The 10 Most Shakespearean Moments in Star Wars

There’s nothing like a good mashup, no better way to find brilliant congruities between seemingly disparate things than an artful integration of their core qualities. Take Ian Doescher’s Shakespearean rewrites of the Star Wars films: never before did I realize how closely the holy trilogy maps to the Bard’s signature style. Inspired by Star Wars Saturday at Barnes & Noble, not to mention the recent release of William Shakespeare’s The Clone Army Attacketh: Part the Second, which makes the doomed love affair between Anakin Skywalker and Padme, if not more tolerable, then at least more poetic, I decided to take in the original trilogy through a Shakespearean lens. Here is a list of the 10 most Shakespearean moments in Star Wars.

1. Obi-Wan’s ghost appears to Luke on Dagobah
   In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke experiences his moment of crisis, having witnessed a dark prophecy of the future, when Obi-Wan’s ghost rises to counsel him. If this sounds familiar it’s because you saw it first in Hamlet—albeit with more agonizing and less raising X-wings from a swamp. Of course, Luke is luckier: where Hamlet eventually tortures himself into doing everything the ghost says, and winds up dead for his trouble, Luke ignores Obi-Wan’s eminently better advice, but at least gets to stay alive (if minus a hand and plus a father he wasn’t really into acquiring). While Lucas ultimately has more faith in dead-father-figure ghosts dispensing advice, this scene is all so much Shakespearean deja-vu.

2. Han thinks Leia’s in love with Luke
   Ah, yes, the love misunderstanding. This one is pretty much the lynchpin of most of Shakespeare’s comedies. Han thinking that Leia is in love with her brother (and offering to step out of the way so that they can be together!) is a pretty mild iteration of a Shakespearean misunderstanding. Hey, at least you didn’t fall in love with a woman disguised as a man, then marry her brother by accident in a time when divorce was illegal! Your shades of Shakespeare were strong with this one, Lucas, but in comparison, you let Han off easy.

3. Luke and Leia are secret twins!
   Now we’re talking. This is where Shakespeare lives. He loved himself some secret twin stories, especially ones like Luke and Leia, who are unaware of each other. He has at least two plays entirely based around twin confusion (the delightfully slapstick Comedy of Errors—which featured two sets of twins—and the more melancholy Twelfth Night); the joke’s been going for a good 400 years and hasn’t gotten old yet. This reveal might have been shocking, but it never would have caught Shakespeare off guard.

4. Darth Vader turns on the Emperor and kills him
   This is the galaxy far far away’s straightforward version of “Et tu, Brute?” with way more lightning hands special effects. Darth Vader has been kneeling to this guy for decades, brought to monstrous maturity by the master monster himself, but finally there comes a time where the tyrant crosses a line that’s too far for even his star pupil to bear. Perhaps the galaxy might have been better off if that line had come sooner than “electrocuting my son to death,” but I guess everyone has their own Rubicon.

5. Han and Leia in the Space Slug
   This whole exchange, and basically all of the pre-Jedi relationship between Leia and Han, plays like a fanfic writer’s version of Beatrice and Benedick, like someone who saw the play and yelled, “Kiss! Kiss already!” every time the title duo spit out stuff like this:

BEATRICE
I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior
Benedick: nobody marks you.
BENEDICK
What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
Or this:
BENEDICK
God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some
gentleman or other shall ‘scape a predestinate
scratched face.
BEATRICE
Scratching could not make it worse, an ’twere such
a face as yours were.
We thank you, Star Wars, for recognizing the fine tradition of hilarious hatred turned to love, and running with it right into our geeky hearts.

6. 3P0, R2D2 and Chewie, generally
   I get it, droids are not the most natural Shakespearean connection. But the Bard loves populating his plays with groups of “mechanicals” who are pretty much there to provide pure absurdist relief. Even if we’re already in a comedy, some of the funny may be of the more cerebral sort. This group’s got your slapstick covered. Lucas’ droids and everyone’s favorite Wookie serve this essential purpose throughout the series. From C-3PO falling to pieces on Cloud City, to pretty much every time R2 beeps and warbles at his indignant golden friend, to the “3-PO is an Ewok god” story in Jedi, they provide us with quotable quotes, classic misunderstandings, and reasons for Harrison Ford to make his patented “are you serious right now” face. It’s the light we need to get us through the darkness of patricide and people being thrown into carbonite.

7. The part where Luke and Leia’s mom dies of “heartbreak”
   In addition to his raucous comedies, Shakespeare indulged in melodrama like nobody’s business. When Padme dies for particular medical reason except “heartbreak” after giving birth to twins, it sounds a lot like the failings of Shakespearean ladies like Hero in Much Ado about Nothing and Hermione in Winter’s Tale. Except, unfortunately, those ladies got the chance to come back to life once things were cleared up and their respective mates had realized what utter donkeys they’d made of themselves. Lucas’ prequel had an already established Vader coming down the pipe, so there was no Padme-resurrection redemption in the cards. Sorry Padme—death due to previously established plot necessity is always permanent.

8. Luke’s temptation to the Dark Side
   The idea of giving in to the worst version of ourselves, even if for totally understandable reasons, is a constant theme in Shakespeare. Some, like Othello and Macbeth, cross over to the Dark Side pretty quickly. Some toy with the idea and ultimately step away, like Prospero in The Tempest. Like Luke, some get caught up in the heat of the moment and almost don’t even see themselves falling—think Romeo’s slaying of Tybalt. Luckily, unlike Romeo, Luke had the help of the awesomest Jedi Master ever and some creepy cave visions to scare him straight well before things progressed to poisons and daggers in the heart.

9. “Luke, I am your father.” “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
   You knew this one was coming: if we were to poll Shakespeare’s characters, daddy issues would rank as one of the top “do not bring up at the dinner table” topics (not sex, though—they’re good with talking about that for most of the night). We’ve got your rebellious and/or orphaned/exiled young ladies (Rosalind and Celia, Juliet, Hermia, Viola), your straight “I’ll never beat my dad/father-figure at anything waaaaaaah” complexes (Henry V, Brutus), and your possibly-diagnosable obsessions (tell us again why Hamlet, Jr. isn’t running hereditary-monarchy Denmark after dad died? I’d like to see that ghost and Hamlet sit down for a therapy session about that sometime). Luke is the latest in a long line of Shakespearean characters who aren’t particularly thrilled about the fathers they’ve been assigned. Chin up, though—at least daddy drew the line at you being murdered in front of his eyes! That’s something.

10. The big party at the end of Return of the Jedi
    Whatever tragedy and/or complete loss of dignity and self-respect Shakespeare put his characters through, he was a big fan of the wrap-it-up-with-a-bow ending. In his comedies, that usually means ending with a literal dance party. Lucas’ celebratory Ewoks and X-wing fighter pilots getting their party on to the beat of stormtrooper helmet drums places the finale firmly in this tradition. And frankly, if we’re picking Shakespearean tropes to root for, I’ll hope for more of this one in the future. (Hope you’re listening, J.J. Abrams!) I appreciate a good tragedy as much as the next person, but if I must choose, I’ll choose dancing Ewoks every time.

What other Star Wars moments ring your Shakespeare recognition bells?