Shakespearean Criminals

Politicians, stop saying mass shootings are tragedies unless you’re going to do what literary critics do with tragedies: actually interpret them. Ill-conceived habits and beliefs institutionally codified at the level of government can create a situation where an individual’s moral failures create out-sized pain, suffering, death, and the downfall of nations. That is the thesis of all of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Shakespeare was obsessed with contextualizing the immediate cause of catastrophe with the root causes. Shakespearean tragedy shows that individual actions have cultural origins. By the same token, America’s mass shooting problem will require a cultural solution. To be clear, I am not advocating for a solution here. I’m stating a fact: mass shootings will continue in America until enough people die that the pity and fear we feel in response to tragedy transform into activism effective enough to create the cultural momentum needed to elect the politicians needed to pass gun control laws strict enough to significantly reduce the number of guns in the country. That’s not a wish; it’s not a plea. That’s just how this plays out.

Bibliography

Bowers, F. (1955). Hamlet as minister and scourge. Publications of the Modern Language Association, 70, 140-49.

Broude, R. (1975). Revenge and revenge tragedy in Renaissance England. Renaissance Quarterly, 28,38-58.

Jonas, G. (2005). Foreword to the 2005 Edition. In Vengeance: The true story of an Israeli counter-terrorist team. Toronto, Canada: HarperCollins.

O’Connor, T., Duncan, J., & Quillard, F. (2006). Criminology and religion: The shape of an authentic dialogue. Criminology & Public Policy, 5(3), 559-70.

Rosenbaum, T. (2013, March 26). Eye for an eye: The case for revenge. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com