A Shakespearean story in which jealously and insecurity combines to create a unfortunate tragedy, there is no doubt that there is a light that shines within this piece that can go unnoticed if one does not pay close attention to detail. After King Leontes punishes his wife Hermione, eventually leading to her death, and sends his new-born infant out into the woods, one can only imagine the dread he must have felt after coming to his senses years later. The 2nd part of the play, which takes place nearly 16 years after Act 1, showcases a mischievous character named Autolycus who is viewed as a pickpocket con-man attempting to manipulate the characters within the play for his own benefit. Though unknown to himself he helps lead Perdita back to her biological father Leontes, which unravels numerous amount of heartfelt events towards the end of the play. The average audience member would view Autolycus as a comic relief based character that Shakespeare would utilize in order to lighten the mood of the story. Personally I see the character as a metaphoric angel type of being who slowly bring the conflict and tragedy of the story to a more dramatic, yet joyful conclusion. Shakespeare has a knack for puttting mischievous characters within his plays that eventually help in leading to a revelation or explaining the outcomes that are to follow (i.e. Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Though with Autolycus I sense an angelic presence in him as he leads to the revelation of Hermione (whether it be real or not) descending from her statue like state towards her husband and daughter. During this time of the holidays I would like to think of Autolycus as a fallen angel who has earned his way back into the heavenly gates, but my opinion is a little far fetched and is only going to be seen as a simple Winter’s Tale.
Category Archives: Imagery
The Common Cold
Sin and vice are genuinely synonymous with disease in Measure for Measure. An infectious sickness that runs rampant in the Duke’s city specifically, for which there is no known cure. Angelo believes that the only vaccine for such a tempting disease is imprisonment and ultimately death.
However viral this sin is, it seems to have one definite attribute – it’s common. Whether it be a Duke, a Gentleman, or even a women contemplating her place in a convent, temptation runs amidst them all. The Duke echoes this notion when he says, “None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it…”(3.2.225-226). Somehow goodness has now become a tangible organ or vital component in human beings that can be infected. Sin has taken the form of a virus, causing symptoms such as fever that subsequently force good-natured people to act ill-natured.
Despite the destructive qualities of vice, its wrath seems unavoidable. Infecting people from all types of life, this common cold it would seem, does not discriminate. This might be the reason for the civil absolving of all crimes and action the Duke imposes at the end of the play. The commonality of sin saves its victims from blame. This salvation comes in the form of wit when the Duke says, “Craft against vice I must apply” (3.2.280). Knowledge takes the form of anti-bodies and heals the sick.
The Efficacy of Law in Measure for Measure
In Measure for Measure, authority figures often anthropomorphize the law of Vienna. For instance, during his conversation with the Friar, the Duke describes Vienna’s laws as “strict” and “biting” (1.3.19). Similarly, Angelo callously assures Isabel that “It is the law, not I, [who] condemns your brother (2.2.80). Through their syntax, Angelo and the Duke separate themselves from the law, which offers an interesting insight on the way the law is perceived in the play: it is an objective, stand alone entity.
But in light of the play’s final scene,where one “fornicator” is absolved of his “crime” and the other is “punished,” are Angelo and the Duke right to take this view of the law?
Honor as Property in 1 Henry IV
For most of Henry IV, Shakespeare handles honor in an indirect way. Although nearly every character stakes some claim to honor, the audience is left without a fundamental definition of it on which to build an understanding and more importantly, against which the “honor” of a character may be measured. There is, however, a notable shift away from this pattern of the indirect treatment of honor in Act 3, Scene 2, when King Henry and Hal are reunited after the Prince’s self-imposed “exile” to discuss the “villainous news” (2.4.334) of the Percy rebellion. During his discussion with his father, Hal’s description of honor implies that he perceives it as form of property, i.e., a thing whose ownership of can be transplanted. This notion of honor as property not only deepens our understanding of the rivalry between Hotspur and Hal, but also helps us find a better bearing on the dynamics of honor in Henry IV.
Shakespeare Fashion Craze: Royalty
The repetition of a particular metaphor type in a William Shakespeare play can signify and complement a theme of the play. In Henry IV Part 1, the repeating metaphors that stand out to me relate to dress and wardrobe. In a play that is concerned with the crown and the role of royalty, dress metaphors are especially appropriate when considering that a king can simply “wear” the crown or be the crown. Specifically, does the occupation of the throne automatically make every action of a king royal or does the content, the spirit or the motive of the act define royalty?
This observation is why I liked Prince Henry at the end of the Act I. The idea that, “when this loose behavior I throw off,” is like him suggesting that he can change his roles like his clothes and throw off that tattered jacket of adolescence for a more appropriate garb. ( Act 1, Sc. 2, 213) Instead of taking the title or royalty and the responsibility that comes with it, Henry shows his understanding of what royalty is by doing the exact opposite. Rather than take it for granted that all of his actions are seen under the guise of the crown, he does the dastardly and goes in cahoots with thieves. He’s taking to defining royalty on his own terms rather than adhering to the expectations of others.
In a plot line where the occupation of the throne seems to be on the mind of anyone with any relation or claim to the throne, it is interesting to see a character who is not crazy about the responsibility of the crown rather than be dazed by the glory of the title and instead opts to con everyone into accepting whatever he wills to deliver as long as it is not thievery. It’s almost like a plot of a Guy Richie movie.
A Lover’s Dilemma
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a tale of chaos and order, light and dark, sane and insane. The setting and environment help the reader understand the emotions the actors were portraying as they entered the woods. Demetrius’ line 192 of Act 2 demonstrates his feelings as he enters the woods, “and here I am, and wood within this wood.” Here he means that he feels confused as if his transition to the woods has brought about this change.
Shakespeare sets the scene where the young lovers are out in the woods unsure of their love. Puck the mystical fairy organizer even takes a jab at this by confusing the lovers with the spraying of his magical juice. Shakespeare takes you along this mystical journey into the woods and you are as lost as the characters.
The characters are Shakespeare’s version of young immature teens searching for love. The characters in the play old or young, mortal or immortal all become immature due to the chains of love. Oberon, the mighty King of the fairies and Titania, Queen of the fairies are constantly at each other’s throats over the young changeling. Shakespeare captures the tension by having both enter the play from different sides. He then leads us to see the growing resentment in Oberon when he sets his henchmen Puck to spray into the Queen’s eyes and trick her into loving a transformed donkey. This immaturity is very strange and Shakespeare makes a mockery of the “love” going around.
The eyes have it.
Something that caught my eye (har-har) about A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the repeating motif of the eyes. Whether they are being magically corrupted by fairies, tricked the moon or referred to in a great and concise image, the eyes are subject to a formidable amount of literary experimenting on behalf of Shakespeare. Spoiler alert, eyes take on a significant meaning in King Lear too, so it is interesting to see how his earlier treatment of the visual organs is much more…gentle.
We’ve heard the trite line that the eyes represent the window to a human’s soul, so perhaps it is this easy opening that allows transformation to take place for the love-struck visitors and occupants of the woods. Eyes are also organs that take in light, which means they would be the most susceptible to the change from day to night. This fits with the repeating underlining of the difference between night and day in the play. There would have not been the same effect to the magic if say Puck spoke a magic word and knocked Demetrius over the head with a rock. The selection of the eyes is significant in more than one way.
One of the things that love transforms in the play is perception. To indulge my response with another well-known cliché: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not only do the eyes leave humans vulnerable by opening up the soul, they are themselves known to function differently when “love” becomes a factor.
A very popular line from the play, spoken by Helena, is:
“Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.” (Act 1, scene 1 line 234)
What I can take away from this is that the surge of emotions that come from looking at a person is not love; it might feel like it, it might sound like it, but it is not love. When the bewitched Lysander gazed upon Helena affectionately or Titania doted upon the ass that is Bottom, it was not from love or from the mind. The eyes opened them to affection and passion, to the guise of love. As seen from the comical situation that the couples in the play find themselves in, there’s much more to love that what can be perceived through eyes. Sometimes, only magic can explain why a powerful female would fall in love for a character like Bottom.