Shakespeare is Alive!
Why might he be writing his own Substack today?
For four centuries, people have tried to lay William Shakespeare to rest, but he just won’t stay buried.
If you pay attention, it’s clear that The Bard is more than merely a figure from history. He’s a mood, a presence, and maybe even that person in your local cafe writing a bold screenplay on paper napkins.
Want to find a modern Shakespeare? Look for someone quietly recording a voice memo, narrating their thoughts before sharing them as an Instagram story. That’s true Bard energy today: converting every thought into an online soliloquy.
Here’s proof that Shakespeare is alive and thriving in today’s chaotic world.
1. The Landscapes: “Forest Bathing” is just the Forest of Arden with better snacks.
In plays like As You Like It, Shakespeare often used the “Green World”: a place where characters escape the pressures of the Royal Court and confront profound questions about themselves in the woods.
Four hundred years later, we’ve just changed the name. If Shakespeare were truly in the past, we wouldn’t spend money on cabin rentals just to sit by a tree and think about ourselves. When someone leaves the city for a weekend in the Umbrian hills or a cottage in Tuscany to find themselves, they’re really just trying out for a part in the Forest of Arden. The only real difference is that Shakespeare’s characters spoke in poetry, while we show up with sourdough bread and noise-cancelling headphones. We’re not discovering nature; we’re just acting out Act II again.
2. The Character Trait: The classic “main character energy.”
Shakespeare invented the soliloquy, which was the 16th-century version of talking to yourself while walking down a crowded street.
We haven’t moved beyond his character types; we’ve updated them with ring lights. Hamlet was the earliest doomscroller, stuck in indecision over “To be or not to be.” Puck is the wild friend who “did it for the plot.” Beatrice and Benedick? They’re the “enemies-to-lovers” story that’s everywhere in books today.
3. The Objects: The prop room of modern life.
Take a look around your home. Shakespearean themes are still everywhere:
The Message: In Shakespeare’s plays, a lost letter could start a war. Today, it’s the “Read Receipt.” The anxiety of seeing a message delivered but not answered is pure Othello energy.
The Mirror: Shakespeare wanted to “hold the mirror up to nature.” Now, we carry mirrors in our pockets and look at them for hours every day.
The Flower: Ophelia used rosemary and pansies to express what she couldn’t put into words. Today, we do something similar with our houseplants. If you’ve ever picked a plant because it “matched your soul,” you’re basically a Shakespearean character living in a modern apartment.
The Verdict: Shakespeare lives on in how we shape our digital lives, use irony to hide our feelings, and still think a thunderstorm is the perfect setting for a dramatic breakup.
He didn’t really die in 1616. He just knew that if he waited, the world would eventually become as dramatic, colorful, and messy as one of his plays.
I’m curious: Where have you seen Shakespeare in your daily life?
Warmly,
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There isn’t a day goes by when I don’t think of Shakespeare and his works. Today I was thinking about the wonderful prologue at the start of Henry V, and the way Derek Jacobi played it in the 1989 Kenneth Brannagh version.