The History of Literature – Episode 749

"Willing and Will-Making in the English Renaissance (with Douglas Clark) | #7 Greatest Book of All Time"

Host: Jacke Wilson
Guest: Douglas Clark, Tutor in English Literature at Oxford
Release Date: November 13, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the intertwined concepts of “will” in English Renaissance literature—both the philosophical notion of human desire and agency, and the legal form that directs inheritance after one’s death. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by Douglas Clark to discuss how these ideas permeate Renaissance drama and what they reveal about selfhood, sin, and societal order. In the first half, Jacke explores The Sound and the Fury as the 7th greatest book of all time.

Main Segments & Key Discussion Points

1. Introducing the Theme: Two Sides of Will (02:00–04:41)

• Jacke sets up the dual meaning of “will”: the internal drive (desire, determination, free will) and the legal document of inheritance.
  • "Wills and will making. They're both kind of fascinating...They almost disappear from view until they don't." (02:08)
• Raises questions about free will, original sin, and how these dilemmas overlap with the idea of imposing one's will on others both spiritually and legally.
  • “Whose will was that? We're all sinners. Did you decide that? How can we have free will if we're subject to Eve biting an apple in some ancient garden?” (03:02)
• Teases guest Douglas Clark and transitions to the "Greatest Book" series.

2. #7 Greatest Book of All Time: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (04:41–24:18)

Faulkner’s Modernism & Form (05:29–09:59)

• The Sound and the Fury is highlighted as Faulkner’s most experimental modernist novel, using stream of consciousness and shifting time perspectives.
  • Notable insight: Faulkner denied reading Ulysses but felt there was a “pollen of ideas floating in the air which fertilizes similar minds here and there” (05:45).
  • Jacke discusses Sartre's interpretation: "These characters are locked in the past. They're so obsessed with it that they can't look to the future or even see the present. The past...has a super reality that negates the future." (08:08)
  • Title’s origin: Shakespeare—“a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury” (08:51).
  • Faulkner himself on the narrative approach: "I had a quarter of the book written, but it still wasn't all. It still wasn't enough...then I tried to tell the story and it still was not enough." (09:53)

Plot, Characters, and Southern Decay (10:00–13:41)

• Jacke summarizes the Compson family plight and explores the book’s recurring themes: family tragedy, shifting perspectives, and “Southern decay”.
• Notes Faulkner’s uneasy relationship to the Civil War and “Lost Cause” mythology.
  • Key quote from Casey Sepp: "Faulkner's fiction revealed the truth. The Confederacy was both a military and a moral failure." (12:54)

The Writer and the Man (13:41–18:12)

• Anecdotes: Faulkner’s creative process and refusal to bow to editorial requests.
  • Faulkner to his agent: “No, goddammit, no.” (18:04)
  • Reception: Sartre found the book genius, other critics less so. Faulkner himself called it “the most splendid failure.” (18:09)

3. Interview: Douglas Clark on Willing and Will-Making in English Renaissance Drama (26:01–65:49)

Hamlet and “Puzzling the Will” (26:34–34:54)

• On Shakespeare's choice of “will” vs “brain”:
  • "We go from this material thing to...a more precise immaterial aspect of the soul, this faculty that is the will, that is the key motive and elective faculty within the being, within the self." (27:49–28:37, Douglas Clark)
• The move marks a shift in focus from intellectual confusion to moral and existential agency.
• Clark reads from the 1603 ("Q1") and 1604 Hamlet texts, comparing “puzzles the brain” and “puzzles the will” (31:23–34:25).
• "I think it's really important to go back to these, the source text, and do a little bit of compare and contrast to see where individual words change...For something like the will to make such an important appearance within Hamlet...it is an indicator of the wider acceptance or integration of willful thinking and thinking about the will that you see in other drama." (34:54)

The Will across the English Renaissance Stage (37:04–44:42)

• Clark confirms the prevalence of will-focused dilemmas not only in Shakespeare but across Renaissance drama (37:06).
  • Frequent through 1550s–1625 (37:56).
• Roots in Christian theology, notably in Erasmus-Luther’s free will debate and broader Reformation anxieties (38:16).
• The will as both moral choice and a practical force in society and family life: "Do we have a will that is able to work in correspondence with God's grace to do good works? Or is our will completely corrupt, that we need intervening grace and that we cannot do anything good?" (38:40–38:52)
• The "will to win" as a modern idiom is traced back to classical and Renaissance usage, with references to willpower, moral continence, and akrasia (weakness of will) (41:40–44:42).

Will-Making (Legal “Last Will and Testament”) On Stage (46:34–53:18)

• Jacke frames will-making as ultimate expression (and limitation) of autonomy.
  • "This is kind of the ultimate freedom...to say, this is what I want to happen even when I'm not here anymore." (50:36)
• Clark: Wills as plot devices are ubiquitous in Renaissance drama and often generate chaos by imposing the dead’s wishes on the living.
  • Example: The Merchant of Venice—Portia’s freedom is “curbed by the will of a dead father” (53:18).
  • Portia’s quote: "So is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father? Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?" (53:18)
• Theatrical wills highlight generational conflict, gendered constraints, and the anxiety of living under others’ dictates.

Existential and Theological Dimensions (55:12–58:22)

• Jacke: “Are the playwrights complaining about God… Is it a complaint that could be levied against the nature of religion and God to sort of say, well, I know what I'm supposed to do...but you gave me this body that gets hungry and is lustful and...is weak and doesn't always know what to do.” (55:12)
• Clark: “A number of dramatists...are concerned and possibly irate or dejected or...with the fact that we may not have the ability to change our fate...” (56:18)
• This tension is linked to the roots of religious schism and the Reformation.

Legal Landscape and Social Impact (60:06–64:10)

• Clark: Elizabethan wills allowed greater flexibility, including conditions or “encumbrances” for heirs. Wills were often used to drive dramatic plots, especially in family or succession crises.
  • Emphasis on the patriarch’s power to restrict or dictate future generations’ actions.
  • Occasionally, women’s wills are featured (eg. The Duchess of Amalfi).

On Inherited Will and Personal Agency (64:10–65:40)

• Jacke and Clark discuss modern parallels: rationalizing our own desires through the will of the deceased or of God, often sidelining personal agency.
  • Clark: “I love the image of liberating yourselves from the bit, the dark basement of a life, of a life of purity, to go out into the world and sin and to gain that experience and then learn from it so you can go back into the basement to live a pure life. That's the journey of life. Right." (65:13)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Free Will and “Willing”:
  • Jacke: "If God is good, why do bad things happen? What explains Hitler? Could it be that it's because God's great gift to humanity was free will?" (03:01)
• On The Sound and the Fury:
  • Faulkner: "This one's the greatest I'll ever write. Just read it, he said, and abruptly left." (18:04, anecdote from Ben Wasson)
  • Sartre: "The past...has a super reality that negates the future." (08:08)
• On the Nature of Will in Renaissance Drama:
  • Clark: "Now what was important within moral psychology and theology at the time is that the human will...could refuse or ignore what the reason dictates...that is a rational course of action. And that's the primary weak point for a lot of moral theologians..." (28:14)
  • Clark: "Willing against the nature of your will, or the nature of whatever propulses you through life, is that an illusion?" (49:33)
  • Clark (on Merchant of Venice): "So is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father?" (53:18)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:00 — Episode theme: will & will-making introduction
• 04:52 — #7 book announcement: The Sound and the Fury
• 05:29–09:59 — Faulkner’s modernism and stream of consciousness
• 10:00–13:41 — Plot, family, and the South in Faulkner
• 13:41–18:12 — Faulkner’s life, influences, and the book’s reception
• 26:01 — Interview with Douglas Clark starts
• 26:34–34:54 — Hamlet and “puzzles the will”
• 37:04–44:42 — Will, agency, and moral psychology in Renaissance drama
• 46:34–53:18 — Last wills and testaments on stage
• 60:06–64:10 — Legal and social implications of will-making
• 64:10–65:40 — Inherited will vs personal agency

Tone and Style

• Jacke Wilson is amiable, curious, and reflective, sometimes irreverently witty.
• Douglas Clark is erudite but clear, explaining deep ideas in accessible terms.
• The episode combines scholarly depth with engaging storytelling, relating literature to philosophical and everyday questions about agency, inheritance, and selfhood.

This episode artfully links complex literary, philosophical, and legal ideas about “will,” showing how one small word shapes entire eras, families, and dramas—on the page and in life.