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Shakespeare Is Hard, But So Is Life
A Radical Guide to Shakespearean Tragedy
Fintan O'Toole

Munira Mirza

It is a sign of the greatness of Shakespeare that every time a critic sits down to write a definitive review of his work it is always the critic who appears to be ignorant and vulnerable to attack.

The ambiguity and partial mystery around Shakespeare's life (he left us no diaries, not even cryptic Leonardoesque scribblings) make it all the harder for writers to to say 'this is what he meant' and be convincing. There are so many interpretations, so much reading between the lines that to stand forward and say everyone else has got it wrong takes some guts.

Fintan O'Toole certainly has courage. His book is premised on the understanding that all reading and teaching of Shakespeare up to now has been dominated by the Victorians - their refined tastes, their unflinching moralism, their stern prudence. He wants to show that Shakespeare was anything but a straightforward moralist and that indeed, ambiguity and ambivalence are precisely the qualities that make him such an accurate and rewarding writer. O'Toole begins with a litany of complaints about the ignorance of current education on Shakespeare and how simplistic it is.

The first obvious point is that Fintan O'Toole's argument against the precriptive Victorian influence is about twenty years out of date. Nobody studies or teaches Shakespeare according to such an agenda and in this, he shows little awareness of other criticism around (he admits as much in the final acknowledgements).

The school of New Historicism which came to prominence in the US and UK through academics such as Stephen Greenblatt and Lisa Jardine, was fascinated by the way Shakespeare wrote in a context of social and historical change. In fact, most students today are fully conversant in the subversive qualities of Shakespeare, the feminist agenda, anti-monarchist sentiments, moral ambivalence, cross-dressing and comedy/tragedy cross-over. Perhaps they still teach Shakespeare as if he were a court playwright at primary school level (do they even teach Shakespeare to under-10s?) but this hardly represents the general state of study.

Still, leaving that all aside, O'Toole's book is brilliant. A beautifully written and simple guide to four of Shakespeare's tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. He discusses all of them with a considered awareness of historical context, linguistic style, and moral sophistication. He develops a very convincing argument about how Shakespeare deals with social change and the disruption caused to the old feudal order by the advent of capitalism.

However, he does sometimes dismiss conventional critiques too quickly. He might not agree with the 'fatal flaw' understanding of Shakespeare's protagonists but there is still great hermeneutic value to such an approach. He also dismisses things as 'absurd' rather too quickly and risks missing the finer points made by previous critics. Even worse, he is prone to making his own absurd comments. Such as arguing that Othello is not really about Othello but Iago. A characteristic O'Toole objection might go something like this: 'But then why the hell did Shakespeare call it Othello!?

The book is excellent for students and teachers, but also for the general public. It opens up a debate about what Shakespeare is about and encourages you to exercise your own opinion (a rare quality in academic books). It will inspire you to re-read Shakespeare and buy the Oxford Collected Works for your close friends. With all the new enthusiasm for book groups amongst the reading population, O'Toole's book reminds you that Shakespeare might be a very good place to start.

This book was previously reviewed on Culture Wars by Jessica Greenman.

'What Fintan O' Toole is doing in his interpretation of Shakespeare's Tragedies is a fundamental travesty of all that Shakespeare is about.' More...