Julius Sigei
12 August 2007
opinion
Nairobi — Just on its second year of study as a set book in Kenya's secondary schools, some critics still have misgivings on the suitability of William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
The critics say the play's setting is alien in place, time and culture, having been written in 16th Century Europe. Some have also taken issue with archaic English in which the comedy is written.
The language may be indeed burdensome for some students grappling with an already difficult foreign language to be forced to read such words as 'thou', 'thine', 'hither', 'ere' among others. But, Shakespeare's superb grasp of beautiful poetry, complete mastery of psychology and an incisive understanding of human nature is, in my opinion, much more compensatory.
In fact, many reprinted editions of Shakespeare's texts have explanations of the difficult words and after turning a few pages, one begins to enjoy the playwright's majestic art.
Here is a man who, though nearly four centuries dead, his 37 poetic plays and many more sonnets - 14 line poems - captivate audiences in theatres, intrigue students in schools and colleges, and enthral many a casual reader across the world.
But for who did Shakespeare really write for? A specific audience?
Arguing for the universality of Shakespeare's writings, English critic Samuel Johnson has written:
"Shakespeare is above all writers the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life.
His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world. They are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. In the writings of the other poets, a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species."
Take the Merchant of Venice for example. A play set in two Italian cities and discussing racial hatred among other themes, the play is as relevant to us to day in Kenya as it was in Europe when it was written.
In this day and time, how many blacks, for example are still subjected to untold hate and humiliation in shining metropolises of western countries masquerading as civilised societies only because of the colour of their skins? In our own country, do we have a political discourse free enough of tribal prejudice? Didn't we hear recently that a man as high ranking as presidential contender dismissed a whole community as unfit to rule?
The central conflict of the drama in which one of the characters Shylock the hunter becomes the hunted, makes Merchant of Venice so engrossing perhaps in a manner only second to Sophocles' tragic drama, Oedipus Rex in the whole of Western literature. The play is a rendition of the shocking Greek myth in which Oedipus, a prince, kills his father and marries his mother. This myth has become important aspect of psychology.
What makes Shakespeare stand out among other writers also is the manner in which he renders the complex nature of the human condition. His works are not simply moralistic, but are nevertheless morally edifying. Shakespeare works ring true to Aristotle's assertion that an artist should be concerned with uplifting humanity. For instance, in the Merchant of Venice, the issue is not a simple dichotomy of who is right and wrong between the Jew Shylock and Antonio- the merchant.
A skilful wordsmith, Shakespeare has been credited with bequeathing thousands of new words to his native English language. Hardly a minute passes without a speaker or a writer quoting one of his many memorable lines are apt for every situation.
Many years later, one of the tragedies considered as Shakespear's greatest works Hamlet is fondly quoted. Hamlet's soliloquy 'to be or not to be' has graced many newspaper pages whenever there is a dilemma in a story. So fascinated by this great writer's works that the late Julius Nyerere, that venerable philosopher president of Tanzania, translated Julius Caesar and the Merchant of Venice into Juliasi Kaisari and Mabepari wa Venisi-the two are acclaimed Kiswahili literary texts.
That Shakespeare's diction can sometimes be challenging to students of literature in English and the setting alien, cannot remove from his works both the pleasure and education derived by studying them. I agree with Johnson, the afore-quoted scholar, that a country still can be imminently fruitful though it may have spots unfit for cultivation.
It is now fashionable to dismiss admirers of 'old' writers like Shakespeare as being old-fashioned critics stuck in the nostalgia of a 'glorious past', who fail to acknowledge the genius of the present age. But to appreciate today's superior art; one does not have to denounce the sages of old. The way forward, I suggest, is to blend the old with the new; and the home-grown with the foreign in the bigger quest to build holistically educated youth who are prepared to embrace the world.
The writer is a teacher and a freelance journalist.
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