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
* 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’?
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