Life's but a Walking Shadow...Or is It?

            If there’s one thing I remember learning in my sophomore year of high school, it’s the words of wisdom from the great Thomas C. Foster in How to Read Literature Like a Professor: “when in doubt, it’s from Shakespeare.” For a while it was hard for me to get this, but now I can see Shakespeare everywhere. Even when an author doesn’t make an explicit reference to the Bard’s work, the connections are always there. So naturally when Vonnegut brings up the idea in Cat’s Cradle that the people “were all employed full time as actors in a play,” I thought of poor old Macbeth’s soliloquy: his famous “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech (need a refresher? read lines 19-28).

            Originally reading Vonnegut’s comments on how his characters live a lie as actors in a play, I felt quite depressed and vaguely annoyed at what I was reading. How dare he say that life is all made up?! Life is real, no one can undermine that with such existentialist views! Then Thomas Foster’s words crept back into my mind and I remembered Macbeth. Shakespeare truly does go to that existential extreme in Macbeth’s soliloquy. He, at least in that passage, presents no hope. His play metaphor shows the complete and utter meaninglessness of life, as it is just a short show that will soon end and be forgotten. Shakespeare is bleak.

            Vonnegut, however, puts a twist on the classic play metaphor, bringing a more positive spin to it. Instead of just saying life is pointless, he proposes that we instead have to make our own meaning. Life, while still just an act to occupy the time, is not futile, but “a work of art.” It may be that people are not put here for a specific reason, but they can still make something worthwhile out of the time here. While Shakespeare’s version of the metaphor emphasizes the inevitable end of the play, Vonnegut focuses on what happens during this “play”: the significant characters, the plot twists, the emotions it brings out. Within the play of life, all these aspects still matter, even if it will end soon.

            Drawing connections between literary works is vital. It completely changes our understanding of the works at hand. Being able to compare Vonnegut’s use of the play metaphor to Shakespeare’s, I was able to pick out key differences and get a new perspective on Cat’s Cradle.  So in times of trouble, just remember “when in doubt, it’s from Shakespeare.”