Young love doomed to tragedy is another theme that is crucial to the drama, as both Romeo and Juliet and Anakin and Padm é face obstacles that seem insurmountable. While both couples have tragic destinies placed before them, it is the choices they make that lead inevitably to unhappy conclusions. Both Shakespeare and Lucas let audiences in on the dramatic irony of each story; the audience knows that both couples will meet a tragic end, but experience the drama with bated breath, hoping for a result that will not come to pass. In both stories, the irony is palpable for audiences. Shakespeare's works utilize motifs that permeate Star Wars, and help enhance our enjoyment of the beloved saga. Through the examples provided above, audiences experience the power of storytelling through these archetypes, and these concepts help to magnify the mythological implications through George Lucas' examination of the Skywalker family. Ian Doescher created a canvas through which readers can discern the similarities between these two masters of storytelling, and discerning the motifs present helps augment the powerful literacy of Lucas' genius. Celebrating the release of this summer's William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher, learn the thematic and visual connections between Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and a galaxy far, far away. Doescher claims to be only a Star Wars and Star Trek fan and not well versed in other science-fiction literature. The idea for WSSW came to him when he went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland shortly after reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. After the first draft was shown to Lucasfilm, their response was "We like this and it’s fun, but we’d like to see Ian do more with it. Go ahead and have some more fun with it, and go out of bounds of movie itself", so he rewrote it. [2] Publications [ edit ] Literary works [ edit ]

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This summer featured the release of Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return, the finale of Doescher’s masterful re-working of the Star Wars saga into Shakespearean language. Once again, Doescher merges the storytelling brilliance of George Lucas and William Shakespeare to add another dimension to this saga that has become sacrosanct to so many. This series has brought many fans of Shakespeare to Star Wars and vice-versa, which is a testament to the framework that both of these storytellers exhibit through their respective crafts. Shakespeare used many motifs that are present in the saga, and these criteria all resonate to enhance our enjoyment of Star Wars. At Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Doescher (center) does a reading of The Jedi Doth Return with former classmate Anne Huebsch (left) and audience member Micah Read from Lincoln High School (right). July, 2014. Experience the Star Wars saga reimagined as an Elizabethan drama penned by William Shakespeare himself, complete with authentic meter and verse, and theatrical monologues and dialogue by everyone from Yoda to a hungry wampa. Perhaps the most prevalent motifs found in both Shakespeare and Star Wars is the theme of tragedy. In a Shakespearean tragedy, heroes of prominence in society meet a tragic end, while meeting their fate with grace and dignity, thereby gaining the audience's sympathy. Anakin Skywalker fulfils this category beautifully; as discussed in a previous blog, Anakin is a tragic hero who encapsulates heroism gone wrong, as he turns to the dark side of the Force. Revenge of the Sith provides a canvas for the once promising Jedi to follow a dark path in the name of righteousness, which dooms both him and the galaxy into many years of despair and pain. In the spring and summer of 2012, Ian read Quirk Books’ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, watched the Star Warstrilogyfor the millionth time, and attended the Oregon Shakespeare Festivalwith his family. At the Festival, Ian saw the funny, gay-marriage-themed, modern adaptation The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowaby Alison Carey. Within this span of a few months, Ian had mashups, Star Wars, and Shakespeare on his mind. The morning after watching The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa, he had the idea to write William Shakespeare’s Star Wars.

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MacTrump: A Shakespearean Tragicomedy of the Trump Administration, Part I (2019; co-authored with Jacopo della Quercia) Doescher has a B.A. in Music from Yale University, a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Ethics from Union Theological Seminary. He lives with his wife and two children in Portland, Oregon. Many a fortnight have passed since the destruction of the Death Star. Young Luke Skywalker and his friends have taken refuge on the ice planet of Hoth, where the evil Darth Vader has hatched a cold-blooded plan to capture them. Only with the help of a little green Jedi Master—and a swaggering rascal named Lando Calrissian—can our heroes escape the Empire’s wrath. And only then will Lord Vader learn how sharper than a tauntaun’s tooth it is to have a Jedi child.