I think it only appropriate that I my first blog's title is a Shakespearean quote as this blog was created for my Shakespeare class. Secretly, I am a bit excited to have a blog (I have always wanted one) and I do kind of like Shakespeare.
People talk about Shakespeare as the genius who wrote all of these great plays. Personally, I see him as a man who begged, borrowed, and stole his way to fame. The theater was the Hollywood of London in the late 1500's and the 1600's. Shakespeare was just the greatest director of his time. I think this is why I like him so much, because he seems so human to me.
My professor dared to bring up Doctor Who in the first class. I was ecstatic. I love Doctor Who more than I love Shakespeare. However, my professor was talking of the episode when the Doctor and Martha go back in time to Shakespeare and end up fighting off an alien who is living of Shakespeare's rhymes. (His rhymes are naming the aliens. This most likely makes no sense to you if you a. don't like Shakespeare or b. don't like/know Doctor Who.) My professor commented on the fact that these aliens choose Shakespeare because his talent for rhyming is out of this world (ha ha ha!) or so superior that they could use his words as a medium to free themselves and take over the universe. He choose to view this as an elevation of Shakespeare's works. I liked this episode for completely different reasons. Shakespeare wasn't portrayed as a stuff old man sitting at a desk and writing but rather as a man who loved women and drinking. He was portrayed like most college boys really. But the humanistic approach to characterizing him made him so much more fun. I think that high school lit. classes tend to place Shakespeare in that box of things you ought to read and that becomes very forced and boring. When in reality Shakespeare's plays are fully of sexual innuendoes and other jokes that when properly explained would be very much like the jokes we laugh at today. In fact, Shakespeare is said to have invented the "Your Mom" joke. Shakespeare's plays are often relatable as well. Rafe, a teacher in CA, actually had his 5th graders act out Hamlet. They were able to accomplish this because they related to the themes of death and betrayal in the play. When taught Shakespeare correctly it is possible to make these connections, allowing you to dig deeper than the flowery language that the Elizabethan era loved so much.
Anyway, the point of this blog will be to spread my thoughts about what we are reading/ what I am learning about Shakespeare and to hopefully make him more fun and intersting for those of you who have loved to hate him.
So I leave you with act IV, scene II of Titus Andronicus....
Villain, what hast thou done?AARON
That which thou canst not undo.CHIRON
Thou hast undone our mother.AARON
Villain, I have done thy mother.
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