Second Chances

March 25, 2024
Shakespeare scholar Greenblatt (The Swerve) teams up with psychoanalyst Phillips (On Missing Out) for an uneven exploration of second chances in literature. In the book’s standout first half, Greenblatt unravels the crucial role second chances play in Shakespearean comedies, tragedies, and romances. He argues persuasively, for example, that tragedy is the “absence of a second chance” and that Shakespeare’s comedic heroines are marked by their ability to make the most of whatever fortune throws at them (for example, Twelfth Night’s Viola is separated in a shipwreck from her brother and in love with her master Orsino, yet holds out hope that both situations will resolve—which they do, even if her marriage to Orsino is less-than-perfect). Yet the study loses its way in the second half, where the focus shifts to other authors, including Kafka and Proust, and psychoanalytic interpretations are layered inelegantly over Greenblatt’s keen observations. Later, Shakespearean tragedies are framed as works in which revenge displaces the possibility of reparation and second chances, making the answer to the book’s concluding question—“What is the desire for a life without second chances a desire for?”—feel implied and wrapping things up on a muddled note. Despite some bright moments, this fails to come together.