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Shakespeare is one among those few great men, who could see the splendor of light over the mountains and reduce it into his writings. He decocted the man's cosmic world into his writings. His characters in his various plays emit the fragrance of greatness along with humility and frailty. His works commend that we take a leaf out of the experiences of his heroes and conduct ourselves as good leaders.
William Shakespeare's plays are a class by themselves, for he, aided by his catholicity of vision, reflects on human life both in its exaltedness and degeneration with equanimity. To borrow Matthew Arnold, Shakespeare's plays possesses "pathos, moral profundity and noble simplicity" and it is this loftiness in them that is rightly supposed to educate the reader appropriately. It is precisely for these reasons that we often hear people unwittingly saying that they are "rereading" Shakespeare. It is no exaggeration to say that one's classic author is the one to whom one cannot feel indifferent, who helps one to define oneself in relation to him, even in dispute with him. Simply put, Shakespeare, the Srestha _ wise man _ who, in terms of management jargon become a "benchmark" for us to emulate.
His plays give us a feeling that life is essentially meant for loving and experiencing its bliss. His comedies portray a festive mood in Sylvain forests and seacoasts that bring together happy reunions and rejoicings. His tragedies expose us to the darker side of life: the good suffering in the realm of flourishing evil. Our journey through his tragedies makes us wonder if we are in a "stale, flat, and unprofitable world" where man's inhumanity to man, the conflict of good and evil, and of free will and predestination are in free flow crushing him to death.
His familiarity with men, as that of a gardener with flowers, enabled him to write about human beings true to their nature. We witness his characters growing and unfolding before us driven by varied motives and impulses, passion alternating with passion, purpose alternating with purpose, train of thought with train of thought—all representing the underlying dynamics of human nature that a leader encounters in the context of leading people in the organization. His plays and the characters in it, make a reader realize one truth about mankind: "No man, either a hero, or saint, ever acted from an unmixed motive; for let him do what he will rightly, still Conscience whispers `it is your duty'." We often come across his heroes, who are endowed with human dignity and mighty potentialities, turning into unscrupulous self-seekers, once the bug of self-aggrandizement bites them. For instance, his King Richard III is an ambitious king for whom nothing matters except his self-good. Loyalties, moral scruples, and human feelings—all these are made subservient to one interest, his own interest. Interestingly, with the same brush, he also portrays a leader in Henry V who, with devout optimism, perceives "some soul of goodness in things evil" and with his incurious trust in God, conquers the dark outlying region that engulfs the knowable and the practicable. He thus puts before us a true picture of men _ sans a doctrine _ to free, arouse, and dilate our thoughts of them. This is the universality of his plays _ whether the thought is disgusting or delightful, cruel or gracious, less or high, obscure or plain, Shakespeare has successfully employed his "ability to see both sides of every question and to view with sympathy all sorts and conditions of men" and communicate the aesthetic emotion that is common to the humanity. |
