Individual presentations... part 3

*Check out Amanda's blog to see how you did*

Brian- no guitar. boo. lol. All of Shakespeare is related. Hamlet & Henry IV part 1. Comparisons Iago and Caliban. Same character, different play.

Rachel- Shakespeare as a myth maker. Creates myth from stories. The Tempest, Shakespeare as Prospero.

Lauren Schull- Caliban like Poseidon. Andromeda & Perseus. Cedus & Caliban. The Tempest translated from Andromeda & Perseus.

Shelby- Asthetic Dignity. Theory of negative capability. Beauty & the sublime. Extends asthetic quality.

Spencer- Final scene of Cymbeline. Characters don't know who they are until the end. "Swapping Hats"

Joe- Nothing in Shakespeare. Nothing in a secondary sense. Realm of actual compared to possible. Shakespeare addressing basic myth. How can something come out of nothing?

Laure part deux- Language. Memorial. very beautiful. Othello. Spoken word being most important. Iago works with words not actions.

Jennifer- symbolism of the pearl. sang a county song.

"Funny when your dead, people start listening"

Riley- Iago. Prometheous located myth. Burns down the town with his words.

Craig- screenplay adaptation of last act of Cymbeline. Last 4 scenes have most imagery. *posted on blog

Again, really nice work everyone. Not too much, not too little. I was very impressed with everyone. One more class and then... off we go. To do... well... nothing. which is to say, everything.

Individual presentations... part deux

Finish blogs up by 5pm Thurs.

Morgan-Rape of Lucrece. Marina & Lucrece

Matt- Nothing, fools, and nature compared and contrasted

Cameron- connections between plays

Lisa- negative capability & remembrance. Focus on the word Vail. False

The Painted Vail

Alex- recurring event of divine visitation

Melissa- Nature in King Lear.
          "The worst returns to laughter"

Karinne- Device of disquise

Nathan- The Tempest. Very Depthful.

Becky- Poem about Cleopatra & Shakespeare. They're the same.

Jon- Hamlet. What it means to be a mythic figure.

James- Echoes... really heartfelt.. its nice to see such emotion... makes me have hope in the world again! :)

seven sins

Mything Shakespeare

            Several things can be said about Shakespeare being mythological. Clearly, he refers to Ovid’s Metamorphoses in several shows. My mission through this paper is to explore the prominence of the seven deadly sins in Shakespeare and in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

            The first sin I explored was gluttony, which can be translated as overindulgence. King Lear at the beginning of the show perfectly describes an overindulgent person. He has to have the most of everything to be happy. Lear claims 50 knights is better than 25 and is asked by Goneril why he even needs one and he snaps at her. A character from mythology that clearly rings in my head is Actaeon, a boastful hunter who happens to stumble across Artemis bathing. He doesn’t look away but overindulges and watches for a bit, she then notices him and turns him into a stag and he is then eaten by his own hounds.

The Rape of Lucrece is a lustful piece by Shakespeare. Tarquin reminds me clearly of Jove, who is obviously the most lustful character in mythology. Jove has lusted after Io, Callisto, Europa, and Semele as well as many others. Due to Jove’s lust each of these women suffered a fate. Io was turned into a cow then became a goddess. Callisto was turned into a bear and killed now she has a home in the stars. Europa was tricked by Jove, he turned himself into a beautiful white bull and she got onto his back where he disappeared into the sea. Semele was conned by Hera to ask Jove to show himself in all his splendour resulting in her untimely death. Yes, Jove is a picture perfect example of lust.

            Pride is the next sin I researched. Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra defines pride clearly. I see Cleopatra as a bit of an actress she is described as a woman of “infinite variety”. Every actor or actress I have ever met has had a large element of pride about them which is why I chose this show to describe pride. Cleopatra is so full of pride she doesn’t want to kill herself in a way that she would be made an ugly corpse. Among the most obvious of prideful characters in mythology would be Narcissus. A man who loved himself so much he died looking at his own reflection. Another prideful mythological character would be Phaethon. He takes his father’s chariot convinced he would be able to ride through the heavens gracefully. “Too late: with his young body, Phaethon has leaped into the chariot: he takes his place with pride. Rejoicing, he holds fast the reins-and thanks his hesitating father” (Mandelbaum 42). Unfortunately Phaethon’s pride gets the better of him, and he killed is by his impulsive actions.

            Greed is abundant in many of Shakespeare’s works. The character that I have found most greedy would be Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet. He wants his cousin to himself so much that he becomes responsible for Mercutio’s death which leads to his own death by Romeo’s hand. Another way to look at greed from the mythological stand point is the story of Mars, Venus, Vulcan, and the Sun. The adultery committed by Mars and Venus can be defined as greed. Their husbands and wives are not good enough; they need more to fulfill their desires by their own greed.

            I found while working with Othello that the most abundant sin in the play is envy. Iago is the poster child of this sin. He is so envious of Othello that he will stop at nothing until he is ruined. As far as mythology goes, characters that I find quite envious are The Pierides who are quite envious of the Muses. Now anyone knows that you can’t ever be as good as a Muse and The Pierides challenge them to a singing competition. They do not win and envy gets the best of them.

            Wrath I honestly can say is abundant in each work of Shakespeare; anger is a natural emotion that happens every day in each of us. Since we are Shakespeare’s mind babies, it’s too hard to narrow wrath down to just a work or two. In mythology the most obvious wrathful character to me is Juno. Every poor girl that gets involved with Jove has Juno’s wrath upon them shortly after.

            The last sin I encountered was sloth. I had a very hard time determining which of Shakespeare’s works defined this best. I came down to the conclusion that most of the characters in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream are quite lazy, minus Puck. This is stretching sloth a bit, but when I think of the characters I think of spoiled, rich people who have nothing better to do with their time than whine, or play tricks on each other. In mythology, the most slothful character I can think of is Argus. He is a big, fat lazy giant who falls asleep to a story told by Mercury to get Io away from his watchful eyes. Sloth gets the better of him.

            The abundance of sin is without question abundant in mythology and Shakespeare. In truth, it is all just mythology. The farther back you go, whether it’s to the seven deadly sins, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or Shakespeare’s era, the more mythological you are. Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Shakespeare’s works are just stories but they are “sacred stories” hence, “true stories”. We emulate these two creators every day, as to say, nothing ever dies… it only changes.

           

Works Cited

Mandelbaum, A. (1993). The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc

Cotterell, A., Storm R., (1999). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Mythology. New York, NY: Metro Books

Individual presentations... part I

Upon finishing the first day of presentations I'm relieved and yet, I wish I had put more thought into my paper... I enjoyed my idea but wish I had delved deeper into the connection between my Ovidian tales and Shakespeare's works. Jennie, after reading your blog, Flagstaff did cross my mind for SLOTH but he just didn't seem to have enough of something for me to base that paragraph on... I guess you could say he was too boring and lazy... get it? Sloth... boring and lazy?... ahhhh

However, I was very impressed with each presentation and hope that the second round will be just as exciting... who knows? Maybe someone will write a full fledged musical and then all who went on Thursday will be shit outta luck...

Roberto- The Tempest

Jackie- Nice powerpoint, really nice comparison with jealousy and infatuation in the modern world.

Kinsey- Venus & Adonis

Ashley- Cordelia, slight physical presence but still very present.

Nick- Identity broken down through Shakespeare's plays. Discover the role you are playing, and play it well.

Jennifer Cooley- The Tempest. Caliban is Poseidon & Demeter.

Rio- Venus & Adonis echoed with modern society

Jamie- Kids intimidated by Shakespeare. The Mechanicals rapped... As you Like It

Tristan- Rapped. Calibans speech... DROP A BEAT!!

Anne- purpose for sexual references

Amanda- forbidden love, love labors lost

Fletcher- critique of love. Suffering is caused by love. love is a drug.

Lisette- Antony & Cleopatra compared and contrasted with Romeo and Juliet. Antony is Romeo... Cleopatra is Juliet.

*Love is what most papers were written about*

Again, really intellectual nicely rounded out presentations. Tristan, I do think you should post your rap on your blog because as Jenny said, it was hard to hear and understand your words. I still cannot believe the smarts that are sitting in that classroom evert Tuesday and Thursday with me. Ashley, the depths that your brain delves astounds me...

I will post the second round of presentations after class on Tuesday. Nice job everyone, on your group and individual presentations.

late notes 4/7

The Tempest

Prospero's project
       3 hours: exact amount of time to do the Tempest

memory

*Echos*

Act IV scene1

Happy & Healthy= meaning of life
                  You cannot demote to just this

puts on a play with character from mythology

Venus & Cupid are not invited

echo

anamnesis: absolute memory

remember who you were before you were born

enter certain reapers
                    confused to a strange and hollow noise

worst crime of a memory magician: to forget

tempest: time

sublime moment in Shakespeare
               "Its all a dream"

Act V

Ovid Metamorpheses

Prospero drowns his books

Antonio: to call you brother infects my mouth

play within a play
banquet, masque, the whole thing

Prospero turns to the audience to release him with applause

thesis'

I have a few ideas for my thesis. I'm thinking about writing a paper about Shakespeare and the 7 sins. Which shows are prominent in which sins. Another idea I had was analyzing the prominence of  jealousy and rumors, picking apart a show or two. Still brainstorming but I like these two the most so far.

nothing is ever nothing

I can't help but think the two recent shows that we have read were extremely similar. Perphaps echoing eachother if you may. The fairytale that seems to linger its dark head around is Snow White. Just bits and pieces, obviously not the whole story. When Marina is rescued by pirates and then sold to the brothel I immediately thought about being outside of the Molly Brown or the Scoop on a Friday night...

"Dude, I was talking to her first brah!"
-" No man, she was totally into me first"

(Punch punch, kick kick, curse word curse word curse word)

A contemperary brothel is a scary place.

I do have to say, chorus' are my favorite part of most shows. The people who get to see the whole show but aren't really paid much attention to, however, if they weren't there a key part of the show would be missing. I was part of the chorus of Rocky Horror and had more fun than the leading cast.

Left: me and the other phantoms or "chorus" of Rocky Horror










So I was interested in the definition of Marina and I found that Marina's in this day and age are a lot like Marina the character in Pericles. Obviously the element of water is there. Marina's original rescuers were pirates. Also, a Marina keeps things safe, refuels and repairs boats. I can't help but think that Marina is so pure she refuels and repairs people. She got to the Governer and her father. The two gentleman came out as new men after she was done with them... hm.. just some connection that I thought was interesting.

notes 3/31

A Winter's Tale

Blogs: Roberto, Jennifer, Ashley, Amanda

Shakespeare has withdrawn in this show

In the beginning everything is whole

paradise lost, paradise regained

crone: A wise woman

Mother and maiden reunited at the end of the play

Act I scene2
something happens

"The great nothing speech"

echoing

Delphos @ Apollo

Issue: the most used word in AWT

Ceres: goddess of the Earth

pg. 709
"Exit pursued by a bear"
                 most famous stage direction

4 little girls
        1 Imogen
           2 Marina
              3 Perdita
                4 Miranda

Live on the threshold

Act IV scene 4
"for I have heard it said there is an art...."

"No worse there is none"

MSU's motto comes from this poem

We skip the recognitions, why? someone else tells us about it

The story of Pygmalion

The statue is brought to life by Claudia

The Tempest
 Shines light on all other plays

notes 3/24 and 3/29

Translate your secondary reading in your blog

Moonwalking with Einstein

Cymbeline
servant must sent bloody hankerchief

Imogen's male name Idelle: Faithful



3/29

blog your thesis for your term paper

Pericles

Shakespeare is exploiting genre's

Romance: cheap, taudry book about love

Shakespeares Romance: babies seperated at birth, captured by pirates

*Pericles was not all written by Shakespeare

Comedy of Errors

We're not covering the first two acts- why? because they're not very good

answer to the riddle: incest

Act III
        Start sounding more like Shakespeare

Pericles & Titus were the shows that were the most flocked to...
 wrap up of Acts I and II: Dumb show

storm: tempest

A Chorus

They throw the dead queen overboard

Psyche & Cupid

-Evil stepmother who watns to kill baby

She is rescued by pirates, they $$$ so they sell her to Brothel peeps

Pericles= Dudley do-right

Pericles vows not to cut hair and not talk

Cerimon finds real queen and brings her back to life by music and massage

Great Healer=music

Myth with person in basket = Moses, Superman

Pay attention to flowers

"Pirate Talk": Arghh

"Virgin Knot"

Persephoney & Demeter
               Romances myth

Colin Still- myth of the mother and the daughter

Governer wants some and Marina coverts him... so he gives her a bag of gold.

Marina & Pericles scene: Very devastating

Pericles: "Thou that beget'st him that did thee beget;"

                          "the person who begot you, begot me"

Diana @ ephesus