It’s too early to bin wise Shakespeare

THUMBS up, Bruce Whitfield, for “Uneasy lies he that wears a shower head” (April 2).

I was teaching Othello to Grade 12s at the time of the OJ Simpson trial. What a perfect hook on which to hang my lessons. Jealousy, believing what another tells you because it’s what you want to hear, plotting and scheming to remove someone you consider to be standing in your way. So many life lessons.

But probably the one play from which we can learn the most and hopefully absorb much insight into the human mind is Macbeth.

Shakespeare was not just a wordsmith, he was a psychologist of note. His wisdom will never become outdated or irrelevant. Is it possible that the mirror of truth he holds up makes you feel uncomfortable, thus it’s easier to use the labels “irrelevant” and “400-plus years old”? Truth is universal and ageless.

The most brilliant essay question ever set in the Grade 12 English prescribed paper (if I remember correctly, somewhere in the mid-2000s) was along these lines: What can today’s leaders of countries learn from Macbeth?

I said at the time and repeat it now: the study of Macbeth should be made compulsory for all leaders who may then learn to beware the pitfalls of avarice, political machinations, losing one’s moral compass, corruption, self-interest and being too weak to resist because the gravy train is too alluring — so “a little water clears us of this deed”.

What an easy way to salve our consciences when we have fallen prey to the guiles of others. Macbeth, when finally captured, says: “For mine own good/All causes shall give way. I am in blood/Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

The “brave Macbeth” is now a fallen, cornered rat. What a lesson!

And they say Shakespeare is too old-fashioned! Really?

Well done, Bruce. Hope you don’t mind me adding to your quotations. — Shakespeare fan, by e-mail