How social media would change Shakespeare

A lot of recurring tropes that crop up in classical literature wouldn’t work so well in a modern-day scenario. For example: miscommunication. Letters not reaching the intended recipient, messengers passing one another, hearsay and rumour being assumed to be fact, snooping around, lack of fact-checking, and generally just all-round terrible communication all function as ways to further the plots of classic texts, often with disastrous consequences.

William Shakespeare employs this throughout his works. Antony tries to commit suicide when he receives a letter that Cleopatra has killed herself. Unsurprisingly, she hasn’t. A literally terrible idea of what to try in order to get your boyfriend to stop being mad at you, for anyone who’s considering it, though you can’t help but feel that maybe Antony should have gone and checked before assuming the worst.

Would Romeo and Juliet have died if they could have just texted one another an update on their situation or checked one another’s Twitter feeds?

Similarly, Othello kills Desdemona when he hears from Iago that she’s been having an affair with Cassio. It turns out she’s not, and Iago is just framing Cassio because he’s downright nasty. Othello doesn’t even consider checking with Cassio, Desdemona, or her handmaiden, Emilia, what’s been going on. Romeo and Juliet is another tale with a breakdown of communication. Juliet takes a sleeping potion that makes it look like she is dead, Romeo thinks she actually died, and so he drinks poison. As Juliet wakes up, she sees what has happened, and stabs herself. Some communication was definitely necessary here.

Equally, Hamlet’s mother hiring his college friends and the king’s chief counsellor to snoop around after him just ended up with Hamlet feigning madness, and basically everyone in Denmark’s royal household dying. Not ideal.

There are lots of modern alternatives that would prevent all this bloodshed. If Antony had just given Cleopatra a quick call, all would have been well. If Othello had just asked, or noticed that nobody called Cassio had ever liked any of Desdemona’s Instagram pictures, this situation would have been a lot more easily resolved. Would Romeo and Juliet have died if they could have just texted one another an update on their situation or checked one another’s Twitter feeds? Probably not.

You can guarantee that Hamlet would have had a blog on which he would complain about how no one understood him. You can also bet that checking it would have been a lot easier and less painful than hiding behind a curtain and being stabbed to death.

You can guarantee that Hamlet would have had a blog on which he would complain about how no one understood him

We have so many ways of contacting others nowadays, that the idea of not being able to relay a message seems implausible. Likewise, social media makes it seem unlikely that we wouldn’t have at least some idea of what our friends and family are up to most of the time. It would certainly save all the swordfights and bloodshed if Shakespearean characters had mobile phones. But then, where would drama and tragedy be?

Image Credits: Sean MacEntee / Flickr (Header) and Carolyn Paine / Flickr (Image 1)