Let's face it, the portrait of Will on the cover of most anthologies has a bit of a leer. I guess it is warranted. I mean the man did write some of the best plays ever and here we are, butchering his language and trying to understand his genius.
Besides the physical leer. Will has graced us with a human Lear. Well a play about a Lear. Who is a king. But might I add a man who seems to be going a bit off his rocker. One of the scenes that I looked at the most was the beginning. I mean it sets the tone for the play. And it is when Lear decided to give up his crown to his daughters.
WOAH! Daughters?! Yes, his daughters. His daughters husbands contribute a bit to the villainy of the play but it seems that the majority of the evil stems from the fact that his daughters (at least the elder two) are greedy.
But looking at the speech at the beginning of the play, it seems as if Lear was ready to give up his crown. When he asked for his daughter to say how much they loved him, he said us? Was he including the kingdom? Was he trying to get the girls to pledge their allegiance? It seemed almost as if he was an old man who had already gotten his kid/ grandchild the gift but wanted to be thanked for his effort. I mean he even went through the effort to divide the land in fair shares. But the question remains, why does he get so upset about Cordelia not wanting to publicly pledge her love to her father? Does this show his insanity? I mean he does bring with him all those knights later in the play and throw Kent out for no reason. These seem like pretty insane things to me. And why doesn't she want to profess her love? I mean she can't think that it is for real. That this is the end all to end all.
So what is Will doing in all of this? I think that he is just playing with the idea of greed, the problems between sisters and families, I guess even the problems between brothers! Maybe Will is even taking everything good that he could think of and adding it into one play.
Basically, I have no idea what Will is doing here. Just as in Hamlet, the sanity of the characters is questionable. Just as in Comedy, people seem ti be switching roles, characters seem to be shifting. Kent, someone high up, must reduce himself to an unintelligent man in order to serve the king. Edgar must disguise himself so as not to be falsely accused of plotting his fathers death.
Will keeps these themes of greed, lust, romance, disguises all in his play. They keep the play interesting. But he also seems to throw a lot of references of the Queen in this play. The Queen being Elizabeth. First, there is the references of the women ruling. I mean, yes the women suck at ruling. Except Cordelia, who seems to have her head on a bit straighter. And then there is the bastard son, Edmund, who tries to take the throne. I wonder if WIll is comparing Elizabeth to Edgar or Edmund, depending on the time and the current ruler and/or wife, Elizabeth was a bastard, daughter of Ann Boylan. Maybe that is what Will is getting at? He must appear to love the Queen but he was truly raised Catholic and that is what he believes? There is also the various images of the father dividing the land because he doesn't want there to be a problem with the heir to the throne. COuld this be also referencing the Queen and the problem there was about the heir when she ascended and left the throne?
So it seems that this reading left me with more questions? As Will is known to do... many thanks will, many thanks.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Move over Hamlet, you need a woman to finish the job!
Hamlet is a play strangely centered on the men. Yes there are women, only two though. In the whole play, only two women have any importance. One of the women is Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother and the Queen. The modern audience has a problem with her. We don’t understand how the wife of one man could so readily switch to being the wife of his brother when he dies. Of course, there are a few approaches to why she did this. One: she was having an affair with him anyway. This would make sense as to why she would dump her old husband “wearing the shoes that he bought her to the wedding.” Two: it was normal. Gertrude, being a women, might not have had any idea about the plot and simply married her brother-in-law for security and to keep Hamlet in the castle. In fact, she could have been trying to protect her son. Nevertheless, people today still find it weird.
The other main character that we can address is Ophelia. Personally, I feel for her. You can tell she has a major crush on Hamlet but he father and brother warn her to not like him because they are afraid that he will choose the good of the state over her. I wonder where her mother is in all of this. Her father is a bit of a bumbling man who goes on to stick his nose in business it shouldn’t be stuck in and then get himself killed. And her brother is off to go back to school in France. She has no one who can really guide her, to tell her how to act around Hamlet. How to answer his letters. How to deal with the grief she feels when he pushes her away. But sadly, she is left to her own devices and ends up dead. Many people question her death. Was it suicide or did she simply drown? The only information we have to base our decision off of is her actions before her death and how Gertrude (yes, the other women) describes it.
“There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.”
The passage begins with the image of the willow or commonly known as the weeping willow. The image of the weeping would have gone along with Ophelia’s attitude at this point quiet well. Hamlet was her first love that seemed to reciprocate and now he is either done with her or mad, both horrible thoughts.
Next is the image of the hoar leaves. Hoar means leaves that are covered with a frost. The leaves are masculine, which can refer to Hamlet. His heart has covered with frost, a reason that Ophelia might want to kill herself.
Then Ophelia is seen with a crown of flowers around her head. Is this a biblical image? Does she see herself sacrificing herself ? Does she think that she has mad Hamlet mad as her father suggested once? Or is this a foreshadowing to when Hamlet learns about her death and seems to come out of his madness for a moment. Perhaps she is what helped him to gather his wits and actually do something, causing the dual at the ends and the death but what helps to restore the kingdom again. The whole play has images of the kingdom being foul and rank, a once Garden of Eden gone wrong. Ophelia, with her flowers, embodies the Garden of Eden and helps to set Denmark to order again.
The next part talks of Ophelia wanting to hang the wreath on a suspended bough. But the wording is what trips me up, it says clamoring to hang. She could have wanted to hang the wreath or herself, it could be a reference to her wanting to kill herself.
Lastly, she sings when she is about to die. She falls into the water and sings as her skirts fill with weight and she is pulled under. This is a poetic image. It is an image of her knowing what she was doing. I would like to say that it is also an image of her being a sacrifice for the good of Denmark. Perhaps it is the women that save the kingdom versus the man?
I would like to say that Hamlet was putting on a show before all of this. That it was merely because he was unhappy with his new father. But once he hears of Ophelia’s death, his grief is then translated into madness. Hamlet then acts. He tells Horatio of his plan with the letter in the next scene. And the next scene is where the shit hits the fan. It is Ophelia who pushed Hamlet toward action. It is Ophelia who saves Denmark!
The other main character that we can address is Ophelia. Personally, I feel for her. You can tell she has a major crush on Hamlet but he father and brother warn her to not like him because they are afraid that he will choose the good of the state over her. I wonder where her mother is in all of this. Her father is a bit of a bumbling man who goes on to stick his nose in business it shouldn’t be stuck in and then get himself killed. And her brother is off to go back to school in France. She has no one who can really guide her, to tell her how to act around Hamlet. How to answer his letters. How to deal with the grief she feels when he pushes her away. But sadly, she is left to her own devices and ends up dead. Many people question her death. Was it suicide or did she simply drown? The only information we have to base our decision off of is her actions before her death and how Gertrude (yes, the other women) describes it.
“There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.”
The passage begins with the image of the willow or commonly known as the weeping willow. The image of the weeping would have gone along with Ophelia’s attitude at this point quiet well. Hamlet was her first love that seemed to reciprocate and now he is either done with her or mad, both horrible thoughts.
Next is the image of the hoar leaves. Hoar means leaves that are covered with a frost. The leaves are masculine, which can refer to Hamlet. His heart has covered with frost, a reason that Ophelia might want to kill herself.
Then Ophelia is seen with a crown of flowers around her head. Is this a biblical image? Does she see herself sacrificing herself ? Does she think that she has mad Hamlet mad as her father suggested once? Or is this a foreshadowing to when Hamlet learns about her death and seems to come out of his madness for a moment. Perhaps she is what helped him to gather his wits and actually do something, causing the dual at the ends and the death but what helps to restore the kingdom again. The whole play has images of the kingdom being foul and rank, a once Garden of Eden gone wrong. Ophelia, with her flowers, embodies the Garden of Eden and helps to set Denmark to order again.
The next part talks of Ophelia wanting to hang the wreath on a suspended bough. But the wording is what trips me up, it says clamoring to hang. She could have wanted to hang the wreath or herself, it could be a reference to her wanting to kill herself.
Lastly, she sings when she is about to die. She falls into the water and sings as her skirts fill with weight and she is pulled under. This is a poetic image. It is an image of her knowing what she was doing. I would like to say that it is also an image of her being a sacrifice for the good of Denmark. Perhaps it is the women that save the kingdom versus the man?
I would like to say that Hamlet was putting on a show before all of this. That it was merely because he was unhappy with his new father. But once he hears of Ophelia’s death, his grief is then translated into madness. Hamlet then acts. He tells Horatio of his plan with the letter in the next scene. And the next scene is where the shit hits the fan. It is Ophelia who pushed Hamlet toward action. It is Ophelia who saves Denmark!
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