Quite the Series of Unfortunate Events

Dear bloggers, I am sorry to inform you that this post will be extrodinarily unpleasent. If you are looking for a story about spring time and forgiveness, familial love, and happily-ever-afters , I would strongly recomend reading another post about another play.

Shakespeare's famous play, Hamlet ends in quite a series of rather unfortunate events. If you get queasy at the sight of Singing gravediggers, or dead jesters' skulls, sealed letters that deceptively condemn  the deliverers, slippery suicides, deadly swordfights, and perilous poison, I implore you to read no further.

schadenfreude

what an incredible production! The Winter's Tale put on by the Shakespeare festival in Cedar City, Utah opened up new perspectives about the play we recently read in class. There is something completely different reading a play than watching it. (i guess well, duh). Somethings that I did not get from the dramatic reading in my head:

-Leontes had a moderately gradual decent into a jealous frenzy

• I read it as intensely and insanely sudden

  

  they are laughing at you

-Hermione is a red-head

• pictured her blonde

-Their little boy was very young

• for some reason I saw him as elevenish

-PAULINA was portrayed as a bitter spinster who exemplified schadenfreude

Like Mother Like Daughter

It was interesting to me how much Shakespeare set up to compare Perdita and her mother, Hermione; and also Prince Florizel and his father, Polixenes. Sort of a double-layer foil, if you will. So not only are we drawn to these generational gaps, but also to the differences in the treatment of ancestry.

Obviously Perdita and Hermione are comparable. Paulina, talking about the queen. “as she lived peerless” A gentleman referring to Perdita says, “Ay, the most peerless piece of earth, I think That e’er the sun shone bright on”. Neither women have peers on their level. The only person who might compete with one of them would then be the other.

Paulina “lifted the princess from the earth” and also lifted the queen from the earth, No?

A Gentleman also says about Perdita, “the majesty of the creature in resemblane of the mother, the affection of nobleness which nature shows above her breeding”

Both women carry themselves in high posture; both have an air of inborn royalty that is substantial enough to be noted by other characters.

To the same degree is Florizel similar to his father: Leontes says upon first meeting Florizel: “you’re father’s image is so hit in you, His very air, that I should call you brother.”

            When Perdita discovers her mother is A) a queen and B) deceased, “attentiveness wounded (her)… she did… bleed tears. Who was most marble”  (another connection! Perdita’s marble…mom’s a statue… see where I’m going with this?) The princess runs to the statue to meet her mother “they say one would speak to her and stand in hope of answer” likeness so well, she wanted to know it.

Perdita wants nothing more than her mother’s advice that she cannot have, and Florizel wants nothing to do with his father’s, which is offered anyway.

Florizel proclaims, “(My father) has his health and ampler strength indeed Than most have of his age…I (will) not acquaint My father of this business”

Polixenes takes personal offense to his child not wanting his advice: “Whom son I dare not call; thou art too base To be acknowledged: … thou old traitor… we’ll bar thee from succession Not hold thee of our blood, no not our kin” on the other hand, Hermione’s spirit in a way was KEPT ALIVE at the thought of her daughter’s very existence, “Knowing by Paulina that the oracle Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserved Myself to see the issue”

As much as Florizel is a good character, (ie there’s no fatal flaw, he doesn’t die a brutal and/or deserved death etc), to me, I don’t think that Shakespeare is promoting the way he treats his dad…

I guess in the end they all live happily ever after. So I guess… treat your parents however… ? 

shall i compare thee to a summers' day? or to a bad date?

I do believe that men need to take lessons from Shakespeare on how to speak to women, because the man's got it down pat.
All of the men on campus I'm sure all think the same way Prince Florizel does, they just don't have the right words to express such thoughts..
 that cute boy on campus who spots a sweet daughter of God is totally thinking:
"... my desires
Run not before mine honour, nor my lusts
Burn hotter than my faith"

And my roommate's boyfriend who recently proposed the idea of marriage by saying, "so... if i were shopping for a ring, would you want to come...?" really wanted to say:
"For I cannot be
Mine own, nor anything to any, if 
I be not thine...
Lift up your countenance, as it were the day
Of celebration of that nuptial which 
We two have sworn shall come."


What father doesn't want to say this about his little girl?:
"he says he loves my daughter:
I think so too; for never gazed the moon 
Upon the water..."


My incredibly articulate ex-boyfriend's biggest compliment was, "you're pretty" 
thanks buddy!
what i'm sure he meant was:
"When you dance, 
I wish you a wave o' the sea, that you might ever do 
Nothing but that; move still, still so..."

"Jason, i think... we should break up... it's finals week, and we're not really working..."
When he said, "Um... ok. i guess"what I am SURE he was thinking was:
"(we) cannot fail but by
The violation of my faith; and then 
Let nature crush the sides o' the earth together 
And mar the seeds within!...
From my succession wipe me, (take away my finals study time)
I Am heir to my affection"
i'm sure that's what he meant.

So men, let this be a lesson from the stud Prince Florizel, if you just SAY what you're actually thinking, the world would be a far more romantic place.

yes. this is my idea of Prince Florizel...

Sassy Paulina

I like Paulina. And I'm assuming this is because Shakespeare liked her. This surprises me. From the little I know of Shakespeare's views on women, he does not hold the highest opinion of them (us?). He has his characters often say disclaimers because they are women, and creates sometimes weak female characters and/or ridiculous, easily swayed, very dependent ones.

But I think he places Paulina in high regard--don't you? She is the only one who is straightforward to the king in telling him of his insanity. Leontes asks "What, canst not rule her?" to which she replies with a loaded, seething statement: "From all dishonesty he can: in this, unless he take the course that you have done, Commit me for committing honour..." ooo..... ouch. (Paulina: 1, King: 0)

bah ha ha ha

and again, so snappy to the king in defense of her queen:
"Good queen; I say good queen;
And would by combat make her good, so were I
A man, the worst about you"

the other characters respectfully (and somewhat cowardly) plead with the king to examine the situation, but she flat out, sassily demands him see his folly, and even accuses him of becoming a tyrant:

 "But this most cruel usage of your queen--
Not able to produce more accusation
Than your own weak-hinged fancy--something savours
Of tyranny, and wil ignoble make you,
Yea scandalous to the world"

He, flustered demands "Away with her!"
I can just see her pulling her arms from a guard in defiance, nose upturned and sassy, "I pray you, do not push me"

Anyone keeping score? Paulina: (at least) 3; King: ...0

Crazy? who me?

Does Hamlet become progressively crazy? This idea of pretending to have an trait long enough, that you actually obtain said trait, is very interesting. He commands his mother: 


"Assume a virtue if you have it not.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,

Of habits devil, is angel yet in this:

That to the use of actions fair and good

He likewise gives a frock or livery

That aptly is put on."

By pretending you have such an attribute as virtue, it will actually become an attribute. so says Hamlet. 

Alongside here, Hamlet himself is acting crazy... at the beginning, Horatio and the other guards can see the Ghost of Hamlet's father. Therefore it does not appear SOLEY to Hamlet. 

when the Ghost appears a second time, in the queen's chambers, Gertrude cannot see the dead king's phantom. 

Gertrude: "To whom do you speak this?"

Hamlet: "Do you see nothing there?"

"Nothing at all, yet all that is I see"

"Nor did you nothing hear?"

"No, nothing but ourselves"

Does the ghost randomly choose to whom he appears? or has Hamlet convinced himself to the point of madness that his father's revenge needs be his top priority?

good grief

Grief is ineffable.
There are not words enough to describe the bottomless feeling. We have all experienced it, and have that much more empathy for others because of our own loss.  But life goes on, and we move on, and we forget the pain of our own grief, and can no longer understand others'.

Hamlet almost has a bad rep. We call him moody, morose, whiney, a complainer. His father and king has just died. And no one else in the story seems to care.  He is criticized for his grieving process, when none of the other characters in the play appear to be grieving at all. Is it possible that he's questioning his sanity simply because of his loss, and no other person in his life is helping him accept it?

We know very little about the life of William Shakespeare, but we do know he had one son, named Hamnet who died at eleven years old. I think with this evidence, it would be impossible to say that expirience in Shakespeare's life had no influence on A)the rest of his life ad B) this particular play. Perhaps he is commenting on the nature of grief, and the darkness and insanity that accompanies it. 

"O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!" -richard III

A blog.

Terrifying. 

I've heard of this strange medium for expression. I've read a few. I have laughed out loud and also secretly seethed (seethed?) with jealousy reading the cleverly written and downright hilarious stories of my peers in their blogging expertise. And although my mother has been prompting me for years now, I have always shied away from the prospect of creating a website devoted entirely to my own insignificant inner thoughts. Until now. Now, my friends, the desire for a good grade outweighs my fear of blogs.

to blog or not to blog? that is the question. yay, I say unto you, we shall.

 Welcome to my English 232 (i.e. Shakespeare) BLOG. 

first feelings about Shakespeare: 'tis basically a foreign language. the last time I read the man's writing, i was an ignorant high school freshman, with a head too big to admit I didn't understand a word. 

My first high school play was "Twelfth Night" where, with an all-girls cast, I was the Duke of Orsino (aka the hunky leading man). oh ya. I had a painted on mustache and slicked back ponytail. let's be honest, i was a stud. It was a horrific production, but I learned to speak Shakespeare (to some extent).

now, after having abandoned good ol' willy for five years, i'm back to where I was as a fourteen-year-old, but without the ego, so I'll honestly admit to not knowing anything.

when i first started Hamlet, I found this nifty little website that has the original text on the left side, and the  modern translation version on the right. (it's a very similar feeling to my spanish 101 textbook). And when I read a sentence like, "Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear ’t that th' opposèd may beware of thee" (act I scene 3). i look to the sparknotes translation and it says, "Don’t be quick to pick a fight, but once you’re in one, hold your own" 

And I think,

"Why didn't you just say THAT?"

Then as I started reading on, a familiar flicker of excitement started in me. "...this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors" (act II scene 2). then I glance at the translation that says, "this beautiful canopy we call the sky... why, it's nothing more to me than diseased-filled air" What an ugly way to put it. How un-eloquent, it doesn't do the same justice to the image, it doesn't impress the same feeling as "majestical roof fretted with golden fire" right?!

I am finding the more I read, the less I want changed. Like in any foreign language, somethings get lost in translation. The beauty, and cadence, and images that come from Shakespeare are best experienced through, well...reading Shakespeare. 

Alright friends, this seems to have gotten a little long. I got a little excited. But you get the idea: I'm looking forward to this class. Bring it on, Shakespeare. And bring it on, blogging.