STAGING THE FAILURE OF AUTHORITARIAN POWER IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS
Abstract
This paper examines William Shakespeare’s tragedies and history plays as sustained critiques of authoritarian rule. The study employs a qualitative method grounded in New Historicism, which situates literary texts within the power relations and cultural practices of their time. Focusing on elements of theatrical performance, the physical and symbolic space of the court, and the decay of language, the analysis shows how these features reveal the fragility of absolute power. Close readings of King Lear and Macbeth uncover a recurring “political grammar,” which constitutes a set of dramatic patterns that lay bare the split between a ruler’s ceremonial persona and his private disintegration. The breakdown of royal authority is traced through the misuse of speech, the isolation of the sovereign, and the spectacle of public rituals that no longer command belief. The findings indicate that these plays operate as dramatic manifestos, systematically exposing the mechanisms of coercion, deception, and emotional manipulation that underpin autocratic governance. Shakespeare’s stage becomes a laboratory where the mechanics of power are dissected for the audience to witness, revealing the inherent vulnerabilities in any system of one-person rule.
Downloads
References
Greenblatt, S. (2000). Shakespearean negotiations: The circulation of social energy in Renaissance England. University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1988)
Greenblatt, S. (2018). Tyrant: Shakespeare on politics. W. W. Norton.
Kastan, D. S. (1999). Shakespeare after theory. Routledge.
Lemon, R. (2008). Sovereignty and treason in Macbeth. In N. Moschovakis (Ed.), Macbeth: New critical essays (pp. 95-113). Routledge.
Orgel, S. (2003). The authentic Shakespeare and other problems of the early modern stage. Routledge.
Parvini, N. (2012). Shakespeare's history plays: Rethinking historicism. Edinburgh University Press.
Shakespeare, W. (1997a). The tragedy of King Lear (R. A. Foakes, Ed.). Arden Shakespeare. (Original work published 1608)
Shakespeare, W. (1997b). The tragedy of Macbeth (A. R. Braunmuller, Ed.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1623)
Shuger, D. K. (2001). Political theologies in Shakespeare's England: The sacred and the state in Measure for Measure. Palgrave Macmillan.
Smith, E. (2013). Macbeth: Language and writing. Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
Tennenhouse, L. (2005). Power on display: The politics of Shakespeare's genres. Routledge. (Original work published 1986)
Veeser, H. A. (Ed.). (1989). The new historicism. Routledge.
