How to Read Literature Like a Professor: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

The plays of William Shakespeare have been endlessly adapted, transformed, and used loosely as inspiration for a countless number of artistic works, from TV shows to Broadway musicals. Shakespeare is “everywhere, in every literary form you can imagine,” although sometimes this can be difficult to see, as many versions of Shakespeare depart drastically from the original. Not all adaptations retain the same title, not all use Elizabethan English, and many move beyond the stage or screen, appearing in forms such as an opera or a novel.

Of all the Shakespearean-inflected works, Foster declares that his favorite is Angela Carter’s Wise Children (1992), which he first referenced at the end of the previous chapter. The novel follows a dynasty of famous Shakespearean actors, and allusions to Shakespeare’s plays come in the form of a spousal murder-suicide, death by drowning, women dressed as men, and more. However, Shakespeare’s influence is not only found within works of art and literature. Quotations from Shakespeare’s plays are so commonplace that there’s a large chance you might have already heard one today.

Foster argues that part of the reason why Shakespeare is so popular is because writers are obsessed with him. Quoting Shakespeare makes you seem smart, though Foster is quick to point out that you don’t necessarily have to be familiar with Shakespeare’s work in order to quote him. Rather, many of us have Shakespeare’s words at the forefront of our minds simply because they are so emotionally powerful. Furthermore, quoting Shakespeare “confers authority” in a similar way to quoting the Bible, simply because more people have read his work than that of any other author of literature.

Another, less obvious reason why writers love Shakespeare is because they can “struggle” against him. The (sometimes fraught) relationship of writers to their literary predecessors is all part of the web of intertextuality. In T.S. Eliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917) the main character bashfully declares that he is no Hamlet, thereby emphasizing Shakespeare’s intimidating legacy. Note that this is a typical way in which authors feature allusions to Shakespeare—while it is rare for exact passages and plots of Shakespeare’s to reappear in other literary works, countless authors engage in dialogue with Shakespeare by reworking, alluding to, or responding to the Bard’s work within their own.

One example of a writer reworking Shakespeare is the South African writer Athol Fugard in his play Master Harold… and the Boys (1982). Fugard explores similar themes to Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II, invoking the figure of a young man who must become mature in order to assume power within an unjust system. In doing so, Fugard suggests that the South African Apartheid regime emerged from the same misguided, immoral thinking that stated monarchs had a “divine right” to rule. This connection both deepens our understanding of Master Harold and simultaneously presents Henry IV, Part II in a critical new light.