The Face behind the Mask: The End of Time in Shakespearean Drama

Abstract

Obscurity of our age (since the beginning of Covid19) urges us to relate, because of striking resemblances in every walk of life, to the age in which Shakespeare lived and worked. Shakespearean drama is warning but forces of status quo, desirous of keeping masks of progress intact over worn out deformed faces, have little room for ‘Shakespeares’. Psychological, financial, social and political selves design the thematic nexus of Shakespearean plays; ‘the play is the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king’ seems to be agenda hidden behind his works. Forces of status quo, while putting mask of spirituality and morals over cruel face of civilization, design education systems, civic structures, bureaucratic institutions, domains of emotional spheres to teach mankind brutal competitiveness. Shakespeare tore it to expose face behind mask. His plays liberate us from our inconsistent political, religious and cultural believe systems.

Keyword: past is prologue, obscurity of our age, Covid19, Heaven’s revenge, The Mirror for Magistrates, political drama, cometophobia.