Dec. 4th Blog 14: Pericles

The last play that we have read in Shakespeare class is Pericles. I’m not even quite sure what to say about it. It was weird and interesting at the same time. I don’t mean a bad kind of weird but a good kind. I wanted to know what would happen if anyone other than Cleon found out about what Dionyza had done. She killed Leonine because he was a witness to what she had planned for Marina. I got the feeling especially when Act 4, scene 3 was acted out in class, that if Cleon were to even mention telling about what had been planned, Dionyza would kill him for it.

I loved the ending of this play and I was glad it was acted out in class. I really love endings that are happy and when family can reunite and finally be a family and not have to wonder who each other are. Like Marina finally gets to meet her father and mother even though she knew of them, she gets to see/hear them and get to know them on a more personal/intimate level. Pericles has went through so much throughout this play and he gets his happily ever after. He gets to meet his daughter who he left as a baby and then was told she was dead. He also gets to reunite with his wife who he thought was dead.

One thing I find crazy about Antiochus is how the only way someone could marry his daughter was to figure out the riddle. Once Pericles does, he wants to kill him because he know’s Pericles will tell about the incest. I believe he just hoped no one would figure out the riddle so the incest could continue but he had to fake trying to marry his daughter off so no one would suspect what was really going on. We never do see Antiochus’ wife in the play and do not get her perspective on what is happening. Maybe she does not know or she is like some of the women we have seen in Shakespeare’s plays, like Ophelia who is obedient and does not say anything unless she is told to.

Throughout this semester, we have read some interesting plays and I have gained knowledge about Shakespeare and some of his plays. I was kind of worried coming into this class that I would leave and still not understand a single piece of information from these plays, but I was wrong and have enjoyed this semester. One thing I was really worried about in this class was when I found out we had to act out scenes in the plays. At first, I really did not like the idea and did not understand what it really meant when we would be acting. I finally did find out what it meant and to be honest, I enjoyed the days when we did act because I felt like I learned more during those days. If we would have had more time, I think each play should have been acted out from front to back and I feel I would have learned a bit more that way. No matter what though, I had a fun semester in this class and do feel like I am on the way to understanding Shakespeare a little more each time I go back and look at the plays.

Nov. 20th Blog 13: Othello

During this semester we have only read two tragedy plays and while one, Hamlet, can be seen as completely false, the other, Othello, has some believable qualities. Iago is a very good liar and he is seen causing trouble. I would say everyone has encountered someone like Iago. We normally talk to someone who is a very good listener like Iago but they take that information and turn it around so they can use it against us. Iago sees Desdemona and Cassio hold hands when Othello arrives at Cyprus. He uses this show of affection, even though it means nothing, for his revenge. He is very observant.

In Act 3 scene 3, Othello wants Iago to give him a reason to why Desdemona is disloyal and Iago goes on to tell Othello what he has heard or seen even though we know those things are false. I like how Shakespeare has Iago though. He shows us that even if we trust someone and tell them everything and act a certain way around them; they can use those things against us so we should be careful what we say and how we act.

I do feel bad for Emilia. She’s married to Iago who is clearly, what I would call, crazy. He’s not just mean but when he kills his own wife, that shows just how crazy he is. He is so bent on his revenge that even killing his wife does not affect him.

I also feel bad for Othello. He is manipulated into thinking these things about his wife, that she’s had an affair and does not love him. So by this manipulation, he kills his wife. This does seem realistic though because some people today in this world will kill their spouse if they suspect or even catch them having an affair. But just like I hear these kinds of stories in the news, I also don’t feel bad for Othello when he finds at that his wife did not have an affair but he can’t do anything but kill himself. Like I always say when I hear these kinds of stories, just talk with your spouse or get a divorce because killing someone for an affair will just come back to harm you more. Othello knows that he will have to face the consequences for killing Desdemona so he chooses the safer option for him which is death.

Overall this story is very believable and will make people question their loyalties and whether those friends or even family members will use anything against them in the future for revenge.

Nov. 13 Blog 12: Troilus and Cressida; Othello

Othello and Troilus and Cressida are two very different plays. I think I liked Troilus and Cressida better though probably due to having read the Aeneid and the Iliad before. Othello was so much more realistic due to the racism in it and how that is still a thing today. I was very shocked by the end of the play. I did not believe Othello would kill his wife, Desdemona. I kept thinking if only he had talked to her and not just accused her of having an affair. I guess when someone like Iago plants so many thoughts into your head, like he did with everyone in the play, you believe him because he seems like a person you could tell all your secrets to.

Othello wanted to fit in even though of his race but he wanted to fit in the wrong way. He killed Desdemona because that’s what the white men around him would do if they caught their wives cheating but thats not a way to fit in. He should have just been himself and talked it out with Desdemona and she would more than likely still be alive. I find it crazy how everyone does not like that Othello is black but they don’t seem particularly hateful towards his face just like Iago going around talking about him but does not talk bad to his face. But that could be because if Iago does that then his plan to get a higher rank would not work, he needed to be honorable to Othello’s face to act like he has had no part in anything that has been going on.

I know Iago is an evil character but I can relate to him. He listens to everyone and plots against them. Its like when one person tells a confidant a secret but doesn't want someone else to know so then that confidant goes to that person that wasn't supposed to know and tells them what the other person said. This kind of thing happens now, someone tells someone something and then it makes its way around to everyone and starts some kind of conflict. Othello is a play everyone can relate to something in their life.

The one character I really liked was Emilia. I have always thought men and women are the same. Emilia is the same; she lives in a world dominated by men, but she knows things aren't the way they seem. It looks like men dominate but behind the curtains, the women have affairs and do other things men do. This still happens today, some couples look happy but behind doors its a different story.

Nov. 6th Blog 11: Troilus and Cressida

Shakespeare’s play, Troilus and Cressida, does not stick to its title. When I had first gotten the book, I thought it would be about a guy named Troilus and a woman named Cressida but no its not. The play is about this war over Helen. Helen and Cressida can be seen as foils though. Here we have Helen who left her husband for Paris while Cressida does not want to leave Troilus, she is forced to. Although she is forced to, she promises to be faithful but that does not happen; she ends up with Diomedes. So both women break their promises. I have some favorite scenes that just seem interesting and odd to me.

In Act 1, scene 2, on page 27, Cressida and Pandarus are talking about the men especially Hector and Troilus. I find it odd how Cressida says in line 78: “He is not Hector.” She keeps coming back to how Troilus is not Hector. I know Shakespeare confuses us and wants us that way so I felt like maybe this was his way of confusing us on how Cressida feels. She does have feelings for Troilus but does not want anyone to know.

In Act 3, scene 2, line 7: “...I stalk about her door”. Troilus says this to Pandarus who is trying to help him get together with Cressida. This line though, I thought was very interesting for Troilus to say. He is basically saying that he has been stalking her which does seem kind of strange and most people today would see it as something crazy and possibly call the police, but his way of doing things paid off for a little bit. I mean he did get together with Cressida.

We talked about Act 4, scene 3, today in class. This was one of the moments I had as one of my favorite scenes. I thought it was so crazy when Paris just basically tells Troilus that he can’t help him to keep the woman he loves because it is out of his hands. But, this whole war is about Paris keeping the woman he loves and Troilus has been helping him with that. I thought about it this way, just like Angela was saying in class today, that I would do anything for my brother and my family. Troilus has been doing everything he can to help his brother but when he is in need of help, his brother says oh he can’t do nothing about it.

Where I thought this play would be about Troilus and Cressida just from the title, it turned out to be about Paris, Helen, and the Trojan war, just like the Aeneid and the Iliad. Since I had already read those two, it was easier to follow along in the play and to see Shakespeare’s way of doing it his way.

Oct. 30th Blog 10: Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night was very interesting to act out in class. I got to play Viola who disguises herself as a man, Cesario, which I really liked to do. I liked it because its not something most people would do today. If someone were to dress as the opposite gender most people would stare and make fun of or something to that degree.

I had a favorite line from Fabian in ACT 3 scene 4, lines 136-137: “If this were played upon a stage now, I could / condemn it as an improbable fiction.” I thought this was funny how Shakespeare put this in his play. It was like he wanted to make it some sort of joke because this is performed on a stage and a character bringing it up is not expected. When a play is performed, its almost like a movie, actors don’t say in a movie how if this was a movie such and such. But actors in a play have more freedom and includes the audience they are performing for, so saying this line could include the audience and to make sure they know that this play is fictional, it’s not real.

I also really liked ACT 2 scene 5 where Malvolio is talking about things he would do if he were Count Malvolio. This scene was acted out in class and I really enjoyed listening to Dr. Plough play Malvolio in this scene because he really got into the role. I had already liked and thought this scene was funny before Dr. Plough acted it out but he just gave it more umph.

The Fool in this play is very different from all the rest. When I picture a fool in a Shakespeare play, I think of someone who’s funny and seemingly crazy but the fool here is none of that really. He has a way with words and every once in a while we might see a funny line but its completely different from what we have come to think of fools in Shakespeare’s plays. With all the other plays we have read so far this semester, the fools have been funny and jumping around, as I usually picture them.

The ending where Olivia, Sebastian, Viola, and Orsino get together, we know they will be getting married which reminds me of “As You Like It” where there is more than one wedding at the end. But since Shakespeare does not like repeating things, he does not show the weddings on stage, they take place offstage unlike his play “As You Like It.” He throws a curveball when he has similarities between the two plays but when we think it will be just like the other play, he says nope, its gonna be this way and puts a twist to it which I think keeps the two plays separate and interesting in their own way.

Oct. 23 Blog 9: Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night is an interesting play written by Shakespeare. It reminds me a lot about his play As You Like It. I thought Twelfth Night was so similar to As You Like it, I wondered why Shakespeare had written two plays so similar but also so different. In As You Like It, I thought it was funny how Rosalind dressed up as Ganymede, I thought it was also funny how Viola dressed up as Cesario. They both disguise themselves as men for different reasons though. Both women while they are in disguise, have other women fall in love with them. In As You Like It, Phoebe fell for Ganymede while in Twelfth Night, Olivia fell for Cesario. We can also see a similarity here because Phoebe already has someone who wants to be with her and so does Olivia and by the end Phoebe does marry the guy, Corin, who loves her but we see that Olivia does not; she marries Viola’s brother. This was a twist compared to As You Like It.

There are many other similarities between As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Olivia confesses her love for Cesario while Phoebe in As You Like It confesses her love for Ganymede. We see fools in both plays, but the fool in this play, Twelfth Night, is not funny. He is actually rude and mean. He helps Maria, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew when they put Malvolio in a room and torture him. Maria, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew are cruel to Malvolio and as in As You Like It, Oliver was cruel to his brother trying to kill him but in the end does not because he has an epiphany, while with the three who are mean to Malvolio leaves him in that room until the end when he is remembered and let out.

One thing that I did find very interesting was the twins in Twelfth Night, Sebastian and Viola. I think its interesting because I have never read any of Shakespeare’s plays that have two people who look alike in them. Also, when twins are in a play or any other story, like how Viola disguises herself as Cesario, once her brother comes along, they both get mistaken for the other person. I believe this is why Shakespeare put twins in this play so they would get mistaken and make the play more interesting with two people who look alike. Otherwise, if Viola did not have a twin, she would have had to tell her secret sooner or later and that would have caused more harm probably to her because Olivia had fallen in love with Cesario. With Olivia being a countess, she could have punished Viola for having deceived her.

Oct. 9th Blog 8: Hamlet

Hamlet was not as bad as I thought it was going to be when I first seen we had to read it. I guess everyone has that way about them, they see a book and they judge it before they have even read it. We hear the opinions of others and automatically think the book is no good or maybe its the other way around. Either way it goes, I judged Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, to be a play I would not like no matter what, although sometimes I didn't understand what was going on, I could understand most of what I really needed to know for the play.

I could and still can sometimes relate to Ophelia. She is basically a pawn in a big man’s world. She has to do whatever she is told and I can understand not wanting to disappoint your family and do something they said was not what you should do. She is a woman and has no voice but what others tell her to do. In Act 1, scene 3, Polonius is telling Ophelia to never speak to Hamlet again and she says she will obey but then Polonius has her to help him and the king to spy on Hamlet. We talked about this in class and I found it interesting because we can all relate to her. What I mean is that when we are young, we have to listen to our parents and we try so hard not to disappoint them no matter the cost.

In Act 1, scene 2, lines 74-75, “...all that lives must dies, / Passing through nature to eternity.” I found these two lines to be very powerful to me. I might be wrong but when I read them, especially line 75, I felt like it is saying that we all are here on Earth and we pass through nature, all these seasons, to eternity. We all weather through these seasons, storms, sickness to get to what we see at the end, eternity. Now whether eternity is in heaven or hell depends on how you came through during those bad and good times but we all must die. Every living thing around us will die and there will be nothing left once we are all gone because nature will take over.

Although I still do not particularly like how Hamlet ended, I can see why it did in a way. Hamlet killed Polonius so he was going to have to pay for that sin and die one way or another. As with the other characters, the Queen, Gertrude, is killed because of her sin and King Claudius also. Laertes, he had to die because he would not have made a good king, I do not believe. He listened to what others told him and was determined to kill Hamlet before finding out the details to his fathers death. So yes, I did enjoy learning about Hamlet even though I did judge the book before having read it; I do take back the judgement and say it is interesting and I still do not quite understand it completely but that’s okay.