All Posts

Speaking of Hamlet’s meditative ramblings, one of Shakespeare’s signature techniques is the soliloquy — a passage where a character speaks their innermost thoughts aloud, alone on stage, and directly towards the audience. Soliloquies were a chance for Shakespeare to dive into profound introspection and reveal the conflicted thoughts and philosophical debates present in the minds of his characters. Macbeth’s cynical “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” speech is a good examp

Beyond their shared stylistic flair, J. Cole and Shakespeare are also connected in the themes that they explore. Human nature has changed little in the past four centuries, and we still grapple with desire, envy, ambition, and spiritual fulfillment — eternal struggles that both artists hold mirrors to in their written work. J. Cole’s music often carries deep messages about self-worth, love, and mortality, just like Shakespeare’s plays and poetry. In J. Cole’s uplifting track

Shakespeare is often famed for his linguistic creativity. It is well known that he virtually expanded the English lexicon single handedly, with scholars claiming he coined over 1,700 new words and countless phrases still in use. His plays and sonnets are full of puns, metaphors, and turns of phrase that were genius even 450 years ago. For example, when Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” he crafted a metaphor for the roles w

One of the juiciest parallels between Swift’s career and Shakespeare’s lies in the concept of performing a part, especially performing the villain. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth coaches her husband to hide his deadly intent behind a welcoming facade: “look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”. That potent image, a serpent coiled beneath a pretty bloom, has become idiomatic for deceptive appearances. It also became a reality for Taylor Swift in 2017. Branded a “sna

One thing Shakespeare and Taylor Swift have in common is they have never shied away from the darker emotional terrain of women’s experiences. Ophelia’s mental breakdown in Hamlet , during which she sings folk songs about betrayal and death after losing both her lover and her father, remains one of the most haunting depictions of female despair ever shown on the stage. In Macbeth , Lady Macbeth’s resolve slowly turns into guilt-ridden madness, leading her to sleepwalk and hall

Unrequited love is a timeless theme in Shakespeare’s works that surfaces both in comedies and in tragedies. In Twelfth Night , Viola’s disguise locks her in a love triangle: she silently loves Orsino, even as she sends “Cesario” (herself disguised) to woo Olivia on his behalf. Unable to confess her feelings, Viola poignantly describes a fictional sister who “never told her love” and kept her agony hidden, smiling at the grief while her heart broke quietly. That image, of a wo

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton resonates with Shakespearean storytelling on many levels. The musical’s songs often function like modern soliloquies, laying bare the characters’ inner conflicts much as Shakespeare’s monologues do. Aaron Burr’s reflective ballad “Wait For It,” for instance, offers an introspective side to a character worthy of Hamlet . Miranda even weaves direct Shakespeare references into the script. At one point, Hamilton says,“They think me Macbeth, ambition

If Hamilton  channels Shakespearean tragedy, In The Heights evokes the warmth and the wit often found in a Shakespearean comedy. Miranda’s very first Broadway musical is a vibrant, ensemble-driven tale of community, a modern day counterpart to the bustling towns of Shakespeare's comedies such as Much Ado About Nothing ’s Sicilian setting. Set in a close-knit Latino neighborhood in New York City, it explores themes of community, identity, hope, and belonging, as the neighbors

One obvious intersection between Shakespeare’s works and Bad Bunny’s music is their exploration of love and heartbreak. Love, in both its joy and its anguish, is a universal theme neither artist shies away from. Shakespeare, of course, penned some of the most enduring love stories and poems of all time. The tragic Romeo and Juliet  set a template for passionate romances doomed by fate, while comedies such as Twelfth Night  and Taming of the Shrew  explore the many humorous pa

Beyond the affairs of the heart, both Bad Bunny and Shakespeare delve deeply into the social issues and power dynamics of their times, often giving a voice to the voiceless and calling out injustices. Shakespeare was born a middle class man in a time of monarchies and very strict social hierarchies; he had to be very subtle with his social commentary, yet it is undeniably present. In plays such as King Lear  and Julius Caesar , he takes a magnifying glass to the abuse of powe