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As Large a Charter as the Wind* Shakespeares Stand on Human Freedom

SAMUEL SAND

Soul of the Age, The applause, the delight, The wonder of our stage, Our Shakespeare Rise! Our Shakespeare! the venerable Sir Derek Jacobi echoes Ben Jonson almost reverently in the beginning of the dubious movie Anonymous, after which the movie degenerates into an anti-Shakespearean diatribe rife with wild speculations unfounded claims and exaggerated and impossible leaps of logic !t ends in a pandemonium of vituperative declarations that seem to be vindictive rather than scholarly or constructive "he claims made by the makers of the movie suspiciously seem to be an attempt at denouncing the Bard rather than promoting the shallow, foppish #arl of $xford So, %ho is Shakespeare& $r for the matter let's ask( %hat is Shakespeare& As schoolboys we came across the seven stages of man and the betrayal of Julius )aesar and *+riends, ,omans, )ountrymen-' along with the three bearded witches and *"o be or not to be-' monotonously mouthed by #nglish teachers with their eyes on their watches waiting for the period to be over Shakespeare is *.aper /' for +inal year BA #nglish students in /eer 0armad South 1u2arat 3niversity +or some Shakespeare is bunch of confusing sonnets, verbose plays and complicated texts, Shakespeare for a lot is simply an #nglish writer and for some others Shakespeare is 2ust a mask for a rag tag bunch of playwrights, philosophers, aristocrats or simply women in some cases cowering to shield their identity from the powers that be 4owever, the 5uestions most people seem to be asking about Shakespeare is( 4ow can a young man with grammar school education, who fled his hometown leaving behind his wife and children after being whipped by a lord for killing a deer on his land and who worked as a valet in the seedy theatres on the banks of river "hames in ,enaissance 6ondon be "4# S4A7#S.#A,#& $ur Shakespeare, ,ise8 %ill the real Shakespeare please stand up&

!n his delightful little book *The Age of Shakespeare,' Sir +rank 7ermode explains briefly the con2ectures about *the lost years' of Shakespeare's life and how literary historians like John Aubrey contemplated the way Shakespeare could have become Shakespeare !t is evident that those con2ectures have become established as the *history' of Shakespeare's life in certain circles of literary scholars who in attempts to understand Shakespeare end up dabbling in unfounded myths while the unscrupulous anti-Shakespearean brigade sei9es such baseless myths to argue against the very existence of Shakespeare 4owever, there are some sane, balanced attempts to sift the wheat from the chaff as scholars like James Shapiro, Jonathan Bate, .ark 4onan, Stephen 1reenblatt and .eter Ackroyd struggle against the tide to give us the :an ; %illiam Shakespeare in his contemporary environment But, as is the trend, conspiracies with the least amount of evidence can stand up to rigorously researched and well established facts in the age of *keyboard scholars ' 4owever, the glossy slick presentation of Sir Jacobi's *swords and 5uills' film fails to satisfy a rigorous examination as .rof Stanley %ells points out in his interview with .rof )arol ,utter at the %arwick 3niversity Along with the Shakespeare denials, there has been a rise in Shakespeare ,evisionism and ,einterpretation that has degraded into a direct refusal to teach Shakespeare in 3niversities across the world in the <=st century Two-thirds of the nation's top 70 universities no longer insist that English majors take a Shakespeare course, according to one recent stud !" says a report in the Los Angeles Times. !nstead of Shakespeare, students are offered advertising imager , #adonna l rics, $nternet %&ines and '(ueer )iction' as #nglish Studies says the same report "hough it seems 5uite farfetched, the contemporary trend of Shakespeare bashing has led to the decline in the official offering of the Bard though his influence has not at all diminished across the globe "he so called experts from the academia point out that Shakespeare has become redundant in the <=st century and is no longer a prere5uisite in the age of media and internet where the focus is on *communicative language' rather than rhetoric literature ! would like to point out that anti-Shakespearean sentiment is nothing new and literary giants like D 4 6awrence, )ount 6ev "olstoy, 1eorge Bernard Shaw and /oltaire raved and ranted against the Bard So the current trend of Shakespeare bashing is best ignored by mainstream scholarly undertaking But there is another threatening matter that has to be addressed urgently by level headed scholars across the academia "here was a shocking report about Shakespeare awareness in his homeland in the 4uffington .ost that read( * recent stud out of the +, revealed that almost a third of schoolchildren under the age of -. had never heard of their countr /s most famous writer0 The statistics for adults -1-.2 were e3uall dismal0 )ive percent 4elieved Shakespeare/s most famous pla was 5inderella, and nearl half 62789 were una4le to complete the line :omeo, :omeo!" with the correct response wherefore art thou :omeo" from Shakespeare/s 4est known pla , :omeo and ;uliet0

"he so called new schools of thoughts pervading the academia across the world are relentlessly trying to push forward their political and ideological agendas into literary studies by chipping away at the foundations of the standards of aesthetics and trying to destroying the age old standards By trying to demolish the established time tried norms of beauty and sublimity they want to rearrange the criteria for *good' literature on the basis of gender, sexuality, class, colour, caste, nationalism and a variety of other spur of the moment fads "hese propounders of capricious and whimsical benchmarks actually seem to resent the inability to measure up to the accepted standards of aesthetics and want to make inroad into the canon through shortcuts on the basis of imaginary wrongs meted upon their ancestors by the ancestors of the supposed keepers of the canon 4owever, the most conspicuous aspect of these schools of new codes is that their principles are transient and fail to make a permanent mark on literature as a ma2ority of their proponents seem to abandon them midway "he basic reason for the abandonment of such principles is that those framing them have temporary vested agendas to promote and they take refuge in literature by trying to subvert it to their personal gains "he common factor that sticks out among all the new proposed methods of approaching literature is simply >resentment,? ; as pointed out by .rof 4arold Bloom ! think some people may *resent' my use of the word *resentment,' but ! would like to point out that if they are really concerned with the wrongs out there in the world ! believe it would serve their cause better if they went out there in the real world and tried to address the wrongs there instead of trying to tamper with literary masterpieces created hundreds of years ago "he approach to Shakespeare on the basis of certain contingent system would be intrinsically flawed as .aul )efalu explains in his book Revisionist Shakespeare( One would be foolhardy, given that the enter of gravity in Shakespeare!s plays is arguably hara ter and human psy hology rather than plot, to laim that Shakespeare is fundamentally on erned with the way that systems operate rather than the way people a t"or that systems an be ade#uately evaluated on e they have been on eptually sundered from human agen y. )oming back to Shakespeare, ! would like to point out that in spite of the baseless accusations against the Bard by these *schools of resentment,' Shakespeare never was an elitist, he echoed the *vox populi' though he wrote plays that were staged for monarchs !n his wonderful book Shakespeare!s $reedom, Stephen 1reenblatt writes( Shakespeare as a writer is the embodiment of human freedom% &T'hough he lived his life as the bound sub(e t of a monar h in a stri tly hierar hi al so iety that poli ed e)pression in spee h and in print, he possessed what *amlet alls a free soul. Shakespeare voices the pain and the angst of the commoners, the marginali9ed and the outcasts of society !n addition to the stellar cast of kings and monarchs in his plays, characters populating the fringes of society make their voices heard "he cacophony of human angst is heard not only from the mouths of the rulers but also from the mouths of the *persona non grata' like $thello,

Shylock and )aliban !f indeed Shakespeare was being sycophantic to his monarchs his dialogues would not have been so harsh and scathing towards the abuse of authority(

+ut man, proud man, ,ressed in a little brief authority, -ost ignorant of what he.s most assured / *is glassy essen e / like an angry ape 0lays su h fantasti tri ks before high heaven As makes the angels weep. -easure for -easure < < ==@-<A Shakespeare comes across harshly and impatiently at those basking haughtily in their temporal power 4is words come as a grim reminder to the evanescence of their power and the likelihood of offending divine powers by its abuse 1reenblatt goes on to point out that the abuse of power invariably has its * onse#uen es, long/ term, ines apable, and impossible to ontrol.! And, those in authority who abuse their power rarely go unpunished and *one!s wi ked a tions inevitably return, with interest.! "he Bard seems to be admonishing the powers that be to be careful of in their execution of their power on the less powerful or face divine wrath 4owever, practitioners of some schools of thought try to focus on Shakespeare in social or political contexts ending up BmisCreading meanings and allusions that do not exist within the text but actually are their own pro2ections Such BmisCreading of meaning and allusions into the text results in seeing ghosts where none exist as Jonathan Bate says of post-colonialists in his book The 1enius of Shakespeare who end up believing >-that the play D"he "empestE is in fa t a te)t reeking of the dis ourse of olonialism. The Tempest must bear the blame for the Atlanti slave trade.2 ! can't stop myself from pointing out that the hypotheses put forward by the father of post colonialism, #dward Said in $rientalism, have been rendered redundant in the twenty first century after knowledgeable repudiations like that of Ai2a9 Ahmed Similarly in her essay 3Representing Ophelia4 5omen, -adness, and the Responsibilities of $eminist 6riti ism2 +eminist )ritic #laine Showalter writes( 3%Ophelia might onfirm the impossibility of representing the feminine in patriar hal dis ourse as other than madness, in oheren e, fluidity, or silen e.2 She goes on to point out the wordplay on >nothing? as a vulgar slang representation of the female genitals in 4amlet and makes a logical leap that the same word *nothing' ends up representing *women ' 4owever, it is evident that Showalter is elevating the treatment of the body to the level of providing a kind of guide to the sexual roles being depicted in literature And, such sexual roles become central to the meaning of a work in such a frame work +eminists, attempting to put the role of sex above all else, are actually sifting through ShakespeareFs plays in search of echoes of their own ideology "he main belief is that male domination itself and the

suppression of feminine influences are the root cause of tragedy in both theater and real life But in such attempts +eminists fail to look at the larger picture individuals making fateful and fatal errors as they confront such immemorial issues as ambition, greed, vengeance, vanity and 2ealousy !n their sensational work, !a"ka# $o%ards a Minor Literature, Deleu9e and 1uattari proposed the construct of a *:inor 6iterature' on the basis of a hypothetical *de-territoriali9ation' which is supposed to be a sub cultural entity against a backdrop of a dominant culture !n their opinion a :inor 6iterature was the voice of the oppressed and the marginali9ed heard in spite of the louder :a2or 6iterature "hey posited the :inor 6iterature of the 1erman-)9ech-Jew 7afka within the larger canvass of the 1erman literature !n contrast to the :a2or 6iterature that is oppressive, and founded upon transcendental 2ustifications, the minor literature is *a pro2ect of deterritoriali9ation( in the place of the exclusive rights of the privileged Gma2ority,G a minor literature gives free play to the disenfranchised, to minorities--women or people from developing countries--who comprise in reality the ma2ority ' 4owever, such claims fail to push Shakespeare into an *exclusive' or *elitist' mould as he makes the voices of marginali9ed characters like Shylock, $thello, )aliban and Ariel cry out against oppression for freedom $n a final note ! would like to call for a reassessment of the critical approaches employed in the study of Shakespeare !n the twenty first century as claims and counter-claims fly thickly in the air, it is necessary to refocus on the *human condition' rather than create divisions based on imaginary borders and boundaries ! believe Shakespeare is the greatest uniting force that humanity has ever produced unlike religions that fragment human society and it is high time we go back to reclaim our right to en2oy the most sublime expression of human essence that is Shakespeare

&e"eren'es# = 7ermode, Sir +rank, $he Age o" Shakespeare, 6ondon( .hoenix, <HHI < 1reenblatt, Stephen, Shakespeares Freedom, )hicago( 3niversity of )hicago, <H=H A )efalu, .aul, &e(isionist Shakespeare, 0J( .algrave :acmillan, <HHK K 4onan, .ark, Shakespeare# a Li"e, $xford( $3., =LLL I Bloom, 4arold, Shakespeare# $he n(ention o" the Human, 0J( ,iverhead, =LL@ M Showalter, #laine, &epresenting )phe*ia# Women+ Madness+ and the &esponsi,i*ities o" Feminist Criti'ism, from Shakespeare and the Nuestion of "heory, #d, .atricia .arker O 1eoffrey 4artman, :euthen O )o =L@I P Deleu9e and 1uattari, !a"ka# $o%ards a Minor Literature+ :innesota, 3niversity of :innesota, =L@M @ Said, #dward, )rienta*ism+ 6ondon( ,outledge O 7eegan, =LP@ L Ahmed, Ai2a9, $heor-# C*asses+ Nations+ Literatures, 6ondon( /erso, =LL< =H 4owarth, David, Dis'ourse, Buckingham( $pen 3niversity .ress,<HH< We, &e"eren'e#

=C http(QQarticles latimes comQ=LLP-HA-<IQnewsQmn-K=@K@R=Renglish-ma2ors <C http(QQwww huffingtonpost co ukQ<H=<Q=HQH=Qthird-of-schoolchildren-shakespeareplaywrightRnR=L<PLPL html&utmRhpRrefSemailRshare

T"he title is derived from As 7ou like 8t < P KP-L, Jac5ues's plea for freedom of speech( $ must have li4ert <ithal, as large a harter as the wind, To 4low on whom $ please0

Samuel Sandi has been teaching #nglish 6anguage, 6iterature, 6inguistics and 6iterary "heory at 1uruskool 6anguage !nstitute, 0avsari, 1u2arat, for the last ten years 4e has published several articles on 6anguage and 6iterature in 0ational and !nternational Journals 4e has presented several papers in 0ational and !nternational )onferences 4is Short +iction has been published in newspapers and maga9ines at the 0ational 6evel 4e also writes and directs plays that have been staged across the State

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