University of Ni Faculty of Philosophy English Department

Shakespeare A Special Course

Shakespeare against the education that serves imperialistic purposes by leading to the culture of conformity

Student: Marijana Mileti Ni, Serbia

2011

Teacher Advisor: Ljiljana Bogoeva Sedlar

The Role of Education British social philosopher Herbert Spencer claims that the ultimate aim of education is not knowledge but action. The message he conveys is that the very purpose of education is not the knowledge itself, but the action which will be the very consequence of that knowledge, or as it has frequently been the case in our history, literature, and therefore reality, the lack of that action. His statement also implies that very often we act according to the teachings we have received, which may lead us to the conclusion that education has a crucial role in shaping us as human beings. Spencer explains the ultimate goal of education in the following statement: "If we enquire what the real motive for giving a classical education is, we find it to be simply conformity to the public opinion. People dress their childrens minds as they do their bodies, in the prevailing fashion."1 The metaphor of dressing childrens minds that Spencer wittily uses clearly indicates that no matter what the fashion, or societal norms, of an epoch are, it is exactly what children are taught by their parents, teachers, institutions, the whole community. The ultimate goal, of course, is conformity. The Influence of Institutional Education In his essay "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" Paulo Freire states that there is no such thing as neutral education, due to the fact that education either leads us to humanization, by making us free and turning us into independent critics of our own reality, or dehumanization, by turning us into conformists, or obedient servants of the system. Education that dehumanizes leads to oppression. On the other hand, humanistic education creates leadership which brings the transformation of the world. How can we differ one from the other? The difference lies in the method which is used. In order to explain the difference, Paulo Freire introduces the "banking" concept of education where people are treated as objects to be filled with various deposits. This kind of education
1

Spencer, Herbert, Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical

suffers from "narration sickness". This is how the process itself looks like: the teacher is talking; the students are listening and storing all the information. They are objects which know nothing, whose role in the whole process is completely passive, static. They neither challenge, nor ask. They are completely positive that they are ignorant, and it is their ignorance that justifies their teachers existence. The teacher is omnipotent. His word is the truth. Moreover, there is only one truth, which cannot become the object of different interpretations. The students are empty pages to be filled. They do not choose what is to be written. All they do is adapt. The more willing they are to adapt, the greater the domination over them is. The ultimate result: the assassination of creative and critical thought, which leads to conformity. Quite contrary to this method of education is the "problem-posing" one, where dialogue is encouraged and both students and teachers are perceived as subjects of learning, which means that they are constantly learning from one another, by challenging their world-views. This is the kind of education that stimulates self-reflection and the reflection of the world we live in, and that results in better understanding of our reality, ourselves and others. Not only does it give us the gift of understanding and awareness, but it also encourages action and solution-finding, so that we do not become passive observers which are too flexible to change anything, but active participants and transformers of the world. To conclude, the first method of education which treats people as objects serves as the means of oppression and leads to the creation of conformists who passively react to everything that happens in their surroundings. On the other hand, the second one is the method of liberation, which by encouraging people to become proactive learners, develops them into independent thinkers who are not afraid to take responsibility, act and bring positive changes. By influencing the burning issues through their actions, they are contributing to the creation of a new, better reality. Louis Althusser in his "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" poses the question: "What do children learn at school? They go varying distances in their studies, but at any rate they learn to read, to write and to add i.e. a number of techniques, and a number of other things as

well, including elements (which may be rudimentary or on the contrary thoroughgoing) of scientific or literary culture, which are directly useful in the different jobs in production (one instruction for manual workers, another for technicians, a third for engineers, a final one for higher management, etc.). Thus they learn know-how. But besides these techniques and knowledge, and in learning them, children at school also learn the rules of good behaviour, i.e. the attitude that should be observed by every agent in the division of labour, according to the job he is destined for: rules of morality, civic and professional conscience, which actually means rules of respect for the socio-technical division of labour and ultimately the rules of the order established by class domination. They also learn to speak proper French, to handle the workers correctly, i.e. actually (for the future capitalists and their servants) to order them about properly, i.e. (ideally) to speak to them in the right way, etc." 2 What Louis Althusser implies here is that classical education provides us with mechanical knowledge which does not broaden our minds: how to read, how to speak properly, mathematical operations, "know-how skills", which eventually turn us in productive workers: policemen, teachers, engineers. This actually brings us to the conclusion that classical education is more a kind of "training" than anything else. It trains us to become productive members of society. It has one more, equally important purpose: it also provides subjection to the ruling ideology and practice, to the rules of the established order, or "status quo", in order to ensure the domination of the ruling class. Shakespeare criticizes the kind of education that makes people passive and lurked into their own shells, walking half-asleep throughout life, not even noticing the injustice being so used to it. People who are products of the "banking" education which Paulo Ferire and Louis Althusser describe are not able to recognize the injustice inflicted upon them, the performance of their manual jobs being their only concern. On the other hand, education that opens our minds thus unlocking our potential for out-of-the-box-thinking and enabling us adopt reflective approach is what Shakespeare defends and promotes through his art.

Althusser. Louis, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

Through Shakespeares plays, and our own history and art, we may notice that education is used by the state or the system for imposing the exact rules, values and culture which support its causes and goals. Due to the fact that education crucially influences the formation of individuals and their personalities, it is also responsible for the existence of the main characteristics of the whole of society which is constituted of these individuals and established institutions. In his essay, Louis Althusser through Marxs metaphor briefly explains the layers that constitute the structure of society. Marx believed that every society consists of two basic levels, the first being the economic base, the second being the ruling regime and ideology. As it is true for any building, the upper floors would collapse if the lower floors are not stable enough. The state is described as the apparatus which ensures that the ruling class dominates over the rest of the population. Its two basic forms of control are: Repressive State Apparatuses, RSAs (police, courts, army etc.), which maintain order by the use of force, and Ideological State Apparatuses, ISAs, which do not function through the use of violence but through ideology. The author argues that one very important and dominant ISA has installed the basis for any social formation: The Educational Ideological Apparatus. According to Althusser, schools teach children the principles of ideology while also teaching them the rules of behavior, which ultimately leads to the submission to the established order. Furthermore, he mentions another important ISA that supports the educational ideological apparatus or operates side by side with it, and that is equally, if not more powerful in creating individuals that are loyal to the system and its rules and that is The Family State Apparatus. The Influence of Family In addition to formal education which influences children by ensuring their development into subjects that contribute to the sustainability of the established system and its rules, even greater influence is that of the family, which is the basic pore of society, and has a crucial role in the shaping of ones personality. The seeds planted by our families germinate and grow throughout our lives, determining our attitudes, values, behavior, character.

Many Shakespeares plays are dedicated to the family relations and provide us with examples of the upbringing of children in a way that is beneficial to the system. One such play is Hamlet. Both Ophelias father and brother are prone to imposing their own will on her, not even considering her opinion and emotions, never having the slightest suspicion that they might be wrong. What Polonius, the father of Ophelia, considers important is his own reputation. He treats his daughters feelings as completely irrelevant: POLONIOUS: Affection! Pooh! You speak like a green girl! 3 Ophelia is expected to obey and dismiss her feelings for Hamlet. Eventually, she agrees to play the assigned role, regardless of her true feelings. The thought of disobeying never actually comes to her mind, due to her being raised that way, and being taught obedience from the earliest childhood. But her inability to set free from the directions and live her own life leads to her psychological instability. Her frailty and innocence make her unable to cope with all the troubles and traumatic events that occur, finally resulting in her insanity. In Romeo and Juliet, there is an example of passionate love that leads to destruction, or more precisely, the self-destruction of two lovers, who perceive death as their only chance to unite due to their love being banned. Immaturity, inability to confront social norms, and lack of proper guidance are the reasons for which their love results in their self-destruction. The play depicts a society where honor is more appreciated than love. What is even worse is the perception of the concept of honor which is nothing more but the mixture of obstinacy and pride. People who live there believe that this kind of honor is something worthy to kill for. Therefore, a quarrel between two families is preserved for years, and it is quite obvious for them that the one willing to end it and give the hand of reconciliation would be giving up the family pride. It is the kind of society in which patriarchal power is apparent, and where Julias heart is by no means hers to give. In order to defend their love, Romeo and Juliet must rebel against their families and against the society they live in.

Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, 4,2

Although they have probably been raised in the same way as Ophelia in Hamlet, and have been taught obedience from their earliest years, unlike her, they refuse to conform. The nurse, as the instrument of society, teaches Juliet how to behave: JULIET Comfort me, counsel me. Alack, alack, that heaven should practice stratagems Upon so soft a subject as myself! What say'st thou? Hast thou not a word of joy? Some comfort, nurse. NURSE: Faith, here it is. Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing, That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you; Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth. Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, I think it best you married with the county. O, he's a lovely gentleman!4 Although their example is different from Ophelias due to their resistance, they also end tragically, and are unable to fight against the whole world and to defeat the system. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet, though self-imposed, can be seen as the act of rebelliousness against the norms of society. Being unable to resist them and to control the direction of their lives, they find suicide to be the only means of asserting authority over their selves. In both Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, we have families which do not support their childrens development into independent persons able to take control over their lives, make decisions, and take responsibilities for their choices. Quite the contrary, we have the examples of parents who value blind obedience and respect for the authority most, even at the expense of losing ones true self. Love, genuine feelings, and honest expression of opinion are perceived as rather threatening
4

Shakespeare, William, Romeo and Juliet, 3,5

 due to the fact that they may lead to rejection of material security and status, disrepute, or even undermine the established order. Parents know what is best for their children, and they struggle to teach them morality and the performance of duty, even if this performance causes the inner conflict resulting from the discrepancy between personal feelings and societal norms. What one should give up then is - oneself. Allice Miller provides us with a different side of the story in her book "For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence", "Morality and performance of duty are artificial measures that become necessary when something essential is lacking. The more successfully a person was denied access to his or her feelings in childhood, the larger the arsenal of intellectual weapons and the supply of moral prostheses has to be, because morality and a sense of duty are not sources of strength or fruitful soil for genuine affection. Blood does not flow in artificial limbs; they are for sale and can serve many masters. What was considered good yesterday can--depending on the decree of government of party--be considered evil and corrupt today, and vice versa. But those who have spontaneous feelings can only be themselves. They have no other choice if they want to remain true to themselves. Rejection, ostracism, loss of love, and name calling will not fail to affect them; they will suffer as a result and will dread them, but once they have found their authentic self they will not want to lose it. And when they sense that something is being demanded of them to which their whole being says no, they cannot do it. They simply cannot." 5 Alice Miller explains how family serves the interest of the state by practicing "the school of obedience", and shaping children into obedient subjects. In her "Poisonous Pedagogy" she draws our attention to the destructiveness and danger hidden behind "for your own good" psychological practice which parents use in order to raise their child "properly". Quite often, this approach is reduced to mere violence physical and mental. When the children who have been violated in this way grow up, they do not remember their childhood traumas due to the fact that the sour feeling is deeply suppressed, but the consequences are rather visible. What has this child been taught in his earliest childhood? The child who had been punished or slammed and forbidden to
5

Miller. Alice, For Your Own Good

cry and complain about it? They have taught him to repress his feelings, to keep silent, not to express his opinion, not to fight for his beliefs, not to search for justice. He has been taught to obey blindly. "The price I had to pay for what many people call "good upbringing" was that for a long time I was separated from my true feelings, from myself." 6 Alice Miller, who has conducted an extensive psychological research, claims that it is not the event itself which can cause traumas later in life, but the suppressed feelings related to that event. Therefore, the humiliation, sorrow and rage that a child feels after being slapped which are not being expressed due to parents threats, are being stored in his subconsciousness. The child treated this way develops the defense mechanism and begins to follow the pattern of restraint, passiveness, and retreatment from healthy expression of emotions. When a child treated like this grows up, he does not remember what has been done to him, but these destructive patterns of behavior remain. His will has been broken. He does not even remember that he had one. But the results of his upbringing may be manifested in his persecuting his own children which is apparent in the way he brings them up, with all possible degrees of emotional illness, addiction, criminality, and even suicide. Most certainly, he will apply the same poisonous measures of child-rearing to his own children, "for their own good". This poisonous pedagogy, in fact, fills the needs of the parents, not of the children. In their own children, they are able to see themselves, but now the roles are reversed. They are the ones who have power this time, and they will use it to dispose the accumulated anger. They are repeating the mistakes of their parents and providing continuum of the charmed circle. The only way to break this circle is reflection, and recognition of the harm done to them. The denial of the violence that one has endured leads to the new violence directed toward others or oneself. Alice Miller studied the development of several serial killers and traced similarities in their childhoods. She discovered the same pattern: the glorification of violence and extreme abuse. Hitler is the most striking example. Hitler actually succeeded in transferring the
6

Miller. Alice, For Your Own Good

trauma of his family life onto the entire German nation. As a child, he lived in a constant jeopardy from his father who was constantly beating him for no reason, just for the sake of recovering his own equilibrium distorted in his own childhood. After learning about his Jewish ancestry, Hitler's childhood hatred of his father found an outlet in the hatred of the Jews. As a grown man he orders burning of many books written by free-minded authors, the books he hated even though he has never read them. Maybe, if his potential had been allowed to flourish, he would have read and understood them. The fact that he had so many followers indicated that many people had childhoods similar to his. "My very point is to refrain from moralizing and only show cause and effect; namely, that those children who are beaten will in turn give beatings, those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation, and those whose souls are murdered will murder. When children are trained, they learn how to train others in turn. Children who are lectured to, learn how to lecture; if they are admonished, they learn how to admonish; if scolded, they learn how to scold; if ridiculed, they learn how to ridicule; if humiliated, they learn how to humiliate; if their psyche is killed, they will learn how to kill--the only question is who will be killed: oneself, others, or both." 7 As we may conclude, children are extensively influenced by the education provided by both their families and the institutions. The ultimate goal is the same: to impose values that are socially acceptable, and to turn them into obedient servants of the system and preservers of the status quo. Howard Barkers "Seven Lears" may serve as a very good demonstration of the fact that education plays a crucial role in childrens development: "BISHOP: I am your education. LEAR: I am hard to educate because I was born wise. BISHOP: Thats something everybody knows. LEAR: I will be relentlessly critical and nothing you say will I take on trust. Why should I? "8

7 8

Miller, Alice, For Your Own Good Barker, Howard, Seven Lears

This is the beginning of Lears and Bishops conversation. Bishop represents the education which the system wants its subjects to accept. At this point Lear is still a child, but due to the fact that he was born wise, he warns Bishop that nothing will be taken for granted, that he will process everything Bishop preaches, challenge him by asking questions and being critical. Lear suggests mutual learning, the one which Paulo Freire describes as "the problem-posing education" which enriches both teacher and learner. But when Lear asks Bishop how he will educate him, Bishop proves himself to be the representative of the kind of education Alice Miller describes as poisonous: "I will educate you by showing you how bad I am. Because I am a bad man you will learn much from me. I will tell you nothing but what accords with my experience, which is not a happy one. Hope, for example, I have dispensed with entirely. There will be no books because you know the books and I have digested them. I detest all untruths, but especially those which are sentimental, and I will beat you sometimes, for which I have authority. Almost certainly, these beatings will appear to you unjustified. I will explode in rages and then fawn on you. I may kiss your body and then ignore you for days on end. You will detest me and your innate sense of justice will cry out for satisfaction. When one day, that cry ceases, your education will be over. God alone knows why your father appointed me. "9 Similarities between Bishops description and the poisonous pedagogy Miller describes in her work are apparent: the Bishop states that everything he does is the product of his own experience, which means that he himself has gone through the same torture. For this reason he inflicts the same injustice he has been taught cruelty; he himself will be unjust in his treatment of Lear, even cruel - he promises to beat him. He will never allow any sentimentality because the expression of emotions, which is healthy, is a taboo. During the whole process Lears oppressed innate sense of justice will cry, but it needs to learn to be silent because when it is broken, the goal of education is achieved, and Lears education will be over. This is exactly what happens. As a child, Lear is full of care for the oppressed, of the thirst for justice, he is unselfish, eager to change the established rules and contribute to the better and more
9

Barker, Howard, Seven Lears

just society. But as his will is broken through the education he receives, which influences him in a way that it changes all his values and makes an entirely different person out of him the power-hungry, greedy, oppressive, at times even completely passive one, all the rational longings towards positive changes remain the dreams of his childhood, while, ironically enough, he himself is reduced to infantilism and devoid of extraordinary personality he once possessed. Bonds King Lear is another demonstration of parental influence and their transmission of values onto their children. King Lear is building a wall to keep enemies out. He is determined to sentence a worker to death due to his recklessness which distracts the progress of the wall. His daughters plead him to show mercy and let the worker live. BODICE. Father, if you kill this man it will be an injustice. LEAR. My dear, you want to help me, but you must let me deal with the things I understand. Listen and learn.10 This is the kind of instruction King Lear gives to his daughters: destroy everything that stands on the way towards the achievement of your goals. They did watch and learn closely and they grew up to be cruel and treacherous rulers. They plotted to seize their fathers throne and married his enemies. They both later expressed their dissatisfaction with their husbands. Nevertheless, they perceived their marriages useful for achieving further political goals. Bodice and Fontanelle even lied to and conspired against each other. BODICE(aside). I see my sister thinks like me, I must never trust her.11 Being disappointed by his daughters behavior and the way they have turned their backs on him, Lear poses the question: Where does their vileness come from?12

10 11

Bond, Edward, Lear, 1,1. Ibid. 1,4. 12 Ibid. 1,4.

Allice Miller would say: from the way they were brought up. The roots of violence lay in the treatment people receive as children. What Lear does not understand is that his daughters are the products of their own upbringing, that their behavior is determined by the examples he himself provided them with. Therefore, he is the one responsible for the fact that his daughters are unscrupulous butchers who enjoy the suffering of others, and are especially merciless towards those they consider their enemies. The kind of aggression Bodice and Fontanelle practice is also seen in Shakespeares Lear. Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, plots against his father and his legitimate son, Edgar. Deprived by his bastard birth of the respect and rank that he believes to be rightfully his, Edmund sets about raising himself by his own efforts, forging personal prosperity through treachery and betrayals. EDMUND: Thou, nature, art my goddess. To thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base? Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. Our fathers love is to the bastard Edmund As to the legitimate. Fine word -legitimate! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards!13

13

Ibid, 1, 2.

Edmund wants recognition more than anything else - perhaps, because of the familial love that has been denied to him - and he sets about getting that recognition by any means necessary. It is not a coincidence that the other two greatest villains in Shakespeares Lear are Goneril and Regan, not Cordellia who has been her fathers favorite child. It seems as if those children raised with a lot of love and recognition like Edgar and Cordellia have become just, able to love and to forgive, while the ones who value power and status above anything else are exactly those who have been emotionally deprived. Imperialistic Values Imposed by Society In preface to King Lear, Edward Bond explains where the violence comes from. His explanation corresponds to Alice Millers, in a way that he as well recognizes the psychological factor and the influence of the conditions in which ones personality has developed onto his character and behavior. I think that in normal surroundings and conditions members of the same species are not dangerous to one another, but that when they are kept in adverse conditions, and forced to behave unnaturally, their behavior deteriorates. This has been seen in zoos and laboratories. Then they become destructive and neurotic and make bad parents. They begin to behave like us. 14 What are the unnatural conditions Edward Bond refers to? Those are the conditions in which we are constantly deprived of our physical and emotional needs, thus being divorced from our true selves the conditions to which we respond aggressively. Good examples of what Edward explains in his Preface may be Edmund, in Shakespeares King Lear or Shylock in Merchant of Venice, another Shakespeares play. Both of them have been made evil by the unnatural and unhealthy conditions their society has made them live in where they have been deprived of love in general, just because they are illegitimate or bastard children like Edmund, or of Jewish origin, like Shylock.

14

Bond, Edward, Lear, Preface

"I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrongs a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrongs a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."15 Shylocks aggression is nothing more but an answer to the aggression of the society he lives in, which is based on discrimination. Shylock is simply applying the lessons taught to him by the Christians. They expect him to show mercy, but they have hardly shown any towards him. This implies that he has been demonized by the society and its teachings. The environment which Bond describes as unhealthy in his preface is the one in which Shylock has been forced to live and work. This is why he could not become much different from a villain who satisfies his anger, accumulated by the injustice and harm done to him, by demanding from his debtor to pay off his debt by giving a pound of his flesh. It should be noted that these conditions - the environment in which we develop - depend on the values which are promoted in society by the ruling regime, and which are widely accepted by its people. Shylocks example demonstrates that the conditions we live in crucially influence our development and personality, and therefore our behavior. All this leads us to the conclusion that the culture of the society we live in, which is comprised of certain rules of behavior, standards, values, norms etc. greatly influences the way people think and behave. Furthermore, this culture is being created by the highest social layers and divisions by the ruling class. Logically enough, the ruling class imposes exactly those values and creates the kind of culture that supports its own way of functioning and provides it with resources needed for the fulfillment of its vision and goals. It is questionable whether these goals correspond to the wellbeing of the people and of the society as a whole. Frequently, those goals
15

Shakespeare, William, The Merchant of Venice, 3,1

and purposes are selfish, and there is nothing more than personal interests at their very core, but they are very carefully and cunningly wrapped into imperialistic values such us honor, patriotism, spite, national pride values which contribute to the establishment of aggressive, imperialistic, war-loving culture and society. Shakespeares plays are rich in descriptions and criticism of the society of this kind, its imperialistic teachings, and heroes raised in a way to worship war, pride and fame more than anything else, thus ensuring its survival. One of them is Colonius, the most faithful representative of imperialistic Rome. It is no wonder that he is mostly influenced, and shaped by the society he lives in, as well as by his mother, Volumnia, who, being denied social and political influence as a woman, exercises her power through her son. Volumnia is proud of her sons wounds, which would bring him even greater fame and respect among people. She states that she is proud to raise children who are willing to die for their country: VOLUMNIA: Then his good report should have been my son; therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.16 This way, through the upbringing which makes soldiers out of children, the mother becomes the defender of the empire and its interests. Volumnia is the best example of the misuse of motherhood, and of the manner in which parents become tools in the hands of the state. But she herself has been educated to ensure the perpetuation of the system by the manner in which she has been brought up which is prescribed by the state. This example once again proves the fact that children are raised to be servants of the system by their parents who have themselves been influenced in the same way by their parents and education provided by the state, which is all

16

Ibid.

made possible by the imposition of the set of values that ensure the imperial development. This is how the system of servitude is preserved. Another preserver of imperialistic society and values is already mentioned Lear from Barkers Seven Lears, who, although caring at the beginning, has been turned into a preserver of the corrupt, imperialistic system by the environment and education represented by Bishop. Due to his complete surrender to Bishops teachings imperialistic values have been imposed on him, and from a child willing to help to the oppressed, he turns into a cruel grown-up whose only concern is to make wars. After a duel with Terrible Solder, Lear explains to Bishop how he has managed to win: BISHOP: How did you win? LEAR: I appealed to all that was good in him. BISHOP: Excellent. LEAR: Which weakened him. BISHOP: It does. LEAR: Which made him anybodys fool. 17 Similar imperialistic society is the one created by Bonds Lear and his daughters. What they value totalitarianism, oppression, and ruin for everyone who opposes their selfish purposes, is very well depicted in their words and actions: LEAR: Theyre my sworn enemies. I killed the fathers therefore the sons must hate me. And when I killed the fathers I stood on the field among our dead and swore to kill the sons! 18 ; His daughters followed their fathers example: FONTANELLE: Kill his hands! Kill his feet! Jump on it all of it! Kill it! Kill all of it! Kill him inside! Make him dead! Father! Father! I want to sit on his lungs! 19
17 18

Barker, Howard, Seven Lears Barker, Howard, Seven Lears 19 Barker, Howard, Seven Lears

These imperialistic values are also the building material of the wall of oppression that Lear strives to raise throughout the whole play, and dies while struggling to pull down at the end, having realized all his mistakes. The wall itself is highly symbolic it stands for the oppression, hypocrisy, and corruption of the imperialistic society. Unfortunately, Lears realization to what he has been contributing his whole life comes too late. The wall is progressing quickly and the new ruler, Cordelia, once kind, but made cruel by the injustice done to her, is determined not to allow anything to disrupt its construction. This means that the new generations continue to behave in a destructive manner, being taught that way by their ancestors, and having conformed to, and accepted the imperialistic values of their society. I would like to connect the stories of Edmund, Shylock, Lear and his daughters, Colonius, and Bonds Cordelia to Edward Bonds words which uncover the truth about conformity to the social order which is unjust: Some children solve the problem by becoming cynical and indifferent, others hide in a listless, passive conformity, others become criminal and openly destructive. Whatever happens, most of them will grow up to act in ways that are ugly, deceitful and violent; and the conforming, socially moralized, good citizens will be the most violent of all, because their aggression is expressed through all the power of massed society. The institutions of morality and order are always more destructive than crime. 20 What Edward Bond emphasizes here, and what above mentioned stories clearly demonstrate, is that the conformity of this kind leads to mere violence and oppression. In my next section I will try to describe briefly what happens when generations of conformists and imperial servants are produced. World without Shakespeare

20

Bond, Edward, Lear, Preface

How would the world in which Shakespeare have never existed look like? Or the world in which Shakespeare and his values have been long forgotten? Perfect examples for this kind of world may be found in Orwells novel 1984, and Huxleys Brave New World. This kind of world is reflected in the way George Orwell prophetically saw the reality in the year of 1984, according to which he named his book, which had been written 35 years earlier, in 1949. What Orwell wanted to warn us about was that this kind of reality might emerge in near future. The world of 1984 is characterized by totalitarianism, abusive and oppressive nature of the government which uses the manipulative techniques and misuses language and history to penetrate the psyche of the people, all with the aim of preserving its control. The instruments the government uses to establish and preserve the totalitarian regime are numerous: the implementation of an invented language which lacks rebellion-related vocabulary (even rebellious thoughts are illegal and such thought-crime is considered to be the worst crime of them all); the control of information and history, which is rewritten in order to suit the need of the omnipotent Party, not even personal memories are allowed which makes the Party able to convince the people in any lie, and turn that lie into the only truth (thus managing to transform the shortcomings of the system and its failures into its victories and assets); the propaganda that turns people into brainwashed subjects who eventually come to believe the party slogans: (War is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is strength); the use of advanced technology which ensures that every citizen is at every moment observed by the Big Brother; forbidding love and sex, being aware of the fact that pure emotions lead to liberation of thought thus making us see clearly; and finally the conditioning of the minds of their victims with physical torture. The official slogan of The Party is highly symbolic. It is made effective through the exploitation of the psychology of the mass, and its effectiveness is made possible due to the weakness of that same mass, and the inability of individuals to step out. The reason for this is the fact that The Party managed to suffocate completely originality, creativity, expression. You are not allowed to be an individual. You are not allowed to have personality. You do as you are told to. You are one with that mass, which believes that War Is Peace because having a common enemy keeps

the people united, and makes the mass cohesive; that Freedom Is Slavery because, if you are free to think and come to your own conclusions, you might realize how wracked the whole system is and become rebellious; and then you are doomed to fail because you are not able to undermine the whole machinery by yourself; and that Ignorance Is Strength because it is due to the ignorance of the people and their inability to distinguish a lie from the truth that The Party may exercise its power. "In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy."21 1984 demonstrates perfectly what happens when Repressive State Apparatus that Louis Althusser describes comes into power, and violence becomes the main measure for exerting power and control, and when brainwashing becomes the synonym for education, while its only purpose is manipulation and oppression. What happens is the loss of critical thought which leads to the loss of independence, injustice, and exploitation. Ideological State Apparatuses serve the same purposes - although different means are used, the result is the same. While RSAs use moralized violence, and maintain injustice through law and order, ISAs utilize more delicate measures; they influence the way people think by selling them ideologies which place certain values those adequate for the maintenance of the regime and lead to the creation of certain climate, or culture. A perfect example of the world completely influenced by ISAs is Huxleys Brave New World. Unlike in 1984, the people in Huxleys world are not forced to obey; they obey because they want to. Or more precisely, they think it is what they want, because they are not able to recognize their true needs, being manipulated again, this time by the Ideological State Apparatuses. The government provides people with the ability to satisfy their needs in terms of food, sex, and economic prosperity, which they confuse for happiness. Instead of feeling captured, people refuse to leave this world and seek the alternative, because their vision is so
21

Orwell, George, 1984.

blurred by the sparkling beauty of the material, that they perceive their world as perfect. The government in Brave New World retains control by making its citizens so cuddled and superficially fulfilled that they neither care for their freedom, nor notice the injustice done to them. The ruling ideology of Huxleys world is the ideology of consumers. This ideology is made possible by the creation of the culture based on economic, materialistic values. A good citizen is - a good consumer. The State successfully manages to implement its ideology by erasing the concepts of love, spirituality, by abolishing family, and removing strong emotions, desires, and human relationships from society. Even at the mere mentioning of the words mother, father, marriage or love citizens of The State World blush it is a taboo, something dirty, something to be ashamed of. Children are made in laboratories, and their destinies are sealed even before they come to existence. Quite the contrary, having casual sex is perceived as something quite desirable, because sex is something completely divorced from love, which is dangerous for the system. They are encouraged to satisfy their physical needs in terms of sexual desire, need for food and drink, they are even provided with all the shine of luxurious life, but they are denied basic human needs the need for warmth, close relations and personal connections, the need for all kinds of love (family love, love of a friend, passionate love), the need for the beauty of art. They are taught not to even have those spiritual needs. Again, they are educated that this is what happiness is about material wealth. Their own desires are taken away and sold back to them in the form of goods they do not even truly need. What is more they are not even aware of what they truly need, which is why they often suffer from depression. When that happens, they use drugs as a means of escape. However, they never notice the emptiness of their lives, quite the contrary, they are satisfied. This is because they do not know for anything different or better. They are mere screws in the system, and they do not possess the kind of awareness needed for transformation. This awareness could be achieved through art but there is no art in the World State. Shakespeare is not allowed. By exchanging the values promoted by the art - creativity, individuality, originality, imagination, and love, for the values promoted by the state materialism, the World State manages to implement its guiding principle: Community, Identity, Stability. Art itself is completely destroyed due to its bad influence on the culture of

consumers. Art is different from consumer goods, due to the fact that it is eternal. It cannot be consumed and re-sold again and again, because it lasts forever. A society based on consumerism, such as the World State, needs citizens who want new things. Furthermore, art broadens human minds, raises their level of understanding, and defends life-truths, thus defending freedom. It brings light, which is undesirable for the State preserved by systematic manipulation and based on lies. Cultures of both Orwell and Huxley are the cultures of domination, in which people are deprived of their identities, and turned into the instruments. They are lacking the ability to make decisions, which means that they are turned into objects. Once again, by means of education and imposition of the values of the state, they are divorced from their true selves, and forced to live unnaturally. The Stability the World State preserves by reducing its members to infants whose only longing is the satisfaction of appetites is made possible by the creation of the commercial culture. This is how Edward Bond describes the ugliness of this culture in his preface: We can see that most men are spending their lives doing things for which they are not biologically designed. We are not designed for our production lines, housing blocks, even cars; and these things are not designed for us. They are designed, basically, to make profit. And because we dont even need most of the things we waste our lives on producing, we have to be surrounded by commercial propaganda to make us buy them. This life is so unnatural for us that, for straightforward biological reasons, we become tense, nervous, and aggressive, and these characteristics are fed back into our young. Tension and aggression are even becoming the markings of our species. Many peoples faces are set in patterns of alarm, coldness or threat; and they move jerkily and awkwardly, not with the simplicity of free animals. These expressions are signs of moral disease, but we are taught to admire them. 22 Orwells and Huxleys dystopias are neither mere fantasies nor products of their imagination, but their prophecies. The truth is, we dont even need to read their novels to get the picture of the world without Shakespeare, or to find out how it is to live there. We might just as well look around us, because we already live in that world. It is the world of today.
22

Bond, Edward, Lear, Preface

The documentary series The Century of the Self exposes our world as the one in which Shakespearian values have been forgotten, leading us to the conclusion that the previous century is the one in which we have sold Shakespeare, and given it up for the false shine of the material. It all starts with the father of marketing and PR, Edward Bernays, who uses Froyds ideas to manipulate the masses and manages to introduce the culture of consumers. He shows to corporations how to increase the sales by connecting peoples unconscious desires with mass produced goods the most powerful example are the cigarettes. Bernays manages to double the size of this market by making them popular with women, for whom, at that time, smoking has been a taboo. How does he manage to do that? By connecting cigarettes with womens irrational longings, and associating them with torches of freedom he makes them socially acceptable and transcends the message that if you smoke, you are more independent. Holding a cigarette therefore makes them feel better about themselves. This could be done with any other good of mass production - or with any ideology. This way people are transformed into moving happiness mechanisms. How do the system representatives manage to do that? By finding out what their values are, and offering the same values back in the form of a product. The point is that people are being cuddled, satisfied, and numbed, and therefore kept silent, being unable to see any further. This is how the domination of our consuming self begins, and Huxleys world becomes our reality. The representative of the World State in Huxleys novel describes their reality in the following way: The world's stable now. People are happy...They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age...they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave."23 But, as Arthur Miller says, our suffering need not be deleted from the face of Earth, because its purpose is to inform us, and make us aware:

23

Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World

Trying to cure people from suffering, or make them avoid it as avoiding anything that is not lobotomized sense of what they call happiness - seems to me as a terms of controlling man rather than freeing him, a part of ideology of a power-mad society which leads to reducing Americans to emotional puppets whose function is to make the mass production grow 24 Out of this new strategy of selling anything by connecting it with ones values, subconscious emotions, irrational desires - political ideas of how to control the mass emerge the key is in feeding their irrational selves. The idea is that if they keep stimulating their irrational selves, people will be satisfied and uninterested in everything that happens in the world around them, which leaves space to the leadership to do whatever those leaders want to. It is also the raise of new ISAs a new way to make people conform by making them blind and numbed. There are many other examples in history which perfectly demonstrate how similar our world is to Huxleys Brave New World, dominated by the oppression caused by the Ideological State Apparatuses. The whole post-war period in America is the period of psychologists. The main representative of this era is Anna Froyd, Edmund Froyds daughter. Her theory is that in order to help people become less destructive and self-destructive, they need to teach them to conform better, to strengthen their Ego (self-control), and weaken their Id (irrational self). Again, we have the example of teaching people to follow the moral codes. But psychology is not used to help people overcome their traumas; it is used as another form of constraint, in the interest of the social order. There is evidence of a wide research and electro-shock experiments performed on humans which resulted in memory-loss. They were trying to delete everything from their memories and install a new program which would make them obedient and productive. It is astonishing how far the representatives of the ruling order are ready to go in order to master their subjects. Nonetheless the point those who are responsible miss to understand is that the very idea of repression and the need to control is wrong. Although people possess irrational drives, they are not evil. It is society that makes these drives dangerous, by distorting them, and trying to suppress them.

24

Curtis, Adam, The Century of the Self

Furthermore, some other examples in history serve as the proof of the emergence of Orwells world characterized by Repressive State Apparatuses as well where the mass is easily controlled through creation of the unity of thinking, feeling and desiring, and through moralized and legalized violence which is promoted and directed towards all the non-members of the group like in Hitlers Germany. What I have just described are modern and effective means of making people conform to the social order, or contemporary repressive social forms. Not only are we shaped by the institutions of formal education, and taught obedience by our own families, but we are also the subjects of the influence of propaganda (the new powerful tool used to transform any lie into the truth), commercial culture, law and order, mass psychology, ideologies of the state which are disguised in the robes of democracy or any other form. What are the results? The acceptance of the greatest paradoxes in history, such as Americas coming into war to bring democracy; the rise of Nazi Germany; cases of people who believe in the values of the state, like patriotism, and are ready to die for those, not realizing that they are not dying for the sake of a better future which war cannot bring, but for the sake of selfish political interests and goals; passive acceptance of injustice; destruction. This is the world we get when we conform to the things we should never accept. The conformity has become so common, that people feel no need to analyze what it is that somebody wants them to swallow. This passive philosophy is brilliantly described by Pinter in his Nobel Lecture: You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. 25 Is there a way back to Shakespeare? The problems of the modern society caused by those poisonous influences of the state and its subjects are summed up in professors Ljiljana Bogoeva Sedlars words written in her essay Art against War or War against Art:
25

Pinter, , Nobel Lecture

The good of the soul was officially equated with the good of the state, and that 'good' defined and enforced by the holders of political power. Attentiveness to private experiences (dreams, for instance) was discouraged; the inner voice of conscience (or God) silenced, separation from the inborn, intuitive knowledge of the Good enforced, unsupervised self-questioning made illegal, because all these could lead to knowledge that would align the individual, teleologically, with the creative powers of the universe rather than the prescribed interests of those in control of political power. Self-knowledge was to be replaced by obedience to external authority and institutional decrees26 The solution which brings transformation and shows us how to re-unite with our own souls is self-knowledge which may be gained through self-reflection. What we need is the education which brings light by informing us what is lost, and what needs to be re-gained. This is the education which undoes all the harm inflicted upon our souls by the poisonous measures prescribed by the education of the state. How? By showing us the way of reflection, which leads to our awareness. And once awake, our sense of responsibility and inborn need for justice will no longer allow to us to conform, or to remain indifferent and passive. Education of this kind may be brought about by artists. They are the truth-bearers of all times, as Harold Pinter states in his Nobel Lecture: When we look into a mirror we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimetre and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror - for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us. 27 Shakespeare also believed that the search for truth must never stop. His every play opens a new window for us, enabling us to see things happening in our environment as they are. His plays teach us to make distinctions between true and false. Every single play is a lecture which teaches us which values we should live to remain human, to live lives filled with love. Therefore,
26 27

Bogoeva, Sedlar, Ljiljana, Art against War or War against Art Pinter, Harold, Nobel Lecture, Art, Truth and Politics

Shakespeare is the defender of the education that enlights, transforms, makes us ask, reflect, act change, provides us with wider picture and greater understanding. Education of this kind needs to be implemented everywhere and promoted not only by artists, but by the leadership as well. In that case, the servitude of man would be over. I would like to connect my conclusion with the words Harold Pinter says in his Nobel Lecture-speech: If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man. 28

Bibliography:
28

Pinter, Harold, Nobel Lecture, Art, Truth and Politics

Ljiljana Bogoeva Sedlar, Art against war, or war against art? University of Ni, Facta Universitatis, Volume 2, No.7, Nis 2000, pp. 87-106 Herbert Spencer Education: Intellectual, Mental, and Physical, source link: http://books.google.com/books? id=gztMAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:herbert+inauthor:spencer&lr=& num=30&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

Miller, Alice, For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, source: http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire-2.html Althusser, Louis, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, source: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm Pinter, Harold, Nobel Lecture, Art, Truth and Politics, source: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005

Orwell, George, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Penguin Books, 1954 Curtis, Adam, The Century of the Self, Written and Produced by Adam Curtis, BBC, 2002 Bond, Edward, Lear, London, Methuen & Co, 1978 Barker, Howard, Seven Lears - The Pursuit of the Good

Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, Wordsworth Editions limited, 1996 Shakespeare, William, Coriolanus, Wordsworth Editions limited, 1996 Shakespeare, William, The Merchant of Venice, Wordsworth Editions limited, 1996 Shakespeare, William, King Lear, Wordsworth Editions limited, 1996 Shakespeare, William, Romeo and Juliet, Wordsworth Editions limited, 1996