Easily Said When English Dominates the World
World Domination
Sophia: Abrams, I’ve been pondering the notion of world domination—not through conquest or force, but through influence. Shakespeare, as you note, seems to dominate across ages, countries, and languages. How do you explain such enduring supremacy?
Abrams: Sophia, it is the universality of Shakespeare’s insight into the human condition. The plays transcend culture, geography, and epoch because they reveal truths that are constant: ambition, love, jealousy, grief, and the myriad complexities of the soul.
Sophia: So his domination is not of armies or empires, but of thought and imagination?
Abrams: Precisely. It is a dominion of influence. Age after age, readers and audiences encounter Shakespeare and find themselves reflected, challenged, and transformed. There is no other author who achieves such comprehensive resonance.
Sophia: And this influence persists regardless of language or translation?
Abrams: Yes. Translation may alter the surface, but the core of the human experience—the universality of character and emotion—remains. Shakespeare’s world domination is of the mind and heart, subtle yet inexorable.
Sophia: It seems then that true domination, the kind worth aspiring to, is moral and intellectual, rather than territorial. To be remembered and felt across centuries is far grander than the fleeting triumph of conquest.
It's amazing how, age after age, in country after country, and in all languages, Shakespeare emerges as incomparable.
— M. H. Abrams (1912-2015)
Abrams: Indeed. Shakespeare’s supremacy teaches us that enduring greatness lies in penetrating the essence of human life. Influence outlasts empires; understanding outlives armies.
Sophia: Then, in a way, every reader and scholar participates in this quiet dominion, sustaining it through recognition and reflection.
Abrams: Exactly, Sophia. The true power of literature is cumulative, subtle, and eternal. Shakespeare’s dominion is ours to witness, to study, and to perpetuate.
Sophia: A world conquered not by force, but by insight, imagination, and the unending echo of human truth.
Abrams: And that, Sophia, is the most profound kind of world domination.
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