How Authors Interact with the World

In the world today there are so many great authors of many genres and themes. What makes an author great? Lets examine the great William Shakespeare’s, the ancient Aztec “Florentine Codex,” and William Blake’s writings and learn a little about how they used their writings to interact with the world in their time and in ours. William Shakespeare is one of the greatest authors and playwrights of all time. His work is used to teach love, beauty, tragedy and loss. “What Shakespeare was really like. There are writers, even among playwrights, who visibly explore, exploit, and reveal their personalities in ways that seem to open themselves up to their readers with devastating honesty.” (Wells, 2009) One of his most powerful writings that has been made into movies and rewritten by other authors is “Romeo and Juliet.” The topic of love, loss and tragedy is appealing to several, we all face these emotions and feelings at some point in our lives. By taking two people that are so in love, but families hated each other, and seeing how they handled the issue speaks to many. Shakespeare also used his love for nature in the play and poems from “King Lear.” Shakespeare used what he loved about the natural world, such as bodies and the animal kingdom, in the characters’ speeches and explaining different ways of what nature is in order to justify actions. By Shakespeare writing about these themes he reached other that love animals, nature and have experienced love, loss or tragedy. Shakespeare also liked to use the imagery from the Bible throughout his plays in many ways. Shakespeare captures the world of good and evil, violence and human nature. This is another great way that Shakespeare reached his audience. Shakespeare seemed to have a great love for God, drama and the act of love. Shakespeare and his writings were shaped by his love for these things. His worldview was one of religion, belief and love. Alison Shell argues that Shakespeare was an atheist and was only religious when he wanted to be while Peter Milward argues “there to be an organic relation between the Bible and Shakespeare. It is as if the Bible were Shakespeare’s oxygen, his inspiring element, whereas Shell’s “subordination” suggests a more mechanical, contrived, and exploitive process in Shakespeare’s canny uses of a religious text.” (Oser, 2012) A person or cultures worldview is unique to their region, religion and time. They are mostly made up of beliefs, ideas and experiences, but can also be shaped by religion and beliefs in God. Reading, “The Midwife Addresses the Women Who Has Died in Childbirth,” originally written as “Florentine Codex,” from ancient Aztec readers may get a feel for the worldviews of this time and culture. These writings, along with others from this time period show that the Aztecs cherished their Gods and believed in a higher power. They believed that if a mother dies in childbirth, they went on to come Gods. By the Aztec culture or authors of the Florentine Codex writing these poems they reached out and connected with the world and the other people of their culture. The final part of the book helps explain and explain the war on Mexico. “Book XII of the text that is now known as the Florentine Codex is the most extensive indigenous account of the Spanish-led war on Mexico-Tenochtitlan.” (Terraciano, 2010) Like Shakespeare, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún had a way of writing what he saw and felt in a way that others could connect to. “His motives were primarily religious: he believed that to convert the natives to Christianity and eradicate their devotion to false gods, it was necessary to understand those gods and the hold they had on the Aztec people.” (WDL.org) William Blake was another author that knew how to write pieces that would reach several different audiences with many different themes. Aileen Ward wrote a biography on William Blake in which she quotes one