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. 

Scansion

Macbeth

Last week was "one of those weeks", you know? I did have the time to read Macbeth and look more into the play, but alas, I didn't get around to posting. Here's some of last weeks work:

When my mom mentioned scansion in my interview with her sudden flashbacks of my sophomore literary analysis class came flooding back. I hadn't scanned lines for awhile, so I thought I should take another stab at it with Macbeth's "dagger" speech. Shakespeare tends to stray from straight iambic pentameter in moments where character's are conflicted with emotions, or mentally out of whack. What better play to pay close attention to that than a tragedy? Macbeth's "dagger" speech is an important moment in the play where we watch him grapple with murdering King Duncan or not. Driven by ambition and Lady Macbeth's approval, Macbeth addresses the dagger in his hand almost as if it's his conscience.

I went through the speech and marked the stressed & unstressed syllables, the feet, and wrote notes and terms to the side. I'm a visual person so I thought this would be an excellent way to delve into the language of Shakespeare while at the same time delve into the character of Macbeth & his emotions. I've scanned this into the computer so my handwriting might not be the easiest to read, I apologize.

As you can see from my notes, this speech evokes a lot of questions and is open to interpretation. Some think that Macbeth hasn't yet decided when he ends this soliloquy whether or not he will murder Duncan. I think that line 14 where his mind is imagining blood on the dagger is an indication that his subconscious has already decided and Macbeth's mind is about to overtaken by that

.

I also highlighted the "extra" syllables on ends of some of the lines. With some searching I found here that they are "masculine endings" if the last syllable is stressed, and "feminine endings" if the last syllable is unstressed. It made me think about the gender focus in this play and I wonder if Shakespeare consciously thought the same on such a micro level. The lines ending in a "feminine ending" refer to the dagger, false creation, being marshaled to murder and murder itself, which makes me immediately think of Lady Macbeth and how, in my opinion, she is more the murderer than Macbeth. The lines ending in a "masculine ending" refer to witchcraft and design, which are what Macbeth feels trapped and propelled by--a sort of destiny he has no control over.

 I may be reading too much into it, but it's definitely got me thinking about how much more I can find in the text if I really look closely. 

I just interviewed Ian Mckellen!

I just came across a gem! There is a website called Stage Work Mckellen where you can hold your own interactive interview with Ian Mckellen about Shakespeare and Richard III. How cool is that?! You can ask him questions like:

Is the play Richard III historically accurate?

Why is the play so popular?

Should we have sympathy for Richard?

But before he'll answer you, YOU have to give him your response to these questions. He also gives his own critique and interpretation of speeches and stage and film renditions of the play. Ian Mckellen as a Shakespeare professor! He explains that his version of the opening speech in Richard III  was shortened for film purposes, and that words were put that Richard said in Henry VI part 3, like we talked about in class yesterday. You can find the screenplay Ian Mckellen wrote, with more notes, at www.mckellen.com or click here for a direct link his screenplay.

If you're not interested in Richard III, you can also ask him questions about Shakespeare like:

Should Shakespeare be read so that it's obvious it's written in verse?

Is it ridiculous to make 14 year-olds study Shakespeare?

Was Shakespeare interested in politics?

If what I wrote didn't make much sense, here's a video that explains Stage Work Mckellen.
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• How does it serve the play and the study of Shakesepare? I think this site is an excellent source for those studying Richard III. Ian Mckellen provides an interpretation of the beginning speech and gives you and opportunity to ask questions about it. He also offers other versions of the speech on film and stage for you to watch and compare yourself. The questions about Shakespeare in general are a little more tailored to Ian Mckellen and his career, so it's not the best resource for Shakespeare overall. 
• How well does it use available media? It links to videos, texts, and many other resources. Just the format of the site in general makes use of all sorts of media. 
• Will this reach audiences? Referring to the literal answer to this question I'm not too sure about this, since I don't think this site is marketed very well. It was by chance that I came along and found it. Will is reach into the lives of those who do happen to find it? Yes. It combines popular culture, modern references and historical references.
• Is it just a gimmick or is this a substantial contribution to the study of Shakespeare? I think this is a substantial contribution to the study of Shakespeare. Just like our blogs, this is a way to learn about Shakespeare through someone elses eyes! Ian Mckellen is passionate about Shakespeare, and he really does know his stuff. I think this would be a perfect media to use in a classroom setting to get students involved and interested in Richard III and Shakespeare.

 Now take a look at this site! It's a unique resource about Shakespeare through the mind of someone who knows a thing or two about him, to the say the least.

"He had an eeevil plan"

Each week I'll be reading one play from each genre. Beginning with "The Histories" I have chosen....

Richard III

Why?

1. He's a villain king and seduces a woman into marrying him right after he's killed her husbad. I've got to see that. He just screams sketchy in that painting.
   
2. Dr. Burton used "fascination of abomination" when describing this play--translation: reality TV at it's best.
3. I've been told there are some great speeches.

What does Bevington have to say about Richard III?

Bevington (meaning the textbook for this class "The Necessary Shakespeare, 3rd Ed. by David Bevington) provides an introduction to each play with reference to history, theory and summary.

Richard III is the final installment of Shakespeare's history tetralogy---

te·tral·o·gy

/tɛˈtrælədʒi, -ˈtrɑlə-/ Show Spell[te-tral-uh-jee, -trah-luh-]

–noun, plural -gies.

1. a series of four related dramas, operas, novels, etc.

--which dramatizes the struggle between good (Richmond) and evil (Richard). It begins with the return of Edward IV to the throne and ends with the defeat of Richard III at the battle of Bosworth. Yes, he is defeated! But don't worry, that's not a spoiler. Bevington say's that Richard III is "the stuff of dramatic excitement." Throughout the play Richard confides in the audience with his evil plans and sets up the dynamic of verbal irony. Therefore, when his henchman says to Hastings, "The princes both make high account of you," and then to us he says with a hand to his cheek, "For they account his head upon the Bridge" we can cringe, knowing Hastings's severed head will soon be raised on a pole on London Bridge. Dramatic excitement!

Bevington say's that Richard should be grouped in the category of villians that include Iago from Othello because, like them, he is "driven by human motivation and by his preexistent evil genius." The actual history of Richard III and other literary portrayals of him have purposefully blackened his character as a way to use his example as lesson of what not to do as a ruler.

Some themes Bevington tells us to look for are:

• Psychology vs. Providence -- Did Richard III become ugly and deformed because of his evil nature, or is ugliness the precursor to evil? This may seem like an odd question, but it is something to look into.
• Was suffering under this tyrant ruler a necessary fall from innocence to bring "a restoration by divine grace" to England?
• "The political process seems endlessly prone to cynical manipulation, and triumph comes chiefly to those how know how to use rhetoric to calculated effect." ....Relevant to our day? YES

All in all, I'm looking forward to reading this play. In order to stay on track my schedule thus follows:

Mon (1/24) : Intro blog post (check!). Read Act I.
Tues (1/25): Read Act II & III
Wed (1/26): Read Act IV. Psych vs. Providence?
Thur (1/27): Read Act V. Political process? Restoration?
Fri (1/28): Watch Ian Mckellan's Richard III

Hamlet Ramblings

I chuckled to myself while reading the first scene of Hamlet:

"Holla! Bernardo!"
"Say, what, is Horatio there?"

because really, Shakespeare was a homeboy.

Seeing it this way made my husband suddenly interested in what I was reading. We searched around for Shakespeare dictionaries online and found some resources but no answers as to where "holla" came from. The site: http://www.acepilots.com/bard/ws_word.html shows you a selected amount of Shakespearean words and sayings, provides definitions and also sites a few places they're used in his literature. The creator of the website refers to Alexander Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon, which supposedly sites every instance of every word and in its context. Quite the gem for us Shakespeare folk. I think I might want to look into getting me a copy of that book. It would be interesting to ponder on how housewife could go from meaning "hussy, prostitute" to the image of a humble, self-sacrificing mother. But then again, these days the word housewife is regressing to Shakespeare's definition with television shows like "Desperate Housewives" and "The Real Housewives of Jersey Shore" (...or something like that).

FYI: I also found another site with a broader selection of terms(http://absoluteshakespeare.com/glossary/a.htm) that might be more helpful as a quick reference in the future. Any other suggestions or sites you know of? Our textbook has a glossary, too.


I may have just revealed my complete amateur knowledge of Shakespeare/Old English/Latin or where ever the word comes from, but come on, “Holla”? Don’t try to tell me he just misspelled “hola.”

I'm an Art history fan, so while I was reading the last scene of Act 1 where Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus swear on their swords to keep the ghost of Hamlet’s father I couldn’t help but picture this painting…

Oath of the Horatii

…and wonder if there was a connection there. Horatio…Horatii? This painting depicts the three sons of Horatius swearing on their swords (held by their father) that they will defend Rome to the death…. Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus each hold out their swords and swear upon them. See what I mean? “Oath of the Horatii” by Jacques-Louis David was painted in 1784, while the first edition of Hamlet appeared long before then, around 1600. That throws out the thought of Shakespeare being inspired by this painting, but I guess it could be the other way around. In any case, it’s something worth considering and I’d love to begin looking at art inspired by Shakespeare and vice versa.

A quote to end on:

Ghost: ….Remember me.
Hamlet: …Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter.

Drama queen or not, Hamlet’s sorrow and desperation go so deep that they tap into the vein of love. A fellow classmate, Martin Michalek said HERE that Hamlet is “in love with his sadness”, which I think is genius on Shakespeare’s part. What emotion has been expressed and understood through as many outlets as love? Conjoining emotions of love, sorrow and a passion for hopelessness makes Hamlet’s soliloquies a twisted sort of romantic that is heart wrenching and warming at the same time. Take these words out of context and you’ve found the key to a woman’s heart, mine at least.