Throughout middle school and high school, students are required to read works of Shakespeare. While most students huff and grumble about how boring and meaningless the work is, the teacher rants on endlessly about the originality in Shakespeare's work. But what about the Bible? Aren't we forgetting the first stories of drama, suffering, adultery, romance, true love, and horror? Macbeth lived in a world with untrustworthy witches and conniving ghouls. The Bible is full of real life possession that did and still does exist. Shakespeare's jesters luring people away from the truth, but let us not forget 2 Corinthians 11:14 which states "And no wonder, for the Devil himself masquerades as an angel of light." So we must look out for things we see as beautiful that could lead us astray.
The most popular tale of romance and passion is that of Romeo and Juliet, but I would say that Jesus dying for me and for you even after he knew both his fate and that I would still continue to sin, tops Romeo and Juliet without a doubt. That is what I call true love and passion.
While most of Shakespeare's work ends tragically, to us, the Bible tells a story while also leaving one story unfinished. The story that has yet to be written is of our own lives. We can either take after Shakespeare's stories, tragically falling into a place of impending doom filled with shrieks and screams from incomparable anguish and pain, or drift upwards in sync with sounding trumpets and angelic praises. Shakespeare's time is over, whereas the true original story of love, romance, passion, and suffering is still moving forward and will be forever more.
The picture I included is actually an acrylic painting I did 2 years ago for DCL (District Celebrate Life) Contest. It's a huge youth talent show/art gallery competition that was held at our church. I based this piece on the Bible verse 2 Corinthians 11:14, (which is stated above).
First off Bridge, amazing job on the painting! I thought it was some professional artists work you took off of google. lol once again you are a magician ;-)
ReplyDeleteNow the meat and Potatoes. I very much like your statement about schools wanting to teach great classic works of literature, and completely forget about the First Narrative we have. Hmm...First Narrative...kinda sounds like the Monomyth we were talking about! Anyways, I do think it a sad thing that schools don't teach or discuss it. They are definitely missing out on rich literature. Unfortunately this stems from the from the stigma towards religion in schools to the point that we never immerse our students in their texts.
But where I feel that you might not be completely looking at the picture as a whole is when you compare the work of Shakespeare to that of the devil. I don't think this is so. In fact I would argue that Shakespeare borrows a lot from biblical themes. Indeed, I would agree with you that the story of Jesus is the most passionate love stories ever written. But should that be the only story we ever tell? Does one really do evil by telling a story that happens outside biblical context? I believe that a story is a story. Nothing more. It cannot be assigned a label of "good" or "evil". It is a self-contained truth. And if the idea of the monomyth holds to be true, they all stem from one story anyway right? And as far as redemptive endings go, remember the Psalm that we read in class? It just ends with the writer saying "God, you have abandoned me." From my experience, it is sometimes the stories that do not have happy redemptive endings that have the most power. Indeed, it's like what you said on my post:
"Only those who care about their own well being (who I would consider an ignorant and selfish person) can live in this world feeling like life is fair and attempt to understand why God does things the way he does. Everyone else exists in a far away land called reality where glimpses of what we can consider hell appear all the time everywhere. "
Sometimes, life is tragedy. In fact I say, often it is. So why not tell those stories?! I would challenge you to look into a story/film not as inherently "good" or "bad" but rather allow those stories to have the opportunity to show you truth that you might have wrestled with yet. Now though stories aren't inherently bad, there are definitely bad ways of telling a story. And there are storytellers, I shy away from because I believe them to be manipulators of them rather than tellers. And this is when a story can be used for evil. But the story itself can never be evil contained within it's own truth.
Therefore, I would say Shakespeare made great work of telling stories from the Monomyth! There stories that resonate to the audience and they connect with the story on different levels. And that's what makes Shakespeare a great storyteller, I believe!
Love to know your thoughts on this Bridge ;D
Rather than comparing the work of Shakespeare to the Devil, I am simply emphasizing the pattern of downfall existent within it.
ReplyDeleteThe story of how Jesus died for you and for me is by far the most mind blowing love story I have ever heard. Even in the movie "The Apostle" last night, the Apostle E.F. held up an infant and explained the impossibility of anyone but the Lord being capable of possessing so much love as to sacrifice something so perfect, so beautiful for something ugly and pitiful; us in our sinful nature. Yet, I am also all for the telling of stories outside of biblical context as well. You're right, a story is only a story. A story itself isn't evil, however, when we hear something that questions our faith that causes us to second guess the Lord's nature, that is when we get into trouble. This is an endless cycle though, for how are we to grow if we are never confronted with challenges and forced to make decisions that will affect the rest of our lives and our very own stories?
Speaking in terms of a monomyth, all stories are derivatives of one original story, which seems true. Just like Leeper was expressing in class about the mood of a story and how it is immediately felt and determined by a season or an action. So as most stories start in similar ways, the ending is what makes each one very distinct. As obvious as that sounds, sad or hopeless endings can also have an enormous impact upon our lives. In fact, I tend to cherish these types of stories even more so than those with the happy and "go lucky" endings. When Jesus died on the cross, could His death be considered an ending and a new story start again when He raised from the dead? Or is it one continuous story that really begins in "winter" with His death and ends in "spring" with His raising? Shakespeare's work, "The Titanic", "Sweeney Todd", and "Citizen Kane" are all great examples of stories ending with such a twist and a depressing unexpectedness, but the message of all these stories is so apparent. The emotion is palpable and the story is dripping with how unfair life has seemed to become. But it is these types of stories that we remember the most. Maybe because we know that this is more likely to happen in our own lives, or maybe because the story structure is atypical.
We all love stories where the good guy wins, but do these just tickle our senses by bringing a temporary false hope about life's structure? It causes us to dream of a world where bliss prevails. Understanding stories such as these though can positively affect us by causing us to yearn to resemble a character or hero. Even an attempt to be noble can add a lot to this life. What if those of high society in "Fridge" had taken it upon themselves to offer an outstretched hand, the story would have differed immensely, but it seems to be our conceitedness that provides others with a story to tell. Truth and honor are now rare characteristics in this world.
Stories with glee and happiness resemble many of the triumphant tales in the Bible, yet stories where the bad guy takes over and claims the victory also share many similarities to stories in the Bible. So in short, I agree that Shakespeare's stories and biblical themes have a lot more in common than what I had previously noted.
Leeper's lecture about good and bad readers really hit home with me. I admit that I had more in common with a bad reader than I did with a good reader. In an attempt to appreciate each and every story to the fullest and savor the true meaning, I am opening my mind to the existent truth within stories that I had previously chosen to ignore.