Who Hurt This Man?To begin, I would like to have you consider an info-graphic: Trendacosta, Katharine. “An Infographic That Keeps Track of All of Shakespeare's Deaths for You.” io9, io9.Gizmodo.com, 2 Mar. 2014, io9.gizmodo.com/an-infographic-that-keeps-track-of-all-of-shakespeares-1534516437. What Sane Person Comes Up With These Things!!!Did all of Shakespeare's friends abandon him?
Did a girlfriend brutally make fun of him? What made this man feel the need to so brutally murder so many of his characters? And what was the inspiration for them? I highly doubt all that many people in the 1500's were torn apart by mobs, or thrown into fires. Right? If I were to ask Shakespeare a single question I would like to know the inspiration for the characters in his tragedies. What was all of the symbolism, if there is any, behind each death he marred his plays with. Was there once a woman who was the foundation of the fair Desdemona, did she deserve to get smothered by a pillow? (5.ii.105) Did a friend once ask to be written as a character in a play? Was he cursed to be betrayed and stabbed as Roderigo was? (5.i.74) Yes, times in the Elizabethan era were rather complicated. Lead poisoning from makeup, public beheadings, bug infested wigs. Gross, yes, gross enough to inspire gruesome murders? Methinks not. It is agreed that Shakespeare was inspired by the great works of Chaucer, one source claims the death of his son inspired Hamlet. Yet I still find it rather hard to believe the death of a young boy inspired a slew of poisoning, stabbing, and a drowned girl. Speaking of drowning. Suicide was an extremely taboo subject in the Elizabethan era. Even Shakespeare took care in presenting his THIRTEEN SUICIDES. 13 is quite a lot of self inflicted death. Added to all of the other deaths, we can only wonder, was Shakespeare depressed? Did he long for death so much so, that he felt the need to write such gruesome deaths for his characters. With such a stigma surrounding suicide in the 1500’s, and in today’s world, people have to find some sort of outlet. Writing quite possibly could have been Shakespeare’s. Or he just really hated everyone around him. To conclude, I am concerned with William Shakespeare's mental health.
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So do 100% of the students in this AP Lit class!(except for me Mrs. Rutan I promise) We know what you're thinking. "Shakespeare is stupid, and dumb, and hard, and stupid, and frustrating, and I hate it"(a student, probably) I'm here to help you not feel like that! And especially give you tricks on how to not feel like the kids in the video below! 1. Sparknotes!
Yes! Sparknotes is a helpful tool! Keyword: Tool. You cannot simply read a quick summary of Act 1 and expect to be completely prepared for seminar the next day. But that doesn't mean it is an awful thing you can never use ever! After you have read the amount you have to read, Sparknotes offers an analysis of every Act at the end of the summary, and even character analysis! This helped me a lot to truly understand what was going on in the passage, and get a clear thought process. Shakespeare's tricky language has a lot of meanings, its very helpful to have a tool to clarify it. 2. Vocabulary/Dictionary Did you know? Shakespeare invented 1700 words?! Including: Incaradine, Slugabed, Tanling, Kicky-wicky, and Congreeing. Personally, I have no idea what these words mean. But I'm sure the Internet does! When reading Shakespeare it is important to remember to use your resources. Scholars dedicate their entire lives to studying him, YOU, do not have to do that. Use a dictionary, find Shakespeare vocabulary, look it up! There are tools that help you, don't simply get frustrated and give up. In fact most published versions of Shakespeare's plays have an index within them. Use it! Just because you don't understand the play doesn't mean you can't learn something from it. 3. Knowledge of Weird Grammar Rules Tagging onto Shakespeare's expansive and confusing vocabulary, come his backwards way of writing. A frequent user of "Yoda Speech", referring to characters by pro-nouns, and an excessive amount of metaphors. It's very important to know what he's saying, and what or whom he's talking about. You have to be able to read slowly and carefully, going back on parts that you didn't quite get, or skipping over some of the fluff he likes to throw in! 4. Mental Stamina As stated above, Shakespeare is tricky. His old English language, and confusing grammar can have you feeling stuck and frustrated and kind of like you want to give up. But don't! If you can pull through all of this you will become at least 10% more knowledgeable than you were before! Take breaks, use your resources, write things down, but nevertheless, Persist. 5. A Fun Group of Friends! There are strength in numbers! One of the most helpful things, for me, was hearing it be read a loud. All the parts can get jumbled together when you're reading it from the book. Hearing it aloud really helps you picture exactly what would be going on in the scene. So if you're reading it with people, get parts and read it aloud! Othello,
Othello Bello Bo Bello Fee Fi Fo Fello Othello! It is very easy to blame the man who lost control. It is no lie to say, Othello killed Desdemona. Directly, he is to blame, but indirectly, who’s to say? Othello was very heavily influenced by the claws of Iago, and the general atmosphere of the society he lives in. Othello is consistently referred to as almost any demeaning term that can be found about him, he is rarely ever considered only for his accomplishments, his race is always tagged on. For example, some of the more harsh nicknames, “the thick lips”(I.i.57), “an old black ram”(I.i.88), “a Barbary horse”(I.i.113)--and throughout the entire play, “the Moor” is clipped onto every description we read. If the Venetian government values Othello enough to, “sent about three several quests” in search of him (I.ii.46). Yet no one can refer to him by his true title, its no wonder a man would succumb to his insecurities. Iago, Iago Bagobo Bago Fe Fi Fo Fello Iago! The obvious choice! The snake! The evil mastermind! Of course he is the main choice of blame, and rightfully so! He so very cleverly devised a brilliant plan to decimate a single man’s entire life! He was a sneaky, conniving, snake of a villain, or was he just a man of amazing circumstance. In fact here is a list of all the things that could have thwarted Iago’s plan:
Insecurity! Insecurity! Insecurity! Without Iago’s unsettlement of his own social standing. Without Othello’s persistent self and societal degrading. Would any of this had happened? It's very clear that most of Iago's manipulation was playing off of Othello's pre-existing thoughts. He used the controversy of his marriage, his race, and even his personality to break him down bit by bit. If everyone in this play were just a little bit better at communication and expressing their emotions, the tragedy may not have happened. But what else could you possibly expect from Shakespeare, if you're not outraged at the end, it wasn't a good play. In the end, we can only blame the Turks. |
Iago can choke. ArchivesCategories |