Shakespeare's tragedy that talks about our reality now

Although drunk jockey John Folstaff does not embody the image of a tragic hero in any of us, in our era of plague and inequality, the sadness of his story makes our souls touch us now, more than ever, says Sally Bailey.

Although the fat knight, John Folstaff, may not be the most famous character of the famous English writer William Shakespeare, or the most tragic of Shakespeare; It's probably the closest to getting our sympathy. And Fulstaff, for those who do not know, is that drunken knight that Shakespeare showed in the plays: Henry IV, Part One and Two, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. According to events, this charismatic man, residing in a London inn, was friendly with Prince Henry, also known as "Hal", prior to his accession to the throne, as Henry V. With his chaotic personality, the old man distracted the young prince from the more serious matters of his assumption of power.

Nevertheless, we feel some kind of sympathy for Volstaff, because, according to events, we find him always dependent on others, in need of food, companionship, and social acceptance as well. His personality reminds us of how much we all need. We may remember here what the American critic Harold Bloom said about the close relationship that developed between him and the character of Volstaff, when he was a boy of 12 years old. At the time, Bloom took refuge in that character "out of need (of him) because I was alone".

As this drunken knight reminds us, we are all children in essence who yearn for love, attention and living in the confines of the family and in the midst of society, so none of us is immune to rejection or suffering from isolation. And so we treat the notorious Volstaff, as a fickle naughty relative in need of reform; A character in which we see aspects of our personalities, with all their flaws, a character that engages in lies, makes up stories and tales when under pressure, and speaks brilliantly and in a circumstance when its owner is drunk.

Perhaps one would mean here to say that this virtuosity belongs only to drinking, since Volstaff was never a man of deeds and not of words. We see him in the first part of "Henry IV", and he fails to carry out a heist, and runs away instead. Despite this failure, Volstaff is busy telling a long and eventful story to impress his listeners. Nor does he have much to rely on, other than his knack for gossip, and his ability to drink dry white wine.

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Now that we celebrate in 2021 the day Shakespeare is believed to have been born on April 23, 1564, there are deeper reasons why Volstaff is still relevant to our world today. In this difficult year full of closure procedures and the consequent isolation, the personality of this huge knight jumped to my mind, as a prominent symbol of suffering from many current problems on the social level. His condition was always painfully precarious, and he relied on the kindness, sympathy and humor of his friend and comrade Prince Henry; before he later became king of England.

The characteristics of Volstaff are clearly evident in "Henry IV" in its two parts, as we see in it his ability to joke, play with words, and his role as the target of jokes and jokes, and also enables him to respond sharply and presently to her, which often goes too far. Nevertheless, what keeps his character in the memory is the violent rejection of his old friend, then King Henry V, at the end of the second part of "Henry IV", when he says to him: "I don't know you, old man." So, keep on performing your prayers." Here we feel the feelings of Volstaff, after he suddenly lost his favor with the king. We see his position deteriorating at an accelerating pace, as a result of his public ostracism and his exclusion from the prevailing social system of his time.

Teenage taboos, presented by Karima Kouh and prepared by Mais Baqy.

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In this sense, Volstaff appears to be the man of the present moment in a world that demands that we reconsider our identity, both publicly and privately. The closures have forced us to understand and accept the sudden fluctuations in our moods, whether in personal or professional life. These measures also forced us to face any changes that might occur to our reputation and social standing. At the present time, history seems to have stopped radically, coinciding with our rush to make quick and vague arrangements to deal with the situations created by the outbreak of the epidemic. It is remarkable that those of us who were fortunate, to accomplish these arrangements, are now working from their homes, which reduced their world to a mere laptop screen, through which they complete their job tasks.

The pandemic has exposed vast and disturbing disparities between those who can live their lives on a computer and those who do not have even the most basic necessities. By the end of June 2020, a study by a charity that deals with the situation of the homeless in Britain showed that the number of homeless families living without permanent shelter and in temporary housing in the country had risen by seven percent in just three months, and jumped by up to 14 percent within a year.

Earlier this month, the American "Time" magazine published a report on the repercussions of the Corona epidemic in West Virginia on the work of charities that provide services to the homeless there. The report showed that the spread of the Corona virus led to the suspension of the basic activities of these associations, which led, after a short period, to the increase in deaths among the homeless, not due to infection with the virus, but rather as a result of their lack of basic services related to providing them with food and shelter.

The report quoted one of the workers in those organizations as saying: "There was not a single covered place that the homeless could go to between March 2020 and the fall of the same year." Globally, the pandemic and its aftermath have exacerbated all the harsh inequalities we already knew existed.

It made me wonder how the miserable Volstaff would have dealt with these extended periods of closure. Perhaps we should point out, before addressing this matter, that the character of this drunken knight is the fruit of a dramatic transformation of a character who has already existed in history, into one of the Shakespearean characters. The character of "Folstaff" is in fact taken from the character of Sir John Oldcastle, a Protestant man who paid with his life his perseverance in the face of Catholic persecution. Oldcastle was also a valiant knight, fought under King Henry IV of France and Wales, and was known for his bravery on the battlefield. .

But the imagined knight whose features Shakespeare drew was quite the opposite. He was a freak who had fled the Battle of Shrewsbury, which took place in July 1403. So was that old man, who had led Prince Henry, the future King of England, into such practices of liquor and stigmatization as notorious. But there is a feeling of deep sadness, which also stains the course of Volstaff's life, and it seems closely related in some way to our contemporary reality. He spent most of the time "sleeping deep behind the patterned curtains" that are used to separate rooms from one another. His sleeping arrangements were as messy as his life. As he passed his days, beseeching a hostess who worked in his inn and owed her a lot of money from the ground up, that she might continue to bestow upon him more of her favours.

personal echo

The story of Volstaff is of particular interest to me. This man is the main character in my latest book No Boys Having Fun Here, the second part of my semi-autobiography. When I was 14, I considered Volstaff a friend from outside my social circle, while I was searching for a way out of the broken home of my childhood. So in 1986 I read Shakespeare's writings about Volstaff and his friend Prince Hal, while I was at the top of High Down Hill in West Sussex.

At that time, my coastal town, Little Hampton, continued to suffer from the period of decline that it had begun in the late seventies, as it was at that time deprived of the basic elements of any city, and abandoned by those who remained there, the sons of the middle class. As was the case with Folstaff who had been banished from Hal's mind, my hometown was somehow off the public interest list in Britain, and its place had fallen to a subordinate position in history. In my childhood, I imagined that Volstaff had come to live among us, and I could feel the sound of his loud snoring in sleep, resounding among the sides of the cellar, in which I had always read Shakespeare's plays, after borrowing them from the library near my house.

She grew up in an eccentric house, which includes within its walls its own version of the situation in the royal palace in the era of the play "Henry IV" in both parts. My Aunt D, who held the reins of the house in which I lived during my childhood, governed our lives with the same strictness as Prince Hal's father; Old King Henry IV, whose tyrannical style of rule contrasted with the chaotic lifestyle of his son and his son's self-indulgent friend.

During my adolescence, I read with interest what Shakespeare wrote, of old King Henry IV's shame at the inappropriate behavior of his son, and of the young son's disapproval of his old friend Volstaff, and I realized then that someone would soon be driven out of the house, and that I might be this the person. I felt then that I needed to act quickly, before anyone else beat me to it, which prompted me to put my name on the list of those who wanted to be under the care of the local authorities. And when I think retrospectively of what I did at that time, it was an extreme step for a 14-year-old, but it was an emergency measure to me at the time, and indeed the only thing I could think of doing, to I extricate myself from this controlled and controlled chaos of the house. As a result of this act, I voluntarily removed myself from the house, before someone removed me from him.

Although among the main aspects of Volstaff's cruel treatment, he was mocked and ridiculed for his size and his large body and the great space he occupied, it seemed to me more profound than just a matter of his weight. From a very young age, I have come to recognize that Volstaff is a symbol of those segments of our society whose existence people would rather ignore.

The men of my family, for example, all faced humiliating and disgraceful ends; They were either thrown into the street, or to random shelters established in deserted areas, where they were forced to live. For this reason, "No Boys Playing Here" is considered to be Volstaff, a figure of those who have fallen behind and have failed to establish themselves on the social ladder; Especially the men who do not receive salaries, do not find a home, and suffer from social exclusion. They were men ill-equipped to meet the demands of a society run by smart technologies and various software updates.

In reading what Shakespeare wrote about Volstaff, I found that he was rejected as a father and as a child. As for his relations with others, he used to deal with them as an infant at times and as an old man at other times. But he failed to find a foothold, in either of these two years; Just as he failed to find a stable home.

Anyway, I see that Volstaff is still with us in our world today. The quote of Prince Hal by Shakespeare, in which he addressed this stout knight: “Let your body down from now on,” has a special significance in an era of austerity that pervades the whole world; In which the chronic shortage of food and shelter has become a frightening crisis, which we have to deal with urgently.

Among the shocking numbers in this regard, statistics were revealed in Britain last year, and showed that the first six months following the outbreak of the Corona epidemic in the world, the “Trustell Trust” charity, the leading provider of food aid, recorded a 47 percent increase in the number of Emergency food parcels. These figures also indicated that about 50 percent of families who regularly relied on food banks, in the early stages of the closure, had never resorted to it before. That would make us go back to the era of philanthropy and the culture of sponsors, donors and volunteers, rather than living under an efficient and also trustworthy welfare state system.

If we go back to Volstaff, we will find that he, in turn, relied on the support of others, which varied in size according to their whims and whims. Moreover, Shakespeare did not let us forget, even for a moment, that this man was deeply in debt, and his wallet was empty of any money. His standing and reputation in the inn, in which he resided, depended entirely upon the strength of his relationship with Prince Hull, and the money and fortune of this man. By the beginning of the second part of "Henry IV" we find that this money has run out, and the chances of Volstaff getting loans from his friend fade away.

My book No Boys Playing Here follows Volstaff's next journey, through the alleys of a forgotten coastal town, in search of a place to sleep and a refuge. His only "currency" in this regard was his ability to speak fluently and to play with new and innovative words, in addition to his ability to play and have fun of all kinds. In the end, however, this play is only a means of delaying the inevitable. In the end, Volstaff found himself expelled again, without friends, shelter, or even nationality, pleading with all to treat him with kindness and compassion.

And I did that - on my part at least - when I was a teenager. I distinguished that there was something in his sense of need, distress, and want, as though I felt the need for complete care, on the part of those around me. Thus, in an age of sharp social divisions and increasing destitution and misery, the character of Volstaff raises the question: How much care do we care for those around us, and how much are we able to do so?