Tag Archives: William Shakespeare

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, Othello, Robert Durst, soliloquies, Soul | Comments closed

Lear’s Lesson: Dividing Leads to War

By Robin Bates | Published: March 12, 2015

The politics in “King Lear” are currently being played out in attempts to sabotage negotiations with Iran.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Barack Obama, Iran, King Lear, Tom Cotton, war | Comments closed

Gaga Feminism & 12th Night

By Robin Bates | Published: March 6, 2015

“Gaga feminism” is a playful challenge to conventional social definitions. Shakespeare can be seen as writing “Twelfth Night” in the spirit of gaga feminism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Dadaism, deconstruction, gender identity, Lady Gaga, postmodernism, Surrealism, Twelfth Night | Comments closed

Twelfth Night and the End of Carnival

By Robin Bates | Published: January 8, 2015

Twelfth Night in New Orleans, as in Shakespeare’s play, seems to be about carnival time winding down.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged carnival, Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Twelfth Night | Comments closed

The Peace of Wild Things

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2014

My Intro to Literature class explored how a disconnect from nature leads to existential anguish while opening themselves up to nature provides spiritual nourishment.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Ancient Mariner, "Egrets", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Killing the Trees", "Peace of Wild Things", All the Pretty Horses, Bacchae, Barbara Kingsolver, Ceremony, Cormac McCarthy, Euripides, Flight Behavior, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lucille Clifton, Mary Oliver, Midsummer Night's Dream, Nature, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, spiritual healing, Wendell Berry, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Beholding the Summer Dead before Me

By Robin Bates | Published: November 13, 2014

Shakespeare and Swinburne both write powerful poems about autumn.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Hendecasyllabics", "Sonnet 73", Autumn, Charles Algernon Swinburne, Seasons | Comments closed

Can Donne Help Us Cope with Death?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 12, 2014

Meditations on Margaret Edson’s “W;t”–with further reflections on whether Donne’s poetry can help us handle death.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Death Be Not Proud", "If Poisonous Minerals", "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", death and dying, Hamlet, John Donne, Margaret Edson, Margaret Wise Brown, May Justus, Runaway Bunny, W;t | Comments closed

A Colossus Bestriding the World (Series)

By Robin Bates | Published: November 1, 2014

Sports Saturday What a world series it was for San Francisco Giants pitcher Martin Bumgartner! On Sunday he threw 117 pitches for nine shutout innings to win game five and then on Wednesday he returned to throw another 68 pitches for five shutout innings to preserve a 3-2 lead in the deciding game seven. And […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Baseball, Julius Caesar, Kansas City Royals, Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants, Sports, world series | Comments closed

Marc Antony for the Prosecution

By Robin Bates | Published: September 24, 2014

Federal court judge Thomas Thrash, Jr., drawing on years of experience as a trial lawyer, explains why Marc Antony makes a better case than Brutus does.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged courtroom rhetoric, Julius Caesar, lawyers, legal profession, Rhetoric | Comments closed