“Who’s Shakespeare?” John
asked when I mentioned the bard in a casual conversation.
“Didn’t you study an
extract from Julius Caesar a few
months back?” I asked with concealed consternation. John had just passed class ten from CBSE.
 |
| I come to bury Caesar and not to praise him |
“Yup!” he
remembered. “I come to bury Caesar and not to praise him,” he quoted Shakespeare’s
Mark Antony from memory.
“What makes that line
memorable to you?”
“Mark Antony was lying,”
said John. “He did just the opposite?”
Coming from a fifteen
year-old boy, that was quite a brilliant answer. “Did your teacher say that?” I asked.
“Not exactly. But I liked Mark Antony. He’s a good politician.”
“Good orator, you mean?”
“That too. But a good
politician,” he persisted.
“Because he lied
effectively?”
He thought for a
while. “He achieved what he wanted.” In his own style John went on to tell me that
he admired Mark Antony for subverting the entire paradigm that Brutus had built
up. “And
Brutus is an honourable man,” John quoted Mark Antony while he explained to
me his admiration for his Shakespearean hero though Shakespeare himself had not
struck a chord in his memory. John knew
that Brutus was indeed an honourable man, that his intentions were right, that
he meant well for his nation. “But Mark Antony
is the real hero,” he concluded.
In John’s view real
heroes are people who win in the end. He didn’t know the end of Julius Caesar, of course. He had read only the extract prescribed in
the course. He was not interested in
anything beyond that, beyond scoring a good grade in the exam.
But what he said made me
think. Isn’t that what heroism means to
most people: victory and power? Mark
Antony knew how to play with people’s emotions.
He knew how to subvert the emotions.
He knew how to implant in their minds and hearts what he wanted to
implant. He knew how to rule them by
giving them the right myths and symbols.
What would Shakespeare
write if he were alive today? I
wondered. We have Mark Antonies galore today.
How will Shakespeare dramatise them? As
heroes or villains? Was Mark Antony a
hero or a villain with all his deceit, duplicity, rhetorical gifts and strength
of character?
I miss Shakespeare. I hear the question hitting my vital innards:
Who is Shakespeare?
I must confess that even I didn't go beyond what was given in the book. I still remember some of the scenes from that chapter and how being a good orator is essential to politics, I got to know for the first time the use of the phrase (or idiom?) - lend me your ears, and also the famous - et tu Brutus. A memorable chapter ��
ReplyDeleteRegarding the likes of Mark Anthony, I wonder how much an orator asks these days to lend him ears, given the bhakti of many
It is the present day Mark Antonies that prompted this post. As a teacher I link my classes with current affairs and generate discussion though students are not much interested in anything beyond the exams and grades. The greatest advantage for any ruler is the indifferent or gullible citizen. Crooks and knaves flourish when the better ones stick to their private lives.
DeleteInteresting post...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this awesome post..
ReplyDeleteOne of your best according to me! Just awed by John's response and assessment of the characters.
ReplyDelete"Isn’t that what heroism means to most people: victory and power?" that's such a a poignant query.
That you link your classes with current affairs and generate discussions is something extremely commendable and I feel that is what every teacher should do coz definitely there're ears and eyes and senses than we think there're.