Recently Read: William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope by Ian Doescher

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope by Ian Doescher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In a nutshell, I rather enjoyed this book. It was a quick, fun read with some unexpected insight into the characters. Retelling Star Wars in Shakespearean form is a fantasy come true for sci-fi junkie English majors everywhere.

When I first heard of the existence of this book, I was overly excited about it. That’s putting it mildly, actually. I told a lot of people about it and how much I wanted to read it. Many seemed incredulous that it could be a good read, as they saw nothing in common between Star Wars and Shakespeare. The two fixtures in our cultural collective seemed to be on polar opposites, and they were dumbfounded that anyone would try to combine them. One person likened it to a ballet about “The Sopranos.” But to me, it seemed like a perfect combination, the greatest idea anyone has had since … well George Lucas. This is probably because I studied Joseph Campbell in college.

Joseph Campbell was a mythologist who wrote a definitive book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This led to a six part PBS documentary titled “The Power of Myth,” in which he was interviewed by Bill Moyers, in 1988. A companion book of the same name was released in conjunction with the documentary. It mainly dealt with the universality of myths and the role they play in societies throughout history, and the recurrence of certain themes and elements in nearly all of them. Campbell outlines a template, if you will, of the typical journey each hero of mythology takes. Here’s a diagram:

http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero...

Insert “Hamlet” or “Luke Skywalker” in place of “Hero” and you can see how this pretty much retails both stories.

Having finished William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily a New Hope, I can say that I was not disappointed. I was expecting a parody, with nods to various Shakespearean plays. There were plenty of references to tongue in cheek lines that were straight out of the plays. “Alas, poor stormtrooper, I knew ye not, … (Luke Skywalker)” “But O, what now? What light through yonder flashing sensor breaks? (Han Solo)” There were also references that perhaps only diehard Star Wars fans could truly appreciate. “I pray thee, sir, forgive me for the mess/And whether I shot first, I'll not confess. (Han Solo)” “O help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, help. Thou art Mine only hope. (Leia) I wonder who she is. Whoever she may be, whatever is Her cause, I shall unto her pleas respond. Not e’en were she my sister could I know A duty of more weight than I feel now. It seemeth she some dreadful trouble hath— Mayhap I should replay the message whole. (Luke Skywalker)”

The author wrote an educator’s guide, available on the publisher’s website, that details the Shakespearean references he included. The guide also provides an overview of the elements of Shakespearean plays Doescher used in his play.

The book was well written and the writer paid incredible attention to detail. Doescher labored intensely over the iambic pentameter (more so than the Bard himself did) and the nuances of Elizabethan English. He also explains the lingual elements in the educator’s guide. His hard work shows, as it is flawless as far as I could tell. Someone who has only read Shakespeare’s most popular plays, such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, might not be able to appreciate elements Doescher used common in other plays, such as the constantly interrupting chorus in certain tragedies and the space battle described through dialogue and exposition that is reminiscent of battle scenes in the history plays such as Henry V. Doescher takes the chorus a step further by writing these lines in the style of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Someone who hasn’t read the complete works of Shakespeare might find these elements tedious. Doescher skillfully captured the elements of speech and story telling common to the Bard’s works, particularly the habitual speaking aloud of every little thought to make sure the audience knows exactly what each character is thinking. The play is written in the standard five acts. Witty banter, the omnipotent chorus, comic relief characters, self condemnation, generous use of pause and filler words, anaphora, sparse stage direction, rhyming couplets denoting narration change, unrelated fables, extended metaphors, premonitory dreams, a melancholy song, sword fights … they are all there. He effortlessly blended comedy and tragedy, with R2D2 and C3PO as mechanical Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Darth Vader as the brooding, conflicted and complicated villain. Think Othello as if played by James Earl Jones. Luke Skywalker is flawed, troubled, orphaned, and noble. (Yes, Hamlet again. I can’t help it. It is the character of which Luke reminds me the most.) There is the overall theme of the struggle between polar opposites, good versus evil. Or, in this case, the struggle is between the good side of the force and the dark side. This conflict is embodied in Darth Vader’s internal turmoil. Doescher also made good use of asides and soliloquies, which brings me to the unexpected.

Movies tend not to have monologues and soliloquies. Seldom does a character bare his/her soul and tell the viewer exactly what is happening in his/her mind, heart and soul. The viewer must pay attention to visual and verbal clues to get an idea of what the character is going through. Not so in Shakespearean plays. Little to nothing is left to the audience’s imagination. We know exactly what each major character is thinking and feeling, because they tell us by either talking to themselves at great length or actually addressing the audience. The villains describe their plans in great detail and the heroes elaborately detail their quests. This is where Doescher goes from being a clever editor rewriting a script to an actual author. He delves into each of the major characters, Darth Vader, Luke, Leia, Han, R2D2, C3PO, Uncle Owen and Obi Wan, and brings out the depth and complexity of each character with emotive, elegant language. More amazingly, this insight seems like common knowledge. Of course R2D2 is a suffering genius underestimated by his companion, for example. Doescher describes the hearts, minds and souls of the characters that we all know, but lacked the words to describe. Through his writing and intuitive interpretation of the characters he, and many of us, grew up with, we realize more about them then we ever could watching the movie. I wasn’t expecting this level of creative insight from this book. I thought it was just a parody. Turns out, it is much more.

The Educator’s Guide (I highly recommend reading this, even if you are an expert in all things Shakespearean.): http://quirkbooks.com/sites/default/f...

For further investigation:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quote...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Powe...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSWcI...
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/pla...
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/pla...
http://www.spinebreakers.co.uk/2012/0...

“Aye, say thou fool? Then fool, good Sir, am I. But when thou sayest fool remember well That fools do walk in foolish company. So if I am a fool, perhaps ’tis true That other fools around me may be found. For who is he who hath more foolish been— The fool or other fool who follows him? (Obi Wan)”

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