Unlike in our own time, when wars are viewed as uncivilized interruptions fought far from our shores, in Shakespeare’s England war was an inevitable mode of vengeance and resolution, and the bloodiness of battle a part of most men’s lives. But, then as now, soldiers came home from the stalwart, perhaps rigid, honor of war to the more complicated, perhaps fragile, humanity of peace. Shakespeare’s soldiers are not simply ruthless men of blood, but are also richly imaginative souls who frequently find themselves caught between their accustomed embrace of violence and their devotion to domesticity, love, service, loyalty and patriotism. Elizabeth Samet, English professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and author of Soldier’s Heart and No Man’s Land, will explore how military values of honor, valor, and service are exhibited, questioned, and betrayed in Macbeth and Othello.