Essay: Harry Jaffa – Shakespeare (Tempest, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure)

Harry Jaffa begins his article by saying that Shakespeare is the only known poet who has written both tragic and comedy plays. He says there is no direct evidence that shows if Shakespeare was influenced by Socrates or not because his work has intelligibility to it. He quotes Leo Strauss when drawing a connection between God and Socrates, “Our Lord never laughs, but that he weeps ‘twice or thrice’. Socrates never weeps, but that he laughs ‘twice or thrice’” (Jaffa 31). Jaffa explains the death of Socrates as not a bad thing because what Crito would be burying is Socrates’s soul. His soul would remain above ground immortal which means it’s not tragic because there is no pain or suffering. He then explains the death of Jesus. Jesus was nailed to the cross and prayed to his father, God, would forgive everyone for their wrong doings, but Jaffa does not define either death as a tragedy because, “If, through his death, Jesus is united with his Father, even as Socrates is united with the Idea of the Good, death is for both a consummation devoutly to be wished” (Jaffa 31).
When talking about tragedy Jaffa says, “Tragedy subsists upon the necessity of human error, combined with the acceptance of human responsibility” (Jaffa 31). The example he gives is that of the tragic hero Oedipus and how he tried escaping his fate, but by doing so, he ended up running right into it. Oedipus is not a philosopher, and he lacks self-knowledge, but by him demanding to know his fate represents philosophy. Jaffa says that Oedipus could have avoided his fate if he wouldn’t have demanded to know.
In The Tempest, Jaffa says that Shakespeare crested Prospero as an impersonation of himself. The island is the stage and Prospero is ultimately the ruler of the people that end up there. He uses Ariel as his magic to shape the people into doing what he wants them to do. Ariel is the one that created the art of The Tempest, the art of the storm that made the boat crash into the island. Jaffa refers to the island as the cave, according to Plato’s Republic, and Shakespeare is the one controlling the images. Jaffa says that, “The Tempest is also the relationship of the city and the soul” (Jaffa 34). This is because the characters that make up the parts of the soul are Caliban who represents mere appetite, Ariel who represents spiritedness, and Prospero who represents logic. On the island once the boat crashed, the people go off into their social groups and scatter.
Before Prospero was ruler of the island, he was ruler of Milan, but his brother Antonio took over and put Prospero and his daughter Miranda on a small boat that was mean to be their grave and set them adrift. Prospero had studies in liberal arts but was not a good ruler in Milan so he caused the storm that caused Antonio’s ship to wreck on the island so Prospero could prove that he is capable of governing. “The typical Shakespearean comedy is a tragedy that does not happen, a tragedy prevented from happening by the improbably presence within the play of a wise man, or wise woman” (Jaffa 34). The Tempest is referred to as a dark comedy because there are characters with bad intentions, but their intent never actually happens like Caliban’s attempt to rxxe Miranda because he hates Prospero. Another example would be Prospero creating the storm to cause Antonio’s ship to wreck, but Prospero actually doesn’t have anyone killed.
Jaffa says that Macbeth is a typical Shakespearean tragedy. Macbeth was an extraordinary man that was destined for greatness but was overly ambitious which resulted in his death. Jaffa differs Macbeth from Oedipus because, “Macbeth’s character is not his fate” (Jaffa 37). Macbeth was able to pick his path and due to his ambition, he fell. Macbeth at first had trouble deciding if he should kill Duncan or not, he had a conscience, but the more Lady Macbeth told him to man up and the more the witches played with him, he began to ignore thought and went straight into action. Jaffa compares this with the story of Adam and Eve and how the serpent told Eve nothing would happen if she ate the forbidden fruit even though God told her she would die if she ate it. Lady Macbeth’s conscience began to die and caused her to commit suicide and because of her telling Macbeth to man up she caused him to fall.
Jaffa refers to romans by them being soldiers who go to war and he says that, “war is a nobler means than trade, and the qualities of warriors are looked up to, while those of traders are looked down upon” (Jaffa 42). In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio is a merchant so compared to the romans, but the three men that Shakespeare refers as to the fighting men are Coriolanus, Antony, and Macbeth. Jaffa also refers to the image of love and family by giving examples of Romans that couldn’t be faithful to their wife like Cleopatra that constantly betrayed Antony, but when you see Miranda and Ferdinand have a beautiful clean marriage because they Prospero wanted them to be married before they were able to have children. In The Merchant of Venice, the topic of love and private marital life doesn’t apply to the play because Antonia and Portia and both in love with Bassanio and Bassanio is in love with both Portia and Antonio and is willing to save Antonio from Shylock at all costs and even gives up his wedding ring to Portia disguised as a lawyer who saves Antonio from being killed.
In Measure for Measure, the duke Angelo implies the death penalty for those who aren’t married who fornicate. This concept of a private married life only implies to Claudio who got his not yet wife, Juliet, pregnant which resulted in his imprisonment. He has his sister, Isabella, who is in a convent ask Angelo to release him, but Claudio was stunned with her beauty that he proposed if she slept with him then he would release Claudio. Isabella and Mariana plan to agree with Angelo and have Isabella sleep with Angelo, but since it’s so dark Mariana will enter and she will sleep with him. In the end of the play, Angelo admits having attempted to seduce Isabella, but he is pardoned as long as he marries Mariana and Claudio is released from prison and reunited with Juliet. Jaffa talks about Roman plays and we see a theme of marriage in the family. The virtuous roman republic, we see Coriolanus who is forced to bare his wounds to the public but no one can persuade him because he believes he’s the only Roman. His mom says that his connection to Rome is through her and he can’t destroy the country where she is from because ultimately he’ll be killing her. Antony is viewed as the last Roman and he says the world has become Christian. Rome is the whole world therefore the new opposition is Earth and heaven. The connection in this play to the Roman republic is that in the end, the Duke is going to turn Vienna back into the Roman Republic.
When referring to the pursuit of private pleasure, Jaffa says that, “Without public spirit, is the mark of the bourgeois, properly so called. But it is also the mark of the communist man” (Jaffa 57). In Macbeth, Macbeth is married to lady Macbeth and instead of ruling as a political figure, but lady Macbeth encourages him to murder people in order to get to where they want to be as King and Queen. In The Tempest, Prospero creates a storm which causes Antonio’s ship to wreck on the Island causing Ferdinand and Miranda to fall in love at first sight and Prospero works on this to ensure Miranda and Ferdinand don’t have relations before they are married so they can be good rulers and unite Italy under their rule. In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio is in love with Bassanio who is engaged to Portia and Bassanio is also in love with Antonio. Antonio believes to be a Christian godly figure hoping to win Bassanio but in the end Bassanio marries Portia and he ends up alone. In Measure for Measure, Angelo arrests Claudio for impregnating his soon to be wife because he did not want people fornicating unless married, but he was one to break the law and fornicate with Mariana believing it was Isabella, and in the end was forced to marry Mariana.
The common theme between all these plays dealt with marriage and family and there were differences between the comedies and the tragedies.
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