Pericles...oh my!

Dear Bill,
              What the heck were you thinking when you wrote Pericles?

Perhaps it is because I just quickly (well as quickly as one can read SP) read through Pericles Prince of Tyre that I am both over and underwhelmed.  I had forgotten what Carrie told us a few classes back about people magically coming back to life until Thaisa's casket is being opened and she is suddenly alive.  Often my favorite musicians will produce a few albums of the same style and genre that I consistently like, then all of a sudden WHAM!! they produce something so far off of the grid that I have to step back and say "what the heck were you thinking?"  Pericles is similar in the way that it is completely different from what I have read of SP previously.  Typically when I hear my favorite artists new take on music I instantly hate the album, but then it slowly grows on me.  I hope in my second and more thorough reading of Pericles the same will happen.

Till next time when I have something semi-intelligent to profess...

Cleopatra Part 2...and Elizabeth Taylor

Honestly, I hate mentioning this, but Elizabeth Taylor passed away and perhaps one of her famous roles was Cleopatra.  After my last post, I've become unpleasantly (and temporarily) obsessed with Cleopatra.  Admittedly, I know very little about Elizabeth Taylor and he life, other than her many marriages, obtuse sexuality, and role as Cleopatra.  Indeed, there appears to be some similarities between Liz and Cleo.  Perhaps it was after Liz performed as Cleo that part of the character never left her mind.  In Shakespeare, Cleopatra was the "fattest female role in the entire range of drama" (Frye), but her true identity lies only on stage.  Unlike Elizabeth Taylor, who has an off-stage life, our knowledge of Shakespeare's Cleopatra is only what is told through the play.  When people question if she really loved Antony it is suspected that one does not understand just who Cleopatra is and isn't.  "Her love, like everything else about her, is theatrical, and in the theatre illusion and reality are the same thing.  Incidentally, she never soliloquizes; she talks to herself occasionally, but someone else is always listening and she always knows it." (Frye, 127)

What is our obsession with Cleopatra?  I admit that I dressed as her for Halloween quite a few years back, but to me it was just a costume pulled off of a shelf.  My escorts were friends dressed as Cheech and Chong...not quite Caesar and Antony.  I didn't feel Egyptian, (or Greek), or powerful or sexual...I didn't feel anything because I didn't even know who she was...and the thing is that we still don't know her and any speculation made is as good as true in my book.  If I would have read Antony and Cleopatra before picking out the costume I certainly would not have dressed like her, or perhaps I would have inherited  her attitude for the evening.  She was selfish and she needed to be seen.  She took the battle of Actium to sea then betrayed Antony when she pulled her fleet out.  Frye believes she was probably thinking something along the lines of "those silly men and the games they play...they're not even paying attention to me, so I'm leaving."  Cleopatra later asks Enobarbus if it is Antony or her who is at fault and this appears to be an actual question on her mind.  Questions such as this make one think that possibly she isn't being selfish, but that she is simply being Cleopatra.


It seems somewhat of a disservice to Antony if I only talk about Cleopatra, but one has to wonder the identity of Antony without Cleopatra?  At least when thinking about the play, it seems that Antony would have been more of a leader without Cleopatra, but would he have been less of a man?


In closing, I want to leave you with more words from Frye...

"What is true of heroism is true of love as well.  

There are no superhuman lovers, and all attempts at such love have been tragic."

Cleopatra...I just don't know how I feel about you

Northrop Frye on Shakespeare is an essential companion to anyone reading Shakespeare.  My only complaint is that it doesn't cover every play that we are talking about in class.  At any rate, I spent part of my spring break catching up on reading (unfortunately not blogging) and considering just what I think about our man, Billy Shakes.


Albeit late, a few morsels of goodness that Frye writes about Antony and Cleopatra are worth sharing.  Generally speaking, Frye comments on how amazing it is that Shakespeare has vividly imagined a world much like our own.  While considering mythology, Shakespeare, and our world today I can clearly see how history repeats itself and how the human condition is one that spans immortals and mortals alike.  In reflection on this idea (or fact in my opinion) I am reminded of the countless times I've heard the phrase "kids these days..." or, "it just isn't like it use to be..." and in return I've been annoyed and slightly angered about the ignorance reflected in the person making the complaint.  I've never been able to find the right words of defense, but always knew that people have no progressively gotten worse and loose in their morals.  Authors, such as Shakespeare, have made it completely evident that people did not start out as "good" and then digressed to evil over time.  This rant has gone a little further away than I expected, so let me use Cleopatra as an example.


Cleopatra...Lisette hyperboles her disgust for the character, but "love love love" for the play.  I am curious as to if it is her natural disgust for the "selfish" Cleopatra that is so alluring to Lisette.  Overall, I like the play, but "love" is not a word in my vocabulary that I can connect with Antony and Cleopatra.  Appreciation, comprehension, an overall neutral feeling...those are words that come to mind.  At any rate, let's see what Frye has to say about the play.


One world exists in A&C where the air is thick with information and news, but it is the two aspects of this one world that cause the change to happen all at once; the aspect of "law and order" which Rome represents, and the aspect of "sensual extravagance and licence" represented by Egypt.  Essentially, three people control the lives and fortunes of millions.  "The fact that two of them are lovers means that what is normally a private matter, the sexual relation, becomes an illuminated focus of contemporary history."  Brilliant!  Matt Helms suggested that A&C is much like a typical high school love story, but then it was pointed out that Antony and Cleopatra are old (gasp!  "old people" can't have love affairs! -I  hope my sarcasm is sensed).  Although Matt was on the right track, the forbidden love of A&C is more like that of an office romance.  I am not sure when society began to believe that two people could not engage in a sexual relation and have a professional relation at the same time, but it long before modern day, and obviously well before the time of A&C.  Again, Shakespeare (with the help of Frye) is blowing my mind in his ability to predict how our modern day world looks and runs.


Today, when a woman uses sex to "sell" something to the public we criticize her, but when Cleopatra used sex as a political weapon the people were afraid of her.  Frye points out that Queen Elizabeth also used sex as a tactic for political control, but it was her virginity that claimed the power.  The Romans were afraid of Cleopatra and why wouldn't they be?  The sexuality of a woman was a power that no Roman army could muster a fight against.  Does this make Cleopatra a "bad" person?  For me, it is not her use of sexuality that is bothersome, but her sly intelligence along with selfishness that sits uncomfortably on my mind.  Frye remarks that reading A&C as a sort of romance or moral melodrama is the most elementary misreading of the play.  I believe it is the idea that anyone could consider the romance of Antony and Cleopatra to be romantic at all that rests uneasily with me.  Love is a shape-shifter that allows even the most dreadful of situations to be believe as blissful.

Much Ado About Nothing

http://www.petraacademy.com/blog/comments/much-ado-about-nothing/

Last night I attended Petra Academy's play, Much Ado About Nothing.  My fiancé was offered tickets through his job and jumped at the chance to take me to the theater while I was studying Shakespeare.  (I also believe he didn't want to disappoint the Plant Manager whose son was in the play, but that's neither here nor there.)  


The often performed and much loved play encompasses all of SP's usual antics...love, marriage, someone dressing up as someone else, a villain, a tragedy, and then a happy ending.  Naturally the play consists of much more substance than that, and was quite entertaining, but you get my point.  I had never before attended a SP play and was eager to find out if the performance lent itself to an easier understanding of the language.  Indeed, watching and listening to the play was much easier than reading from the thin pages of our book.  The students (ranging from 7th-12th grade) did a marvelous job and the laughter often filled the theater.  I suggest reading this play at the very least, and when the time again comes you should attempt to see it performed.


After the performance ended we headed to Ale Works and much to my delight the fiancé began speaking about some of the same variables that we talk about in class.  Now don't get me wrong, Kyle is an astoundingly intelligent man, but his thoughts typically center around science and engineering.  We talked about the play within the play and the mythology behind much of SP's writing.  Speaking of Mythology...I laughed aloud as the characters compared their lives to that of Hercules labours...something I just educated myself about during a section my practicum students at Manhattan High were studying.  I don't believe that much of the audience caught on to the mythology references (and I am sure to have missed many), but that just furthers the point that everyone can enjoy Shakespeare.  Frye says that SP simply "allows his audience to have fun" and indeed Petra Academy's performance of "Much Ado About Nothing" allowed just that.

King Lear

According to  Frye, we nothing of what audience made of King Lear.  What we do know is that it revolves around "a series of legends about the ancient history of Britain, legends that in Shakespeare's day were thought to be genuine history." (Frye, 101)  In fact, KL is the earliest historical setting in all of SP's plays.  An entire chapter is dedicated to King Lear in Frye's book on Shakespeare, but I am going to save his wise words for my next blog.  For now a few of my ramblings are as follows...

King Lear may be my favorite Shakespeare play, but then again I haven't read enough of them to make an informed decision.  In my first blog post I commented about being captivated by the majesty of SP's words (said by Lear) at the end of KL:  Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:

                              Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so

                              That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone forever!

                              I know when one is dead, and when one lives;

                              She’s dead as earth.

I don't typically enjoy morbid things, and perhaps our society reflects negatively on those who like something other than a happy-ending, but KL feels more realistic to me than the other plays.  I searched for a video of Act 5 Scene 3 because I was curious if film could give me the same feelings that the lines (written above) persuade me to feel.  I am yet find a film adaptation that I enjoy and now I feel as though I have wasted my time and my brain-energy in doing so.  However, The Tragically Hip produced a song called "Cordelia" and is said to have been inspired by KL. Here is a live video of it:

What do I need in life?  I'm selfish and I can't honestly say that I need "nothing" or just "love" because I don't believe that one thing/feeling/emotion/object is all that I need.  Yes, the older I get the less I need, but I find myself constantly feeling as though I need something.  I need new tires, I need to fix the fence someone drove through on Monday morning, I need my family, and my animals, and everything the body needs for survival.  Last November I suddenly became very ill and after weeks of misery, tests, labs, scans, medications, etc...I still wasn't better.  Doctors were unsure if I had a brain tumor, a virus, or a failing immune system.  I've spent four months now on a cocktail of pills that are suppose to make me "feel" better, but not get better.  I need the medicine because without it my quality of life is rather poor.  (disclaimer: these pills are not dangerous and have no dependency issues)  I need them because all of the love and well-wishes in the world didn't make me feel better.  My body is attacking itself and "very confused" as one doctor said.  I think it's silly to say we need nothing, or just one thing because life doesn't last a day and every hour changes and rewrites our histories.  Face it, we need a lot.