Shakespeare Social Networks
     As many of you have read Shakespear’s many plays and write ‘essays’ about them, you are probably familiar with the relationships among characters in his plays. For example, in Antony and Cleopatra, there is a strong relationship between Antony and Cleopatra (even you have not read this play, they are the main characters anyway!).
You can find the relationship graph about the characters on the web site linked above. The web site uses ‘PieSpy’ to detect “Social Networks in Shakespeare Plays.” (Information on PieSpy is on the web) As the stroy of the play goes, many possible relationship graphs appear because, for example, two characters, who did not know each before, can meet at some point.
     Although the society of Shakespeare’s palys are quite differnet from that of our gerneration, we can compare the change of relationship in the play with that of real society. For example, in the play, a relationship between close friends becomes hostile when they fall in love with the same person or when they are involved in a big ‘money’ or a large benefit. In this ‘tragic’ situation, the previous hostile relationship sometimes changes to the friendship for interests of each.
     Similarly, in our society, some people, organizations, companies, or even nations have different relationships in different periods of time. Recall the graph of six nations (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary). Their complicated relationship had changed so many times because of each nation’s own benefits and interests. I believe this kind of ’simple’ tool helps analyze the change of relationships in our society.