Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics

by Greenblatt, Stephen
ISBN: 9780393356977
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Overview

Examining the psyche--and psychoses--of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, and Coriolanus, Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the disasters visited upon the societies over which these characters rule. Tyrant shows that Shakespeare's work remains vitally relevant today, not least in its probing of the unquenchable, narcissistic appetites of demagogues and the self-destructive willingness of collaborators who indulge them.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Greenblatt, Stephen
  • ISBN: 9780393356977
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 8.10 x 0.60
  • Number Of Pages: 224
  • Publication Year: 2019

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  • Shakespeare on Politics and Power

    Bryan D. - 3 years 10 months ago

    President Trump's first televised cabinet meeting began with each new department head having a turn to state how grateful they were for being selected to their job, and to praise the new president with varying degrees of obsequiousness. A very similar scene had been written hundreds of years before: Literature buffs on the internet were quick to point out the parallels to the opening act of "King Lear," in which Lear's duplicitous daughters lavish false praise on their father. (One blurts out she loves the king more than "eyesight, space, and liberty!") A chilling parallel, perhaps, and yet, don't Trump SUPPORTERS see every bit the tyrant when they look at President Obama? Well, why not hear from a long-dead bard whose plays have endured 400 years, and get his perspective? This book looks at all Shakespeare's power-hungry rulers to see what universal themes and human experiences might be discovered there, no matter what century you find yourself living in.

    HPB Staff Review