Sharing and Contributing Locally and Globally

In my Shakespeare class we were given the assignment to share what we are learning both locally and globally. Meaning we are to reach out to those near us and also to the world, perhaps on the internet. Here is my experience with both.

Sharing Locally: Jeff

Well, I thought a lot about who I could share with. Hoping not to be the guy who just talked to his room mate. I tried to think of ways to bring Othello into my home teaching, or maybe the Sunday School class I get to teach. With my job I also have the opportunity to have groups of people listen to me talk and teach all day and I tried really hard to think of relevant ways to bring in Shakespeare. In the end I, without meaning to, ended up being the guy who talked to his room mate.

Jeff and I on the Mission

I have a room mate, Jeff, that I have known for years. We met on the mission and are really good friends. We have a kind of teasing relationship, always playfully arguing with each other. He doesn't understand why I love art, I don't understand why he is being so narrow minded, that kind of thing. With the confession of my love for Shakespeare he found something else to tease me about. Why, Mason, do you draw emo pictures of Shakespeare? Why do you love stories where everyone dies? Why do you care what a long dead man wrote? etc. etc.

As we discuss this I have seen a change in Jeff that I don't see often, due to our constant teasing. He has started to agree with me. It all started with Grassroots Shakespeare Macbeth, a fantastic production. I convinced him to come and he loved it. He told me he has never thought Shakespeare could be so much fun. We had a lengthy discussion about it afterwards. He told me he that before thought Shakespeare was stuffy and boring.

Through our talks about what I'm learning I was able to convince Jeff to even come on a quest with me to locate the DVD for the 2010 production of The Tempest. We failed, it took an hour and a half and we had no   success. Yesterday I came home and Jeff informed me that all of his own he had tried to sign up next semester for a Shakespeare class. That was cool, to see how he is starting to love this thing that I love too.

I didn't want to be the guy who talked to his room mate, but I am just really happy to see how my unintentional sharing of what I'm learning has changed my room mates view. Way to go Jeff.

Sharing Globally: Blogs 


A few posts ago I mentioned how I posted on someones blog about Othello and the Bible. I think my post was relevant but it seems like it didn't make it past the review stage and was not officially put on the blog. I'm a little hurt about this but I have learned and since moved on.

I looked for other things people had to say about the world of Othello and found two very interesting blogs. One talks about a production of the play in Washington D.C. and it mentioned some things that I thought were interesting, like the use of the handkerchief in their production which was something I had not thought much about. I posted a comment to them about that, I'm still waiting to hear back, hopefully they won't delete it.

Another blog I found had a post from today even, and explained differences between publications of the play and how this might influence the depiction of the characters. I thought this was very interesting as well because I love the way Othello is shown and his transformation through the play. I commented on this as well and still, have yet to hear back.

Sketching Shakespeare: The Tempest Act One Scene One

"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here" 

Act 1 Scene 2

Continuing my quest to make a sketch for every scene of Shakespeare I turn to The Tempest. Inspired by Jackson Pollock and his painting I mentioned before, I decided to get my "Pollock" on and try out a painting like his. It isn't about the drowning after the tempest, but of the storm itself. I tried to portray the feeling of a heavy storm full of pouring rain, wind, crashing bright lightning bolts and the danger or death. Here is the first image of sketching the Tempest, the rest are all still in the very preliminary sketch stage.

Act 1 Scene 1
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of a sea for an
acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any
thing. The will above be done! I would fain
die a dry death.

Othello's Regression

I was wondering what to write about, this week I have the assignment of applying the play Othello to something important to me and also to connect this to a social discovery I was to make. As I was searching for what others have to say about Othello I found something perfect.

To me, the greatest miracle, the happiest thing, that which moves me most, is the miracle of a change of heart. The miracle of seeing a person change their life completely and become new, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Therefore, one of the saddest things is to see someone throw away all that is beautiful in life and turn to base things and become despairing. This is exactly what happens to Othello.

At the start of the play Othello is a man who everyone admires and looks up to. He is calm, well-judging, full of intergrity, and good to the core. When he is accused of stealing away Desdemona he doesn't run from his accusators, but has full confidence to answer for himself saying:

Not I, I must be found:
My parts, my title and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. 

Through the play I was surprised to read as his words became harsh and hurting. He goes from loving his wife completely to physical abuse within days. In the BBC production of the play I watched as he went from being calm and collected at all times to working himself into a raging fit of epilepsy, it was somewhat disturbing.

Nothing is more beautiful than a man changing for the better, and nothing is more tragic than sin and regression to the natural man. 

deviantart.com by joshcorris

Searching for what other people have to say about this I found a website about the King James Bible. There was a post about the Bible and Othello which gave some very interesting insights. I left a comment on the post and this is what I said. 

"I really enjoy your post here. In my college course on Shakespeare I am doing a study of the play Othello right now and I am assigned to apply it to something important to me in life. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the King James Bible is very important to us. I really like the connections between Othello and the gospel.

In my blog about Shakespeare I posted about how he uses his plays as a way of teaching the masses about morality, it seems so evident because so many of his plays have such strong religious undercurrents. The ones that you found in Othello were especially intriguing. Especially the one about Iago’s play on words “I am not what I am” being a connection to God. Iago seems to think himself God in the play, judging who should be punished, what lives should be taken, and he has great power over the world of the play Othello. It shows how twisted Iago is to make that allusion. Unfortunately he is all of these without the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father.

Othello as Judas, then that would make Iago Satan who “entered into Judas surnamed Iscariot” (Luke 22:3). This is one of the greatest tragedies Shakespeare wrote about, how a pure honest love could be so tainted and then destroyed as soon as one allows Satan and his lies into their mind. Judas allowing Satan in allowed his love for The Perfect Individual, Jesus Christ, to become tainted until it led to dead, and his subsequent suicide parallels well with Othello’s. This was a very interesting connection you made as well."

Shakespeare was teaching the masses again about how we should be, and letting them learn vicariously the tragedy of sin and jealousy, letting both consume you.

Sketching Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost

In order to help us better understand Shakespeare my teacher, Dr. Burton, made the suggestion of writing a one sentence summary of each scene as we read them. In another conversation with my professor he told me of a man who made a picture for every page of the book Moby Dick. I thought that this sounded really cool and so decided to combine both of these ideas together.

To draw a sketch for every scene of Shakespeare!

I went home and counted up how many scenes Will wrote and the grand total is...732 scenes and 2 epilouges. To be perfectly honest I don't know if I will complete the whole works of Shakespeare in sketch form but I'm going to do my best.

May I present to you, a play recently finished.

  Love's Labour's Lost

Act 1 Scene 1
So study evermore is overshot
While it doth study to have what it would
It doth forget to do the thing it should
And when it hath the thing it hunteth most
'Tis won as towns with fire, so won, so lost.

Act 1 Scene 2
I will herein confess I am in love; and as it is
base for a soldier to love, so am I in love  with a
base wench. If dreaming my sword against the humor
of affection would deliver me from the reprobate
thought of it, I would take Desire prisoner, and
ransom him to any French courtier for a new-devised
courtesy. I think scorn to sigh: methinks i should
outswear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: What great men
have been in love?

Act 2 Scene 1
'Fair' I give you back again; and 'welcome' I have
not yet. The roof of this court is too high to be
yours: and welcome to the wide fields too
base to be mine.

Act 3 Scene 1
A message well sympathized: a horse to be
ambassador for an ass.

Act 4 Scene 1
A mark marvelous well shot, for they both
did hit it.

Act 4 Scene 2
...As it were...

Act 4 Scene 3
In that each of you have forsworn his book,
Can you still dream and pore and thereon look?
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of study's excellence
Without the beauty of a woman's face?

Act 5 Scene 1
Satis quod Sufficit

Act 5 Scene 2
We are wise girls to mock our
lovers so.

May his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day...

I have never hated anyone more.

This week I got to read the play Othello as well as view a film production on it. I thought about how to approach this and decided to first view the play and then to read it. After all, in Shakespeare's day everyone had to watch the play only, I doubt many people were able to obtain copies of the script to peruse at their own leisure.

I watched the film and LOVED IT!!! Fantastic! I was a little skeptical about a low budget BBC film but the talent of the actors, namely Anthony Hopkins, made it magnificent. I found myself sincerely moved and invested in the play. Totally being pulled into the part I was set to play as the viewer. I didn't know how much I would like the play, but this viewing experience has made it one of my favorites. While it is not my favorite tragedy of Will's, it is the most tragic tragedy.

I then read the script and found that this was a lot of fun after viewing the film. I find when I read before I see a production that I don't really grasp the emphasis in sentences or words. Everyone speaks very calmly and fluidly in my head. I didn't get as lost in the language now that I had seen how these lines were handled. Two lines stuck out to me.

He that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen,
Let him not know 't, and he's not robbed at all.
Othello, 3. 3

Someone who has something taken, if he doesn't know it's missing, he might as well not be robbed at all, he doens't know so it doesn't hurt him. When it is pointed out that something is taken then he falls into sadness and want, for he has "drunk and seen the spider" you might say.

This makes me so sad with Othello because nothing has really been stolen, but he thinks it has and that is enough to make him fly into a destructive rage. This tragedy is worse to me that Romeo and Juliet for example, because the cause of the two hormonal teenage tragedy is their own stupidity. Othello had a wonderful, almost enviable realationship with his wife. It was just as it should be, but due to the evil of a calculating devil, Othello lost it all. That is so tragic.

This brings me to my second line I like. The title of my post today, it is a punishment described for evil Iago. It sounds terrible, but it's still not enough in my opinion. I really detest this man who is nothing but pure evil inside, who can laugh when he sees other human beings tormented.

Elder Holland, says it best for me, "In the tale of Othello and Desdemona the sorrow and destruction is calculated--it is maliciously driven from the beginning. Of all the villains in Shakespeare's writing, and perhaps in all of literature, there is no one I loathe so much as I loathe Iago. Even his name sounds evil to me, or at least it has become so. And what is his evil...Sowing doubt and devilish innuendo, playing on jealousy and deceit and finally murderous rage, Iago provokes Othello into taking Desdemona's life--virtue turned into pitch, goodness twisted into a fatal net."

So, may his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day!

A Bloody Beheading?

Shakespeare and the visual arts connect again! 

Judith and Holofernes

I was reading Angela's post about names the other day and it reminded me about a character in Love's Labour's Lost who has an odd name. Holofernes, the school teacher. The name Holofernes is from a character in the Apocrypha. He is a leader of a large army who lays siege to Jerusalem. A ruthless evil man.

The city begins to starve and is about to give in or forsake their God. A young widow named Judith decides to take matters into her own hands. She moves to Holofernes' camp, convinces him she is deserting the city. Holofernes finds himself warm for her form and invites her to dine with him. He gets raging drunk, Judith takes the moment and chops off his head and runs to the city, where she gets the army of Jerusalem and they storm the camp and kill everyone!

This one is my favorite. Painted by Carravagio
(that is his self-portrait as the face of  Holofernes.)

In the art world, there seems to be a period of time to be obsessed with a story and everyone paints it. This same thing happened to the story of Judith and Holofernes.

Now, why did Shakespeare choose this namesake for a schoolteacher in his very light hearted play?

What is going to happen to Holofernes? I'm excited to see this play out.

Othello

In my Shakespeare class I have the assignment of reading Othello. When I saw this I was pretty excited about. A few years ago I was talking to one of my really good friends about Shakespeare and she told me that Othello is her favorite play. I...thought that was weird (everyone loves Hamlet or something else. Nobody says Othello) and so I read a synopsis and planned on reading the play....I never did.

I searched for a synopsis again and some information and found out that Othello is, yet again, a story Shakespeare took from someone else. The original story is "Un Capitano Moro" ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio. The play seems pretty complicated and dramatic from the short synopsis I read. Again it is full of deceit and trickery, secrets, and round about ways of discovering them.

I am really interested to read about Iago. First off, his name was used   for a parrot in Disney movie, Aladin, where he also plays a bad guy who has bad advice. Another reason is for what Elder Holland said about him in a talk "How do I love thee", he said, "Of all the villains in Shakespeare's writing, and perhaps in all of literature, there is no one I loathe so much as I loathe Iago. Even his name sounds evil to me, or at least it has become so." I'm really intersted to get into this characters head and figure out why he hates Othello to the point of destroying everything. That's intense.

There are a few film productions I am excited to see. I'm sad to say I don't think I will be viewing Kenneth Branaghs version(in which he plays Iago), but I am excited to view the version with Ian McKellen (who also plays Iago. Why is it that the big name actors play him? Is he going to be more important than the plays namesake?). Gandalf meets Shakespeare.

Also, there is a board game called Othello. I wonder why.

http://essaytips.org/othello-essays/

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1618