Being Human

The other day I was on my way home, sitting in the tram, and I overheard a conversation between a father and his son. The boy could not have been older than 8 years old. They just came out of a morning performance of an opera by Verdi. The boy was fascinated but he didn’t completely understand all that he had seen on stage.

The opera happened to be Othello, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy.The boy kept asking what exactly had happened between Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Cassio and Emilia. The more the father tried to explain, the mothe confused the boy became. It wasn’t the plot that left the boy consufed but the actions of human beigns, and why they acted this way.How can you explain to a child all the wickedness and manipulations human beigns are able to commit? It would be easy to tell him that the opera was just ficction but soon this boy will grow up and  come across some of these human traits. Hopefully not in shakespearian proportions…

What always drew me to Shakespeare’s work is that his tragedies are human, driven by feelings. There is no will of a god at play. His fate is not a divine fate, but very earthly and human.