Leontes as a tyrant

The conspicuous lack of background information on Leontes' character may support the idea that Leontes is a tyrannical leader. Because we have no indication that he is truly a good friend, or a good leader, we may conclude that he is a treacherous, evil man throughout the play. The one contradiction may lie in Polixenes' speech about their youth together, wherein they were described as completely innocent. At the end of this speech however, we learn that they can no longer claim innocence. Furthermore, in the first scene, we are immediately confronted with the idea of poison (sleepy drinks), which is precisely what Leontes plans to use in his murder of his former friend. 

Skepticism in the Winter's Tale

It is obvious (and frequently discussed) that Leontes' skepticism is taken too far, and this leads to his demise. His reluctance to fall for anyone else's deception makes especially gullible toward his own thoughts. Although his thoughts are borne from no proof or evidence, he thoroughly believes them. Polixenes is also very skeptical, but his skepticism leads to his salvation rather than his sin. When Camillo says that he "dare not" know what is causing Leontes' bad mood, Polixenes is immediately alert to the fact that he avoids the words "do not." He then uses his other senses to confirm this belief (sees Camillo's blush). I think that this inclusion of other senses saves Polixenes from becoming too skeptical, and this difference causes the difference in their fates. While Leontes is driven to dangerous jealousy, Polixenes is simply led home.

Poison and sickness in Othello

Iago is described as being sick in several instances in this play. He makes reference to his own sickness when he says that the thought of Othello does "gnaw at his innards" like a poison. Later, his wife describes whomever must be planting jealous thoughts in Othello's mind as "a scurvy fellow." While this comment may seem innocuous at first glance, it is repeated later when Roderigo calls Iago's plan scurvy. The OED provides two definitions for scurvy. It can either refer to a bad man or to a skin disease. This shows that the sickness of jealousy begins in Iago who later infects Othello. Do you think this initial sickness gives Iago any excuse?

Autolycus - The Winters Tale

While preparing for tomorrows final exam I read more in depth on the character of Autolycus. I found it fascinating that he was a lovable, but amoral, rogue, however his amoral actions are directly responsible for the happy outcome of the play. If Autolycus had not scared Clown and the Shepard out of their wits with his threats of torture and death, thereby convincing them to flee to Sicilia they could not have turned out with evidence that Perdita was in fact not the Shepard's daughter but King Leontes's lost child. If they had not been there then Polixenes would have most certainly not approved of Florizel's and Perdita's marriage. I think that it is fancinating that this rogue, but not a villian, through his deeds that are most certainly not good created an ending to the play that is happy. My question is why did Shakespeare decide to do this? Why include this character at all? Couldn't have the Shepard and Clown have decided on their own that Polixenes was going to kill them and decide to flee? Why should his ignoble actions result in a very happy and desirable ending?

Hermione's Silence

How do you all interpret Hermione’s silence towards Leontes after they are reunited? After she comes back to life (or just comes back to Leontes, whichever) why does she address only the gods and then Perdita alone? You would think she would have something of significance to say to the husband that not only caused her so much pain, but that she hasn’t seen for 16 years. I reason it could be interpreted 2 ways: 1, she hasn’t really forgiven him, or at least not as much as he’d hope, or 2, you can interpret it positively and think of it as happiness beyond words. Silence could have its own eloquence, I suppose, or maybe it’s just that nothing needs to be said. What do you all think?

Leontes' character

Some of Leontes mood changes seemed to happen so fast that I had a hard time believing them. He starts out calm with his suspicion of his wife’s infidelity, but that just explodes into wanting to destroy his family. Then when he succeeds in doing that he suddenly feels sorry for it. None of these emotions really seem genuine to me since the only reason his requests get followed through with is because he’s king and they are so brief. I’m kind of glad that the story just breaks off at the end of one of his fits and switches tone to characters who are more stable. Even when he is reintroduced as a repentant king I’m still not convinced that he’s truly sorry, especially at the end when there’s that moment when he thinks his wife really did cheat on him. Out of all the tyrant kings that we have read about Leontes is the least well-defined or believable one.

A winter's tale and subversion

Does anyone wonder how Shakespeare was able to get away with such a (what I think) is politically subversive play at the time? This was, if I remember correctly from lecture, a time when James I was asserting his divine right to rule more strictly than any monarch had before him in decades. And yet here, in this play, Shakespeare is obviously asserting that it is impossible for kings to know the will of God, as he showed through Leontes' rejection of the oracle from Apollo. He’s also asserting that it is entirely possible for Kings to go mad for no reason and make terrible mistakes. Any thoughts on how he was able to get away with this?

Paulina's power over Leontes

In The Winter’s Tale, the character of Paulina interested me very much. I was hoping to talk a little about her in discussion, but we did not get to her so I was wondering how everyone else viewed her. What stood out to me the most was the immense power that Pualina seemed to have over Leontes. After reading the play, I was so intrigued with how she could be so powerful that I looked her up on different websites to see if there was a piece of information that I missed, such as family lineage that connected her to royalty or something. However, there was nothing to indicate that Paulina was more important to the king than other ladies and I am more confused than ever as to how she controlled Leontes’s personal life and whether or not he married another woman after Hermione died. I guess my question is why does everyone else think that Leontes followed her rules? If guilt for his actions is one reason, then I feel that Paulina’s role in his actions was relatively pointless because he could have felt guilty on his own accord. 

Who is Othello?

I would like to examine the evolution of the character of Othello. I did my close reading for the final on his speech about his history with Brabantio. One thing that struck me was the grandeur with which he stood before his audience of Brabantio, the Duke and the Senate. He told them how unconfident he was in his abilities to be a good speaker, but clearly he made a fantastic speech and got his point across to the men. I view this ability as a sign of power, and the fact that he knows people. However, this character trait clearly morphs into a man who is insecure about his abilities and does not know people, even when it is the closest person in the world to him (Desdemona and his fears of her infidelity). I find this evolution an interesting one in such a short amount of time; it makes me wonder if Othello is the confident man that appears before the Senate or the insecure husband who kills his wife off of merely a suspicion. 

The Macbeths and children

In lecture Professor Britland talked about how Macbeth was afraid of fathers and their sons so he killed anyone who was a father or would become a father. This makes sense to me because the witches tell him that Banquo’s sons will be kings and not his own. The Macbeths have no children of their own yet and he may be a little disappointed and jealous that his friends have children already and he doesn’t. Lady Macbeth doesn’t seem like she’s interested in having any after she says things like “take my milk for gall” and that she would dash the brains out of her baby. However in the 2006 Australian film her character is very sensitive to children in a way that I couldn’t find in the text. The film creates a new scene that shows her weeping over her son’s grave, clearly devastated by the loss. This scene could work for Macbeth (who is in it too, but not showing any emotion) because of his actions toward fathers and sons later, but doesn’t for Lady Macbeth. There’s another scene that shows her madness as being caused by the news of Macduff’s wife and son being murdered. It seems like a good way to justify her madness in the film, but based on what is in the text her attitude toward children is not motherly at all. I think this should not have been in the film because it deviates too far from Lady Macbeth’s androgynous character.

OH NO! A BEAR...?

It could be that I just came to the end of a day of studying. It could be that I'm so hyped up on caffeine from all the coffee I've been drinking tonight. But either way, I felt that even now I must write a post about A Winter's Tale. When Perdita is left on the shore for the shepard and his son to find, it occurs to me that "Wow, this could be a powerful moment of the girl exiting the world she was supposed to grow up in to a world of relative unknown. In fact, I believe that this has many similarities to Star Wars when Luke Skywalker is taken to his aunt and uncle in order to escape his tyrant father Darth Vader who wants to kill him. Especially in light of the situation in which Perdita's mother had "died" along with her brother, it feels like it could have been a really emotional moment. That is until, Antigonus is chased down and mauled by a bear while everyone else on the ship they came over on crash into a cliff and die. Every time I think about this part, I just can't help but get over how incredibly ridiculous this is. I mean really, a bear mauling the guy? Shakespeare must have had a cruel sense of humor, or he really needed to come up with some abstract way for everyone who made the journey except for Perdita to die. The whole following moments of the "drop off" seem out of place and just bizarre. In a really dark way, it's actually pretty funny. I mean, it's not funny to laugh at people dying, but it's really just hard to not giggle a little at how incredibly random all of it was.

A (Disappointing) Winter's Tale

I really did not enjoy A Winter's Tale very much in comparison to the other plays. It seemed so unfinished and almost juvenile in comparison to all of Shakespeare's other plays. The rest have so much depth--there's a reason that they've stuck around for so long. A Winter's Tale is missing that "it-factor" which the other plays have, and I think that that is why it is less well-known. If it had been an earlier play, it would have made more sense; there would be a possible excuse of Shakespeare being young and needing to grow into his writing more. But this play was written near the end of his life, and it seems to me like he didn't put forth much effort. While the story itself isn't terrible, where is the deeper meaning? Where is the development of characters' motives? While A Midsummer Night's Dream was probably the most similar in tone to this play, even it had the exploration of love and what it really means. This play doesn't seem to have even an attempt at anything other than an enjoyable couple of hours for the audience. While I'm sure it did accomplish that goal, I guess I've just come to expect more from a Shakespearean play than that.

Leontes scares me. Honestly, I think he is by far the most frightening Shakespeare character. Richard is a tyrant but at least honest in his murderous tendencies. Iago is pure evil but is at least consistently evil. But Leontes is just a normal guy…until he decides to go crazy. His abrupt swing from lovable king and husband to jealous bully frightens me. It’s a reminder of what happens when someone abuses absolute power (kind of reminiscent of Macbeth actually). This man is completely normal one second, then threatens to bash his infant daughter’s brains out in the next. I can’t ever bring myself to relax while reading this play just because I am constantly worried about Leontes’ next crazy action. The man is the supreme ruler of his land, so there is no one to stop him. There is a moment of hope when the word of God is invoked, but when he refuses to believe even the oracle, all hope is lost. The ending of this play should reassure me, but I don’t quite buy Leontes’ protestations of repentance. Who knows when this man could lose himself in another fit of jealousy?

While I was writing my final paper on Macbeth, I stumbled upon a phrase in the assigned quote that intrigued me, especially when I looked it up on OED online. The term “rook” in Act 3, Scene 2, Line 50 can have so many different meanings that give Macbeth’s speech entirely different qualities. “Light thickens; and the crow/Makes wing to the rooky wood.” According to the OED, “rooky” could just be a reference to the place the crows go to sleep, or it could reference a different species of bird called a Rook, which is closely related to the common crow. Rook can also refer to a human thief or “bad guy” or it could mean “misty or foggy.” I thought this was a perfect example of classic “Shakespeareism.” So many of the meanings drawn from Shakespeare’s works can be completely objective, and can change with even a slightly different interpretation of a word or passage.

I was really intrigued by the newest genre of plays Shakespeare wrote in his later years, that of the romances. While reading Winter's Tale, I was waiting for the tragic event to occur and for everything to kind of go to hell. Perhaps it’s my own tendency to predict the tragic events given the past four or five plays we’ve read, but I was really interested in the plot decisions Shakespeare made in terms of the first half of the play being in the form of a tragedy, and the second half being in the form of a comedy. I also wonder in what context this play (in performance) was received. I’m really interested in general at what types of events Shakespeare’s plays were performed at. It makes sense at weddings and festivals his comedies would be performed, but I’m not sure what context it would be appropriate to perform Winter’s Tale.

Shakespeare's Message

I feel that every shakespeare play teaches a lesson, and the one taught in Othello is a very important one.  Number one, you need to be able to trust your significant other and they need to be able to trust you.  It must be mutual.  It simply does not work when you're constantly wondering if your significant other is "cheating" on you.  As we see in Othello, it causes Othello to kill his wife, I mean cmon dude!  Othello believed his peers more than his own wife, and that's a BIG mistake.  Number two, if you don't trust your significant other, break it off or learn to trust them quickly.  Number three, don't violate the codes of dating and marriage!  It always amazes me how so many people "cheat" on their S.O.s.  Don't do it!  The main root of this problem seems to begin with communication.  If you can't talk to your S.O. about everything!, then that's a problem.  I enjoy twisting off of the main message displayed by shakespeare, obviously, but I felt the need to say it.  Shakespeare apparently had great knowledge of loving relationships...I wonder how he faired with the ladies???

Othello - Poor Desdemona

I meant to write this a while ago, but for some reason kept forgetting. Of all the characters in the play, nobody gets more caught up in the collateral damage than Desdemona. Blame her if you will for marrying Othello and then not telling everyone about it, but aside from that mistake, is she really so bad? She was accused falsely for having an affair, she was set up for simply being involved with Othello. Eventually this would get her killed. For all we know too, Othello may have had an affair with Emilia, which would make her even more of a victim. It's the classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not to mention Iago isn't right in the head, and in turn causes Othello to lose his mind, but even beside that fact did she really deserve her fate? Did anyone deserve the fates they had?

If anything can be taken from this situation, it is to be honest with the person you're involved with, and choose carefully the people you get close to. It may be a matter of life or death!

Emilia the Coward - Othello

Upon further reflection of the play I find I don't really like the character of Emilia. I think she is a coward. She seems far to unquestioning for me. Of course she plays the "I didn't know what he intended" card in the end, but it seems to me that she didn't really look to hard at what she was doing. What did she think Iago wanted her to do when she stole the cloth? I believe that in her effort to be a loyal wife to Iago she purposefully didn't think about what she was being asked to do, so that she wouldn't have to think about the consequences of her actions, until the end when the consquences are right before her. When her good friend Desdemona is murdered because she couldn't bear to think about what she was doing she is finally shocked out of her cowardliness by shame and comes clean. This is why I think she is a coward. Agree or disagree?

Othello versus Leontes

When I started reading The Winter’s Tale, I began to see parallels between it and Othello. The two plays hardly have anything in common, but they both have one man who ruins everything by being suspicious or jealous. Both Othello and Leontes accused their wives of cheating. I’ll admit that the circumstances were different. Othello had Iago telling him what to think, while Leontes came up with the idea all on his own. Even so, it made me wonder why Shakespeare keeps reprising this theme. Did many women cheat on their husbands during his time? Did people simply like to see stories where cheating was a central element? I have no idea. All I know is that it can be irritating within a play, especially The Winter’s Tale. Even when the Oracle proclaimed Hermione’s innocence, Leontes still didn’t believe it. I actually like both plays a lot. They are good stories, and they are told in the way only Shakespeare can tell them. However, I get tired of reading about stubborn, foolish men like Leontes and Othello.