Elijah Gabriel G.

Garcia Shakespeare in Popular Culture LCE 3

2019611782

The Pervasiveness of the Shakespearean Tragedy:

Intertextual Similarities Between Cowboy BeBop and Hamlet

William Shakespeare’s name and image have become a symbol that encompasses a
variety of qualities and a tool for reshaping other cultural objects. But these qualities are
part of only one side of his influence. One of the forces that have produced other facets of
Shakespeare in our time is in the realm of popular culture (Nunes, 2013).  Although
Shakespeare’s plays are nowadays associated with high art and primarily appeal to a
highbrow audience, the bard has never left the popular stage (Domen, 2008).
Shakespeare’s influence today is both ubiquitous and elusive; it is essentially a
phenomenon that represents an interrelated assortment of shifts that continues to re-define
itself as time passes (Purcell, 2009).

Shakespeare’s presence in popular culture is not just of relevance to the academe

but society as a whole since it operates within the realm of culture. The studies of the
relationships between popular culture and Shakespeare help illuminate our understanding
of the Bard’s apparent ever-lasting and universal appeal. Although his works and likeness
may not always be blatant or even alluded to, in the eyes of some viewers, they may
perceive a certain text or visual medium to have some semblance of Shakespeare due to
what their familiar with.”

This essay aims to make a broad and cursory comparison between the elements
present in a Shakespearean tragedy and in sci-fi anime Cowboy BeBop. The succeeding
paragraphs aim to draw from a number of sources to help situate what a Shakespearean
tragedy is and define the necessary elements that constitute it.

Tragedy and Intertextuality

Modernity has seen a widespread implementation of the formalization of standard
terminology in the academic realm. From time to time, if not all the time, research workers
make use of operational definitions in order to not only establish the parameters of their
thesis but also lay the foundation of what they aim to prove. Jargon such as “tragedy” and
“intertextuality” may be applied in different contexts and may have various operational
definitions in different fields of academic research.

Before any attempt is made to distinguish Shakespeare from other Greek

Tragedians, it is worthy to define tragedy and highlight its features. The desire to trace
a connection between the ancient Greek tragedians and the playwrights of the Elizabethan
and Jacobean theater in England, especially Shakespeare, has been a durable one, yet has
been met with its fair share of skepticism (Braden, 2017). Tragedy as a literary genre has
undergone many iterations over the course of history and is usually contrasted with
comedy. It is a form of  drama  based on human  suffering  that invokes an
accompanying  catharsis (Banham, 1998). Its purpose is to give pleasure to the audience,
not by delighting them as in comedy, but by moving them to deep spiritual experience by
releasing in them a storm of pity and terror that will expend itself and be succeeded by a
“calm of mind, all passion spent (Milton, 1900). It was Aristotle who first praised tragedy as
the highest form of poetry and bequeathed to posterity terms such as hamartia (error),
catharsis (purgation), and mimesis (imitation) (Banham, 1998). Research has affirmed the
value of comparing Athenian and Shakespearean drama on a level independent of any
claim of actual influence. However, for most of the 20th  century, the consensus has been
that Shakespeare and his Elizabethan era colleagues had any meaningful contact with
ancient tragedy, it was through Seneca (Braden, 2007).

A Shakespearean tragedy moves on several plains all at once and includes a variety
of subplots. It is reflective of the contradictions of social life during the Renaissance culture,
in hindsight it anticipated the development of realism and romanticism in the nineteenth
century, and it revealed hidden depths of the human mind unknown to literature before
(Nafi, 2018). Shakespeare‟s concept of tragedy may be illustrated from three main points of
views: First, Tragic Hero. Second, Tragic Action i.e., Tragic Plot, and finally, Tragic Appeal
i.e., Tragic Catharsis. The three aforementioned views will be discussed in some
details in the next section, through analysis of Hamlet and Cowboy BeBop.

Finally, intertextuality is a term used by scholars to imply the overlapping of

conventions in texts and the way that audiences uses aforementioned conventions to
create meaning (Allen, 2000). Because genre, aesthetics, and narratives constantly shift,
overlap, and evolve, meaning-making is an ongoing phenomenon that accelerates as
audiences become accustomed to new media form and content. Intertextuality will just be
used loosely in this essay as it will try to bridge between CB and Hamlet.

Cowboy BeBop
There is nothing strange in literature because every unit in literature owes
some to other preceding literatures. When genre is observed, it is visible that there is a
common point within all literary works. literary works have been classified as belonging to
general types which were variously defined. In literature the broadest division is between
poetry, prose and drama, within which there are further divisions, such as tragedy and
comedy within the category of drama. Conventional classifications of a work to a certain
genre tend to be a based on the notion that they constitute particularly enduring
conventions of content (themes) and/or form (style) which are shared. At first glance,
Cowboy BeBop is as science fiction anime series since it is set in space, comes in the form
of Japanese animation, and has multiple episodes (or sessions). This classification is
certainly a weak attempt to classify it but to the ordinary viewer, that is what it is. However,
actually watching the show emerges a much more complex and intricate television series
that not only supersedes the initial definition given but also touches on other genres.

Cowboy Bebop is a critically-acclaimed Sci-Fi Japanese anime with 26 episodes

(“sessions”). The anime is panned by many critics to be one of the greatest anime of all-
time and has even been labelled to be a gateway series to the medium (Robinson, 2009).
Set in the year 2071, the anime follows the lives of a bounty hunter crew traveling in their
spaceship called the BeBop. The show is beautifully animated; from the lively opening, the
exciting hand-to-hand combat, the somber monotony of being aboard Bebop, and the
diversity of the galaxy it is set in, Cowboy Bebop is just fun to watch. The opening track
entitled “Tank!” kicks the show off with an explosion of loud up tempo-jazz accompanied
with a short opening monologue. It grabs your attention with the bright colours and
crawling graphics and, to be honest, it is one opening I do not skip. The reason why I
brought it up is one of the opening epithets that a lot of people may not notice;

“in 2071 in the universe... The bounty hunters, who are gathering in the spaceship
"BEBOP", will play freely without fear of risky things. They must create new dreams
and films by breaking traditional styles. The work, which becomes a new genre
itself, will be called... COWBOY BEBOP.”

Cowboy BeBop integrates many genres. The series covers a wide range of genres and
draws most heavily from science fiction, the western, and noir.

Despite having the word “cowboy” in the title, the anime pans to conventions of the
Western genre. Peter French (1997) notes death to be an essential element to the Western
genre saying it is about a dead man’s walk. Characters have been defeated and have lived
with death in a cause as they saw either an inescapable duty or as romantic. This trope
pointed out is evident in Spike. Spike meanders through life on Bebop as an escape from
his tragic past. Spike, a former member of the Red Dragon crime syndicate, wanted to
escape with the love of his life; it was revealed however that after he faked his death his
significant other left him leaving him at disarray. Spike can never truly relinquish himself of
his bloody past; much like Hamlet. It is a stretch to allude Hamlet to be a Western for a
number of reasons. French (2007) notes after all that the westerner is not out for a
vengeance, which is the reason for Hamlet’s prolonged revenge carried out at the exodus of
the play. But, on the argument of intertextuality it is possible to see the connection.
Furthermore, the westerner’s wrongs always relate to some harm suffered by him directly or
by someone with whom he has established a relationship with (French, 2007). This
sentiment is present in both heroes of Spike and Hamlet.

Cowboy Bebop and Hamlet as Tragedies

 As stated earlier, Shakespeare’s tragedy may be characterized with the presence of

a Tragic Hero, Tragic Action, (Tragic Plot) and Tragic Appeal/Catharsis (Nafi, 2018). Tragedy
with Shakespeare is concerned always with persons of “high degree” who eventually will
suffer through a dispositional flaw (Bradley, 1965). Shakespeare intended to depict his
tragic heroes as men in the grip of a remorseless fate over which they had no control.
Spike Spiegel is a tragic hero. He was a member of high status within the Red Dragon
Crime Syndicate who is destined to suffer a bloody end. Spike’s central flaw is his
disassociating apathy, masquerading it by being cool and easy going. The emotional stasis
he subjects himself to in order to escape his past is a result of his guilt. He is in a constant
state of questioning his existence. Spike is so emotionally chained to his pasts that he can
only live in the moment. To him, each session/episode is a fleeting high that distracts him
from the life he would have to rebuild. A striking feature of Hamlet and Spike’s character is
melancholy. Melancholy is the result of their speculative and contemplative mind
manifested by their existential despair and hesitation to do what must be done. As Liang
(2015) further notes, tragic disasters typically result from a character’s action, which springs
from various flawed dispositions.

The action of the play is the outcome of the character of the hero. The calamities of
tragedy do not simply happen, nor are they sent by a supernatural power; they proceed
mainly from the actions of men (Nafi, 2018). The aforementioned flaw of Spike along with
the passiveness of dealing with his past inevitably catches up to him and destines him to
suffer his tragic fate in the end. With Shakespeare, character is destiny. Much like Hamlet,
Spike ultimately “contributes to the disaster in which he perishes” and “the center of the
tragedy lies in action issuing from character, or in character issuing in action” (Bradley,
1965).

The term tragic justice denotes that good may go unrewarded, but evil cannot
remain unpunished and that an evil person can never escape scot-free. This we find in
Shakespeare to a considerable extent; villainy never flourishes in the end. Tragic Appeal
ultimately refers to our feelings towards the characters in the play and impression left by the
unfolding of the tragedy in our minds. Both Cowboy Bebop and Hamlet are bittersweet
tragedies. Both mediums have plots that are centered on themes of fulfilling one’s destiny
through revenge and reluctance to act and both end in the demise of the hero. In particular,
what makes Cowboy BeBop are themes it covers. The most recurring thematic focal points
include existentialism, adult existential ennui, loneliness, and escapism from the past. The
past is the crux of the characters’ suffering. Ultimately, it catches up to them and in the end
it led to somber realizations, bittersweet departures, and a tragic ending. By the end, the
core characters of BeBop liberate themselves from their past and are no longer in the
emotional stasis they once were.

With the closing epithet, it serves as a cautionary statement that decisions of our
past linger and will eventually catch up to us. Viewers are reminded that the weight that is
at once the load of our past and also the promise and burden of unrealized hopes and
aspirations for the future is something we all have to carry

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https://doi.org/10.1093/crj/clw014

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French P. (1997). Cowboy Metaphysics: Ethics and Death in Westerns. Rowman & Littlefield
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Milton, J. (1900). The Poetical Works of John Milton. Edited by Henry Charles
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