History likes to repeat itself, and William Shakespeare’s dramatic plays are no exception. Shakespeare’s plays are very much relevant to American society, even 400 years later and an ocean away. Let’s take a look at three of his plays that apply to society from social and political standpoints.
MacTheatre is taking a step back in time to perform Shakespeare’s King Lear, Hamlet and Julius Caesar. At first glance, the plays are very dated, with early modern English and verse. However, Shakespeare explores themes such as appearance versus reality, miscommunication, assumptions, misinformation and manipulation. King Lear uses themes that can be applied to issues with social media, themes in Hamlet provide ideas relevant to LGBTQ people and American healthcare, and political issues in Julius Caesar can be related to the political climate in America. All of these themes reflect topics that are important to discuss so that we can learn from them.
To start, King Lear’s theme of appearance versus reality is something that can be related to social media and how not everything you see there is real. In King Lear, the king looks to divide his kingdom among his three daughters based on who professes their love for him more. Two of his daughters lie to him to get a piece of the kingdom, while the third daughter is honest and suffers the consequences. Later in the play, however, the king learns that his first two daughters weren’t honest with him, which sends him down the rabbit hole of madness. This unfortunate story demonstrates that appearances aren’t always what they seem. King Lear had trouble discerning who was being fake versus who was being sincere. On social media, it can be especially difficult to determine what’s real and what’s fake. There isn’t a perfect way to distinguish between honesty and deceit, but maybe you could take a page out of Shakespeare’s plays and do your best to avoid going crazy over what might not even be real.
The themes of miscommunication, assumptions and misinformation are front and center in Hamlet. A notable example of miscommunication in the play is when Ophelia and Hamlet aren’t communicating about their relationship, which ultimately ends with Ophelia killing herself. Hamlet also messes up when he accidentally kills Ophelia’s dad, Polonius, who was hiding behind a curtain when he was stabbed.
Mistaking people hiding behind curtains could be used to describe how people often misjudge others coming out of the closet. Assumptions about other people can lead to harmful interactions that no one wants, and that are usually based on unsupported ideas that make the interaction unnecessary. Shakespeare didn’t mean to write with people in the LGBTQ+ community in mind, but he wrote his plays in a way that lets us see the consequences of a similar, more exaggerated situation, which are not desirable. Hamlet didn’t need to stab someone behind a curtain, and people nowadays don’t need to say bad things about others just because. The misinformation, miscommunication and assumptions showcased in Hamlet are important to note, as these things happen a lot more than they should today.
Hamlet also includes the theme of misinformation, which can be attributed to American healthcare. Hamlet tricked his childhood friends into believing he was mad, and his friends reported to the king, who then wanted Hamlet dead. The misinformed friends spread uneducated information, leading to unfortunate outcomes. While Shakespeare’s plays are often extremely dramatic, in the case of healthcare, it might not be so far off. With healthcare today, specifically vaccines, false news is spreading about their negative side effects, so people are opting out of getting vaccinations. An article by the New York Times mentions that, according to a health policy research group, KFF, the number of students getting vaccine exemptions has been increasing and immunization rates have been decreasing. If this continues, misinformation could easily kill people, as it killed Hamlet.
Lastly, in Julius Caesar, two major themes are manipulation and ambition, which are played out with a naive general and an ambitious Roman senator. The general, Brutus, is manipulated into believing that Caesar is getting too much power and must be assassinated. The man who manipulated Brutus is Cassius, a senator who is jealous of Caesar’s position and took advantage of a gullible man to get what he wanted. Unfortunately, things like this happen a lot in American politics. Propaganda and desperate leaders are easy to find and easy to use. A notable example of propaganda in America is the National Guard’s occupation of the District of Columbia because of increased crime rates. However, according to the Justice Department, crime rates in D.C are at a 30-year low. The justification for the occupation of D.C is completely false, so really, it boils down to propaganda. A desperate and ambitious political leader in America is resorting to manipulation to justify his actions, similar to the leaders in Julius Caesar. Shakespeare is giving the audience a warning that ambition can make people go to extreme lengths to get what they want.
King Lear, Hamlet and Julius Caesar are just a few examples of plays where Shakespeare developed timeless themes and issues that we can learn from, even if they are overly dramatic. If you take a look at America and its issues, you’ll see that they aren’t new. The world has struggled with miscommunication, assumptions and manipulation many times before. Shakespeare understands us because what we face is nothing new. So, if our problems won’t change over time, our solutions need to.
