In every culture since the dawn of time there have been storytellers. These may come in the form of poets, such as Homer; playwrights like Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus; historians, Herodotus, Flavius Josephus, to name a few. And all throughout history, and all throughout time, someone has had a tale to tell; perhaps the most well know is Shakespeare, who could be called all three – Poet, Historian, Playwright. William Shakespeare is, arguably, the greatest playwright of all time; he had depth of understanding of human nature that few men ever gain, and he was skilled in the vivid portrayal thereof – his tragedies pluck upon the heart strings of those who hear, and his haunting scene linger in the depths of one’s mind. It is easy to say that once viewed, the scene where Macbeth kills king Duncan out of lust for power2, or Juliet falls upon her dagger in sorrow3, will not be soon forgotten.
President Brigham Young Said:
Upon the stage of a theater can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards ; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to shun it.4
I find it quite fascinating, that a Prophet of the Lord can reveal truth to the world, but it takes the world some times more than two-hundred years to “figure it out for themselves.” I recently came across a study called “The Persuasive Effects of Fictional Narratives,” which states almost exactly what Brigham Young did, only in a more ‘scientific’ way. The article says this: “Fictional narrative [is] a powerful means of altering our world view – more powerful indeed than most nonfictional persuasive attempts which often produce at most short-lived persuasive effects that decline rather quickly.”5
Unfortunately this works equally as well for truth as it does deceit. President Brigham Young also had this to say on the subject of plays:
Tragedy is favored by the outside world, I am not in favor of it. I do not wish murder and all its horrors and the villainy leading to it portrayed before our women and children; I do not want the child to carry home with it the fear of the fagot, the sword, the pistol, or the dagger, and suffer in the night from frightful dreams. I want such-plays performed as will make the spectators feel well ; and I wish those who perform to select a class of plays that will improve the public mind, and exalt the literary taste of the community.
While Shakespeare may be the greatest playwright, he most definitely is not the most virtuous, even without all the Freudian interpretation, I do not believe Shakespeare’s plays fit within the bounds Brigham Young set. Shakespeare may have a profound understanding of human nature, he may be skilled in connecting with the human nature of his audience, but the human nature he portrays, appeals to, connects with, glorifies, and makes humorous is fallen, base human nature. Now, not everything he writes is dirty, dark, or murderous, there is the transcendent: Portia’s soliloquy about mercy and justice is moving and inspirational, as is King Henry V’s famous battle cry, “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;/For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother!...” But scattered and sprinkled all throughout the rest of the play is lewd humor, and fallen human nature. This is not to say Shakespeare was evil, or that we should stop reading his works altogether, but it is a plea. A cry. Can’t there be something better? Is there no one who can write plays as great as Shakespeare’s, but Write plays that appeal to the exalted human nature, to that which is good and virtuous within us, to the noble soul we each posses? Someone who will write plays of repentance, of joy, rather than murder, and the inevitable hell that follows? President Spencer W. Kimball, said:
Everybody quotes Shakespeare. This English poet and dramatist was prodigious in his productions. His Hamlet and Othello and King Lear and Macbeth are only preludes to the great mass of his productions. Has anyone else ever been so versatile, so talented, so remarkable in his art? And yet could the world produce only one Shakespeare? 6
He then continues to explain that because that we have the restored gospel on the earth today, the fullness of truth, we should be able to create works as great, or even greater, but works of virtue, goodness and light.
Would God only produce one Shakespeare? But who will the next Shakespeare be? In the last Forty years since President Kimball gave that address no one has stepped up.
Who will be the next Shakespeare? Perhaps, it will be me.
Who will be the next Bach? DaVinci? Plato? Perhaps, it will be you.
Works Cited
1. DISCOURSES OF BRIGHAM YOUNG page 376
2. See MacBeth Act 2 Scene 2
3. See Romeo and Juliet act 5 scene 3
4. DISCOURSES OF BRIGHAM YOUNG page 376
5. Persuasive Effects of Fictional Narratives Increase Over, Time Markus Appel and Tobias Richter University of Cologne, accepted for publication in the journal Media Psychology
6. Spencer W. Kimball, "The Gospel Vision of the Arts", Ensign, July 1977, 3 (Emphasis added)
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