Tag Archives: King Lear

Now Let Us Praise Poor Naked Wretches

By Robin Bates | Published: November 5, 2022

In “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” Agee and Evans include a powerful passage from “King Lear” that is appropriate for All Saints Sunday.

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Holding on to Our Imperiled Humanity

By Robin Bates | Published: November 2, 2021

In arguing for the humanities, this “American Scholar” article makes good points but dismisses some powerful arguments.

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A Wretch Concentered All in Self

By Robin Bates | Published: December 7, 2020

Look to Sir Walter Scott, not to Shakespeare, to sum up Donald Trump’s exit.

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Lear Also Doesn’t Step Down Gracefully

By Robin Bates | Published: November 9, 2020

We could have anticipated how Donald Trump would respond to losing by reading “King Lear.” All the stages are the same.

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Trump & Covid: Tragedy or Farce?

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2020

Was the Rose Garden event for Trump’s new SCOTUS pick–which became a Covid superspreader event–a Shakespearean tragedy? How about a farce?

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Mary Trump, Smiley on Nightmare Families

By Robin Bates | Published: July 13, 2020

To see another family as dysfunctional as the one Mary Trump describes in her recent book, look to Jane Smiley’s “Thousand Acres.”

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Trump and Lear, Addicted to Praise

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2020

Trump, like Lear, needs sycophantic followers to salvage his ego. His Tulsa rally shook him because few of them showed up.

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Trump as Low-Rent Lear

By Robin Bates | Published: June 10, 2020

I agree with George Will that Trump is like the narcissistic King Lear and his GOP enablers like T.S. Eliot’s Hollow Men

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Literature’s Unique Spiritual Insights

By Robin Bates | Published: February 15, 2020

An extended reflection upon the relationship between religion and literature.

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