Shakespeare References in The Arrangement

Elia Kazan’s novel The Arrangement contains several Shakespeare references, a lot of them being to Shakespeare himself, as the main character’s father often calls him Shakespeare. The first time that happens is when the main character is discussing his different names: “in one job I was Eddie Anderson, in the other, Evans Arness; my wife called me ‘Ev,’ my mother called me ‘E,’ my father called me ‘Evangeleh!’ when he didn’t call me ‘Shakespeare’” (p. 31). And then Kazan writes, “When I was this way in my high school days, my father used to look at me and say ‘Hey, Shakespeare! Wake up!’” (p. 65). The next reference is to Macbeth, with Kazan writing, “But now it was being poured all over me, the milk of human kindness” (p. 111). That refers to Lady Macbeth’s line about her husband, in which she worries that his nature “is too full o’ the milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest way.” Kazan make the same reference just a few pages later: “And this stream of visitors, one after the other, coming down full of the milk of human kindness” (p. 114). The next few references come when the father calls the main character Shakespeare. Kazan writers: “Shakespeare, yes, but shorthand, nothing! Shakespeare going to support me my old age?” (p. 223). And then: “Don’t worry, my boy, I expect nothing from you, Shakespeare!” (p. 224). And then: “I used to beg you, remember, learn the goods, Evangeleh, don’t go Shakespeare college” (p. 235).

The next reference is also to Shakespeare, but not from the father calling his son by that name. Kazan writes, “and my father was given to addressing long Shakespearean soliloquies, richly vituperative, to its president” (p. 321). And then the father mentions Shakespeare to the character Gwen: “not waste time like American boys, with that Shakespeare foolishness and so forth” (p. 376). Soon after that, the father says, “I lose my whole life’s business, and she steal money grocery bills to send my good-for-nothing son, Shakespeare and so forth, not coming to store to help his father” (p. 377). The main character says to his father, “And don’t give me that Shakespeare shit any more, ever again, you corrupt and selfish old man” (p. 377). The next time is in an old letter the main character had written to his father, which he signed, “Your loving son, Shakespeare, ha-ha” (p. 435). And then in a second letter, signed “Your loving son, Evangelos ex-Shakespeare, ha-ha!” (p. 436). There is then a reference to King Lear: “Arnold Teitelbaum sat panting on his bed like a pocket Lear. He looked at the attendant with regal scorn” (p. 458). The final reference comes when the father again refers to him as Shakespeare: “Come, come close, big shot, Shakespeare, come so I don’t have to whisper” (p. 487).

The Arrangement was published in 1967.