The commentators called it an ugly game, but I found something compelling about Spain’s victory over the Netherlands in yesterday’s World Cup final. And after all, regardless of what happened earlier in the game, how can one argue when the winning goal–and a beautifully struck ball at that–occurs just minutes before the end of overtime? […]
Tag Archives: William Shakespeare
Managing Midsummer Madness (i.e., Sex)
Midsummer Night’s Dream provides good instruction for the parents of teenagers. First of all, don’t think that you can tyrannically dictate your children’s choices (say, by threatening them with execution). On the other hand, they need guidelines and guidance. There’s no telling how they’ll behave once they are set loose in the forest of their […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, Marriage, Midsummer Night's Dream, Relationships, sex Comments closed
After the Mess, Can Obama Be Fortinbras?
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, Othello, politics, Romeo and Juliet Comments closed
Interpreting Lit Makes for Better Citizens
Eugene Robinson Our Commencement speaker two weeks ago was the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner and one of my favorite columnists. He delivered a message to our graduates with which I fervently agree: THINK! Robinson told us that he is tired of seeing politics conducted with bumper sticker simplicity. The real problems […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Critical thinking, politics, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Comments closed
Sadness over Little Women, 12th Night
Although reading and grading student essays is the most demanding aspect of my job—I graded around 535 formal and informal essays this past semester, as well as reading another 100 essay proposals and early drafts—it can also be the most rewarding. That’s because I will regularly see students working through major life issues at the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 12th Night, Education, Feminism, Little Women, Louisa Mae Alcott, Marriage Comments closed
Republicans Need a Shakespearean Fool
William Dyce, “King Lear and the Fool in the Storm” (1851) There’s been a lot of talk about bubbles in recent years. Tiger Woods’ bubble, which cut him off from his fellow human beings, may have led to some of his self-destructive behavior. The Vatican has been living within a bubble for a while, unable […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged King Lear, politics, Republican Party, Twelfth Night Comments closed
Republican Invective and King Lear
One of the memorable moments in the history of the U.S. Congress occurred in 1954 when Joseph Welch, head counsel for the United States Army, found one of his young lawyers being attacked by Joseph McCarthy. The turning point in the hearings occurred when Welch said forthrightly, “Until this moment, Senator, I think I have […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Democrats, King Lear, politics, Republicans, Rhetoric Comments closed
Shakespeare in the Prisons
As I am out of town this week, my colleagues have been loaning me articles they have written to share on the website. Here my colleague Beth Charlebois, our Shakespeare scholar, recounts as instance of literary impact at its most dramatic–in this instance, the effect of Shakespeare on inmates of a Missouri correctional institute. […]
Crossing the Great Gender Divide
In last Friday’s post on Twelfth Night, I talked about how Shakespeare uses cross-dressing to acknowledge that men and women have dimensions to them that are not acknowledged by the standard male and female categories. I understood this about the play at an early age. In a past post on Twelfth Night, I describe how […]
