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| William Holman Hunt's depiction of Act V of The Two Gentlemen of Verona (the "happy" ending) |
“By the time the comedy has ended, the
lesson seems to have been that character is not something you are, but
something you play. Many comedies have been entranced by the image of a person
who never quite coincides with themselves, even when that person is at their
most single-minded” (Bevis
38).
For your first Short Paper, I want you to write a character study of
By their “given”
role, you might examine one or more of the following…
- Their identity in a relationship (a friend, a lover, a
son, a daughter),
- Their identity in society (a gentleman, a gentlewoman,
a servant),
- Their identity in language (prose and verse).
Comedy often
comes from people acting against type, or what we expect them to perform in a
given situation. Language allows Shakespeare to take this to another level, since
who someone is can be undercut by what they say and how the language “creates” their
reality (to quote George Constanza from Seinfeld,
“it’s not a lie if you believe it”). To make this convincing, choose 2-3
passages that you can close read to
help us see how you read the
character’s conflicting character, and who they are throughout the play (even
if this persona changes from one act to another). Why do they shift personas?
What makes them ‘betray’ themselves and others? And how aware are they of these
transformations? Does anyone else see them? Are they made aware of it? Do they
listen?
REQUIREMENTS
- Quote from Bevis, Comedy:
A Very Short Introduction to help analyze the character and the play.
Don’t just use the quote above as your one and only “source!” Show me that
you can make both books “talk” to each other.
- Close read 2-3 passages from the play to illustrate the
character’s persona.
- Cite page or line numbers properly and include a Works
Cited page for both books.
- DUE IN-CLASS on Thursday, February 15th (we will discuss it in class)
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