Our Emotions are the Thoughts of Shakespeare

by

Stephanie McBride

Copyright 2011, by William McBride ISBN 978-1-257-05700-9

"25 Anxieties" A Harold Bloomian Study.

1. Anxiety 1: Reaching one's limits of hope, and the limits of doing so.

This emotion is a composite of Macbeth and Ophelia.

Shakespeare was to Borges everyone and no one at the same time.

Much of Shakespeare's life is a mystery, hardly any important facts are known about him.

2. Anxiety 2: Avoiding people, even those who praise you.

This emotion is represented by Timon of Athens, the misanthrope.

Shakespeare kept himself and his views omitted from his total effort.

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Christopher Marlowe was the person Shakespeare avoided.

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3. Anxiety 3: Feeling that you hurt a kind person's feelings.

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This emotion is represented by Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet.

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Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to his patron.

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Shakespeare's best characters are of the highest memorable kind.

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4. Anxiety 4: Having trouble with prayer and feeling like your debt is too overwhelming.

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This emotion reflects the character Antonio from The Merchant of Venice.

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It is just as obvious of Shakespeare's relevance as it is of your own family.

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Shakespeare stole much dramatic material for the plots of his plays.

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5. Anxiety 5: Feeling that you will lose a newly gained happiness if you give to another your time and energy.

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This emotion signifies Falstaff's feelings that gaining "honor" is pointless.

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Shakespeare wrote many masterpieces.

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He has a wide variety of hundreds of different kinds of memorable characters.

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6. Anxiety 6: Feeling that you wont have the means (as enough money) to go home.

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This emotion is presented to us in the form of Prospero from The Tempest.

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How do we explain the miracle of Shakespeare? This question is impossible to answer.

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Shakespeare's characters have an inwardness and are conscious of what they say.

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7. Anxiety 7: Feeling that you hurt a loved one.

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This is the emotion of Hal when King Henry IV., his Father, catches him with his crown on his head in the play Henry IV.

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We are Shakespeare's children.

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Shakespeare apparently loved both men and women.

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8. Anxiety 8: Feeling you are not interesting anymore.

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This emotion is found in the character of Helena from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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Ernest Hemmingway's short stories play upon this theme and anxiety.

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Shakespeare is our greatest psychologist.

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9. Anxiety 9: Feeling upset at others who try to block you from your happiness and who hold things over you to try to dash your hopes.

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This feeling is the same as the concern of Michael Cassio in the play Othello.

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Shakespeare plays doctor to the wounds he causes.

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It is hard to know for certain what Shakespeare's politics or morals were.

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10. Anxiety 10: Feeling rushed to do good.

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This emotion represents the feeling of the lady in Measure for Measure.

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The best critic, Samuel Johnson said that a man isn't obligated to do all that he can.

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It is true that Shakespeare was a friend.

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11. Anxiety 11: The reaction to others telling you to "Go to Hell," that you owe God a death.

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This is the reaction of Falstaff to Hal in Henry IV.

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In the Gnostic corpus of work there is a concept of the Father being within the son.

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Shakespeare's died after retiring two years earlier, with little friends, if any.

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12. Anxiety 12: Being slandered by a loved one when it isn't your fault.

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This emotion is the same as the trouble of Desdemona's in the play Othello.

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It is lunacy to try to ascribe the writings of Shakespeare to anybody else other than Shakespeare.

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Shakespeare represents our feelings better than anybody else in time.

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13. Anxiety 13: Feeling upset over others who tell you "I hate you!"

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This emotion is represented by King Lear in his play.

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Some facts we know about Shakespeare are that we know he hated lawyers, that he was a stage success, and that he was shrewd in business matters, other that these we know hardly anything more.

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Shakespeare had a wife and their son Hamnet, died in his fourth year.

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14. Anxiety 14: Feeling shocked when somebody tells you off.

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This kind of horseplay and feelings that result happen with Falstaff's group in Henry IV.

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It is apparent that Shakespeare was lustful to men as well as women.

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Shakespeare had a very great vocabulary.

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15. Anxiety 15: Feeling the play of irony when someone you love tells you in play that she doesn't love you anymore.

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This feeling reflects Beatrice's in Much Ado About Nothing.

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We wonder why Shakespeare chose to stop writing and retire two years before his death.

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His characters change.

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16. Anxiety 16: Feeling giddy over blurted out sounds.

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This feeling is common to the characters of the play Love's Labor Lost.

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Another great critic, William Hazlitt said that even to Shakespeare plot and action were minor to the importance of character in his plays.

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Shakespeare is a nihilistic difference that makes a difference.

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17. Anxiety 17: Feeling over excitement and glee over one's successes.

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This character is represented by Henry V.

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It is preferable to read Shakespeare's plays to seeing them acted.

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The worship of Shakespeare is know as Bardolatry.

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18. Anxiety 18: Feeling anger over being humiliated.

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The character who feels this emotion in Othello.

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Shakespeare's style can be copied.

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The Torah's "You did laugh," Ha-Shem to Sarah is a similar parallel.

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19. Anxiety 19: Feeling uncertain about giving accurate answers.

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This emotion is represented by Macbeth to Lady Macbeth after he murdered King Duncan.

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Shakespeare's characters listen to themselves and change but hardly listen to each other.

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Shakespeare was not a Gnostic.

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20. Anxiety 20: Feeling happy about being accurate and being praised.

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This emotion is the same as Rosalind at the end of As You Like It.

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One must read all of Shakespeare's complete work fully to penetrate his cosmos and to comprehend what he is offering to you.

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The characters in Shakespeare's plays are more alive than many and most of us most of the time.

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21. Anxiety 21: Feeling as if you are getting stuck in a bad place.

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This concern is equal to the horror of the shipmen on the sinking ship in The Tempest.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson said that with Shakespeare we are "still outdoors."

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We must only treat Shakespeare as a superior.

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22. Anxiety 22: Feeling as if you know what is best or who's best.

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This emotion is the same as Prospero's in The Tempest.

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King Solomon also shared this wisdom.

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The patriarchs to Ha-Shem of the Torah also have this wisdom.

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23. Anxiety 23: Feeling desperately in love.

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This feeling is the feeling of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

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Shakespeare is a total inventor.

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Shakespeare perhaps died of syphilis on his birthday.

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24. Anxiety 24: Feeling that one still has one's never-resting Mind, even though the place one loves is lost.

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This emotion is represented by Prospero as he mentions how he will drown his magic books when he leaves the island.

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Virginia Woolf said that the heavenly reward of common readers when they get into heaven would be that they have read the books they loved.

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On the nights before Shakespeare died, Ben Jonson and another friend through him a party.

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25. Anxiety 25: Feeling one still has one's Mind, though the body pines.

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This emotion comes from Love's Labor Lost.

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Virginia Woolf also said that a simple song of Shakespeare's has done more for the poor than all the philanthropy of the world.

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The poet William Blake also reflects the idea that although the body gets weaker, the mind gets stronger.

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FINIS

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