Antony & Cleopatra

Shakespeare’s historic tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra, was immensely popular in his time and was a familiar story to his audience. Shakespeare’s success with this play may have been what prompted other writers, such as Charles Sedley, to write their own renditions of the play. Sedley composed his version of Antony and Cleopatra about 70 years after Shakespeare’s success. While the story may be similar the writing style’s of Sedley and Shakespeare may be similar their writing styles are quite different.

The first difference in style that struck me while reading Sedley’s rendition was his increased tendency to write in rhymed verse. Meanwhile, Shakespeare chooses to write most of his works, including most of this one, in blank verse. This nearly constant rhyming gives a very different feel to the play itself, and in my opinion, it takes away from the seriousness of the story. Rhyme gives the verse a lighter more care free feeling even though the words make it clear that the events taking place are grave.

The organization and length of the final scene also varies from Shakespeare to Sedley. Shakespeare doesn’t begin the final act until after Antony’s death, while Sedley begins it with Antony’s land battle and Cleopatra first fleeing to her monument. However, in both renditions of Antony’s death it is Proculeius who misleads Antony into believing Cleopatra dead, which in turn, causes him to kill himself.

In both renderings, when Antony dies Cleopatra contrives a plan with her ladies to kill themselves. In Sedley’s version though, in the time they spend together as Antony is dying he is pleading with Cleopatra not to kill herself after his death, while Shakespeare’s characters do not really speak of it. I think this gives Sedley’s Antony a more truly in love appearance, because he loves Cleopatra so much even after death he cannot bear the thought of her bringing harm to herself.

In both plays Cleopatras end comes at the bite of an asp, as Sedley calls it, or according to Shakespeare aspic. Both are names for the same worm like creature that lives in the bank of the Nile, I think this choice of how to die really emphasizes Cleopatra’s complete refusal to be controlled by the Romans. Even in her death she chooses the poison of her own land to any sword or foreign contaminant.

Overall Sedley’s rendering draws much from Shakespeare, but his characters have their own little twists that make them unique. For example, Antony’s increased value for Cleopatra’s life and her careless disregard of his last wishes for her life.

Troilus and Cressida v. Troy the movie

Shakespeare’s interpretation of the Trojan War is much different than any other modern or historical translation of the event and its characters. I will be comparing Shakespeare’s cynical inverted view of the war and its heroes, with one of the most recent films depicting this historic event, Troy.
In Troilus and Cressida Shakespeare portrays the Trojan War as frivolous and without point. This is illustrated by the continued arguments amongst the leaders of both the Trojans and Greeks that the continued bloodshed is for nothing, and that Helen, the reason for starting the war, is a whore who isn’t worth it. This depiction of Helen as a complete whore is also something fairly unique to Shakespeare’s portrayal. In many modern analysis of the war of troy historians seem confident that the tensions for war were brewing between the two sides long before Helen was involved, and she could be seen more as a scape-goat than anything else. Another character seen by Shakespeare in a different light is Achilles. In Troilus and Cressida he is portrayed as a lazy lovesick homosexual, who has no respect for authority, and refuses to participate. He only joins the battle when Patroclus, his presumed lover, is brutally killed. The final battle is also quite anti-climactic and un-heroic, with Achilles’ men sneaking up and killing the unarmed Hector.
In the movie Troy, the portrayal of the war and its heroes is much different. “Troy” was directed by Wolfgang Peterson and starred Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, and Eric Bana. The movie revolves around climactic battle scenes, and dramatic heroic characters. Neither camp shows any sign of weakening their position. Both sides are determined to either, in the case of the Trojans, hold onto Helen or, in the case of the Greeks, reclaim her. Helen is portrayed as beautiful, virtuous, and undoubtedly in love with Paris. As for Achilles, he is seen as a brutal warrior with an authority problem. However, this lack of respect doesn’t keep him from fight viciously in each battle. There are also no illusions to any homoerotic relationship between Patroclus and Achilles. The final battle between Hector and Achilles is also much different than Shakespeare’s version. Achilles and Hector meet, and battle man to man, both armed and armored. Hector dies valiantly in the place of Paris, who had killed Patroclus.
Overall Shakespeare casts a dark light over even the most acclaimed heroic events of the Trojan War, and leaves us with the feeling that chivalry is dead and there is no honor in killing and conquering. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Troy the movie leaves us feeling that even though there are many terrible parts of war, fighting and dying to protect those around you is worth the loss and hardship of battle.
Works Cited:
Troy. Dir. Wolfgang Peterson. Perf. Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2004. DVD.

Blog 7 - Self Evaluation

I think I have made a considerable amount of progress in this course, and feel I have learned a lot about Shakespeare since the start of this semester. In the beginning I thought I could grasp the play by just quickly reading the spark notes, but I have come to realize that much of the smaller nuances that bring the meaning of the work to light can be lost in such quick overviews. Because Shakespeare’s works are written in such a foreign time and culture, it often takes me several times of reading through a passage before I truly feel I understand what is going on and why. I’ve taken literature classes before that discuss Shakespeare, but I like how in this class we discuss more than the plays themselves. I have learned about the context in which these works were written and how that affects the actual meaning of the plays. I also enjoy learning about how people of that time may have felt about, or reacted, to the characters and jokes in the plays. I think that reading a lot of the works in the class group has really helped me to improve my own close reading skills, better understand some of the more obscure meanings that could be derived from certain passages, and increased my confidence when reading out loud.

Of the texts we’ve read so far, my favorite was definitely Merchant of Venice. Prior to this class, I had no experience with this play and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved how the Christian characters were so critical of Shylock obsessing over his money, when it turned out that he actually placed more sentimental value on his “priceless” possessions than they did. I also found the discussions in class about the practice of usury very helpful in understanding a lot of the major irony in the play. Christians in Venice despised the Jews for lending money at interest, and yet they borrowed from them often enough that it was a thriving business in Venice. I found the Sonnets to be the most complex and difficult to understand. I think this is because I often confuse the many different poetic and rhetorical terms used when discussing the physical structure and composition of the sonnets. My least favorite work was Twelfth Night; I know this is one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, and I’ve worked with it before. I always found the humor to be trivial, and the ease with which the other characters were fooled so thoroughly by Viola’s cross-dressing slightly ridiculous and unrealistic. I think, for the most part, this class has captured my interest quite thoroughly. I am a Biology major, so I don’t expect to use what I am learning in my career, and I don’t have any other classes involving reading, aside from textbooks. However, I am very thankful for the diversion I find in this class. I have always loved literature, and I need it to balance out the stress of my other math and science classes.

Blog 3 - Richard II

I would like to respond to King Richard’s soliloquy in act 5, scene 5, lines 1-66.
This speech takes place in Richard’s prison cell, and seems to be his attempt to cling to sanity as his world crumbles around him. In the first part of his talk he speaks of how he wants to replicate the outside world within the confines of his stony walls. However, his world is lacking people, a dilemma he responds to by saying, “Yet I’ll hammer it out”. So, his thoughts become the people who will populate his world, and just like there are classes of people, so also are their classes of these people thoughts. According to Richard there are, “The better sort”, which are divine thoughts, but even among these divine thoughts there are doubters, and as people attend to their own ambitions so do Richard’s people thoughts, “Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails may tear a passage through the flinty ribs of this hard world, my ragged prison walls”. Richard continues in much the same melancholy way throughout his speech.
I think this passage does a lot to really familiarize you with Richard’s current state of mind, and seeing this more human side of him really calls the audience to sympathize with the deposed king. We have gone from Richard, the divine all powerful monarch, to Richard, the common prisoner. I think creating these more sympathetic feelings toward Richard allow us to look more critically at Bolingbroke towards the end of the play, allowing us to see that there is neither character is absolutely good or absolutely bad.
The most significant metaphor I see in this passage is the likening of Richards own body to his prison cell. As his ambitious plot to break free of his body, so he also wishes to be free of his ragged prison walls. Another image in this passage is faith and divinity, which seems to be an often recurring metaphor. Finally, Richard likens himself to a clock, “For now hath time made me his numb’ ring clock. My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch”. I think this passage somewhat parallels Richard’s Great Speech, Act 3.2 Lines 140-173, at least in the way it similarly changes our perspective of Richard. He begins to look at his own death, and the actions of his past; however, he has not yet reached near the low point and complete sorrow he does in his soliloquy.
The passage I chose was written in blank verse and contains many formal literary techniques. Allegory is one of the most clearly visible examples of this. It can be seen throughout the passage first in Richard’s long metaphor likening his mind to the world, his thoughts to the people, and his body to the prison. Another example of this technique Richard’s time spent comparing himself to the clock whose time has slipped away. Anaphora was used in lines 35-37 when Richard says, “Persuades me I was better when a king. Then I am kinged again, and by and by think that I am unkinged by Bolingbroke”. Finally, there is a perfect example of internal rhyme in line 40-41, “With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased with being nothing.” I think the long allegories in this passage really help us to picture Richard’s state of mind at this time, and without them it would be lacking. I also think the blank verse really feeds into the overall melancholy tone of the piece.

Sonnets 26 and 43

Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream was all supposedly just fantasies of the night, a play of the imagination, a dream. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us to find him righting of reveries elsewhere in his work. Two examples are sonnets 27 and 43, both dreams having similar content to one another.

In the first quatrain of sonnet 27, he tells us how even after his body’s work is done his mind carries on, “Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, / The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; / But then begins a journey in my head, / To work my mind, when body's work's expired:”( 27. 1-4). In the third quatrain he describes to us exactly what his mind’s eye is seeing, “Save that my soul's imaginary sight/ Presents thy shadow to my sightless view, / Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, / Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.” (27. 9-12). The couplet in this sonnet leads us to believe that the author may be discontented with his dreams, and he seems exasperated that he can find no peace, day or night, from the character that haunts them.

In sonnet 43, similarly to sonnet 27, in the first quatrain he explains to us he is dreaming, “When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, / For all the day they view things unrespected; / But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, / And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.”(43. 1-4). However, in this sonnet he is much quicker to move into telling us about the subject of his dream. He praises his subject’s form, which he refers to in both sonnets as a shadow or shade, by saying, “Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright, / How would thy shadow's form form happy show / To the clear day with thy much clearer light, / When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!” (43. 5-8). Unlike in sonnet 27, the speaker uses the couplet to make us very aware is happy to have these visions, “All days are nights to see till I see thee,” (43. 13). He also mentions, for the first time, his desire that he be seen in the dreams of the one he is dreaming of, “And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.” (43. 14).

While comparing these two pieces I was careful not to give a specific gender to the character in either of these sonnets. This is because according to Norton Shakespeare, “The Sonnets and ‘A Lover’s complaint’”; Shakespeare cast aside the traditional object of an exalted lady and instead centered many of his poems on homosexual characters and fantasies. Norton states that, “Sonnets 1-126 recount the speaker’s idealized, sometimes painful love for femininely beautiful, well born male youth.”(page 1937). However, a specific gender was never given by the speaker in either of these sonnets. The only time gender was even mentioned was in sonnet 27, “Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.” (27. 12), but I read this as just a metaphor for making something unattractive beautiful.

I think it is beneficial to read these sonnets more as dialogue than simply stand-alone poems. The subject matter of both poems is very similar, however without analyzing them side by side it might be possible to miss the author’s clear emotional differences in each work. In the first sonnet he seems bothered by the dream, but in the second he welcomes it.