Shakespeare's Greatness

Birthplace of William Shakespeare

Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

Situated on the river Avon in the British West Midlands, tourists flock to take a look though the town where William Shakespeare was born, married to his wife Anne and buried in the local church.

In his play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare writes,

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them" (Act II, Scene V).

But how is greatness evaluated? Or as Virginia Woolf questions “What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?” (Woolf, 25) When answering her question, we must take into account the author’s upbringing. The times and situation in which they were born are so imperative because as Woolf mentions, “…genius like Shakespeare’s is not born among laboring, uneducated, servile people” (Woolf, 48). As I learned while in Stratford, Shakespeare himself was born into an affluent family who were well respected in his hometown. However, upon arriving in London he was ridiculed by university educated writers who viewed him as an upstart with a bloated head. Woolf also goes on to write that there are exceptions or deviations from the norm, just like there are a few shining examples of early women writers.

Linda Nochlin, in her article, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” also points out great artists were more likely to be successful if they had the fortunate circumstance of being privileged in the patriarchal hierarchy and not because of some fairy tale concept of genius,

“…things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those…who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and, above all, male. The fault lies…in our institutions and our education” (Nochlin, 150).

All these societal features made it more possible for the artist to focus on their art.

I agree with both Nochlin and Woolf that throughout history there are factors which improve ones chances of being remembered or even having the ability to create at all. Luckily, I believe that the role of women in academic society is improving and is dramatically better then what had to be overcome to create even a mediocre body of work half a century ago. Now a day, women, along with men, have the opportunity of cultivating the circumstances which help inspire creation - the ability to educate oneself and afford an environment in which one can produce work without restraint

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Nochlin, Linda. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays. Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1989. 144-178.

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. New York: Harcourt, 1989.