2020 is finally done, and all I have to say is this: what has just happened in God’s name? It started February, and then I blinked, and December arrived, and it seems like I’ve led many lives in between. Shakespearean dialogues sum up 2020 very well.
So here are the many catastrophes and sporadic triumphs of 2020 summed up in Shakespeare quotations for anybody who feels equally inextricable and frustrated and needs to recall what happened this year (I don’t know why you will, but life is a wealthy tapestry and for every one of their own).
The last 12 months have brought some good news. However, those bright points just made up for the negative information. And here are our Shakespearean dialogues about 2020 world affairs. Maybe you would like to read what follows closely. Many of these headlines are likely to carry into 2021 and beyond.
Lets the show of Shakespearean dialogues begin
When we’re all thinking for 2020, but in Australia, wildfires were causing irreparable harm:
“Yet you began rudely.”
Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5
As Meghan Markle and Harry revealed on Instagram, they are quitting the Royals:
[Duchess Exeunt.]””
Part II, Act 2, Scene 3, Henry VI
When Congress impeached Donald Trump but was eventually cleared by the Senate:
“Come on then, and remove him.”
Cymbeline, Act 4, Scene 2
At the Oscars, as Parasite earned Best Film:
“Dream of success and happy victory!”
Richard III, Act 5, Scene 3
“Please wash your hands” was the first time the coronavirus hit the headlines and the general recommendation:
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”
Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1
But it was an airborne virus as we realized:
“[All put on their masks.]”
Scene 1, Act 2, Much Ado About Nothing
While Sarah Palin had been In the Masked Singer, but we all had a moment of fun doing it:
“This news distracts me!”
Windsor’s The Merry Wives, Act 2, Scene 2
To compress the trend, as countries begin rolling out lockout orders:
“Hell itself breathes out.
Contagion to this world.”
Hamlet, Act Three, Scene 2
Because, in spite of having a decade-long head start, Skype still lost the video conference battles to Zoom:
“But how, but how?”
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1, Scene 2
When their child was named X A-12 by Elon Musk and Grimes:
Yeah, be another name, be that!
What’s in a name?”
Romeo & Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
As, as a part of continuing demonstrations against police brutality, they ripped down Confederate statues:
“A good riddance.”
Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, Scene 1
As he declined to criticize white nationalists, Trump said:
“‘ Twas you incensed the rabble.”
Coriolanus, Act 4, Scene 2, Movement 2
When some persons had to lay low, while others had to go to jobs:
“The nobles, they are fled, the commons they are cold.”
Richard II, Act 2, Scene 2
When the presence of UFOs was confirmed by the Pentagon, we all said, “Not this year, we’re stressed”:
“The day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the king, and the dukes. It is no time to discourse.”
Henry V, Act Three, Scene 2
Whenever the California wildfires soon went out of hand:
“The land is burning.”
—Henry IV, Part I, Act 3, Scene 3
When all tested positive for the coronavirus in Trump’s ring:
“They are infected; in their hearts, it lies;
They have the plague.”
—Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act 5, Scene 2
Since the majority of ballots were mail-in as the referendum returns take days:
“I am to wait, though waiting so be, hell.”
—Sonnet 28, ln. 799
So when the election was losing to Donald Trump:
“[Exit Clown.]”
—Othello, Act 3, Scene 1
When we were about to witness Trump losing the election many times:
“O wonderful, wonderful, most wonderful, and yet
again wonderful, and after that, out of all whooping!”
Scene 2, Act 3, As You Like It
When the COVID-19 version starting rising up:
“Sure, the gods do this year connive at us.”
—The Winter’s Tale, Act 4,
When someone says, “How are you?” At some level of this year:
“So weary with disasters.”
Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2
What we sound moving into the year 2021:
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”
Henry V, Act 3, Scene 2
While 2020 proved to be an incredibly challenging year with a global pandemic, unprecedented unemployment levels, social injustices, and record-breaking weather disasters, there are silver linings.
In history books, the year 2020 will go down as one of the darkest years in modern human history. The year has not yet finished, and the COVID-19 pandemic, storms, flooding, forest fires, and explosions have already passed through us.
