Are we there yet?: My Self Evaluation of "See Shakespeare"

Alright, we're at the end of the road people. Now it's time to evaluate this blog. Many thanks to Whitney C. and her peer-evaluation of this blog a week ago. Her advice and critiques were much need, as well as her praises! :)

Posts:

• Quantity-I have 35 posts, 13 of which are dedicated to my focus. I didn't decide my research focus until later on in the semester when we were told to choose one. I think 13 is a sufficient amount to develop my thesis, although I definitely think I could write many more posts on the subject in the future.
• Content-I think my posts have a good variety to them. Writing about my focus made it difficult for me to introduce new and different mediums like I did in my previous posts, but I included images that reflected the subject of my post and were also eye-catching. Whitney C. suggested adding some videos to my post, so I included a news report in one and a movie clip of a scene I analyzed in King Lear. I wrote a familial analysis of three primary texts: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and King Lear.
• Format-Once Dr. Burton mentioned we pay closer attention to our titles I started to be more specific with mine. Previously my titles were a bit informative about the post but they were mostly lures into reading my blog. I've included page breaks in some of my more lengthy posts and tagged all of my posts with Labels. I also included a Search box in the top right hand corner. I've tried to make it very easy to find what you're looking for on my blog.

Research: 

• Thematic Focus-I think my theme of Familial Shakespeare is clearly stated and either mentioned or linked back to in every research post. I attempted to make the design of my blog reflect the theme in some way but I'm not sure it worked. I tried to keep the simplicity of my blog intact, but jazzed it up a little with a world map in the background (Shakespeare's illustrations of family are universal and timeless...get it?)
• Thesis & Cohesion- My final hub post is sectioned off so the reader can clearly read my focus and formulated thesis. I've also linked back to relevant posts in the "Support/Evidence" section. 
• Sources-My sources are cited at the bottom of each post their referenced in and I've included a "Sources" tab where all the sources I've used are listed.

Personal & Social:

• Author identity-You know, I wasn't too sure how I was doing in this department. Is my personality coming through in this blog? I hope so. Whitney C. gave me some positive encouragement here in her peer-evaluation, so I think I am doing okay. After reading through the evaluation criteria when doing a peer-evaluation of Claire Hopkins blog I decided to reveal my "About Me" section. I chose to keep it hidden earlier on in the blog because it is the same "About Me" as my personal blog and I thought it might not be relevant. Either way, now the reader knows more about me. I hope it is helpful in getting my identity across.
• Documentation of Process- Just as Whitney C. said, I did not do so well with documenting my process. I think I got caught up in trying to write really good posts and forgot that I could post a snippet here and there with "this is where I'm going...this is what I'm doing." To make up for this I included a paragraph in my final hub about how my focus evolved throughout my research and why. 
• Interactions- I linked back to other student's posts that related to what I was studying. I also linked back to and commented on some student's blogs that might be interested in what I was writing about. I think I could've done a better job with this at the end. The last few posts I wrote were so focused on my thesis that I narrowed my posts to just my thoughts and findings.

Design: As I mentioned previously, I changed the color and design of my blog to be more relevant to my thesis and aesthetically pleasing. In class, Dr. Burton suggested I make my widget titles more descriptive. I've done so, but I'm afraid they might be too wordy now? I also switched up my widgets in order of relevance. I think my widgets are appropriate and geared towards making the reader's experience better.

Final Hub: Wrapping up Shakespeare and the Family

Focus:
My research focus started out as a filial analysis on Shakespeare's works. Once I realized "filial" was specific to parent-child relationship I thought I'd broaden my research to a familial analysis of Shakespeare. But then it felt too broad and overwhelming so I broke the familial analysis into five parts and then shortened it to three:

• Love & Marriage
• Tragedy in the Family
• Filial: Parent-child Relationship 

Finally, when it boiled down to the wrapping up of the blog, I realized what my focused had turned into: Shakespeare and tragedy in the family. This focus encompasses some of his plays, biological information about Shakespeare's own life, and how responses to tragedy parallel between the modern family and the Elizabethan family. 


Thesis:
Familial relationships in Shakespeare's works parallel directly with his own life and the views of the time. I argue that the Elizabethan familial relationships are the same as today, and that we can use these relationships portrayed in Shakespeare's literature as tools to learn from the pitfalls and successes. 


Support/Evidence:
First, I began learning about the life of Shakespeare in Michael Wood's documentary "In Search of Shakespeare" and wrote about Shakespeare as a son, husband, and father in one, two, three and four parts.
Then I researched Elizabethan marriage in Bruce Young's Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. I wrote about the three types of marriage in Elizabethan times that are illustrated in A Midsummer Night's Dream:  love, lust and companionate.
Next, I wrote about how families are central to most of Shakespeare's tragedies. Shakespeare used tragedy as a way to illustrate the values of family and how the bonds are strengthened through adversary. I referred to modern examples of tragedies that affect the family like the shooting in Brazil and the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. I also referred back to the biographical research I wrote about on Shakespeare and how when his son, Hamnet, died Shakespeare responded by mending the relationship he had with his father.
Shakespeare also illustrated through some of his plays that tragedies can tear families a part. Tragedy in Hamlet is a result of "family feelings" and Hamlet being forced to internalize those feelings. I mentioned a psychological study that concluded young people have a higher risk of suicide attempt when they've experience the death of a biological parent. Shakespeare also demonstrated how tragedy can further detriment a family had an affair after his son, Hamnet's, early death.
Finishing my research focus with King Lear, I discussed how King Lear actually portrays the ideal filial relationship. I used the example of Lear and his daughter, Cordelia's, reconciliation through repentance, forgiveness and unconditional love.


Conclusion:
Shakespeare's illustration of the family not only reflects Elizabethan society but modern society as well. Focusing on subjects such as tragedy, Shakespeare's characters become timeless and their issues hauntingly familiar. Because Shakespeare experienced tragedy in his family first-hand--a failure of father, a gun-shot possibly love-less marriage, and the death of a young child---his characters are genuine and their experiences are real. We can learn from much of what Shakespeare illustrates about families in his, plays, their successes and their failures. 

The Ideal Filial Relationship in King Lear

As I conclude my focus on the familial Shakespeare, I end with the play King Lear from which my research was inspired by. In King Lear, Shakespeare focuses on the filial relationships of Lear and Gloucester. "Lear and Gloucester are both flawed fathers who learn from what they suffer and are finally reconciled with a child they have mistreated" (Young 91)*.

"Though the play initially grounds the parent-child bond in nature, duty, and reciprocity, by the end, when Lear and Cordelia are reconciled, it becomes something of even greater value and significance." When Cordelia and Lear reconcile their relationship they use language of repentance, forgiveness and unconditional love. Cordelia asks for her father's blessing, and he kneels to ask for her forgiveness (Young 92).


King Lear, Act IV Scene VII 

Shortly after the father and daughter have been reunited, Cordelia is captured and hung. Because Shakespeare made their earthly relationship short-lived, perhaps he was alluding that the importance did not lie in physical manifestations. How tragic the ending may seem, Cordelia and Lear captured the essence of an ideal parent-child relationship, and maybe even any familial relationship. Cordelia asks her father, "Sir, do you know me?" and he admits that his foolishness, ignorance and skewed perspective had previously made that question difficult to answer. But now, he is aware of his flaws and humbly accepts his daughter, "I think this lady/To be my child Cordelia". Hand in hand, Lear asks for his daughters support and forgiveness "You must bear with me./Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish." I believe this is the scene where Shakespeare speaks the most about family. We see that repentance, forgiveness and unconditional love are the vehicles through which we may truly know those we call family.

After a career of fame, wealth, and status Shakespeare returned home to live out the last days of his life. Having been an absent father, I assume that as Shakespeare wrote King Lear, 10 years before his death, that he longed for the day when he could ask his family for forgiveness and to accept him back into the home. This is probably more speculation than not, but if you watch, listen, read and truly see the familial relationships in Shakespeare's literature, there is no doubt of the feelings--whether they be longings, lofty ideals, or realities--for his family.

*Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare by Bruce Young

Hamlet: A Detrimental Familial Response to Tragedy

Familial relationships in Shakespeare's works parallel directly with his own life and the views of the time. I believe that Elizabethan familial relationships are the same as today, and that we can use these relationships portrayed in Shakespeare's literature as tools to learn from the pitfalls and successes. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, tragedy not only directly affects families but illustrates the value of families at the same time. Revenge for a father's death is, of course, a central issue in Hamlet--not just for Hamlet himself but also Laertes and Fortinbras. In Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare, Bruce Young explains the connection between family and tragedy in Shakespeare's Hamlet:

"The tragedy results in large part from the intensity of family feelings...Hamlet's anguish...comes from his sense that his mother is deficient in family feeling, failing to grieve adequately for his father and marrying a close relative, with the result that the marriage is incestuous, as it would have been according to English standards. Even apart from that issue, Hamlet is troubled by the confusion of family roles: Claudius and Gertrude are now his "uncle-father and aunt-mother". Of course, Hamlet wants no one to substitute for his dead father. Hamlet...remains one of the world literature's richest and most fascinating treatments of family life." (91, emphasis added)

"Family feelings" is an essential issue in Hamlet because it is what ultimately drives such a tragic ending. Hamlet seems to internalize all of the family feelings about his father's death. He is the only one who expresses depression and anger and who struggles with issues of life and death. Not that his mother doesn't feel sorrow, but she does not express it and her quick re-marriage does not represent it. Hamlet, therefore, must be the one to mope around, question his beliefs, and avenge his father's death because he represents the grieving process. Sadly enough, this is a universal issue within families experiencing tragedy. Many times one child takes the brunt of the family, acts out those intense emotions and more often than not, it results in a more tragic experience than the first. As was such the case with Hamlet--suicide and murder.

I found a study from the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry that studied the young people's risk of suicide attempts in relation to the death of a parent. Interestingly enough, the study was based on a group of Danish children (if this doesn't ring a bell, Hamlet was the Prince of Denmark). The study concluded that "Experiencing the death of one or both biological parents increased the risk of suicide attempts in young people" (181). Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech toys with the idea of suicide and, guessing by his demeanor throughout the play, a reader knows his fate does not end well. While Hamlet does not actually commit suicide, Ophelia does after the death of her father.

While some tragedies strengthen the bonds of family, Shakespeare also illustrates in Hamlet how the results of tragedy can tear a family a part. After the death of Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, Shakespeare reacted in a couple of ways, one of which was repairing the relationship between him and his own father. Another way Shakespeare responded is a real life representation on how tragedy, if responded to inappropriately, can cause continued detriment to the family. Michael Wood speculates, in In Search of Shakespeare, that Shakespeare also reacted by taking on a mistress. He had an affair with a married woman, who was musical, and had "dark skin". This woman, Emilia Bassano, drove Shakespeare "mad with desire and guilt."

Thus, Shakespeare gives us two choices following tragedy, it can either strengthen the bond or tear the family a part. There is no in-between in the eyes of Shakespeare.

Familial Involvement and Reponse to Tragedy

Familial relationships in Shakespeare's works parallel directly with his own life and the views of the time. I believe that Elizabethan familial relationships are the same as today, and that we can use these relationships portrayed in Shakespeare's literature as tools to learn from the pitfalls and successes. 

One section of my focus, familial Shakespeare, is about tragedy in the family. I believe this is an important connection to make between the contemporary family and Elizabethan family because tragedy is universal and, quite frankly, has occurred and will occur every day. 

When I think of tragedy in the modern world involving families, I think of the latest incident in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when a man opened gunfire in an elementary school. He killed 12 children, and injured another 12. 

Disclaimer: This video contains disturbing images.

Tragedy, like this, is sickening and depressing. It brings with it fear, anger, sadness, feelings of hopelessness and lack of control. Anything can happen, anywhere, and to anyone. You can't help but be weighed down by the disastrous reality of it. We feel and see the same thing happening in regards to the earthquake/tsunami in Japan.

 

So many helpless people were killed, homes were destroyed, and resources diminished. It's easy to become overwhelmed by darkness, yet there is always a light that emerges. Somehow familial bonds are strengthened through death and tragedy.


In Shakespeare's plays families are central to most of the tragedies. This means that families are "subject to horrific strains including betrayal, deception, egotism, jealousy, hatred, violence, and the accidents and assaults of fortune, nature and human family. Although the families succumb, in many cases, to these strains, the plays nevertheless demonstrate the value of families--otherwise we would not be moved by the tragic outcomes--as well as the powerful emotions, both positive and negative, associated with family life. The tragedies also deal with the ethical and philosophical issues, including the nature of familial love, the relation of family and personal identity, and the role of family in social and political life and in the cosmos." (Young 90)

Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11 from a terrible sickness. Michael Wood believes, in In Search of Shakespeare: The Duty of a Poet, that one way Shakespeare reacted to Hamnet's death demonstrates the strengthening and/or mending of familial bonds in the midst of tragedy. Immediately after his son's death, Shakespeare applied for a coat of arms for his father, John, as a way to recompense his reputation. He was granted the coat of arms, gaining the title of a gentleman and restoring his father's name. After losing his son, it seems as though Shakespeare wanted to mend the relationship with his father as a way to cope with his son's death.

Thus, tragedy not only directly affects families but illustrates the value of families at the same time. Toru Kikawada realized the importance of families through loss. Others are reunited through tragedy, both physically and emotionally. Either way, those of us affected and those of us on-lookers, gain a renewed perspective of family when tragedy strikes.

Peer Review: Claire Hopkins, Shakespeare and Education

To begin finishing off our blogs for the semester, Dr. Burton has assigned each of us to review another student's blog. He's given us helpful evaluation criteria in order to shape our feedback to be succinct and beneficial. I reviewed Claire Hopkins Mizukawa's blog Musing's of a Wise-ish Fool Her focus is Shakespeare and Education.

Posts:
    Quantity: Claire has ample information supporting her thesis. There are 13 links in her hub posts, a few of which link to other student's blogs that relate to her focus.
    Content: Claire has a good variety of posts including book reviews, analyzing movies in relation to Shakespeare, creating a Wordle, and creating her own "book trailer". She does analyze themes of primary texts, but she does not have any direct textual analysis in relation to her focus.
    Format: The titles to her post are very clear. She uses page breaks for lengthy posts, but keeps most of her posts succinct and easily readable. Claire also uses labels.

Research:
     Thematic Focus: The theme of teaching Shakespeare is clear in her hub post, supporting posts, and overall design of the blog (if you look at the map in the back ground it reminds me of a class setting).
     Thesis & Cohesion: Claire's thesis is "the most effective way for me to teach Shakespeare would be through finding ways to apply it to students' lives." Her thesis isn't groundbreaking news but it's practical, which I think is the best way to go with a focus on teaching Shakespeare. All of her posts are cohesive and dedicated to her theme.
     Sources: Her source page is clearly organized and her information is appropriately linked and cited. Good work on the MLA formatting.


Personal and Social:
      Author identity: Claire does a great job writing facts and research with a personable, informal voice. You can tell how passionate she is about teaching by the overall feeling of the blog but also by each post. Her About Me section gives any passerby her name and a quick synopsis of the purpose of her blog (although it does not include her focus on Education).
     Documentation of Process: It seems like Claire begins every post with some sort of personal note, story, or reason of why she is writing about what follows. It makes it personable but also involves the reader in her thinking and researching process.
     Interaction: In her hub post she explicitly links to other student's blogs and explains how she has interacted with them while researching her focus. She has also made contacts outside of the classroom, one example being a renown elementary school teacher that she interviewed.
      Design: Claire has kept her blog design simple and the colors are not only aesthetically pleasing but also easy to see and read. Her only widget, apart from the default widgets, is a Label cloud so her page doesn't feel cluttered or overwhelming by any means. I really like the design of her blog and it's inspired me to make some changes on my own.






Overall, Claire's blog seems pretty much finished. She's done really well posting consistently and about interesting topics that support her focus. She's tied up all of the loose ends in her hub post and cited all of her sources. Claire's blog is an example to look to, I think, in what our Shakespeare blogs should be. I'm glad I was able to review her blog so that now I have a good idea as to what a finished product looks like. Thanks, Claire!

In honor of your soon-to-be-teacherhood! :)

Pre-Hub Hub

"hubs" via here

To be honest, I was a little shocked when Dr. Burton announced on Wednesday that we needed to write a hub post for Monday. I was planning on another week, at least, of posts that would further develop my focus of familial Shakespeare! Thankfully I was able to talk to Dr. Burton after class and share my anxiety. I told him that this hub post would not be filled with very many links or as developed since I hadn't planned for a hub post so soon, but he told me that it was fine and that this was more of a chance to get things going. Phew! I thought Mandy's hub-post was clearly formatted and informative but not intimidating, so I will follow her example with a few changes.


Focus:
I began my focus on the familial Shakespeare. I decided this was too broad to write about with each post so I broke it into 5 parts which I have now shortened to 3:

• Love & Marriage
• Tragedy in the Family
• Filial: Parent-child Relationship

Within each category is Shakespeare's own biographical information, historical information of the time, an in-depth analysis of the topic in one of Shakespeare's plays, and how it relates to the modern family.

Thesis: 

Familial relationships in Shakespeare's works parallel directly with his own life and the views of the time. I argue that the Elizabethan familial relationships are the same as today, and that we can use these relationships portrayed in Shakespeare's literature as tools to learn from the pitfalls and successes. 

Support/Evidence:

• First, I began learning about the life of Shakespeare in Michael Wood's documentary "In Search of Shakespeare" and wrote about him as a son, husband, and father in one, two, three and four parts.
• Then I started 1 of the 3 sections I am focusing on within my topic by researching Elizabethan marriage in Bruce Young's Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. I wrote about the three types of marriages in Elizabethan times that are illustrated in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• Next will be Tragedy in the Family with a close analysis of Hamlet. I will compare the reaction of families to tragedy in Elizabethan and modern times.
• Finally, I will spend the majority of my time analyzing filial relationships within King Lear. This was the beginning inspiration for my familial focus so I think it is appropriate to end where I began.

Love, Lust and Companionate Marriage

After learning about marriage during the time of Shakespeare I was interested to see how this was reflected in his work. I've always enjoyed that A Midsummer Night's Dream ended happily in marriage, but was taken aback this time around by the sorrow I felt for Helena. There is something disturbing and ironic about Helena and Demetrius' marriage and I think that Shakespeare had more to say about marriage in A Midsummer Night's Dream than any other of his plays. Shakespeare uses three examples in this play to show the driving forces of marriage during his time: love, lust, and companionate arrangement. 

Hermia & Lysander

Hermia & Lysander are examples of marrying for love. I think Shakespeare was quite the romantic and the new wave of marrying for love during his time was something he embraced. The relationship between these two characters is Shakespeare's ideal--defying the conventions of the times (fully aware of being punished with death by braking an arranged marriage), running off to be together (followed by the probable consequence of poverty), and motivated by love and the desire to be life-long companions. While no ones relationship is perfect (Lysander lusts after Helena at one point) together they stand the test of temptation and rejection. With Hermia and Lysander you feel a sense of commitment, romance, and excitement. Their relationship seems more sensible, real and complex--more human. 

Unrequited love

With Helena & Demetrius Shakespeare shows us that marrying for love can be dangerous, as love is often mistaken for lust. We can relate with this in our own day as choosing a spouse based heavily on love is more than prevalent. Shakespeare illustrates that love should not be the only factor in marriage, especially when love is so easily confused with the "spell" of infatuation.   You can't help but feel sorry for poor Helena the entire play, especially when she does end up marrying Demetrius!  How long will the spell on Demetrius last? How many marriages begin like that and after the infatuation has ended they find themselves stuck in the bonds of matrimony? Shakespeare must have faced the same problems in his world that we face today.

Theseus & Hippolyta are examples of the arranged marriage, but both of them seemed to have consented to it so that would make it fit better into the companionate marriage. 

The modern definition

The marriage seems to be driven by wealth, power, and lust. I believe this would be Shakespeare's illustration of marriage in aristocracy during the Elizabethan era. I also think this is the most disdainful marriage in the eyes of Shakespeare because of the following passage in the last act of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Theseus & Hippolyta wonder about the events in the forest that happened the night before. Theseus dismisses it but Hippolyta trails off with an interesting thought.

HIPPOLYTA: 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

THESEUS: More strange than true. I never may believe

These antique fables nor these fairy toys.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold—

That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.

The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven.

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend some joy,

It comprehends some bringer of that joy.

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

HIPPOLYTA: And all their minds transfigured so together,

More witnesseth than fancy’s images

And grows to something of great constancy,

But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

I believe Hippolyta's last words came directly from the mouth of Shakespeare. He admits that love may be seen as crazy and exaggerated but it is not so irrational as it may seem. Actually, although, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the lover's experiences with love range from rash & fantastical to pure & undeterred it's consistent with and spans across the vast human experience of love. And love, whether it ends with a committed marriage or sorrow is still more admirable than a safety net of a calculated marriage. 

Elizabethan Marriage

I've spent a lot of time learning about Shakespeare and establishing a basic understanding of his life as a play write and more specifically a son, husband, father, lover and active participant in a family-based society. This week I am focusing on the marriage & love aspect of familial Shakespeare. I turned to the book Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare by Bruce Young to research historical information about marriage in the Elizabethan era. I was surprised to find that what I previously thought about marriage in Shakespeare's time--female inferiority, arranged & teenage marriages--was, generally, incorrect.

Bruce Young introduces the topic of Elizabethan marriage with the finding that "Most historians conclude that love and friendship were essential elements of English marriages throughout the entire early modern period [Renaissance]" (44).

Men and women mingled with relative freedom and there wasn't usually a wide age gap between husbands and wives. Most brides & grooms were in their twenties, although the age of consent was 14 for boys and 12 for girls. The average age of marriage in aristocracy was 19-21 women, 24-26 for men, but for most classes is was higher. The average age of marriage in England through the 1500-1600s was 25-26 for women and 27-28 for men (41).



There were formal courting standards of getting the approval of a woman's parents before trying to "woo" her, but dating was also much like it is today--meeting through friends, getting acquainted over dinner, going out to social gatherings. Falling in love was a "common precursor to marriage". Women weren't always passive about it either. Dr. Young states that both men and women were active in choosing a spouse. Wealth was a factor but "virtue, shared belief and a capacity for harmony and love were supposed to be given greater weight" (38)

The engagement or "betrothal" was taken almost as seriously as marriage. There were ceremonies of betrothal much like the marriage ceremonies of our days: taking each other by the hand, making promises and even sometimes exchanging rings. Marriage was religiously based--as most aspects in life were during this time--so divorce was non-existent. Even broken engagements were looked down upon and sometimes they would even prevent future marriage (40).

Arranged marriages were rare and legally invalid if either the bride or groom did not give consent (35).

Besides this law, most parents were very involved with "helping" to choose the spouse of their child because their view of "kinship" at the time actively involved both sides of the family. In Elizabethan era "marrying the family" really was the case (36). Although there was no marrying within the family, or at least no close relatives. 

Elizabethan wedding dress

A typical marriage ceremony included the exchange of wedding bands, as today. During the ceremony the priest would state 3 reasons for marriage: "the procreation of children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord", "to avoid fornication", "for the mutual society, help and comfort" of the couple (40). We can see in these three reasons that marriage wasn't just a love affair, nor was it just a business affair. Marriage was a duty, a religious commitment, a comfort & joy and also held high importance to society. Family was central to the Elizabethan society as their identity rested upon community not individuality (29). I wonder if growing up in such a close knit community was the reason Shakespeare was so adept to the universal nature of humans?

Marriage was monogamous and romantically seen as a way to connect an individual to the past and future. Also, around this time surnames were fully established, which is an important addition to marriage. I wonder if we would feel as united, and committed as couples without having the same last name? Maybe that is just my romantic side coming through, but I think there is weight to surnames being established during this point in time. It must've had some effect on marriage.

What I enjoyed reading most about marriage was that while the idea of man as the domineering head of the house was prominent, there were many also many beliefs of men and women as "complementary", "partners", and essentially equal (42). I believe this is something that gave root to romance and love-based-marriages during the time. Of course, there is also evidence of what is called "companionate marriage"--a marriage that is more "calculated" than driven by love (44). I think there is evidence in Shakespeare's plays of all the different types of marriage in his time--companionate, lustful, and a sincere loving marriage. My next post will be on A Midsummer Night's Dream and how Shakespeare illustrates these three types of marriage, their benefits & their follies.

For All Time

The final post--Part IV of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare." Check out Part I, Part II, and Part III and why I am interested in learning about the life of William Shakespeare.

doublet & breeches

When Queen Elizabeth died, King James of Scotland stepped up to take the throne. He was known as a philosopher prince, surrounding himself with the arts. Consequently, Shakespeare's company was made the King's men. Michael Wood shows a document stating that Shakespeare and some of the men of his company were issued with a 4 yard roll of scarlet cloth. This amount of cloth was sufficient to make a doublet and breeches for the King's coronation. During the coronation of King James Shakespeare was one of the ushers that carried the canopy over the King. Needless to say Shakespeare was well favored among all the classes of his time.

The Christmas holiday meant providing entertainment for the royals for 2 long weeks. While reading a record about the Christmas holiday, Wood found a document with another funny spelling of Shakespeare: "Shaxberd." Maybe that's why we don't know much about Shakespeare's life...no one could spell his name right!

In this PBS series, the Royal Shakespeare Company follows Michael Wood on his tour through the life of Shakespeare. The company explained that during a normal season the RSC puts on 151 performances of 5 plays. During the same amount of time Shakespeare's company also performed around 150 times but they put on 38 plays, 21 of which were NEW. As Max explained in class, no wonder the term "winging it" came from play performances in the Elizabethan era.

Once again, political turmoil springs in November of 1609. Wood calls it the "Jacobian 9/11" when terrorists tried to blow up the royal family and Parliament. King James hunted the terrorists, which consequently purged England of catholics, since these were times of religious unrest. On the stage in London plays reflected the political atmosphere. It was at this time when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth--the murder of a Scottish king.

The Duty of a Poet

Part III of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare." You can read Part I, and Part II if you're interested in Shakespeare's earlier years. These interesting facts and finds presented by Michael Wood in "In Search of Shakespeare" are information I will refer back to as I focus on the familial aspect of Shakespeare. Of course Shakespeare's own experience as a son, husband and father is something that enriches, taints and shapes his literature.

The last episode ended with Shakespeare earning a living to support his family back in Stratford. In 1593 the plague strikes and the playhouses are closed so Shakespeare has to look elsewhere to find money. He then focuses on poetry and comes out with his first published work "Venus & Adonis." He dedicated this book to Henry Earl of Southampton (who just inherited a fortune) hoping to get patronage, prestige, and money.

August 11, 1596 Shakespeare's only son Hamlet died at the age of 11. He may have been buried even before Shakespeare got the news. Michael Wood said Shakespeare reacted in these ways:

Rise to Fame

I've decided to tweak my focused learning plan a bit (already?!) and spend this week posting about the rest of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare". It's providing an excellent foundation of Shakespeare's life upon which I can further my focus of the familial aspect in Shakespeare's works. By learning more about Shakespeare's personal life, I can glean out important information that may parallel with his view and attitude towards the family and how it is reflected in his works. I ended my last post, part one of the series, with Shakespeare as a husband and father at the very young age of 19 years-old.

In order to support his new family, William Shakespeare lived and worked in the Lancaster countryside as a teacher under the alias of William Shakeshaft. February 2, 1585 was the baptism of Shakespeare's twins. Now Shakespeare's family included his two girls, one boy and his wife Anne. In other family matters, John Shakespeare, William's father, continued to make a bad name for the family when he was booted out of politics, again, when William was 22 years old.

There was a group called "The Queen's Men" who traveled all around Great Britain. They were a popular attraction and a humorous group, but their main purpose was a propaganda tour for Queen Elizabeth. This was during the time of the Spanish Armada when the Protestant Winds conquered Spain. One of the famous players in the Queen's Men was William Nell. He was murdered and so the company was short one actor. Michael Wood believes that this was when Shakespeare joined the Queen's Men and left his family behind to tour with the company. They were one of the first to portray the villainous character of Richard III. They also put on the old play of King Lear.

In 1588 the Queens Men arrived in London and Shakespeare left them to be out on his own. Seen in tax records, we find Shakespeare's first address in London is Bishop's Gate. He lived among the middle class and worked in Shoreditch where he began to write plays.

A Familial Focused Learning Plan

I've been having a difficult time staying motivated and when I sit down to write a post I'm just not sure where to start. I was inspired by Brooke R to make a the-rest-of-the-semester schedule, and also a little freaked out that we only have 5 weeks left. Where did time go? My focus for the rest of the term is the familial aspect of Shakespeare, which I decided is a little too broad to do singular posts about but it will ultimately be the main idea of my hub post. I still want to focus on the family and do so by writing about the different subjects that make up the family. My schedule will go as follows:

Week One (14-18) Love & Marriage
Mon: Part II of "The Search for Shakespeare" 

Week Two (21-25) Tragedy in the Family
Mon: Part III of "The Search for Shakespeare" 

Week Three (28-1) The Extended Family
Mon: Part IV of "The Search for Shakespeare" 

Week Four (4-8) Parent-child Relationships 

Week Five (11-15) So what? Shakespearean Family vs. Modern Family

Any help as to what plays would best fit into those weekly focuses? Please comment if you have any ideas, I'd really appreciate some suggestions. Thank you!

Not Your Average 19 year old

I thought the best place to start my familial focus of Shakespeare's works would be to go to the roots of Shakespeare's life. I came across the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare" earlier this semester. It's a four part series that follows Shakespeare's life from the cradle to the grave:

"...the core of the series is a biography. The story of one Elizabethan, his life, family and friendships, his triumphs and disasters, his loves and his losses....it is the first time that a full-scale life of William Shakespeare has been attempted on TV. Presenter-led, mixing travel, adventure, interviews and specially shot documentary and live action sequences with the RSC on the road..." 

see PBS's website "In Search of Shakespeare" 

I know we've all heard how mysterious Shakespeare's life is and that there isn't much out there, but this series fills in some of the missing pieces with the back round of other family members and the history of the time. Most of the information recorded during Shakespeare's early life is by "informants" or royal spies that were all over the country, as well as government and religious records. 

Flash Mob

I joined many of our classmates in the "Flash Mob" this weekend at the Provo Town Center mall. I'm sure I'll be able to attach the video to this post soon, but in the mean time I'll blog about my experience.To grab the attention of our "audience" at the food court we had a man dressed like Juliet (women's clothings, wig and all) stand on top of a chair and yell "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Then each of us proceeded to make our way towards Juliet as we said our lines. My line was "Who is already sick and pale with grief". I, too, like Jennifer P. was a far away so I sprinted toward Juliet and yelled my line as loud as I could although the music playing sorted drowned me out. I'm not sure I even want to see what I looked like in the video...but hey, at least I've got the Performance requirement over with, right?

I AM SHY so this was nerve-racking to say the least, but in the end I had a lot of fun. I thought if I was ever part of a flash mob it would be the dancing type, like my favorite in Liverpool. I brought my husband along with me to help calm the jitters. Here's what he thought about it:

"I think it was a fun idea that made people laugh and entertained people for a minute of their lives. Even though it was short and hard to hear over the music playing in the Food Court, I'm glad I was there to see it."

I think Shakespeare would've loved performances like this because he was all about entertaining the masses. Surprising a random group of people during the drone of everyday life with some meaningful words and a bit of entertainment gets the spirit of Shakespeare out there, and I'm happy to have participated in that. Thanks to Max and Whitney for putting this together!

UPDATE: Click here to watch the video.