Shakespeare's Universal Appeal

Shakespeare was born in April 1564, and likely died on his 52nd birthday -- on April 23. While there is some uncertainty about his real birth date, the day of his death is undisputed. Seventeenth century Europe is often referenced by historians as the Early Modern Era. Church records, legal records, published broadsheets, letters, printed books, pamphlets, poems, plays and personal diaries from this time are mined by historians today in famous libraries all over the world. Yet, very little has turned up to shape the life of most famous writer of all time.

William Shakespeare is with little doubt the most brilliant author in the English language. It is hardly hyperbole to declare this. His characters are amazingly real. He was astoundingly perceptive in his observation of humans. He recreated them on the page -- complex characters with a full range of emotions, and profound internal conflicts. They are intensely, deeply rich in psychological reality. And he did this within the limits of a play, in “two hours traffic” upon the stages of his time, not in a long novel.

His plays are in verse and no one can compare with the stunning shock of the beauty of his poetry. His plays are phenomenally well-crafted, and structurally, nearly flawless. Thematically, Shakespeare is unmatched in his ability to touch the human soul, and to speak lucidly and profoundly to human lives. Perhaps the most convincing argument for his genius is that he is the most quoted, most translated of any author on earth. And while we who love his plays get to know his characters very well, not very much is known of the man who created them.

Orson Welles as Macbeth

Shakespeare's Macbeth is one of his best-known and best-loved works. In the past ten years alone there have been six film versions of this play, one set in a hospital ward during a war, one involving drug lords in Australia, one adaptation from Mumbai, India, and two set in fast food restaurants. (Fast food restaurants? Well, there is considerable blood in this play.) 

In 1948, Orson Welles (see left) filmed an extraordinarily haunting version of Macbeth that visually is breathtaking, and considered a classic take on this play today. What many don't realize though, is that in 1936, Welles, just two years shy of his infamy in broadcasting The War of the Worlds, staged an all-African American version of Macbeth set in Haiti. The play was staged in Harlem, and funded by the Works Project Administration. It received excellent reviews, although including black actors in Shakespeare at the time was radical, and it pejoratively became known as the "Voodoo" Macbeth, Welles would later prove his genius, far ahead of his time, in understanding the universal appeal of Shakespeare.  Check out as the rap artist Akala, explains the hip-hop in Shakespeare and conducts a workshop to rap to the bard. In 1957, Akira Kurosawa, famed Japanese director, did a spectacular adaptation called Throne of Blood, set among Samurai warriors. 

This theater company in Washington, DC, seeks to
preserve classic plays with universal themes for all ages

Shakespeare's timelessness is at work here: Macbeth asks dark questions of the nature of the human soul and redemption that will always resonate:  What happens when a person is expected to be violent, in a violent world? What happens if the most important person in your life rails at you to commit murder to gain power and her respect? Does violence yield real power, or does it breed fear and paranoia? Can you find redemption for your most horrid sins, or will their memories haunt your days and shatter your nights? When you commit evil, is Hell in the afterlife, or in this one? 

Shakespeare’s characters shape his spirit for us, if not his life. Borrowing here from Macbeth, they strut and fret their hours upon the stage of our lives, to the last syllable of recorded time, for all our tomorrows. And what a haunting and engaging set of spirits they are as their pageants recreate the fabric of our lives and remind us that “we are such stuff / As dreams are made on. And our little life / Is rounded with a sleep” (Tempest 4.1). 

Fussli, Johann Heinrich

Lady Macbeth Walking in Her Sleep, 1741-1825

Louvres, Paris.

Macbeth Thematic Questions 

• What happens when a person is expected to be violent, in a violent world? 
• What do you do if the most important person in your life rails at you to murder a family member to gain power and respect? 
• Does violence yield real power, or does it breed fear and paranoia? 
• Can you find redemption for your most horrid sins, or will their memories haunt your days and shatter your nights? 
• When you commit evil, is Hell in the afterlife, or in this one?
• How does Shakespeare use supernatural elements to express psychological reality for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in this play?

Francesco Zuccarelli
Macbeth Meeting the Witches, 1760
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.