Thanks everyone

Again, there are so many great minds in this class. The only thing I ask is, respect eachother... not one of us has the answers to everything... just our observations and thoughts. Thats exactly what Shakespeare would have wanted, or at least I think. We are simply the worlds players. It still astounds me how vibrant Shakespeare is still around us. I read Amanda's most recent blog and watching The Kings Speech I literally cried with all the Shakespeare references.

 Also, I caught a bunch of quotes after recently watching Interview with the Vampire.  "Good night sweet prince..." being one of them Amanda.

Othello is also quoted "Put out the light, then put out the light." before Lestat has taken a girls life. Doing some research on the quote brought me to a lot of interesting observations. Othello says this to himself whilst Desdemona is sleeping. I believe he is saying, he's going to put out the candle and then put out her light. Its interesting because in Interview with the Vampire Lestat puts out the candle and then brings the girl to near death and gives Louis the choice to make her one of them. I see this as a metaphor for "putting out the light" by having light stolen from you. Desdemona is said to have very light sking. Almost like a Vampire. Perphaps thats what the writers were going for by putting that quote in there.

Thanks Amanda for getting my brain rolling. Thats what I like out of many of my fellow classmates, fueling interesting thoughts in my imagination as opposed to judgements and presumptions. I appreciate that, thank you.

Thanks everyone... great semester.

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.