he has a “great madness,” stemming from a very legitimate cause. The end of the novel and of the lecture is reached as Dr. White discusses Ahab’s last words and the death of him and his crew.
The sequence of Shakespeare’s plays falls into three categories that perfectly parallel the three mysteries of the rosary. From joy to sorrow to glory. His early plays are full of the joy of youth and discovery (Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew.) Then his great tragedies of evil and doubt (Hamlet, King Lear, Othello.) Finally, his romance plays (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale) tell of virtue, perseverance, reunion, resurrection. The romantic plays, like the Glorious Mysteries, are about rising or falling: Christ rises from the dead, rises into Heaven, the Holy Ghost descends, Our Lady rises. The mystery concludes with her coronation as Queen of all creation, the combination of the natural and the supernatural. The romance plays are filled with good women who suffer. They remain unsullied, unmoving, uncomplaining. They persevere until the end. Romantic plays have three main characteristics: First, character gives way to action, that is, an evil person will do evil. Next, numerous plots throughout the play, much like real life. Finally, the handling of time in that these actions take place over many years and are condensed into the constraints of the production of the play. Our crosses in life will end in glory.
Dr. White continues his discussion of Moby Dick by beginning his analysis of Captain Ahab, whose entrance, he points out, ends the domestic comedy contained in the novel up to that point. He explores the character of Captain Ahab, from the Biblical origins of his name to his personality and his greatness as a tragic character, and touches on the conflict between Ahab and all of nature, even God Himself, as represented by the whale. Dr. White also discusses the picture of American characteristics that continues to be drawn in the novel, covering the conflicting loves of comfort and adventure, religious “toleration” where being “nice” and getting along are the cardinal virtues, and the obsession with money which springs from the excessive love of comfort. Some secondary characters in the book are discussed and their characters briefly examined, along with how and why such a diverse set of men, including an African, a Native American, and a Polynesian, manage to get along together.
