"All the children of the world..."
From three plays, I recognized stylistic and conceptual similarities in three particular speeches. If I had time, I would like to compare these to more plays; I bet there are more! If anyone can think of any, I'd be interested! These passages are from characters who are standing up for themselves by appealing to inherent equalities in all human beings.
I think the king is but a man as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me. The element shows to him as it doth to me. All his senses have but human conditions.... (Henry V 4.1)
Let husbands know/Their wives have sense like them. They see and smell/And have their palates both for sweet and sour,/As husbands have....And have not we affections,/Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?...(Othello 4.3)
Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,/dimensions, senses, affections, passions?...(Merchant of Venice 3.1)
From these three arguments for equality, I think we can see traits emerge which Shakespeare might consider universal conditions for "what makes someone human". (I took my findings from a larger section of the text that I did not include due to size.) Although the two main categories I deduced are probably not exhaustive to most people, I think Shakespeare distills the concept to its most indisputable points: 1.) The capacity to interpret the world (primarily through the senses) and 2.) vulnerability-- being subject to their shortcomings. On these two things all people can relate. Why not add the "need for love", or a "soul", for example, as answers to the question "what does it mean to be human?" ? I propose the reason is that people insist on making certain concepts entirely too complex and analytical, but "perspective" and "vulnerability" are unarguable. It would be absurd to say that a person does not have a point of view or that she is never makes mistakes. Based on that agreement, people can meet on an equal level, something that (I think) is often overlooked as part of Shakespeare's potential agenda.
One of my favorite quotes that also "evens the playing field": "There is some soul of goodness in things evil, would men observingly distil it out--" (Henry V 4.1)
I think the king is but a man as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me. The element shows to him as it doth to me. All his senses have but human conditions.... (Henry V 4.1)
Let husbands know/Their wives have sense like them. They see and smell/And have their palates both for sweet and sour,/As husbands have....And have not we affections,/Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?...(Othello 4.3)
Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,/dimensions, senses, affections, passions?...(Merchant of Venice 3.1)
From these three arguments for equality, I think we can see traits emerge which Shakespeare might consider universal conditions for "what makes someone human". (I took my findings from a larger section of the text that I did not include due to size.) Although the two main categories I deduced are probably not exhaustive to most people, I think Shakespeare distills the concept to its most indisputable points: 1.) The capacity to interpret the world (primarily through the senses) and 2.) vulnerability-- being subject to their shortcomings. On these two things all people can relate. Why not add the "need for love", or a "soul", for example, as answers to the question "what does it mean to be human?" ? I propose the reason is that people insist on making certain concepts entirely too complex and analytical, but "perspective" and "vulnerability" are unarguable. It would be absurd to say that a person does not have a point of view or that she is never makes mistakes. Based on that agreement, people can meet on an equal level, something that (I think) is often overlooked as part of Shakespeare's potential agenda.
One of my favorite quotes that also "evens the playing field": "There is some soul of goodness in things evil, would men observingly distil it out--" (Henry V 4.1)
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