Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy

by Paula Marantz Cohen

An award-winning scholar and teacher explores how Shakespeare’s greatest characters were built on a learned sense of empathy

"Thoughtful, astute, invitingly readable—and uncommonly timely. Especially now that so many younger readers are casting suspicious glances at Shakespeare, Of Human Kindness shows with mind-changing clarity why his work has never been more relevant to our common problems."—Terry Teachout, drama critic, Wall Street Journal

“A warm and committed book, firmly rooted in long experience of the classroom.”—Emma Smith, Times Literary Supplement

While discussing Shakespeare’s plays in her university classroom, Paula Marantz Cohen discovered that they unlocked a surprising sense of compassion in both herself and her students. In this short and illuminating book, she shows how Shakespeare’s genius lay in his ability to arouse empathy, even when his characters exist in alien contexts and behave in reprehensible ways. Cohen takes her readers through a selection of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, including Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , and The Merchant of Venice , to demonstrate the ways in which Shakespeare thought deeply and clearly about how we treat “the other.” Cohen argues that only through close reading of Shakespeare can we fully appreciate his empathetic responses to race, class, gender, and age. Wise, eloquent, and thoughtful, this book is a forceful argument for literature’s power to champion what is best in us.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction

176 pages, Hardcover

Published February 9, 2021

About the author

Paula Marantz Cohen, Distinguished Professor of English, received her BA in English and French from Yale University and her Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. She is the author of seven books and numerous essays on literature, film, and culture.

Her most recent academic book, Silent Film and the Triumph of the American Myth (Oxford UP), was selected as a Choice Outstanding Book for 2003. Her first novel, Jane Austen in Boca (St. Martin's Press), was a Literary Guild/Book of the Month Club Featured Alternate and a Page-Turner of the Week in People Magazine.

She has articles and stories in many journals, including Yale Review, Boulevard, Iowa Review, Raritan, The American Scholar, and The Hudson Review. She is the Co-Editor of the Journal of Modern Literature and a regular reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. She is the recipient of the Lindback Teaching Award.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Basing anything to do with Shakespeare on chronology and authorial intention is problematic at best, and in this case reads as a way to conveniently prove a point the author already decided upon. There is little 'proof' or 'fact' here, and whilst you can argue all literary criticism is subjective, to say your 'method' (a term I use lightly here) leads to a definite conclusion about what Shakespeare 'must' have thought is poor scholarship.

Marantz Cohen seems to confuse what an early modern audience would have understood or been able to conceive and what her 21st century students can know e.g. the concept of homosexuality wasn't invented until the 19th century (male-male relationships obviously did exist but were understood differently) so to say Antonio in The Merchant of Venice is an example of a marginalised identity because he's gay is just...not a thing. Yes, you can read him as that NOW but Shakespeare literally could not conceive of such an identity. Another favourite instance of this frivolity is that Falstaff 'must' have been a precursor to Lear because he made Shakespeare think about old age (as if none of Shakespeare'sother characters are old men, and he didn't surely know any in real life). But where is the acknowledgement of the huge variety of socurces and influences used, not to mention the differing texts of Lear, the potential for collaboration? Moreover, for all we know Lear could have been concieved of before Falstaff (especially as the former is based on a folk tale and the latter a real person). Yes YOU may see a link but thats an opinion, not fact. Don't present it as such.

(Also. Please don't just say 'many scholars think' or 'as much criticism shows' and then NOT MENTION YOUR SOURCES (especially when what you're implying is outdated and/or disproved). I really hope she wouldn't let her students get away with that so why should she?)

The point is, WE DON'T KNOW what Shakespeare (or anyone he was working with) did or didn't think so please please please stop pretending that lends weight to an argument about his value. Because once you start insisting you 'get' Shakespeare, you are in tune with what he was 'really' like, you enter into all sorts of iffy territory about the ownership and gatekeeping of art/culture and thats just not great. And why does the pedagogical merit of something necessarily lead to value anyway? Can't it just be good, or enjoyable? (But that's a whole other kettle of fish...). It dissapoints me that this author and academic is entering into the fight to 'prove' the material value of art and it dissapoints me even more that she does so in a way so full of holes.

P.s. excuse any typos, I'm on mobile!

[Caitlyn DeRouin · Rating 5 out of 5]

i found this to be completely and utterly fascinating. i will definitely be rereading certain parts of this as i continue my shakespeare rereads and annotations

[Barry Welsh · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 45%. Appalling. Avoid.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love anything that makes me see Shakespeare clearer, and this warm and perceptive book tracks the growth of his characters in early plays to the middle and later plays, particularly in eliciting empathy. The author talks of "monumental tragic figures who are ostensibly nothing like us yet are capable of making us see, understand and feel for them in their difference." Ms. Cohen lets us see Shakespeare's development as an author. "There could not have been an Othello if there had not been a Shylock before him." A wonderful little book of humane vision of a great writer who was always growing and always learning and listening to people.

[Ricky · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars. A well-researched look into Shakespeare's journey towards a more empathetic voice.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent albeit rather dull interpretation of the best known plays by the Bard of Stratford upon Avon; for a more thorough and in-depth treatment of Shakespeare's work check out Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human and the magisterial Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a straightforward and well-written book that needed a more accurate title: "... What I Have Learned About Empathy From Shakespeare", or perhaps "... How I Have Used Shakespeare To Teach My Students About Empathy". It is an exploration of Shakespeare's development of empathetic characterisation that works better as an insight into Cohen's classes (which sound great) and her/their responses to Shakespeare than as a wholly convincing or particularly revelatory thesis about the plays themselves. There is an occasional stutter when the book tries to sound a bit more "academic" ("It is not that Shakespeare ceases to be interested in gender but that he now incorporates empathy for the gendered Other more naturally into his plays") but for the most part it is a personal account that comes as much from conviction ("I surmise", "I propose", "I would suggest", "to my mind", "One of the truisms I extract from the play", "Let me reiterate my conviction that...") as from evidence, with some of the quotations chosen (for example, Hamlet's speech quoted on pp. 72-73 as evidence of Horatio's "unchanging devotion" as a foil to Hamlet "who alone embodies the fully human character") not really doing what they need to support the main argument⁠. That argument is itself something of a simplification, although a plausible one, relying heavily on some of the main characters from some of the most famous plays. As Cohen herself admits, it is based on her many years of reading Shakespeare and, although this is by no means an invalid way to deal with the plays - and which may in fact reflect the way that many people primarily encounter Shakespeare's work - it tends to make them seem like novels, and their writer's creative life a convenient progression.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, I'm headed down a Shakespeare rabbit hole and this book made me descend further. The author, an English professor with credentials from Yale and Columbia, posits that Shakespeare's portrayal of characters grew more nuanced as his career progressed with the result being that the audience developed a conflicted, empathetic response to them in his later plays. Of particular interest to me was her analysis of Shylock and Lear, which is now driving me deeper into that rabbit hole as I move The Merchant of Venice and King Lear to the top of my to-read list.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, the argument in the book is an interesting one. She maps out Shakespeare’s empathetic development through his plays. It was definitely interesting to see the thread of themes and character types that weave their way through his work.

However, there were many times throughout the book that I found myself unimpressed or even questioning the point she was making. It’s an excellent book for beginners, but in the end I found myself somewhat disagreeing with her final point.

The general argument of the book is an interesting one to explore, but I found myself questioning too many points to properly enjoy the book.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book tracing the development of Shakespeare's moral imagination and his ability to generate empathy even for his villains (though without excusing the evil actions of those villains). My one criticism is a chapter about As You Like It which stretches too far to tie the play into modern attitudes of gender. It's important to note, though, that the author certainly knows the play better than I do and has studied them much more closely, so my own opinions need to be taken with a grain of salt. I do unequivically applaud her goal of pointing out that Shakespeare is still a vital and meaningful part of a cultural heritage and that we need to continue to read his plays thoughtfully.

[Joan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading "Of Human Kindness," but not quite as much as I thought I would. I agree with Ms. Cohen's thesis about the progression of Shakespeare's ability to convey the nuances of a character's personality in such a way as to allow us to empathize with "the Other." But her frequent use of that term made me feel as if I were reading psychological analysis and I found that a bit off-putting.

When she points out the lessons in parenting, aging, and other aspects of life that we can all take away from Shakespeare's plays, it proves her thesis that Shakespeare remains an artist for all ages.

[Sep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Cohen has written a lovely book about interpreting Shakespeare's plays. I read a lot of Shakespeare in college and knew most of the plots. It was fascinating how she compared Romeo and Juliet to Antony and Cleopatra, the prejudice in Othello that is not just racial, and hints of homosexuality in Merchant of Venice.

She also discussed how her students' opinions reflected their age, attitude towards parents, whether or not they were parents, and female students reacting to the me too movement.

[Nichola · Rating 3 out of 5]

This slim volume can be read on several different levels, about the things that can be learned from the specific plays she covers, what the undergrads she taught had to said in discussions, or the value of teaching Shakespeare in an age when diversity is valued. I found all those points interesting, but as usual got a lot more from the chapters where I knew well the plays she discussed, and I did not read the plays themselves (as she suggests, I prefer to watch), although I take her point on that also.

[Marilyn Werkema · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Analysis of Shakespeare's Characters

This is an excellent book to learn to appreciate Shakespeare's greatness in his ability to capture human character and motivations leading to actions and emotions. I appreciate overviews of plays that I do not know well. I'd recommend the book to anyone who wants to evaluate Shakespeare's in terms of modern critical thought perspective. The book is entertaining and easy to read.

[Spiros · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice overview, well argued, of how Shakespeare developed characters throughout his works who became increasingly well rounded, which included characters who became increasingly empathic, and with whom it was increasingly easy to empathize. I disagree with her take on Lear (possibly because I have never been a parent) but she does make her case well.

[Toad Soup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful look at kindness through Shakespeare’s works. The essays on Hamlet, Leer, and Othello are standouts whereas the other ones are hit-or-misses. Definitely worth reading if you’re into Shakespeare, but I don’t recommend for someone who only likes Midsummer Night’s Dream

[Janus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable book on why Shakespeare is relevant even now. Very interesting to read the perspectives of the students as they read and learn Shakespeare and how those perspectives have changed over time.

[Kiara Selena · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting perspective for sure and I like the structure as well as the points made but I thought it would be a littler read, I took me days longer than expected :/

[Mary Ellen Barringer · Rating 4 out of 5]

One woman's take on Shakespeare's plays. I listened to.this book, learned much and it gave me much to ponder.

[Mickey Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5!

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding