Nearing the end of Shakespeare Week now! Tomorrow’s post will be about King John. Following that, the blog will resume its regular weekly schedule.
In honor of beginning the Histories, our post today is about politics in Shakespeare.
This is such a rich topic that I would love to explore in more detail, and it may be a subject I return to in the future. I nearly chose to write my Master’s thesis on this, after all. But for now, here are just a few brief thoughts.
Considering how dangerous it could be to get involved in politics at all during this time in English history, it is kind of amazing how political many of Shakespeare’s plays are. His Histories are definitely overtly political (at least many of them are), but politics are present in subtle and unexpected ways in many of his other plays, as well.
I consider Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night to be quite political plays. All three have a great deal to say about the politics of gender identity.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are the more intensely political plays like Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and, well, basically all of the Histories. In these, Shakespeare says more about power and leadership than any other writer I can think of.
Even plays like Love’s Labour Lost and All’s Well That Ends Well still have political overtones when read a certain way. I think they both have something to say about duty and public service.
And we haven’t covered plays like Antony and Cleopatra or Othello yet.
My point is that politics is everywhere in Shakespeare. Not only is that astounding to me (especially considering the kind of background he came from), but I am constantly amazed at how what he says about politics still feels so relevant.
Obviously our political systems and landscape are very different today from what they were in Elizabethan England. But Shakespeare pinpoints the essential component of politics that is still just as true today as it was 400 years ago: politics is personal. It’s about relationships, and it’s about the things that affect people’s everyday lives.
With all of that, I can’t help but think that if Congress read more Shakespeare and actually understood what the Bard was saying, our political dialogue would look at least a little different.
