Tag Archives: William Shakespeare

Does Lit Lead to Illicit Sex?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 25, 2020

Dante’s beautifully tragic account of Paolo and Francesca captures–as many great works do–the dangers of total absorption in a relationship.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Adultery, Charlotte Bronte, Christopher Marlowe, Dante, Doctor Faustus, Goethe, Inferno, Jane Eyre, Paolo and Francesca, passionate love, Romeo and Juliet, Samuel Johnson, Sorrows of Young Werther, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight | Comments closed

Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun

By Robin Bates | Published: August 4, 2020

I lost a dear friend two days ago, one who was practically family. I turn to Shakespeare’s “Fear no more the heat of the sun” for solace.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Fear no more the heat of the sun", Cymbeline, death and dying, William Boyd | Comments closed

To Memorialize, Turn to Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: August 3, 2020

John Lewis’s mentor James Lawson read a Czeslaw Milosz poem at Lewis’s funeral, showing how deeply he understood social activism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "I Dream a World", "Invictus", "Meaning", Czeslaw Milosz, funerals, Hamlet, James Lawson, John Lewis, Langston Hughes, Romeo and Juliet, William Ernest Henley | Comments closed

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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, family dysfunction, Jane Smiley, King Lear, Mary Trump, Thousand Acres, Too Much and Never Enough, Trump family | Comments closed

Covid Costs Us Loved Ones’ Final Words

By Robin Bates | Published: July 12, 2020

Among the many tragedies related to Covid is how family and friends are missing out on final words. Many literary works touch on the importance of this last encounter.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aeschylus, Agamemnon, COVID-19, death and dying, death bed words, Henry Fielding, Richard II, Song of Solomon, Tom Jones, Toni Morrison | Comments closed

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alls Well That Ends Well, Donald Trump, King Lear, Tulsa rally | Comments closed

The Bard, Rowling, and Trans Identity

By Robin Bates | Published: June 15, 2020

The Supreme Court has just ruled to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination, showing Shakespeare to be centuries ahead of his time. J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, needs to catch up.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Christian fundamentalism, Donald Trump, J. K. Rowling, LGBTQ rights, Trans rights, Twelfth Night | Comments closed

Pratchett’s Witches to the Rescue

By Robin Bates | Published: June 14, 2020

Terry Prachett’s comic fantasy sometimes describes our political reality as well as sophisticated political science.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2020 election, Donald Trump, Macbeth, Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters | Comments closed

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Hollow Men", Donald Trump, George Will, GOP, King Lear, T. S. Eliot | Comments closed