crazy4chaucer, what else are you reading in the class? Lear is my favorite of the tragedies, though I know many prefer Hamlet.
Romeo and Juliet is not my favorite either. I think largely it’s because it’s jammed down our throats from such a young age. It’s usually the first Shakespeare that people encounter in school; when a community theater decides to do Shakespeare, it’s often a production of R&J; it’s been re-used so many times, a la West Side Story. It makes you want to shout, “Enough already!”
On the other hand, as SparrowHawk pointed out, it can be more fun if you focus on Mercutio, Tybalt, and all the great buckling of swash.
Slight high-jack: Last night, I watched the Branagh adaptation of Love’s Labour’s Lost, which intersperses the play with '30s musical numbers. Alicia Silverstone (yes, Batgirl) palys the Queen of France. Very surreal, but not entirely unpleasant.
the Taming of the Shrew Romeo & Juliet A Midsummer Night’s Dream (one of my favorites) Hamlet (again, I love this one) The Merchant of Venice Othello Twelfth Night Macbeth Measure for Measure King Lear The Tempest
Of those, the only one I’ve never read and/or seen is Measure for Measure. And the only one I flat out detest is Romeo and Juliet.
I have multiple versions of Hamlet at home–Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, and Ethan Hawke. I own a version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, two versions of Othello, one of Twelfth Night , and Peter Fonda’s The Tempest . One of my dreams is to someday have a complete set on DVD (or whatever media may exist at the time) of all the filmed productions of Shakespeare’s works, with the possible exception of Kenneth Branagh’s Love’s Labors Lost.
This professor picks out the most nitpicky little bits of trivia from the plays for the quizzes. I can always sail through his exams with no trouble. But to pass the quizzes, I have to read the play at least twice as well as watch any available version on video/DVD to be sure that I’ve caught the subtleties, understand the characters and how they interact, etc.
Anyway, I’m wading my way through R&J right now, and thanks to your suggestions I’m finding it much more interesting. By the way, my sister, who shares an office with me, told me to thank you all for your ideas. She wasn’t looking forward to hearing me complain for a week about R&J.
Measure for Measure is weird. It’s one of what Shakespeareans usually refer to as the “problem plays,” neither a tragedy nor particularly comic. It’s also surprisingly modern – Shakespeare’s take on sexual harrassment in its extremest forms. :eek:
If you hate R&J, you’ll probably like MfM.
I notice your prof isn’t teaching you any of the history plays. Hmph.
Measure is a comedy insofar as there’s a happy ending, but the problems encountered by the characters are far from comical. It does rather defy classification in a tragedy/comedy sense, but that doesn’t mean it’s not done well. I suppose in modern terms, it’d be considered a drama, but I don’t think that the concept of “drama” as such existed in Shakespeare’s day.
For my money, Measure for Measure is a whole bunch of really amazing scenes that don’t really hold together and add up to a satisfying play. It’s like getting French toast and sirloin steak on the same plate. Great separately, just kind of odd together. There’s a brilliant deconstruction lurking in there somewhere…
Ooooooh…I had lots of fun with character analysis last year in English Class!
Juliet: Ah, yes, sweet, innocent Juliet. Yes, she was sweet and innocent…so sweet and innocent that she didn’t know what hit her when she was finally given a chance to interact with guys her own age. We all know the feeling…she saw a handsome boy across the room, and suddenly only had eyes for him. In modern days, it’s called a crush. It is quite understandable that she had a crush on Romeo. I definately understand how strong those feelings were when he kissed her, her first kiss. Kisses can cause strong feelings, but not love. However, she mistook it for love. One kiss and she was all his, forever. He was all she wanted, all she thought she would ever need. Nothing else mattered. Juliet was thirteen, and thought her first crush was “the real thing.” This was partly her parents fault in that she had been so overprotected throught her childhood. Had things been allowed to take their natural course, she probably would have been over Romeo and into another handsome rake within a month.
Romeo: Romeo was, to state it simply, just plain fickle. First he was in “love” with Rosaline. Then he “loved” Juliet. Had things with her not gone the way they did, the next week it would have been some other girl, than another and another.
In conclusion, both Romeo and Juliet managed to fool themselves into thinking that they were in love. Hopeless love was what it was…oh, and can I sympathize! It ended in hearbreak and death…all because two inexperienced children thought they were experiencing feelings they never even had a chance to know.
Sorry for all the sad faces…just really fits my mood right now so I had to put them in…they go with the story, too.
Mr. C4C and I were discussing R&J yesterday, after I finished watching both versions. (for the record, the Zeffirelli version didn’t make me cry; the Baz Luhrman did)
He said that he’d studied R&J in high school and hated it as well, and said that there are no lessons to be learned from it!?!?!
I pointed out that it shows very clearly that allowing yourself to be ruled by your passions can bring about great tragedy. I was contrasting it with The Taming of the Shrew, which I studied last week. In that play, Katharine allows her passions to rule her until Petruchio shows her how to have a little fun and be in charge of her passions. In R&J, no one understands that, and it ends tragically for everyoen.
Mr. C4C conceded the argument.
And I take the quiz tomorrow and then it’s on to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
