
NEW DELHI: On day four of the Jaipur Literature Festival, a packed house was seen at an interesting session that talked about Shakespeare and Sigmund Freud — the two most discussed figures in literature and philosophy. In the session on book ‘In Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud,’ American historian Stephen Greenblatt spoke about the theme of a second chance in life with an examination of Shakespeare’s plays and Freud’s theories with Paul Smith.
Greenblatt wove through plays like Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and The Winter’s Tale to discuss how Shakespeare desired a second chance in life through his stories. He shared how these stories present a deep-seated hope for redemption despite difficult circumstances. Smith said opening the session that the book relates to every individual. “The book is about how you live your life and how you actually accept your life or not accept it and try to change it.”
Greenblatt said that Shakespeare was “oddly obsessed” with the possibility of having a second chance. “It was a feeling that you could glimpse early in his career which became increasingly intense as he got older. For instance, his later stage plays like The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest, are very explicitly and directly concerned with the notion that you’ve ruined something in your life -- something has fallen apart and you’re dreaming about the possibility of getting something back.”
Greenblatt mentioned how Shakespeare’s longing for another chance is also reflected in his personal life. He moved to London for his career leaving behind his family of two daughters, a son and a wife.
“Shakespeare was absent from his family’s lives. He didn’t abandon them financially but on a sentimental level was not there with them. When he decided to retire in his 40s, he made the decision to return to his family.
Shakespeare began to think about what relations would be between fathers and daughters, and whether it would be possible for a father to find the daughter that he had lost, and whether it would be possible for the daughter to find the father whom she had lost due to long periods of absence. That feeling that you might reconnect after a terrifying period of absence is one that haunts his late plays.”