Tag Archives: Othello

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, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Richard II, Richard III, trust, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

The Complex Inner Life of Teachers

By Robin Bates | Published: June 16, 2015

Lily King’s “The English Teacher” is filled with literary lllusions, most of them thematically important.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Voice", Annabelle Lee, Beowulf, Edgar Allen Poe, Homer, Huckleberry Finn, Love Song of J. Alfred Pruforck, Mark Twain, Odyssey, Rose for Emily, T. S. Eliot, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Robert Durst’s Iago-Like Soliloquy

By Robin Bates | Published: March 27, 2015

How to interpret suspected murderer Robert Durst’s enigmatic words on “The Jinx”? Shakespeare’s villains point the way.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Jinx, King Lear, moral consciousness, Robert Durst, soliloquies, Soul, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

The Bard Could Improve Lawyer Behavior

By Robin Bates | Published: April 17, 2014

A judge makes his case about how Shakespeare can improve lawyer professionalism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged courts of law, Hamlet, Henry VI Part II, judges, King Lear, lawyers, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Richard II, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Debating Whether Lit Is Useless

By Robin Bates | Published: December 5, 2013

I take issue with a “New Yorker” blog on whether or not literature can be considered “useful.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged reading, Shakespeare, utilitarianism | Comments closed

Petraeus: Karenina, Oedipus, or Antony?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 15, 2012

The David Petraeus affair–is it 19th century melodrama or high tragedy?

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Anna Karenina, Antony and Cleopatra, David Petraeus, Leo Tolstoy, Macbeth, Notre Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Reading for Fun, the Best Education

By Robin Bates | Published: September 7, 2011

In “Northanger Abbey,” Jane Austen advocates the ideal way to raise one’s kids: encourage them to read good literature and they will learn the life lessons that they need.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady", Alexander Pope, Alice in Wonderland, James Thompson, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Measure for Measure, Northanger Abbey, Reading to children, Seasons, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Which Shakespearean Hero Is Murdoch?

By Robin Bates | Published: July 27, 2011

So which Shakespeare hero is Rupert Murdoch? Marche floats the names of Macbeth, Hamlet, Lear, Richard II and Richard III. I’d peg him as Iago.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Hamlet, Journalism, King Lear, Macbeth, Richard II, Richard III, Rupert Murdoch, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

After the Mess, Can Obama Be Fortinbras?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 27, 2010

I’ve been thinking recently about how every Shakespearean tragedy concludes with a restoration of order. The stage may be strewn with corpses and the spectator’s heart may have broken into a thousand little pieces, but (as though to provide some reassurance) someone steps forward at the end to set things straight. In Hamlet it is […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Capitalism, Deregulation, Environment, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Nature, politics, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare | Comments closed