Plato and Shakespeare Walk into a Bar
Or, Our Thoughts Create Our Reality
I know lots of people believe history is boring, but I’m not one of them. I like thinking about the writers of the past, how they viewed the world, why they were motivated to share their opinions, and what they would say to each other if they met.
Two of my loves are Greek philosophy and Shakespeare, and I recently got to wondering what the ancient Greeks and the Bard of Avon might talk about if they sat down together for a chat.
Despite the fact that their respective times on earth were separated by about two thousand years, they seem to view the world through a similar lens, one that is currently popular in the community of modern spiritualists.
Time is so crazy right now that it seems appropriate for Plato and Shakespeare to sit on a bench, have a drink, and talk about their perspectives on life, love, and the human experience.
What would they discuss?
Plato is known for offering many philosophical opinions, but the one that has become trendy these days is the idea that our thoughts shape our reality. To wit, here is a passage from his Phaedo:
Do we say that there is such a thing as absolute beauty and absolute good and absolute greatness and so on?
And do we see them with our bodily eyes?
Certainly not.
I learned Plato’s lesson the hard way when I found out that my absolute favorite childhood book, a thing of absolute greatness in my eyes, and the object of my absolute genuine affection, was the absolute opposite for some people.
Just as Plato explained so well, the thoughts about my cherished childhood treasure created a particular reality for me, one which is wildly different from some others’ reality regarding the same subject.
(For more on that, check out this post).
I can imagine Shakespeare, goose-feather quill, inkpot, and sherry sack in hand, agreeing with Plato:
“Ah yes, the muse has whispered in my ear, and lent my pen her skill with Fortune’s boon. Have thou a thirst to quench and wont to hear? If so, unflask your Greekish wine, and soon.”
(No, that’s not a Shakespeare quote. I just made up something in iambic pentameter that he might say because it’s fun to do.)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies, and the first to include his gender-bending trademark of “a boy playing a girl playing a boy” on stage.
It also features notable similarities to Plato’s philosophy that our thoughts create our reality.
The “gentlemen” of the title are not quite actualized at the play’s outset; they’re two boys who are sent away to finishing school to learn how to be gentlemen. Valentine and Proteus have a male bond of deep love and friendship that was common in Elizabethan times, but their relationship becomes strained when they fall for the same girl during their education in the big city (Milan).
Shakespeare shows how quickly thoughts can change reality when Proteus, who has professed his love for his hometown sweetheart, Julia, throws her over as soon as he lays eyes on Sylvia, who is already betrothed to his best friend, Valentine:
“Even as one heat another heat expels,
Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.”
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, Scene 4
One of Shakespeare’s other trademarks, the lowly-born attendant who is the wisest character on stage, is featured in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and it seems to me that Shakespeare was creating his own version of reality with the thoughts and words he wrote for the stage.
In Shakespeare’s world, the servants, fools, and attendants were the funniest, wisest, and most beloved characters with the best lines.
They might not have been given the same fair shake by society, but the Shake from Avon was doing his best to change reality with his art.
Here is an exchange between Julia and her waiting woman, Lucetta, who gets all the rhyming wisecracks:
JULIA What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour?
LUCETTA As of a knight well-spoken, neat and fine;
But, were I you, he never should be mine.
JULIA What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio?
LUCETTA Well of his wealth; but of himself, so so.
JULIA What think'st thou of the gentle Proteus?
LUCETTA Lord, Lord! to see what folly reigns in us!
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I, Scene 2
The passage above also has one of my favorite pieces of Shakespeare trivia: he invented the term “so-so,” which we still use today.
In many ways our current reality seems like it’s out of our control. However, Plato wrote several dialogs that argued otherwise, asserting that the world we want to see is within our power to create if we focus on the ideals that inspire us and take aligned action toward them.
Many of Shakespeare’s plays use the medium of theatrical entertainment to convey the same inspiring message.
And as we walk along, I dare be bold.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act V, Scene 4