Paper #2: Seeing Double (due Friday, March 12th)

NOTE: Blog Response #3 for A Midsummer Night's Dream is in the post below this one...

“...our understanding of comic character could be heard as a response to the Socratic imperative, “Know Thyself.” Comedy, if it were a character, might reply: “To thine one selves be true,” or “To one’s own conflicts be true” (Bevis 43).

 

INTRO: Both The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream  are early Shakespeare comedies, and follow very similar formulas of tragic openings, main characters getting lost in an unfamiliar environment, confusions of identity leading to a comic climax, and a happy ending of reunion and marriage. Not surprisingly, the plays also share many of the same kinds of characters, down to two pairs of lovers, tyrannical dukes, buffoonish servants, and betrayed (and powerless) women.

 

PROMPT: So for your second paper, I want you to examine two characters from each play who seem to echo one another by their characters, conflicts, and language. How is Shakespeare using a specific type in both plays to advance his comedy and bring out some of the same ideas about love, identity, marriage, acting, and understanding? There are some obvious comparisons that work very well, such as Adriana & Luciana / Hermia & Helena (and Titania?); the two Antipholuses / Lysander & Demetrius; the Dromios / Robin; the Duke / Theseus & Oberon, etc. But you aren’t limited to these—you can use any two characters that you feel are variations on the same type and are used for the same effect.

 

FOCUS: Your paper should also do TWO things: (a) examine at least one speech from each character (long or short), to show us how each one performs their character in language. In Shakespeare, what people say is more important than what they do. And (b) use a passage or two from Bevis’ Comedy to help us see the comedic elements at work in each character. Don’t assume that we can see how each character is similar—show us through your analysis of the text and the connections between each characters’ language. Don’t forget to consider how they use prose, and verse (and blank verse vs. rhymed verse).

 

REQUIREMENTS

* page limit optional—but enough to make your point

* use one character from each play—no more

* analysis of at least one speech from each character (you can use another line or two for context or comparison, but you should primarily focus on one speech)

* some use of Bevis to help illustrate your ideas

* DUE FRIDAY, MARCH 12th by 5pm

 

Blog Response #3: The Language of Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Here's a blog video that focuses primarily on Act 3 of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but be sure sure to read all five acts for Tuesday's class. We'll talk about the other parts in class. Be sure to leave a comment by Tuesday! 

Recap of Tuesday's Class: A MIdsummer Night's Dream, Acts 1-2

In Tuesday's class, I went over the handout on The Comedy of Errors a few posts below, and we also discussed how a comedy's "happy ending" doesn't necessarily give everyone a happy life. In fact, for some people--notably, Adriana--the play is shaping up to be quite a tragedy! Would you want to spend the rest of your life with Antipholus of Ephesus? 

I'll post a new video on Wednesday or Thursday for Acts 3-5, so get reading! :) 

Here are some other ideas from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts 1-2, some of which we discussed and others we didn't get to: 

LOVE AS POSSESSION/RAPE

* Page 7: Theseus—I wooed thee with my sword and by wounding you; now I want to have you! Is this love? Has he enslaved her? Raped her? What kind of marriage is this...and why open the play with a forced marriage between two mythological figures, Theseus (a hero of legend) and Hippolyta (an Amazon)?

* Page 9: Egeus, the father, on his daughter, Hermia: she is mine, I may dispose of her to this gentleman, or give her to death. Again, opening a comedy with the threat of death and tragedy. How else does the beginning of this play echo The Comedy of Errors? 

* Page 11: Theseus: A woman is but a form of wax, imprinted and within his power to figure or disfigure it. Do you think this is a common belief of the time...Shakespeare's own belief...or a way to make Theseus an evil, threatening figure? 

* Page 39: Oberon echoes Theseus and Egeus in his actions and language: am I not thy lord? Why are the men so possessive of their women? Why in a comedy are they all threatening their wives/daughters, or willing to kill them for non-compliance? 

* Page 47: Oberon threatens a kind of rape against his wife, Titania—I’ll have her fall in love with a beast! He would willingly see her mate with a beast in order to have his revenge (yikes!) 

* Page 49: Demetrius does the same to Helena, who is following him through the woods--he threatens to rape her if she doesn't go away. Sadly, she seems up for that, if only to stay near him(!) 

LOVE AS SIGHT

* Page 13: Helena: I look the same; have the same wealth; am as well connected—why not me? What IS love based on this play? What do people fall in love with, when they seem to fall in love at first sight? 

* Page 21: The difference between Helena and Hermia—just that all men love Hermia and none love Helena; but why? What makes her better? Why do both Lysander and Demetrius prefer Hermia? 

* Page 23: Helena: “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.” What does this mean? Do we CHOOSE to love, or is it involuntary (by Cupid)? How can it be "with the mind" if it's at "first sight"?

* One possible answer: If we fall in love with the sight of the beloved, then why doesn't everyone fall in love with them? Other people don't see what we do...which means it IS in the mind; that we see what we WANT to see, rather than what is there. That's why we overlook the flaws and inconsistencies of our lovers (and why Helena can ignore the horrors of Demetrius). Maybe why Hippolyta can marry Theseus despite his own monstrosity? Or does she do any of this willingly? 

LOVE AS STORY

* Page 15: The course of true love never did run smooth...they only know love through the stories they read. How might this lead you to strange ideas about love, and how to love, and who to love? 

* Page 17: Reciting all the stories they know; it’s our duty to bear these wrongs like the other lovers in history/story (they act like people in stories instead of themselves--goes back to Bevis and identity "we prefer to be they people we're not"

* Page 19: Hermia swears on tragic and false lovers: Dido and Aeneas’ false vows...why would she make love vows on failed lovers? Foreshadowing? 

THE MUSIC OF LOVE

* Page 19: All the lovers speak in rhymes: the cliche of love? To speak by the book? None of them are distinguished? All are interchangeable?

* Page 25: The Prose of the Players...vs. Bottom’s silly verse for Hercules

* Page 35: Robin’s speech—the sing-song verse

* Page 39: Oberon and Titania—no verse, not in love; equals in power

* Page 51: Oberon’s spell—all rhymed verse

* Page 53: Actual songs—why? How should this play ‘sound’?

For Next Week: A MIdsummer Night's Dream, Acts 1-2

NOTE: A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that is constantly pitting different worlds against one another: the word of the forest (Oberon, Titania, Puck, etc.) vs. the world of upper-class Athens (Theseus, Hermia, Lysander, etc.) vs. the world of lower-class Athens (Bottom, Flute, Snout, etc.). To complicate matters, Theseus and Hippolyta are figures from Greek myth, though they exist side-by-side with the upper and lower-class characters in Athens who are really characters from Shakespeare's England. When these worlds mix, chaos--and comedy--ensue. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: How do the paired lovers discuss the rules and ideals of love in Act One? Consider especially Helena's speech in 1.1, and Egeus' complaint to Theseus at the beginning of the play. Also, consider how characters play with the metaphor of "love as sight" throughout the first Act. For example, Hermia says, "I would my father looked but with my eyes," and Helena says, "Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,/The rest I'd give to be to you translated" (1.1). 

Q2; How do the "rustics" (the low class players) satirize the idea of acting and perhaps of Shakespeare's own theater, esp. in Act 1, scene 2? What are the consistently getting wrong about how to act and how to stage a play? And what makes their attempts at staging a classical tragedy funny? What might Bevis say about this? 

Q3: Read Titania's speech in 2.1 carefully. What does this say about her character and about the nature of love itself? How does it offer a commentary on many of the themes/metaphors of Act 1? 

Q4: Though prose and verse are pretty strictly followed in these Acts (verse for upper class, prose for lower), the use of verse often breaks from imabic pentameter into couplets and songs. Why does Shakespeare employ so many variations of poetry throughout Acts 1 and especially 2? 

Handout for The Comedy of Errors, Acts 3-5

Below is the handout I wanted to give out in class to facilitate our discussion of the final three acts. Look over this and we'll discuss these ideas next week. Might help you with the upcoming Second Paper assignment! 

 I. COMEDY AS SOCIAL CONFUSION

From Susan Wills, The BBC Shakespeare Plays

1.) “You can do anything in the right place at the right time. If you do the right thing at the wrong time you look silly and the audience is pleased...Cellan-Jones [the director of the 1983 BBC Comedy of Errors] emphasized the public nature of the private actions: the beating of servants, the fetching of husbands home to lunch or to be exorcised of demons, the arrests happen in the street, for comedy depends on the public setting.”

From Arthur F. Kinney, “The Comedy of Errors: A Modern Perspective” (pp.179-195)

2.) “If it were not so funny, Shakespeare’s first comedy would read like a schizophrenic nightmare: identities are lost, split, engulfed, halucinated, imploded. Apparently solid citizens (solid at least to themselves) suffer ‘ontological uncertainty’ in acute forms. wandering about unrecognized by all they encounter” (182). 

II. COMEDY AS A MIRROR OF SOCIETY

1.) “...the gold chain that is disputed in The Comedy of Errors was just the sort of acquisition that Londoners themselves focused on; both identity and status depended increasingly on one’s material goods. Because the society was more and more cognizant that what one was was largely determined by what one owned, the chief emphasis in The Comedy of Errors on possessions, on being possessed (by marriage, witchcraft, or grace) and on being dispossessed unites the play’s Ephesus with Shakespeare’s London” (184-185).

From Act 3, Scene 2: Dromio discusses his “wife” to his master, Antipholus of Syracuse, pages 77-81

2.) DROMIO: Marry, sir, she’s the kitchen wench, and all grease, and I know not what use to put her to but to make a lamp of her and run from her by her own light. I warrant her rags and the tallow in them will burn a Poland winter. If she lies till doomsday, she’ll burn a week longer than the whole world” (77).

* QUESTION TO CONSIDER: In a modern production, these can still be very funny lines, as he’s horrified by his fat, dirty, oily, horrific wife (really, the other Dromio’s wife). But isn’t this also a bit misogynistic? He’s making of a woman by equating her to “the globe,” and relating different parts of her body to the stereotypes of different countries/people. What does this say about the attitudes of Shakespeare’s time, and their view of women as possessions which were either valued or devalued?

Blog Response #2 for The Comedy of Errors, Acts 3-5

Watch the video below after (or before) you finish reading The Comedy of Errors, and respond with a comment below. We might not be able to discuss the play next week, since snow might have other ideas; if so, I'll post something for you to do or think about on the blog (not another video--don't worry!). 

Recap of Tuesday's class: The Comedy of Errors, Acts 1-2

 

COMEDY BEGINS WITH TRAGEDY...

• Bevis, Page 50: The essence of humor is surprise: how does scene 1 set up this sense of surprise?
• Page 15: Also tension: Egeon has a day to raise the money, and his son is also out there looking…
• Page 19: Pathos—Antipholus' speech: to find them, I lose myself (the theme of identity!)

AND THEN TRAGEDY BECOMES FUNNY...

• One of the oldest comic plots: mistaken identities! Two pairs of twins (Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse and Ephesus); imagine how many comic misunderstandings can ensue from the 'wrong' twin being in the 'right' place
• Page 19: The play takes an abrupt turn from tragedy to comedy the second the 'wrong' Dromio appears; that's the surprise that shocks the audience--and Shakespear never looks back
• Page 21-23: Dromios puns--most of the verbal humor of the servants are based in puns, since these were roles by the comedians in his theater; the audience loved to hear quick wit and verbal shenanigans (even though it's a little tiresome to us)
• Page 33: A funny moment using PROSE: note how Dromio tells the story of his encounter with Antipholus. It's not at all accurate and he makes his master sound foolish and insane. Is this how servants view their masters?

 THE COMEDY OF LANGUAGE 

• Note the THREE types of language: Blank Verse (non-rhyming verse); Rhyming Verse; and Prose. Characters switch from one to another without warning. Always ask yourself "why did they change?" The answer will help you understand the characters and/or how Shakespeare wants them played by the actors. 
• Page 29: The sisters almost always speak to each other in rhymes, but not at first...when do they switch and why?
• They start rhyming when they start bickering: it's a verbal tennis match, back and forth, each one trying to outdo the other. 
• Page 39: Note that Dromio speaks prose to Antipholus, and he soon answers in prose. He said before that Dromio is taking advantage of their friendly relationship. Maybe this shows their true intimacy, that he'll let his guard down and speak 'normally' to him? 
• Page 45-47: When Adriana addresses Antipholus for the first time, it's in Blank Verse! Why? Note her echoes of Antipholus, page 19 (similar metaphors
• BLANK VERSE is serious or formal--usually means we're being told something important, or the characters are being eloquent (as in Adriana's speeches). RHYMING VERSE is more playful and musical--not as important, but more about the sound and the way the characters 'sing' together. PROSE is never important, meaning it's almost never part of the plot...just jokes, puns, and nonsense.

For Next Week: The Comedy of Errors, Acts 1-2

REMEMBER: Take your time reading and break down large speeches into sentences, and look for the linguistic elements that make a character/speech come alive: rhyme, metaphor, puns, etc. What would this speech sound like read out loud (you can ever try it!). Why are people as much how they speak as what they say? 

Also, remember that much of the humor in this play comes from elaborate puns on a single word, and mistaken identities. See Q3 below, which ties this into Bevis' book (it goes VERY well with this play). You might not find it hilarious when reading, but imagine how this would look...and why is it funny when someone is mistaken for someone else? You might consider how often this happens in modern comedy.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: The Comedy of Errors opens more like a tragedy than a comedy: Egeon is given a death sentence, and tells a long and tragic story about how he lost his family. Why would Shakespeare open a play like this? How does this 'introduce' the comedy and silliness to follow? Why might it be an effective or even necessary opening for this play?

Q2: Usually, Shakespeare's characters speak blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter. But note that the women in the play, Adriana and Luciana, often rhyme with each other (see Act 2.1 especially). Why is this? How might this contrast with the language of the men in the play? 

Q3: In Chapter 3 of Bevis' Comedy: A Very Short Introduction, he writes, "we are most alive when indulging in a fantasy of ourselves" (43). How does this relate to the comic business of Act 2, where Antipholus is literally mistaken for a twin he's never met? Also, why does he so quickly decide to go along with it, merely because his wife insists that he is him? What might this say about the nature of our identity and other people's ability to choose it?

Q4: In Act 2, Scene 2, Shakespeare does something very subtle with the characters' language which underlines the comedy of the scene. It begins on the bottom of page 49 (Act 2, scene 2, around line 180) and continues all the way to the end of the scene. How do the character begin using language differently in a way that even the audience could hear? Why does Shakespeare do this? Why might how the characters speak underline who they are--or how they feel? 

Handout on Shakespeare's Language from Tuesday's class

NOTE: This is the handout we discussed in class, which might be useful for your first foray into reading Shakespeare this week. Be sure to read Acts 1-2 of The Comedy of Errors, with questions to follow (above). 

From Act One, Scene One of The Comedy of Errors

 

DUKE

Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more.

I am not partial to infringe our laws.

 

The enmity and discord which of late

Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke

To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,

Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives,

Have sealed his rigorous statutes with their bloods,

Excludes all pity from our threat’ning looks.

 

For since the mortal and intestine jars

‘Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,

It hath in solemn synods been decreed,

Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,

To admit no traffic to our adverse towns.

 

Nay, more, if any born at Ephesus

Be seen at Syracusan marts and fairs;

Again, if any Syracusan born

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

His good confiscated to the Duke’s dispose,

Unless a thousand marks be levied

To quit the penalty and to ransom him.

 

Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,

Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;

Therefore by law thou art condemned to die.

 

 TRICKS TO READING LONG SPEECHES:

• Break into individual sentences
• Examine strange syntax (and translate) ; look up any obsolete or strange words
• Look for rhymes, alliteration, assonance, etc.
• Examine the metaphors in each passage; how do the metaphors help characterize the speaker or their speech?

EX: “I am not partial to infringe our laws.” = “I’m not the kind of man to go against the law.” Why would a Duke speak one way and not the other? What’s his point? Why would Shakespeare have a Duke speak so imposingly, without rhymes, to someone convicted of a crime?

Remember, the actors in Shakespeare's time were on a relatively small stage, without elaborate props or costumes. Only their language 'clothed' them or made other people see them as more than the were--a low-class actor. So Shakespeare uses language to create rank and class, varying the style (prose vs. verse), the syntax (straightforward speech vs. poetic syntax) and linguistic devices (puns, metaphors, rhymes, alliteration, etc). He characterizes the Duke by how he speaks and what he says. He wants to frighten and intimidate Egeon; therefore, he speaks in imposing, convoluted speech which sounds legalistic, archaic, and powerful. Read it out loud--the Duke sounds great, even though he's only basically saying this: "since your duke imprisoned and murdered some of our merchants, we've vowed war against him, and this war has become a law between us. So if someone from your country lands here, we kill them, unless they can pay a thousand mark fine. Since you obviously can't, we're just going to kill you outright." 

From Act 1, Scene 2

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Now, as I am a Christian, answer me

In what safe place you have bestowed my money,

Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours

That stands on tricks when I am undisposed.

Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

I have some marks of yours upon my pate,

Some of my mistress’ marks upon my shoulders,

But not a thousand marks between you both.

If I should pay your Worship those again,

Perchance you will not bear them patiently.

 

PUNS: The different meanings of “marks”: money and scars. Also, the different meanings of “paying out”—to give money, to get revenge. Much of the comedy of Shakespeare's early plays comes from elaborate verbal puns that twists the meaning of a word as far as it can go. He particularly loves to take a word and give it a sexual connotation. 

 

 

From Act 2, Scene 2

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

If you will jest with me, know my aspect,

And fashion your demeanor to my looks,

Or I will beat this method in your sconce.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE “Sconce” call you it? SO you would leave battering, I had rather have it a “head.” An you use these blows long, I must get a sconce for my head and ensconce it too, or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. But I pray, sir, why am I beaten?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE Dost thou not know?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE Nothing, sir, but I am

Beaten.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE Shall I tell you why?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE Ay, sir, and wherefore, for they say ever why hath a wherefore…Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season, when in the “why” and the “wherefore” is neither rhyme nor reason?

 

NOTE: When does poetry become prose? When do they stop talking in iambic pentameter? Clues? And how do you read prose differently? Should the audience know?

VERSE takes up less space on the page since it's following a specific rhythm/structure. Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter, which is a ten-syllable line without rhymes. Typically, educated people, the upper-classes, kings, etc. speak in verse. Antipholus does, and the 'other' Dromio does, but in this scene, his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, speaks in PROSE. Prose is just normal speech, without rhythm or structure. It sounds different when spoken and has the effect of capturing 'real' speech, especially of the lower classes. Much of his plays constrasts the two languages, and he can create character and drama (and comedy!) by doing so.