Saturday, April 23, is the recognized birth date and the 400th anniversary of the confirmed death date of William Shakespeare, an extraordinary genius, probably the most effective writer ever in the English language and certainly the finest playwright (there's no birth certificate; he was baptized on April 26). His great tragedies stimulate introspective reflection: "Hamlet" (best play ever written), "Macbeth," "King Lear," "Romeo and Juliet," "Othello," "Julius Caesar" (perhaps a dozen in all). They all examine the flaws we have as human beings and the way external forces act on those flaws and the vulnerabilities they create, particularly in powerful people.
The English history plays provide considerable insight into the processes and nuances of medieval and Renaissance politics, and into the sociology of those periods, scrutinizing everyone from royals and nobility to beggars and brothel habitués. The characterizations he provides of Richard III, King John, Henry IV, Henry VI and even Henry VIII, among others, are more compelling in popular culture than all the more accurate observations the many historians have written about them.
Once accustomed to Shakespeare, the comedies (plays with a happy rather than a tragic ending), more than a dozen, often grow in popularity, especially "Merchant of Venice," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and "As You Like It." All aficionados have their favorite. Deception is a constant element in these stories, but also plays on words, verbal parries, and great irony. As with all the plays, the more times they're read and watched, the more one catches, and the more fun they become.
Shakespeare's effect on modern culture is profound. The way he understood and presented myriad concepts color the way we understand and react to them. Love, ambition, betrayal, competition, justice, amusement, despair, tragedy itself, all reflect Shakespeare's treatment of them in the way we experience them today, often without our being aware of his influence on us.
The great figures that have paid homage to Shakespeare are nearly endless. Abraham Lincoln said the bard was second in importance in his thinking only to the Christian Bible (his favorite play was "Macbeth"). Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Nor sequent centuries could hit, Orb or sum of Shakespeare's wit." Thomas Carlyle thought him the greatest of all intellects. Laurence Olivier thought him the nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God. And Dame Ellen Terry, great English Shakespearean actress of the early 20th century, wrote: "Wonderful women! Have you ever thought how much we all, and women especially, owe to Shakespeare for his vindication of women in these fearless, high-spirited, resolute and intelligent heroines?"
What exactly is Shakespeare's influence on us today, aside from helping to shape the way we think? He forces perspective on us. To read or watch "Hamlet" is to think again the question of what life is about; what's the point of it all? "To be, or not to be -- that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them." This we must think again when we learn of the tragic suicides across Alaska.
To read or watch "Macbeth" is to wonder again about the true significance of any one of us: "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." This we should remember when we fall to believing in our indispensability.
To read or watch "King Lear" is to think again of honesty and illusion: "Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say." And "Nothing can come of nothing."
As we get caught up in our daily routines and preoccupations, Shakespeare can help us to transcend ego and the mundane, and remember context and scale.
"And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything." -- from "As You Like It."
Steve Haycox is professor emeritus of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
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