Tag Archives: William Shakespeare

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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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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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Cuomo Channels Shakespeare’s Henry V

By Robin Bates | Published: April 5, 2020

Andrew Cuomo’s recent speech to the National Guard has echoes of Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech on the eve of Agincourt.

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The Bard Answers Pestilence’s Challenge

By Robin Bates | Published: April 3, 2020

In Emily St. John Mandel’s dystopia “Station Eleven,” people turn to Shakespeare in a world that has been devastated by pandemic.

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How Iago Corrupts Othello

By Robin Bates | Published: April 1, 2020

Why is Othello so gullible. It may be that he has an underlying security, which Iago understands and preys upon.

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