All the world remains a stage for the Bard of Avon’s plays

Empire of the Mind

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is perhaps the greatest writer in the English language, and doubtless the world’s greatest dramatist. Shakespeare poses a formidable philological challenge; and one that is fascinating: of understanding the reciprocity of the metaphor and the literal word. Take for instance Prospero’s speech, “Our revels now are ended. These actors/as I foretold you, were all spirits, and/are melted into air, into thin air” (The Tempest -- IV, i). This is brilliant Shakespearean imagery, at the core of which is the association between mortality and the stage. But which part is mortality, and which the play?

The Tempest is perhaps the most difficult Shakespearean metaphor to understand; and its essence is the experience of half-perceiving, half-grasping for truth, a dramatic reminder of what we grapple with in the real world.

Shakespeare portrayed fundamental human themes -- honesty, greed, jealousy, guilt, grief, betrayal, joy -- that change little over the ages; and there is no human emotion that he did not bring alive. When you read Shakespeare, you recognise many of his characters as our contemporaries, perhaps many the Iago we encounter. “Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!/It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock/The meat it feeds on” (Othello -- III, iii).

What makes reading Shakespeare captivating is our own idea of Shakespeare and what is Shakespearean in the world around us. Characters such as Romeo, Hamlet, or Lady Macbeth, have become part of the cultural stereotypes, that differ vastly from the original: Thus, Romeo is a relentless romancer rather than a lover faithful unto death; Hamlet is indecisive, rather than humanity in general, plagued with contradictions in life; and Lady Macbeth is an ambitious woman who will stop at nothing, rather than representing the relationship between gender and power. These appropriations of meaning, so far removed from Shakespeare’s original conception, tell us a lot about our own society.

Shakespeare has long moved into mainstream cultural exchange, but bereft of the context of the philosophic reflections of his characters. A case in point is the common use of the term ‘strange bedfellows’ in modern political discourse, as if in tacit comparison of the politicos concerned with Shakespeare’s Caliban and Trinculo, but completely missing the significance: Shakespeare uses the conspiratorial world of the play to emphasise the important theme of the elusive nature of power and freedom. He was not simply a great playwright. Through his effervescent writing, he established the endless possibility of intellectual discourse. It is as the ‘initiator of discursive practices’ that Shakespeare’s unique relevance endures.

His influence across cultures is prodigious. His works are found in over a hundred languages. Shakespeare in popular culture finds expression in books, films, and art. Hamlet’s line, “the undiscover’d country from whose bourn/No traveller returns” (Hamlet - III, i), became the subtitle of the science-fiction film Star Trek VI, though the original lines allude to death, after Hamlet sees his father’s ghost. Closer home, the Hindi film trilogy Maqbool (2004) -- an innovative adaptation of Macbeth; Omkara (2006) of Othello; and Haider (2014), of Hamlet.

Shakespeare’s plays are set in many locations, some fictional. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are all settings for Shakespeare’s plays. His plays are set in 12 countries, with cities in what is now Italy being Shakespeare’s favourite backdrop. Some plays, such as The Tempest, take place in entirely fictional worlds.

If you want a measure of Shakespeare’s impact, consider some of the many popular expressions we use today that were coined by him: ‘Heart of Gold’ (Henry V), ‘Wild-goose chase’ (Romeo and Juliet), ‘Faint-hearted’ (Henry IV part I), ‘Brave new world’ (The Tempest), ‘Break the ice’ (The Taming of the Shrew), ‘For goodness’ sake’ (Henry VIII), ‘Foregone conclusion’ (Othello), and ‘Love is blind’ (The Merchant of Venice).

Shakespeare in the original poses one risk that a discerning reader must recognise: Reading him enables the creative imagination for reinterpretation, but all too often, Shakespeare gets simplified according to our own lights. To truly appreciate his genius, Shakespeare should always be regarded as a man of his time, the product of a particular period in history. His ‘universality’ is born of his remarkable perspicacity in laying bare human nature at its best and its worst. Much has been said about Shakespeare’s philosophy; the many reflections on life in his plays produce the illusion that he was gifted with wisdom. In fact, his art is essentially empirical: portraying reality and not the abstract.

Read The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. You will forever be enthralled, for “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players, they have their exits and their entrances” (As you Like it, II, vii).

Shakespeare is a wondrous companion.

(The author, a former civil servant, enjoys traversing the myriad spaces of ideas, thinkers, and books)