Shakespeare and "Game of Thrones"

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Based on his knowledge of Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays, Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson of Harvard University knew just how HBO's "Game of Thrones" would play out. Jon Snow, the illegitimate son, was a Richard III type, who would win the crown (and our hearts). But Daenerys Targaryen, as a kind of Henry VII, would defeat him in battle and win it back, restoring peace and order. Turns out he was wrong about all of that. But as Wilson kept watching, he began to appreciate the other ways "Game of Thrones" is similar to Shakespeare—like the way that both Shakespeare and George R.R. Martin’s stories translate the history of the Wars of the Roses into other popular genres. Jeff Wilson’s new book, "Shakespeare and 'Game of Thrones,'" explores some of the ways that Shakespeare influenced "Game of Thrones"… as well as some of the ways that "Game of Thrones" has begun to influence Shakespeare. Wilson is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson is a faculty member in the Writing Program at Harvard University, where he teaches the Why Shakespeare? section of the University's first-year writing course. His new book, "Shakespeare and 'Game of Thrones,'" was published by Routledge in 2020. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published January 19, 2021. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears a Crown,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano at Voice Trax West in Studio City California. Special thanks to DC-based playwright Allyson Currin for finding all of the "Game of Thrones" clips that appear in this episode.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sometimes it sounds like this.
0:03.0	Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings.
0:10.0	Sometimes it sounds like this.
0:13.0	No. No. Please don't.
0:18.0	Aria, leave him below!
0:20.0	My prince, my poor prince, look what they did to you.
0:24.3	Stay here, I'll go back to the inn and bring help.
0:26.7	Don't touch me.
0:28.0	And sometimes, you can hear both and say,
0:31.0	Hey, those seem the same to me.
0:43.3	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folger's director.
0:46.3	We often talk about Shakespeare being a pop culture phenomenon of his day.
0:52.3	And it's certainly fair to call Game of Thrones a pop culture phenomenon for ours.
0:58.0	While it's not everyone's cup of tea, the audience for the Knights and Dragons Slash Em Up grew remarkably year after year,
1:07.0	jumping, according to Forbes magazine, from 9.3 million viewers in season one to 32.8 million in season seven.
1:18.0	Nearly 20 million people watched the final episode, which is unheard of for any show that's not a live sporting event.
1:27.2	Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson of the Harvard University
1:30.5	writing program watched Game of Thrones too, but he did it, at least at first, for a completely
1:37.2	different reason. He saw underneath the sex and violence an unmistakable parallel, a parallel to Shakespeare. After the first few
1:47.9	episodes, it became clear to him that the plot of this HBO epic tracked really, really
1:54.5	closely with the plot of Shakespeare's first tetralogy, before Shakespeare plays looking at the
2:00.5	monarchies that fought the Wars of the
	...

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