Shakespeare In The Bush Analysis

Shakespeare in the bush was written by Lauren Bohannan an American Anthropologist and furthermore was published in August of 1966 by Natural History Magazine. Lauren Bohannan story depicts when she traveled to the Tiv, a homestead of some hundred and forty people in West Africa and by her surprise, she was taught the true meaning of Hamlet.
Before Bohannan departed from Oxford she was asked by a friend if she needed guidance interpreting Shakespeare since he was "a very English poet, and one can easily misinterpret the universal by misunderstanding the particular", but Bohannan believed that human nature was fairly similar anywhere you traveled around the world, an individual would be able to understand and interpret Shakespeare's simple plots of good vs. evil. But soon after arriving in Africa, Bohannan sat down with the elders as they drank beer one morning and questioned what paper she …show more content…
The elders questioned that Hamlet was mad since he couldn't see the women he was in love with, another elder responded quickly in a bewildered voice that you could only go insane if you were bewitched or in beings that lurk in the forest. At this point, Bohannan stops telling the story of Hamlet and starts asking questions about the beings in the woods and beings to take notes. As Bohannan tried to incorporate that new idea into the story, another elder said “He was sure that something much more important was troubling Hamlet’s, heart.”
By the end of the story, the elders tell Bohannan “That was a very good story, and you told it with very few mistakes.”, another elder added that “Sometime, you must tell us some more stories of your country.". The elders told Bohannan that they will instruct her on the true meanings of the stories so when she returns she can show her elders can see "you have not been sitting in the bush, but among those who know things and who have taught you