Incongruous to Try to Compare the Artists

¶ … incongruous to try to compare the artists William Shakespeare and Bob Marley. These two men, separated by centuries and embodying two very different forms of art, both make up part of the history of popular culture. One man is considered the premiere playwright in the history of the English language, a man whose name is synonymous with high culture. The other man is known for his success in a musical genre and a culture that uses a different meaning for the word high. What could these men possible have in common one might ask? Examining the history and writings of both Renaissance writer William Shakespeare and reggae musician Bob Marley it becomes evident that they both use emotional appeals and heavy symbolism to prove points about the human condition and to promote understanding between people from different stations of life, all of which are used to persuade others that the morality of their literature is the correct one and ought to be adopted by the general population.

William Shakespeare was not as respected in his own time as he is in the modern era. His plays were designed to appeal to the lowest members of society. A Shakespearean play would be the equivalent of a blockbuster movie in the modern vernacular. His upbringing was not anything special. Shakespeare was the son of a glove maker (Laroque, page 13). It was initially believed by historians that William's father, John Shakespeare was wealthy or at least relatively well-off. In fact, John Shakespeare had been a "gentleman" until debt forced him into exile from the township. William Shakespeare grew up in a small village called Stratford-Upon-Avon with this scandalous beginning over his head. He married but did not less this inconvenience him either in his romances or in his artistic endeavors. It would not be long before William Shakespeare left his wife Anne Hathaway, who was several years older than Shakespeare, and his children in Stratford-Upon-Avon for the gritty streets of Renaissance-era London. "Overpopulated and filthy, London was a city of seething activity, spectacle, and theater" (Laroque, page 41). Shakespeare, like Bob Marley after him, was very much a product of the time that he was writing.

Ethnically, Bob Marley was unique for the time and place in which he lived. Born of a black Jamaican mother and white father, he was a physical embodiment of the effects of colonialism (Paprocki 2006,-page 10). Like Shakespeare, he grew up in a relatively poor area with little income for his family and an absent father figure. His father was a Marine officer who came to Jamaica to work as an overseer of a plantation. Marley's father died when he was only ten years old. His biracial heritage would lead to Marley experiencing prejudice from both sides of the ethnic landscape. Marley once said, "I don't have prejudice against himself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white" (Webley 2008). The conflict that he grew up with would shape Marley's musical as well as philosophical work later in life.

Very little factual information is known about William Shakespeare's life. That is to say, there is little information that can be empirically verified with data. What is known is that Shakespeare was married at 18 and deserted his family at 21 for the world of theater. According to historian Truman J. Backus (1897) in his book The Outlines of Literature: English and American:

London was the resort for such an adventurer as he in search of fortune; and the theatrical profession, with its ready reward for the successful actor, was the most advantageous calling for him. When Shakespeare arrived in London, he naturally entered the service of one of the dramatic companies. Like other young men of that time, he made himself useful both as an actor and as a re-writer of plays. His early professional career was marked by industry and success, and by the prudence with which he accumulated wealth. By adapting old plays to the demands of his theater he acquired masterly knowledge of stage effect, and discovered the genius which enabled him to write the greatest dramas in the literature of the world (Backus 1897).

The theatrical profession was one designed for people who wanted to make money quickly and who were willing to work at their craft. Theater, although not the most respectable job of the era, was still considered an art form and participants were expected to entertain the audience in each performance. In The Age of Shakespeare, writer Francois Laroque describes exactly what it would have been like to see a Shakespeare play during the Renaissance. He writes, "Thanks to the wide range of prices offered by the 'box offices' of the time, theaters were places of popular entertainment. Entrance to the 'pit' -- standing room around the stage -- cost only a penny; prices rose to sixpence for seats in the covered galleries" (page 71).

Much of Bob Marley's music centered on the themes of individuality and individual choice and why it was wrong of other people to judge someone for his or her choices. In his song "Judge Not," Bob Marley portrays a narrator who antagonistically challenges authority and defies the judgments of those around him. "I know that I'm not perfect / And that I don't claim to be. / So before you point your fingers, / Be sure your hands are clean" (Marley 1961). Each person has graces and flaws that they must be made aware of. At the end of the song, Marley repeats the lyrics that someone is judging you. Everyone is judging somebody else and everyone is being judged by another. It is a vicious cycle that serves no one and the narrator hopes that the lesson can be taught to look inward before looking outward. Marley lived his life as he deemed appropriate and vocalized his opinion often that everyone should be allowed to live according to their own sense of propriety.

Shakespeare's plays have been divided into three categories: comedies, tragedies, and histories. The comedies originated "in farcical tales in which the world is turned inside out" (Laroque, page 53). Although each play was designed to entertain the audience, he also used his plays to prove point about the human condition. In The Merchant of Venice, for example, Shakespeare uses the guise of a comedy to show how easily we judge others by our own prejudices. One of Shakespeare's most famous characters, the Jewish moneylender Shylock says the following lines with regard to how Jewish people are treated as opposed to the Christian population of the area. "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?" (III.I.58-60). Throughout the piece, Shylock is considered the villain by the other Christian characters. He is supposed to be the villain of the story but that is mostly because he is Jewish. He tells the people that Jews learned their cruelty from the Christians in that they were themselves cruel to the Jewish people. In Venice, the Jewish population is treated as villains before doing anything bad. These lines are Shylock trying to explain his confusion and distress. Jews have the same humanity as Christians and should be treated the same. This, however, is not the case. The rest of the quote goes on to express the idea that Jewish people are subject to the same frailties as all human beings. "If you prick us, do we not bleed / If you tickle us do we not laugh, / If you poison us, do we not die" (IIII.62-64). All people are people no matter of skin color or religion. This is what Shylock is trying to illustrate in this speech; and Shakespeare through the character.

Bob Marley became famous for his variation on reggae music which traditionally featured discourse on the value of human worth rather than financial success. Reggae music began in the rural location of Kingston, Jamaica. "Reggae music features the soothing beat of slow rock and blues, mixed in with the familiar calypso sounds that developed their own distinct rhythm…They played homemade instruments and hoped one day to buy real ones. For these youths, their music was the hope of a better future, one in which they would have a bed to sleep in, plenty of food to eat, and respect" (Paprocki 2006,-page 5). Bob Marley was just one of a large group of impoverished children trying to make their way into the world through their music.

Shakespeare, like Marley, could have been just one of a large group of men seeking their fortune in the theatrical profession. Instead through his unique perspective and his ability to create indelible, unforgettable characters, his plays are still read and remembered five hundred years after his death. Like any great artist, William Shakespeare had his critics and detractors. One of these, Robert Greene, published materials where he accused Shakespeare of plagiarism. So outraged were the readers of the pamphlet that the editor had to make a public apology for the piece. He wrote, in Renaissance English: "I am as sorry as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because myself have seene his demeanor no less civill than he exclent in the quality he professes: besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightnes of dealing which argues his honesty, and his facetious [felicitous] grace in writing that approoves his art" (Backus 1897). Greene was not without his supporters. Even in the Modern age, there are theorists who claim that not all of the works attributed to William Shakespeare were truly written by the Bard. There are some who even pose that none of the Shakespearean plays were written by William Shakespeare. To "prove" their theories, these writers have pointed to Shakespeare's relatively rural upbringing and claimed that someone with limited education and who lived outside a metropolis would have no access to the training and historical knowledge evident in the Shakespearean plays. This, of course, is utterly ridiculous. Any great artist will have their detractors and those who wish to blemish their legacy.

Marley's sounds were influenced by the traditional music of the island of Jamaica (Toynbee 2007,-page 14). Yet, he was able to succeed more than the other low-class teenagers banging on homemade instruments in the slums of Jamaica. In the song "No Woman, No Cry," Marley sings about what it was like living in these times of poverty and violence. "In a government yard in Trenchtown / Obba, obba, serving the hypocrites / As the would mingle with the good people we meet / Good friends we have, oh, good friends we've lost" (Marley 1974). Trenchtown was the nickname given to the part of Kingston where Marley hailed from. It was a very poor part of the town where many people were unemployed. Those in authority in Jamaica were seen as corrupt and unworthy of trust. They were in the positions of power and yet so many were living in poverty.

The hypocrisy of the ruling class would feature heavily in Shakespeare's plays, particularly in his tragedies and histories. One such example is in the play Macbeth. In the story, a power-hungry man and his wife conspire to murder the Scottish king and remove anyone who would prohibit their own ascension to the throne. Macbeth's wife has been the impetus in the king's murder. Without his wife's insistence the king would not have died. In a famous soliloquy, Lady Macbeth ruminates on the deeds that she has performed and questions whether the ends have justified the means. When left alone by the servant, Lady Macbeth has nothing to do but reflect on her conduct and that of her spouse. Her initial assessment is the realization that she is not at all happy. When Macbeth was made Thane of Cawdor, a title he had indeed earned, Lady Macbeth had a taste of increasing power and was enraptured by it. Therefore she believed that with more power would come an even stronger feeling. Lady Macbeth felt that the power of being queen of Scotland would undoubtedly bring her peace and happiness. Instead she knows that her actions directly led to death and to civil unrest. She cannot look at her crown without seeing the blood that has been shed. There is no murder with impunity. Upon further consideration, she adds that "T is safer to be that which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy" (8-9). What she means here is that she believes, quite literally, that she would be far better off dead than in her present state. King Duncan is now dead and at peace. When he was alive, he was not in the same condition of turmoil that Lady Macbeth faces because he knew that he had gained his throne by rightful means and not by murder most foul. By killing their king, Lord and Lady Macbeth have inherited his throne but neither is at peace. The problem with gaining power through dubious means is that you must continue to do terrible things to either keep that power or to prevent people from knowing about your former awful actions. The joy Lady Macbeth had expected when she and her husband made their plans for regicide never materialized. The dead are far better off than those who brought them to their death. In the story of Macbeth, William Shakespeare shows how the depraved will behave in order to achieve power, something that he sees in almost all rulers, a relatively dangerous statement in a country dominated by a monarch who herself was not above acts of violence in order to assure that she remained in power.

Like Shakespeare, Marley was not above making controversial statements in his art. Most of Bob Marley's works have been controversial because of their depiction of anti-authority perspectives. One of his works, the song "I Shot the Sheriff" tells the story of a man who admits to having killed the local sheriff, but vows that he has been falsely accused of killing the sheriff's deputy. The sheriff's death, he says, was in self-defense and "I shot him down and I say: / If I am guilty I will pay" (Marley 1973). This speaks to Marley's point-of-view when songwriting. The character here will gladly give his life to the justice system for the crime he has committed, but will fight to the end against the accusations of things for which he is innocent. Critics have pointed to this song and erroneously described it as a celebration of violence towards those in authority.

As Marley had people who misinterpreted his works, so too did William Shakespeare. During the Renaissance, the Puritans rallied to have all theaters closed, feeling that they were inappropriate diversions and invited people to sin. They "railed against the rogues, pickpockets, and prostitutes to be found in their midst and regarded the theaters as places of ill repute, no better than the neighboring brothels" (Laroque, page 72). When Elizabeth I passed away, subsequent leaders would side with the Puritans and did in fact close the theaters for a good period of time.

Some people have looked to the works of Bob Marley, and have attempted to paint him as some kind of deity, or at the very least as a prophet of some ethereal message. He was considered by some as a symbol of the Rastafarians' Jah, another word for God (Paprocki 2006,-page 3). In the country of Jamaica, Rastafarians were often harassed by police and other authoritarian figures. One of the main reasons for this was that the Rastas flagrantly used ganja in their meditations, which is still illegal in Jamaica (White 2006,-page 16). The Rastas were a religion wherein:

To be a Rasta takes enormous faith, say the brethren, for the veracity of Jah's vision and meditations is assailed at every turn, even in Africa. Yet Rastas point out that the Bible prophesies that there will be much confusion just before Babylon falls; many jackals will raise their voices in falsehood, directing truth-seekers into spiritual cul-de-sacs. So, they conclude, ridicule and repression are but ratifications of the Rasta gospel (White 2006,-page 16).

To understand Marley's psychology and the consequent philosophy of his writings, it is imperative to understand the Rastafarian religion. According to Sherry Paprocki, "The Rastas are devoted followers of a religion rooted in Ethiopia that is based on the tenets of peace, love, and unity. They honored Marley in a way that others honor and praise God in their own religions" (page 3). Religious people felt all the philosophies of Rastafarianism were illustrated in the work of Bob Marley. According to Jason Toynbee (2007), the reason for this allusion is Marley's "sense of mission, an intense drive to make music and in doing so tell the truth about the world" (page 2). In Marley's songs, he advocates revolution; for the poor people of the world to stand up for their rights against those in financial power. He is considered by the Rastas to be a prophet for their message of peace, love, and unity all fighting against those who would cause discord and suffering for financial gain. Bob Marley was not above connecting himself with this god-like image. In his song, "Is This Love," the narrator pledges to his beloved that he will provide her shelter as the strong male, which is how he equates himself to this God. "We'll be together with a roof right over our heads; / We'll share the shelter of my single bed; / We'll share the same room, yeah! -- for Jah provide the bread" (Marley 1978). The narrator only has modest possessions, all of which are provided to him by the god Jah. As provider to the woman, he gives his/her bed for example, the man is her god. In an earlier piece, Marley made a similar statement. In the song "Get Up, Stand Up," Marley proclaims that God is a man on and of the Earth. Marley compared religion to a destructive force. "We sick an' tired of -- a your ism-skism game- / Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in -- a Jesus' name, lord. / We know when we understand: / Almighty god is a living man" (Marley 1973). So much of the fighting between cultures is caused because of either religious differences or cultural ones. If people would accept responsibility for their own actions and take ownership of their own deism, there would be less conflict. Every man is god. Yet, Marley makes no such declaration for women. Women are not godlike but frail and require protection from the men.

It is interesting to see that in William Shakespeare's time, women also had relatively little power. The major exception to this would have been Queen Elizabeth I who held supreme power in England during much of the Renaissance period. Except for Elizabeth, women were regulated to the sidelines of society, marginalized to the utmost. Even the female roles on the stage had to be performed by male actors. It was considered unseemly for a woman to participate in the theater (Laroque, page 75). Without the potential for income from the theatrical profession, women who could not get employment as servants or waitresses in pubs would often find themselves in prostitution. This was marginally acceptable, but never performing upon the stage with men.