Women in Shakespeare...and a tangent

Ophelia....dead.

The other day in class we were talking about the variety of women in Shakespeare. How, despite the time period he lived in, many of his female characters (who were still played by men) are strong characters, with great value. Sure we have characters like Ophelia and Desdemona who are spineless "doormats" (and who both end up dying...coincidence?) but we have stronger characters like Paulina who isn't afraid to say anything, really anything, to a crazy king. We have characters like Hermione who have a quiet and admirable dignity. I really think she is amazing for the way she handles everything, accused of adultery and plotting to murder, her newborn baby being banished. It's not until she finally sees that her husband won't listen and her little boy dies that she can’t take it anymore. In Julius Caesar I like Brutus' wife, Portia, and what he says of her,"O ye gods, render me worthy of this noble wife!". Shakespeare shows the value of valuing ones wife (if only Brutus had been equally honorable and honest with his wife.)

Basically, it seems in Shakespeare plays that although, mostly for the point of a story, bad things happen to all characters, it seems to turn out better for the stronger figures. Let's take Beatrice and Hero from Much Ado About Nothing. Hero seems to me to be another "doormat" while Beatrice is sassy and strong. Beatrice only has to go through a lot of teasing to have her "happily ever after". Hero on the other hand is accused of infidelity (this seems to be a common theme…Desdemona, Hermione?) and has to be verbally, and emotionally abused (Ophelia parallel?) and then fake her death (another common theme, Juliet...anyone?) to get Leonato to feel sorry enough, and then she gets her happily ever after.

Not only do things seem to work out better for the stronger characters, but they are also a lot more fun to read about. I would rather be friends with people like Beatrice or Paulina, than empty people like Hero and Ophelia.

Heck, if I’m going to wish a fictional character to reality to be their friend I’m going to step outside the realm of Shakespeare and into Disney’s Tangled. Sure Rapunzel starts off as a “doormat” never leaving home for 18 years just cause her “mom” said no, but at the end she is a stronger frying pan wielding beauty, who would be lots of fun to hang out with cause she’s always ready to let her hair down (ha…ha…).

Sorry Will, modern computer animated Disney beats you here.

Shakespeare and Me

Shakespeare first entered my life, with real power, in the seventh grade. Our poor, patient, and worthy of pity English teacher, Ms. Rose, introduced us to "Midsummer Night's Dream". It really touched me. The rhythm of the words, the clever play with language, the story. I liked it a lot but I was a too cool for Shakespeare, just like every other young teenage boy my age. It ended there.

Not to be averted, Shakespeare tried once again to come into my life in the ninth and tenth grades through the plays of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Julius Ceasar". I loved them once again. Unfortunately, I was still to cool for it. I could only have a closet love for this iambic pentameter prose. It wasn't until eleventh grade that Shakespeare was able to really become a comfortable part of my life.

In the eleventh grade I developed a transitory twitterpation, a crush, on a girl in my ward. She loved Shakespeare, and I thought she was wonderful, so Shakespeare must be wonderful too. I promptly went out and bought a copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare and began to read religiously. Yes...I started reading Shakespeare to meet girls... Nothing developed out of this crush i had, except for a deep deep love and relationship for all things Shakespeare. I devoured his plays and tried to understand them as best I could. I developed an admiration for his way of saying things and revered dear Will as almost a minor prophet, penning scripture.

Since then I have loved Shakespeare. I love reading the plays, I love seeing them performed in the theater, I love the movie renditions, (Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet...anyone? yes?) My favorite play is "Hamlet" the original emo. I think it's fantastic.

Shakespeare and Mason...are friends.