A central assumption of this 1981 study is that Shakespeare's plays represent elemental truths of our emotional and spiritual life, that these truths help account for Shakespeare's enduring vitality, and that they deserve direct critical attention. By combining theological and psychoanalytical ideas in his discussion of five of Shakespeare's plays - Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, and Cymbeline - Professor Kirsch presents an original interpretations of these plays. The study also draws upon a number of the works of Shakespeare's contemporaries, especially those of Montaigne, in addition to Christian and Freudian texts. Professor Kirsch demonstrates in this work that Christian and Freudian conceptions can be put to lively and discriminating use in literary criticism. This book will appeal not only to readers interested in Shakespeare but to all who are concerned with the relation of religion and psychology to the study of literature.