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Author Archives: Mary Iannone
Posts: 7 (archived below)
Comments: 0
Time in The Winter’s Tale
As we enter Act IV of the play, we get something that’s very reminiscent of the Prologue in both Henry V & Troilus and Cressida. This one seemed more like the Prologue in Henry V, as it is asking for the audience’s suspension of disbelief and is somewhat apologizing to the audience for something that may seem jarring or confusing. The Prologue here is called simply “Time”, leading me to wonder how Shakespeare would have costumed the man playing this role. In one of the essays in the back of our Signet edition, Sylvan Barnet claims that in one production, the man who played the bear in 3.3 came out again at this time and revealed himself to be Time.
I thought the use of Time here as a personification was very smart on Shakespeare’s part; there are very few Shakespearean plays in which he has a passage of time like this, and therefore the audience would not be expecting it, and may have had a hard time if all of a sudden Perdita was onstage as a teenager with no explanation. I took a screenplay writing class a few semesters ago in which we spent a long time (no pun intended) on this issue of time passage. You can show a clock speeding up, you can show the seasons changing, you can show someone rapidly aging – but that’s all on camera. Showing time passage onstage is a very tricky matter and I think the use of Time here works well.
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Group 7 – Macbeth Scene Study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUJzFdcuIyE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=332yOI50TBg
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Malcolm: Fit to rule?
We discussed the strange scene between Malcolm and Macduff in which Malcolm says he is full of vices that would make him an unfit king. After Macduff laments for Scotland, saying that Malcolm will not be much better than Macbeth is, Malcolm reverses his words, saying that he was just testing Macduff to see if he is loyal and true.
But for me, there was a second way of reading this scene. When Malcolm backtracks and says he was making this up, he says “here abjure the blames and taints I laid upon myself.” This can definitely read as something I’m sure we’ve all seen before – someone laughing and scoffing at what was just said “Haha, I can’t believe you fell for that, I was totally joking” – just to save face.
So is Malcolm really going to be all that much better than Macbeth? Even if he was lying about his vices, what he says afterwards is still a bit of a concern – he says he’s never been with a woman, these words were his first ever lies, and I could never go behind someone’s back and do anything devilish. But when one assumes power, they have to have the backbone to stand up to those who will be against them – there is no ruler that is universally loved. So either this new King of Scotland is actually a vice-ridden, greedy sex addict who is now going to hide all of those vices until he inevitably can no longer, or he is a naive, easily manipulated child.
Helen vs. Cressida
While you know from the beginning of Troilus & Cressida that the main love story is going to be, of course, between Troilus & Cressida, I couldn’t help but realize while reading Act III of the play that this is the first time we meet Helen. After all, this war was instigated by her, and she is known as the most beautiful woman in the area – it seems natural that Shakespeare would write about the most beautiful woman, not a lesser beauty like Cressida.
But when you compare Helen’s remarks in Act III, Scene I, to Cressida’s in Act I, Scene II, something about Helen falls flat in comparison to Cressida. Whereas Cressida is constantly on her toes ready to go head to head with whomever she is speaking to, Helen resorts to bawdy jokes.
It’s also interesting to note that while Helen is the main reason this war is taking place, it is Cressida’s name in the title of the play. However, throughout much of the play thus far, it has been Helen, and not Cressida, that has been driving much of the plot. That is because the majority of the plot has been the talk of war, and the rivalry between Ulysses & Achilles. This may be a weakness on Shakespeare’s part, but the romance that the title alludes to is not really picked up until Act III. There are other pairings – Ulysses & Achilles, Pandarus & Troilus, Achilles & Patroclus – that are explored more deeply before we ever see Troilus & Cressida in love.
Henry V vs. earlier plays
I couldn’t help but get some similarities between the characters of Henry V and those of The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing. Just as Beatrice in Much Ado echoed some of Kate in Taming, I think some of the characters in Henry V echo some of the previous characters as well.
For instance, the Dauphin reminds me somewhat of Claudio in Much Ado. Claudio was very naive and quick to believe everything he heard. The Dauphin has similar qualities. He refers to Henry V as a “vain, giddy, shallow humorous youth” which undoubtedly he was once, but as we’ve seen in earlier acts, is no longer. Earlier characters have spoke of Henry V with almost reverence, praising how well he’s slipped into the role of King despite his reckless past. But the Dauphin refuses to listen to the newest information and latches onto only the info that gives him a right to talk badly about Henry. Similarly, Claudio only had to listen to a tiny bit of information about Hero’s alleged infidelity to believe everything bad about her.
Even a minor character, the hostess, reminds me of previous characters. Though she is married to Pistol, she has had a romantic past with Nim. This arguing over a woman brings a strong reminder to everyone’s fascination with Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew. And in her speech in Act 2, Scene 3, when she is speaking of Falstaff dying, she makes many malapropisms that remind me of Dogberry in Much Ado.
These reminders may be unintentional, but I think it shows how Shakespeare had recurring themes in his plays, despite how differently themed they are. While Henry V reads more like an epic play, the fact that it can call up reminders of his earlier comedies differs Shakespeare’s writing from anyone else’s.
Startling Suddenness
In class on Wednesday, we spoke about Benedick and Beatrice’s apparent sudden change of heart regarding their feelings for one another. When Benedick “overhears” Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato discussing how Beatrice is mad with love for him, and Beatrice “overhears” Hero and Ursula speaking of Benedick’s own love for her, they immediately say they find themselves able to love one another. But just as these apparent changes of heart reflect obvious long dormant feelings for each other, there are other instances of suddenness in Much Ado that are reflective of other characters’ own personality traits.
One somewhat concerning example is how easily Claudio is willing to believe that Hero would make a fool of him by having relations with another man. With no proof or prior suspicion, Claudio immediately takes Don John at his word when Don John speaks of Hero’s alleged infidelity. We spoke in class about how old we suspect each character to be, and I think this naivete proves that Claudio cannot be anything but a young teenager.
Claudio is also buying into this sense of bravado that we have seen from many of the other male characters, perhaps in an effort to seem like his older fellow soldiers. The men have many times referred to how they would rather die than be made a cuckold, with frequent references to having a woman make them wear (metaphorical) horns. So when Claudio hears what Don John has to say, he is so afraid of being made a cuckold himself that he cannot see clearly enough to give Hero the benefit of the doubt.
The fact that Margaret, the servant, poses as Hero during this tryst also proves that Claudio doesn’t even really know his fiancee that well – even from a distance, one would think that a man would know the woman he supposedly loves. I believe he is just so afraid of being made a fool of that he already begins planning how to shame her back (the later scene that he makes at the wedding altar) before he even sees this show Don John has put together for him.
Early instances of “taming”
Hi everyone! After hearing what everyone had to say in class, here is my response post:
The title The Taming of the Shrew is meant to refer to Katherina, but there are subtle instances of taming even before we meet her. In the induction, when the Lord is talking about his multiple dogs, we inherently know that these animals have been trained to do his bidding. He even seems to prefer one dog over the others, most likely because this dog is the tamest of the bunch, and responds most obediently to the Lord’s orders.
It’s also interesting to see the Lord’s behavior towards Sly. He has just been talking about taming his dogs, and now will go on to tame this drunken bum. Sly falls for his game almost immediately, subtly putting himself on the same level as the dogs – obedient, but not very smart, and certainly not as sophisticated as the Lord.
Even when we meet Lucentio and Tranio, there are notes of taming going on. Lucentio is a teenager, being subtly pushed and influenced by not only his father, but his servant, who is supposed to be his inferior. Even though Tranio tells him to study what makes him happy, this is a slight push in one direction.
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Tagged dogs, induction, Lord, Lucentio, response, Sly, taming, Tranio
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