King Lear. Julius Caesar. Coriolanus. Richard III. The Bard found some lasting success with his portrayals of powerful men who are not nice people. Madness. Betrayal. Megalomania. Corruption. Hubris and the inevitable and fitting Downfall. Tis written in the stars. Thus has it ever been, thus shall it ever be.
So it is today as we strive to determine what the Fates plan for ourselves and our world. The larger-than-life character of Donald Trump has sprawled across our stage, performing a compelling and compulsory drama that would intrigue Bill Shakespeare and delight Samuel Beckett. There is an absurdity in his ascension to the throne, and the unyielding support among his base speaks to the human faults that animate our daily actions.
How could Bill S. not think of King Lear if he were to have witnessed last week's First Full Cabinet Meeting with the President? I suppose everyone was just happy to have finally found the light switch to the meeting room. Take a peek at the following for some high-level and revolting examples of sycophantic boot-licking. This is what a Loyalty Oath Cabinet looks like:
“Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak when power to flattery bows? To plainness honor’s bound when majesty falls to folly.” So said Kent at the beginning of King Lear, a ruler who surrounds himself with Yes Men and Smoke Blowers. Lear ends up alone, naked and insane, howling on the barren heath while nature storms all around him. Not a good ending for one who enjoys hearing how great he is, like this guy:
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| (Who will be the first to stop clapping?) |
Yes, Jong-un won't end up well, either. And it is interesting what El Presidente Trump has to say about this loathsome guy. Anyway, another figure that Bill S. highlighted was Julius Caesar. The theme of an Authoritarian who seems intent on overthrowing the democratic norms of the Roman Republic has particular resonance with us today. There was a major fracas last week when protesters interrupted a production of the play, which depicted Caesar as a Trump-a-like:
I guess the uproar from the Right has been from its assumption that the producers of the play are suggesting Trump be assassinated, like a modern day Orange Julius. I really don't recall any such outrage when an earlier but similar production of JC cast the despot as a Barack Obama look-alike. Regardless, any theatre fan will know that all those who conspired and killed Caesar ended up in a very bad way indeed. That was The Bard's point, after all.
Coriolanus is another Roman-centric tragedy that involves the demise of a flawed Strong Man in a highly-charged political setting. The central character is no Donald Trump, but it can be argued that the common citizens of Rome are very much like today's Trumpenproletariats. As one writer has said about Coriolanus, "Is it an accident that Trump adviser Steve Bannon co-wrote a Los Angeles-riot-inspired, rap musical version of Shakespeare's Coriolanus? In that story, Coriolanus becomes a political candidate, refuses to flatter popular taste, turns against his own citizenry while uniting with his country's enemies..." Give this piece on Shakespeare and Trump a couple of minutes to read, it's quite good:
Oy vey. Then there is Trump as everyone's favorite villain, Richard III. "...the character is a satanic joker who systematically wipes out all obstacles to ultimate power, puts on a false face to deceive the populace and is ultimately confronted by his own hollowness. As he says on the eve of battle: “There is no creature loves me; and if I die, no soul shall pity me.” For more on this, take a quick peek at the Guardian's piece.
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| "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" |
Of course there aren't any full overlaps of Shakespeare's characters with our current Chief Executive. How could a playwright from 500 years ago anticipate a Sui Generis such as DT? Perhaps it will end like Bill S. envisioned in The Tempest, where a deposed ruler and his daughter live in exile upon a deserted isle...
Or it could end in the full madness of Caligula, the Roman emperor who many believed was Loonus Maximus. It was Caligula who ordered a Roman Legion to attack the English Channel, thrashing and splashing their swords at waves and pelting the water with seashells. It was also Caligula who made his horse into a Roman Senator, presumably with full pension and health benefits.
Which brings us to this fine joke from the comic John Mulvaney about a recent trip to Japan where he had to explain Donald Trump:
“To me it’s like there’s a horse loose in a hospital. Like, I think everything’s gonna be okay, but I have no idea what’s gonna happen next, and none of you know either. We’ve all never not known together,” he says. “It’s confusing, because every day we just have to follow the horse. And some days it’s like ‘The horse used the elevator!’ You know, there’s days where you’re like ‘Is the horse smart?’ And then we’re all just like ‘Why hasn’t the horse catcher caught the horse?’ and then the horse is like ‘I have fired the horse catcher.’ That shouldn’t be a thing.
Yes, that shouldn't be a thing. Oh, what would William Shakespeare say?
1 comment:
Beautiful. I saw Mulvaney do the Horse in the hospital bit on Colbert and was in tears with laughter. As Johnny Carson would say "Great stuff"
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