Shakespeare's Insights into Putin's War on Ukraine
(My apologies if you received this already, although there ae a few changes here)
The Russian war against Ukraine is now in its third week. Nightly news brings scenes of devastation, havoc, inhumanity, and death, all of which stab at the soul and conscience, perhaps beyond anything even Shakespeare could have written.
We’ve seen numerous adaptations of this play before; it’s our longest running production. This particular version is reminiscent of WWII, when the Allies defeated the Nazis and their partners. Despite the shock of those black and white movies of the concentration camps, the destroyed cities and the broken bodies, film has a cinematographic effect, and they were played in movie theatres. In contrast, the visual nightmares of Ukraine, recorded in the brutally honest and stark technology of video, are broadcast into living rooms 24/7. Often taken with cellphones by the Ukrainian people themselves, the graphic scenes give people a front row seat; it’s as close as you can come to having a bullet headed in your direction without fear of the bullet finding its target in your person. The horror is brought home every hour of every day.
This lop-sided war is clearly of biblical and Shakespearean proportions, historical and tragic. Despite a spate of recent apologies for Putin and Russia, Putin is hereby assigned to the role of Macbeth, a once respected and loyal soldier corrupted by his desire to be king of Scotland. Putin also wants to be king, or at least president/prime minister of a reconstituted USSR, or maybe even a historic Russia. He had the constitution changed, effectively making him president/king for life. Or until 2035, which is pretty much the same thing for him. They are both in the grip of “overwhelming ambition,” a key staple of the “tragic flaw,” and have sold their souls for a crown.
Shakespeare’s protagonist, Macduff, a general who fought alongside Macbeth in better days, is ably played by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Jewish president of Ukraine. Whereas Macduff journeys from Scotland to England, leaving his wife and family home in the castle, however, Zelenskyy has become famous for spurning America’s offer of safe haven, saying, “I need ammo, not a ride.”
Macduff is no traitor, however; he has gone to his neighbouring country, England, in hopes of enlisting the help of the English forces to invade Scotland, destroy Macbeth, end his tyrannical rule, and re-establish a free Scotland. If America had offered Zelenskyy a round-trip ride returning with a few squadrons of F35s or even a short hop to his neighbouring country (Poland in this case) returning with a score or two of Mig 29s, he likely would have accepted. Since no such offer is forthcoming, Zelenskyy remains in his beloved land, desperately trying to procure more weapons and supplies, helping women and children flee to Poland and other safe countries, and leading his nation while dodging the assassins Putin has sent to kill him.
Ukrainian forces continue to struggle against superior forces in terms of numbers and weaponry, forces that are no less brutal than those of Macbeth, who eventually will kill Macduff’s wife and children. Just before Macbeth’s hired assassins enter the castle, Lady Macduff, warned of their approach and told to run, says:
Whither should I fly?
I have done no harm.
But I remember now I am in this earthly world; where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly:
Her speech anticipates the state of the current world of media hacks, PR specialists and dodgy politicians skilled in destructive rhetoric. It should be labeled misinformation but given that elites control the narrative, (an expression much in vogue) they apparently speak truth, while the rest of us, in Lady Macduff fashion, are Canceled and Deplatformed for trying to pierce the fog of their twisted deceptions.
Seconds after the assassins enter the castle, they brutally kill Lady Macduff, stabbing her son to death in front of her. Later, when Macduff is told that his wife and children have been killed, he is bereft:
All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
Similarly, as recently played out in Ukraine, Russian forces have killed a mother and her two children trying to flee in what was supposed to be a safe escape route. And this was presented to the world via that aforementioned, stark reality of video. At this, Zelenskyy lost his statesmanlike persona, vowing to kill every responsible “bastard.” Perhaps not as poetic as Shakespeare, but from the same depth of outrage as Macduff.
So where does this leave the situation as the world’s players and pundits try to read Putin’s mind? He continues to double down, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure, and has threatened nuclear war in retaliation should the west get further involved. Meanwhile, diplomats keep searching for a way of ending the war in some sort of civil manner, without risk of further escalation, making overtures of some kind to Putin, apparently, but none of them know what he is considering. One American official recently said that all Putin has to do is stop fighting. How likely is that?
We have no ears to the council of governments, but we do have the counsel of Shakespeare who provides some plausible insight into Putin’s mind through that of Macbeth, who at one point says:
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
He is referring to that point in a difficult journey, or a swim half-way across the lake, when you realize that you have undertaken more than you can handle, but it is now too late to turn around and go back and so you might as well continue trying to reach the other side. Like Macbeth, however, Putin is awash not in the waters of a lake, but in the blood of thousands of innocents and the destruction of a country.
That analogy would seem to be a far more accurate assessment of Putin’s mind: how can he possibly say, “Okay, we’ve achieved our aims, we’ll be pulling out of Ukraine now”? His country will hate him, Ukraine will seek vengeance, and if the U.N. has any moral compass left, he will be charged with war crimes. Likewise, if the west has any moral fortitude at all, the sanctions will remain, destroying the Russian economy. How can Putin survive that?
If Shakespeare proves correct, Putin will fight on, regardless of the consequences. In Macbeth’s words, Putin might say, “I cannot fly/But, bear-like, I must fight the course.” (pure coincidence that Russia is represented by the bear).
Eventually, Macbeth will face the English army when England comes to Scotland’s rescue, forcing him to “fight the course,” knowing he will “die with harness on [his] back.” There is no equivalent England coming to Zelenskyy’s Ukraine, however. And so, Putin is able to threaten mass destruction, facing down diplomats and statesmen. The pen is not always more powerful than the sword, at least not in the short run.
Shakespeare’s play ends with Act 5, when Macduff decapitates Macbeth, restoring order and harmony to Scotland. But with the west declining to be cast in the role of England, there seems likely to be an Act 6 in this war. As of the moment, Putin’s forces are closing in on Kiev, and there’s no Burnam Wood marching to prevent that from happening.
Shakespeare will not be writing that script. Let us hope that the outcome is not, as Macbeth says of life,
…a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
The world must do better. Not “to-morrow, and to-morrow and to-morrow.” It must do better today, and today, and today.
Very well said & a brilliant analogy of the situation. The sorry thing is that this is not of the mind of Shakespeare it is “real life” & it must be stopped. Where does the world stop this new Holocaust before it’s to late for the real people of Ukraine? This will be a very sorry commentary on this world & this time if nothing is done!