By Micheal AKENOO
William Shakespeare, the ever green writer, and the best writer the world had ever known, who lived during the 16th and 17th century’s periods of literature, wrote prolifically about the human society, concerning human behavior and the in-depth nature of man
Before the time of Shakespeare, there had been ancient great writers such as Homer, Tesrpis, Aeschylus, Euripides Sophocles Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle etc. Who wrote about the societies in which they lived.
However, William Shakespeare towers high above all the above mentioned writers by the fact that he probed into the in-depth nature of man and portrayed excellently, the nature of man and his natural mind.
Shakespeare is very distinct and outstanding in his writings as far as the human nature is concerned.
Below is a brief chronology of a great writers of the past whoever wrote.
The fact is that all writers worth their salt irrespective of the periods in which they live either in the present or past do write to portray human activities, behavior or character in the society.
Human beings make the society. And these human beings do uphold certain values and ideas that will make the society to survive, function and to progress.
By virtue of their callings and function, writers are like seers or prophets of the society in which they live. And in this way, they conceive and project ideas and values and also denounce vices and immoralities that are exhibited by fellow human beings in the society in which they live.
By virtue of their distinct qualities as stated earlier on, writers become seers or prophets of their societies because they are able to determine and to predict the direction of the society as to its survival, progress to achieve greatness, prosperity and happiness for all.
Thus, writers write to inform, educate, admonish and to advocate to their fellow human beings to pursue the good in the interest of all, and also for the purpose of this article, it is interesting to present the following excerpt of a renowned writer’s description and comment about writers: “Writers are not eccentrics of the nation, they are rather individuals who have admitted to the mind of flood of stimulating and nourishing experiences that had been excluded from others and it allows a fresh examination of reality and fresh formation of meaning and assignment of values.
The creative writer all through his or her life imbibes experiences and observation that may not be open to other people. Through this exclusiveness he is able to project into the future. The writer is a dreamer for the sake of it; he is more of a visionary prophet. His dreams of today become our realities of a nation tomorrow”.
Writers write also to portray the weaknesses inherent in characters of noble and high stature people of the society, which has the tendency of endangering and eventually, bringing about the downfall of these people.
Typical examples of these kinds of writings are Sophocle’s portrayal of King Odepus tragic flaw in his “King Odepus”. Shakespeare’s is portrayal of Maebeth weakness in “Maebeth” of character of Hamlet, in “Hamlet” “Othello”.
Generally, writers do have experience intuition or inspiration above the physical dimension to write on various issues relating to the societies in which they live.
Sometimes, writers may suffer as enemies to their societies, due to their writings or suffer persecutions, banishment or expulsion from their societies.
Plato, the ancient Greek Philosopher and writer in his book “The Republic” advocated for the expulsions of writers from the society of his time, who wrote what was not moral or spiritual for the survival and progress of the society.
Writers may become eccentrics and hated by their societies, simply because they are espousing what is not popular or tasty in their writings. Thus, they may be regarded as non-conformist by their societies.
A typical example of this situation in our modern times in the African situation is that of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian World renowned writer, winner of the Prestigious Nobel Prize for world literature in 1986.
Wole Soyanka hardly stays in his country Nigeria, due to hatred and persecutions from Nigeria Politicians. Wole Sonyinka is often on self-imposed exile in Europe or America owing to his violent criticism of Nigerian political leaders and the Nigerian society.
Quiet recently, Wole Sonyinka life was threatened by a Nigerian head of State and he had to flee to Europe for his safety!
It must be noted that writers of all times are not just ordinary people but they are above the mass consciousness and thinking of the people.
In the Ghanaian situations, the renowned Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah had to exiled himself to Senegal against persecution because of his “The Beautyful Ones Are not yet Born.
In conclusion, I state categorically that writers are inspired and directed morally or spiritually, either positively or negatively in the context of their writings; and the society sees them as seers or prophets of good will or doom depending on what they stand for and project in their writings.
In this way, they are liked, hailed, acclaimed and praised or disliked and hated by the people, as the Christian Old Testament Bible of Prophet Elijah, Prophet Jeremiah and John the Baptist, the for runner of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour of the world.
