Tag Archives: Macbeth

Blackburn Unsexes Herself over Guns

By Robin Bates | Published: November 12, 2018

Tennessee Senator-elect Marsha Blackburn’s insensitivity towards gun victims invites comparisons with Lady Macbeth.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged gun control, Marsha Blackburn, NRA, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Trump, Like Macbeth, Does Murder Sleep

By Robin Bates | Published: May 7, 2018

“Macbeth,” a psychological study of a tyrant, also illumines aspects of Donald Trump.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged authoritarians, Donald Trump, Richard III, tyrants, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Trump & GOP as Shakespearean Drama

By Robin Bates | Published: December 14, 2017

To see the decline of the GOP as a Shakespeare drama, one must draw on “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,,” “Henry IV,” and “King Lear.” And throw in Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Dpnald Trump, GOP, Hamlet, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, King Lear, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Lincoln Transformed Depression thru Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: June 27, 2017

Melancholy threatened to paralyze Abraham Lincoln in his early years. Literature helped him give voice to his depression and taught him how to turn it into an asset.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Dream", "Raven", Abraham Lincoln, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, First Inaugural Address, Manfred, unipolar disease, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

WaPo’s Petri Plays Shakespearean Fool

By Robin Bates | Published: June 16, 2017

Washington Post humorist Alexandra Petri has been having a lot of fun with Trump supporters’ attack on “Julius Caesar.” Here are some of her funniest barbs.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aleandra Petri, Crucible, Hamlet, Humor, Ice Man Cometh, Julius Caesar, Long Day's Journey into Night, Master Builder, Newt Gingrich, Raisin in the Sun, Rent, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Shakespeare Understood Trumpism

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2016

According to Adam Gopnik, Shakespeare would have understood the rise of Donald Trump better than we do today. Whereas we see him as a historical oddity, Shakespeare would have seen him as the kind of evil that has always resided within humankind.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Adam Gopnik, As You Like It, Donald Trump, Hamlet, Henry V, Hillary Clinton, King Lear, Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Trump, Macduff, and “Untimely Ripped”

By Robin Bates | Published: October 25, 2016

Donald Trump’s characterization of late-term abortions as “ripping” harken back to a verb used in “Macbeth.” Most people, however, would argue that both Trump and Macduff are describing caesarians.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged abortion debate, Donald Trump, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Kill All the Lawyers? Nope, We Need Them

By Robin Bates | Published: October 12, 2016

A district judge reflects upon what lawyers and judges can learn from Shakespeare, including “Othello,” “Merchant of Venice, “Hamlet,” “King Lear,” most of the history plays, and others.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Antony and Cleopatra, civility, Hamlet, Henry IV Part 2, Henry IV Part I, Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, Julius Caesar, King Lear, lawyers, legal system, Merchant of Venice, Othello, Richard II, Richard III, trust, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Christie as Prufrock & Other Lit Allusions

By Robin Bates | Published: March 2, 2016

Political pundits have been turning to literature to talk about the GOP primaries. This past week saw citations of Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, and Richard Adams (“Watership Down”).

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alice through the Lookinglass, Donald Trump, GOP primaries, Lewis Carroll, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Marco Rubio, politics, Presidential politics, Richard Adams, T. S. Eliot, Ted Cruz, Twelfth Night, Watership Down | Comments closed