The generic matrix Revenge tragedy, history play, murder pamphlet and conversion narrative

This chapter processes a variety of different sorts of contemporary concerns, such as political, confessional and religious issues. It examines how William Shakespeare's plays elicit from its audience and then manipulates a series of narrative expectations derived from a range of different contemporary genres. It also looks into the irruptive intervention of the ghost that has cut Hamlet off from the values and traditions out of which the narrative quest for life is sustained. The chapter points out how the play has utterly undermined all the canons of Renaissance humanist assumption that had hitherto underpinned Hamlet's existence and sense of himself as an actor or social, political and moral agent in the world. It also explains how Hamlet exploits the void by offering the audience a variety of different sorts of story or narrative template with which to make sense of what is happening to the characters.

Implications for Individuals

The aim of this chapter is to consider the implications of the virtue ethics approach for individuals both in their lives in general and more specifically when they are at work in organizations. It introduces the idea of ends or purposes of an individual life, and the concept of a narrative quest in pursuing it, and links this to concepts already covered in previous chapters—goods, practices, and virtues. It introduces the idea of the unity of an individual life, and shows how this is linked to the idea of practices. It then considers virtue at work in organizations, and introduces the idea of meaningful work including how we may properly order our desires both in general and at work. It ends by considering whether managers, organizations, and governments have a responsibility to provide meaningful work.