Sharing Time

Unfortunately my Shakespeare sharing didn't go over as well as I had hoped.
For sharing locally, I was somewhat more successful than in my "global" efforts. I attempted to start a few conversations with co-workers about "Taming of the Shrew". The first time went over better than the others. A girl I work with was telling me about her past relationship problems and I was able to tie in "Taming of the Shrew" and how some people's personalities are better suited to be with certain people. As I mentioned in a previous post, Petruchio and Kate were a good couple because they are very similar personality types. We also talked about the amount of submissiveness that should be given to one's partner and if one member of the couple should be allowed to dominate.

The second attempt with other female co-workers was when one of them mentioned "10 Things I Hate About You". I thought, "What a convenient segway," but when I started comparing Heath Ledger's character to Petruchio (you know, the character his was based off of) I got blank stares and a "Who?"  I explained who Petruchio was, but they had become uncomfortable and moved on. I guess Shakespeare really does make some people awkward.

As for sharing globally, I didn't seem to get much luck. I found a page on Facebook about Shakespeare and posted a question about Petruchio and Kate's relationship and how other people perceived it. I linked back to this blog and my previous "Taming of the Shrew" posts. I looked around on the page for people talking about the play, but didn't find much. Mostly people were just posting their favorite quotes from plays. Unfortunately this page is probably much less popular than some of the others that exist, and probably doesn't get as much traffic. But maybe someday I'll get a response.

Pirates and Princes and Pa

If the only men I had around me for 12 years was my father and a rapist devil child, I'd probably fall in love with the first new, young, normal seeming man I saw too. Poor Miranda. I generally don't feel much sympathy for the younger Shakespeare women (and I might change my mind about Miranda as I continue to read this play) but what a terrible situation. Her situation reminds me of Frederic in Pirates of Penzance. The only woman he ever remembers being around is his nanny until he gets to leave his ship for a brief period of time and meets the beautiful Mabel.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, and I'm sure you're probably sick of hearing me say this, but how stable are these relationships that start out as love at first sight ordeals? I admire Prospero's desire to make things difficult for Ferdinand and Miranda so that they will have a more stable relationship. I'm not quite sure what he has in mind to do so, but at least it's put out with good intentions. I'm happy to know that Prospero loves his daughter and wants the best for her. In Pirates of Penzance Frederic has to go back out to sea for 63 years and asks Mabel to wait for him. That would definitely be a difficult test of love. 63 years is an awfully long time to wait for anything. "The Tempest" seems to have more labor for love than "Love's Labour's Lost".

If I be waspish, best beware my sting

As I've been going over "Taming of the Shrew" in my mind the past week or so I continue to be conflicted in my perception of Petruchio. As I was searching around to internet for what others thought of him I cam across an intriguing blog that has a few posts about Petruchio's character and Kate's as well. The first post from this blog that I read compared the Richard Burton portrayal and the John Cleese portrayal. The blogger also compares Kate's abusiveness to that of Petruchio's and makes the point that Kate's abuse is worse than Petruchio's ever was, and that in the end she wasn't a hollow person (like I see her), but says that she has transformed into a "dignified, self-controlled rock; half of the foundation of what will become a strong family unit." 

I myself am torn. I don't believe that Shakespeare meant Kate to become a sad, completely submissive to her husband's will, but I know she needed to change because she was very much out of control in her throwing apples, shoving midgets, tying up her sister, beating her music teacher over the head, slapping people, and verbally degrading everyone around her ways. I'm just trying to create a happy medium of Kate between crazy, enraged woman and an anything-you-say-my-lord female.

The one thing I enjoyed most about this play that I'm not conflicted on, is that Petruchio and Kate are definitely a good match. They are both very spicy characters and the banter between them is humorous and equally matched. One scene in particular I enjoyed thoroughly was the first meeting of the two. Instead of being insulted by all the harsh things Kate says to him, Petruchio turns everything into a joke which makes Kate made because she can't get a rise out of him. Petruchio was made to handle a "wild" woman. I feel as if he would have been terribly bored if he had been paired with Bianca instead. And if Bianca had been paired with him, she wouldn't have been able to keep up with his sense of humor and temperament. While she is portrayed as the more perfect and lovable sister, she's the more boring and petty.

Love's Labor

If the King of Navarre asked the Princess of France to pop a back zit for him, do you think she would have done it?

After reading "Love's Labour's Lost", I've been thinking about the actual labor of love. I personally don't feel like the characters in the play really labored for love, or that they really loved each other at all. What they were was infatuated. My sister had a religion professor once tell her that, "Infatuation is a guy who is as hot as Taylor Lautner, as smart as Albert Einstein, as funny as Jim Carrey, as noble as Winston Churchhill, and as athletic as Rocky Balboa. Love is a guy who is as noble as Jim Carrey, as smart as Rocky Balboa, as athletic as Albert Einstein, as funny as Winston Churchhill, looks nothing like Taylor Lautner, yet you adore him anyway."

What I really wanted to get at with this post it that love, being in love, staying love, showing your love, etc. is a lot of work, and it's a work that will never be over. It's more than writing love letters and swooning and sighing (although those things are nice). And playing tricks on someone just for spiteful fun, isn't the best way to nurture love for someone. I myself am by far no expert on love, only being married a little over three months, but you don't even have to be in love to see that the characters in "Love's Labour's Lost" aren't really in love.

From Shrew to Sock Puppet

Last night my husband and I watched the BBC production of "Taming of the Shrew" which stars John Cleese as Petruchio. When I read the play, I thought Petruchio seemed like a simple man, only looking for money. But Shakespeare is meant to be seen, and that's how his characters really come to life and develop. Petruchio's character is well educated, witty, and funny, but also mean spirited and manipulative.

It's true that Kate definitely needed to learn how to calm down and stop hating everyone and their dog. The first scene she's in, she pushes down a  midget and throws and apple at some men. Not the friendliest of people for sure. The way Kate is "tamed" is essentially abuse though. She is not allowed to eat or to sleep, and if Petruchio says the sun is the moon, or an old man is a young maid, than Kate must agree or she'll be deprived of more. He swears to Kate that everything he does is just because he loves her.

But by the end of the play she is a hollow shell of a character, with no personality other than that of a robotic, brainwashed Stepford wife. She's not at all the person she was in the beginning (which is the point of the play, yes), but if you really love someone, shouldn't you love them the way the are, and encourage them to change their flaws, not completely destroy who they are in a matter of weeks?


Another thing I thought a lot about while watching and reading this play is how painful it can be to have a seemingly perfect sister whom everyone loves and adores, while you feel like a mere side note in the shadows. I wonder when Bianca started being praised more than Kate, and if that is what started Kate's acting out in the first place, possibly at a very young age. It is very common for people to seek negative attention if they feel like it's the only kind they can get. And after acting in such a way for what could have been quite a few years, it would be a hard habit to change. Maybe Petruchio gave her the chance she needed to be able to make that change without people doubting her motives and thinking she was up to no good.

Taming of the Shrew

Sorry I didn't blog on Friday. I woke up in the middle of the night Thursday with what I think was food poisoning and afterwards slept through essentially the whole of Friday. Anyways...

My individual Shakespeare play is "Taming of the Shrew". This is one of the Bard's plays that I've known the generals of the story for years, but have never actually read it, so I'm pretty excited to dive into it.

 (Warning- this play may cause my slightly masked feminism to show its true colors)

Something that attracted me to this play/story what the bitterness of Katherina. In general I know that I can be/have been/sometimes still am a bitter and jaded person, but what do you know, my husband helped me let go and rid myself of most of that.
While doing some surface research I came across an article called "Taming of the Shrew: Shakespeare's Mirror of Marriage" by Coppelia Kahn. This gives an interesting perspective on the roles of each partner in the marriage relationship and how Kate learns to become submissive to her husband's will. And being in such a feminist era, this makes my female brain, say, "Excuse me? I don't think so." So I'd like to take a closer look at how Shakespeare portrays marriage while reading the play to see if he's encouraging women to be more submissive or telling them to stop being puppets.

While looking over the text I see that along with the standard five acts, there is a prologue. I don't know why he couldn't just make it six acts. I guess that the actual play is being performed for the characters in the prologue and they say it's a history. The prologue is the only part of the play, as far as I can tell that involves the character's observing the play, so I don't really know why they are in there at all.

"Taming of the Shrew" is a comedy, and generally I prefer tragedies over comedies, simply because romantic interests and drama and love stories don't really interest me. But I do know that Shakespeare can be absolutely hilarious, so that in and of itself makes up for the "mushy-gushy", someone-please-strangle-me stuff that is the actual plot. I'm pretty positive "Taming of the Shrew won't disappoint when it comes to humor, and I'm also hoping that because Kate is a "shrew" that the love aspect of it will be more appealing to me.

The Honor Code

A complete and austere institution, according to Michel Foucault, in its general form is intended to "render individuals docile and useful, by means of precise work upon their bodies..." (Foucault 214). In these institutions, the persons having the "work" done to them are constantly being observed and those observations are recorded in order to better push each individual to a desired outcome. Examples of such places are prison, school, a hospital, etc.
In "Love's Labour's Lost" the first act is about setting up such an institution so that "the mind can banquet, but the body pine (Act 1 Scene 1 Line 27). These men are to dedicate three years of their lives to study, and are given a strict set of rules to follow (fast once a week, no women for three years, and only three hours of sleep a night).
Why do we subject ourselves to such kinds of institutions? There are always going to be people who fight against an institution they are placed into, but what makes them so powerful that it generally doesn't matter if you don't care for the institution you're in because they are already such a powerful force in your life and in society. I feel like this is a case where society creates something in their minds and then in the outside world and it begins to control their outside world and how they think. These aren't negative things all the time, and often produce positive results (going to school for four years where you are required to obey a certain about of rules and at the end you gain a degree/a record proving what you did for four years).
What will happen in "Love's Labour's Lost" when they decide to break away from the institution they have created? Will it eventually be a positive or negative decision?

Foucault, Michel. "Complete and Austere Institutions", The Foucault Reader. Pantheon Books, New York. 1984.