tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18360914.post1593757682492301290..comments2024-03-25T16:57:51.919+00:00Comments on Bina007 Movie Reviews: London Film Fest 2011 Day 15 - ANONYMOUSBina007http://www.blogger.com/profile/01622085135305501711noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18360914.post-15905695467684298072011-10-31T21:55:01.946+00:002011-10-31T21:55:01.946+00:00The question is not whether a commoner could have ...The question is not whether a commoner could have written the works of William Shakespeare. The question is whether this commoner could have written them. I believe that genius can spring from all walks of life, but here there is no evidence.<br /><br />I admit there is an egalitarian appeal of having a common genus with little education write the greatest works of the English language but a closer inspection of the lack of evidence does not make me nor any other doubter a snob. <br /><br />Other famous doubters include Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles and Walt Whitman just to name a few. <br /><br />The truth is the plays themselves make class distinctions. They are written from an aristocratic point of view. The principal characters are almost all aristocrats with the exception perhaps of Shylock and Falstaff. <br /><br />From all we can tell, Shakespeare fully shared the outlook of his characters, identifying fully with the courtesies, chivalries, and generosity of aristocratic life. Lower class characters in Shakespeare are almost all introduced for comic effect and given little development. Their names are indicative of their worth: Snug, Stout, Starveling, Dogberry, Simple, Mouldy, Wart, Feeble, etc.Howard Schumannnoreply@blogger.com