Animalistic Shakespeares Explored by: Bethany Stotts, February 03, 2009 Not only did the Bard speak to human nature and love, but he also spoke to philosophy, epistemology, and sociology, according to four Modern Language Association (MLA) scholars speaking at a panel arranged by the Division on Shakespeare. They argued at this year’s MLA Convention that Shakespeare used complicated ecosystemic imagery to evoke concepts of Atomism, to delineate a continuum of animals, to explore nature’s indecipherability, and to comment on power struggles between social groups. Hamlet. The reflections of the melancholy protagonist Hamlet reflect the tenets of atomism, argued North Carolina...