Breakthroughs That Shakespeare Made in Terms of Literary Competence - Book Report/Review Example

Journal Entries - Shakespeare Apart from being a legend in his own lifetime, William Shakespeare remains one of the most influential for centuries to come. Even though he might have been writing four hundred years ago, there is still a lot of breakthroughs that Shakespeare made in terms of literary competence, which are a benchmark for modern writers as well. This paper is underscored by the elements of Shakespeare's writing that have shaped the modern literary landscape. The basic theme of this work is the demonstration of Shakespeare's use of metaphors to depict good, evil and everything in between. Through the study of this, I will seek to demonstrate what I have learnt from the tutorial. 22 March 2007 The central concept of Macbeth's long aside in 1.3 is that of equivocation and ambiguity.1 Macbeth speaks in contradictions and paradox, suggesting that the appearance of the weird sisters and the message they bring can be neither good nor bad. The final words of his speech are a masterpiece of equivocation, almost to the point of disrupting all meaning. It may be worth considering that Macbeth is a character intended to correspond to the real life figure of Father Henry Garnet who was put on trial for his part in the Gunpowder Plot of Guy Fawkes. Garnet wrote a very famous essay on equivocation, giving instruction on how to respond in utterly ambiguous ways to questions posed while under oath. Macbeth appears to be capable of applying Garnet's lessons regarding equivocation quite well in both this scene as he appears to consider and reject the possibility of the weird sisters having the power to foretell and in the murder scene when he struggles mightily to absolve himself of guilt and distance himself from the act of murder. The question of equivocation and ambiguity creates the potential for striking staging of Macbeth's long aside. One of the most powerful tools in the theatre is the use of light and shadow to enhance the theme of light and darkness, of the battle between good and evil. The focus of attention in his this scene is Macbeth who has been presented as an honourable soldier and a loyal man. Macbeth's speech is vital to the rest of the play because it is the beginning of his internal psychic struggle2. It almost cries out for a lighting effect in which Macbeth gives his aside while bathed half in light and half in shadow, perhaps with the trajectory alighting across his face throughout the speech. This visual motif of ambiguity and equivocation expressing in light and shadow can continue through Act II. This scene is marked by confusion and sound and visual effects that may be merely hallucinatory to the characters. What is most striking about the murder scene is that thought it takes place off-stage, the tension is palpable and Shakespeare effectively uses stage devices to enhance the macabre elements. The appearances and disappearances of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth confirm the earlier scene's realisation that Macbeth is not fully committed to doing evil, but is helplessly drawn toward it by outside sources. In Act I, it is the witches while in Act II it is his wife who is the catalyst. The equivocating manner of Macbeth's personality can still be best shown through casting his in half-shadows and showing him entering from the light and disappearing into the darkness. Lady Macbeth is typically shown as pure evil, but her trepidation over killing someone who resembles her father reveals an equivocating manner to her personality as well. She is not the purely cunningly evil person depicted in the Polanski film, but maintains some of the milk of human kindness to which she attributes an overabundance in her husband. Ultimately, of course, ambition overrules humanity for both Macbeth and his wife. In this scene, there is a clear distinction between good and bad. It has been effectively positioned through the use of metamorphic use of objects, places as well as speech. 19 April 2007 This scene helps the audience connect with a certain amount of despondency which is used through the depiction of the forest. The forest in this scene is clearly not intended to be a place of reality, but to work on metaphorical level.3 The beginning of the long dialogue between Rosalind and Orlando opens with the suggestion that there are no clocks in the forest, indicating that is far removed from the effects of time and space. The entire sequence is one of incongruities, with Rosalind disguising herself as a man, but as a man who is particularly effeminate. The use of the red sash contributes quite well to the entire feeling that something is off-kilter in this scene; that things aren't quite right. Locating Celia outside the scene doesn't really contribute to that surreal feeling. It would perhaps be more effective to put Celia back into the scene even it actually meant having her staged as some kind of mannequin, as if time had stopped for her while it continued on for Rosalind and Orlando. In fact, the idea of Celia as an entirely static figure for whom time has stopped seems particularly apt and could serve to heighten and enhance the scene in a far better way than dislocating Celia does. The scene is ripe for multilayered complexities as it involves Rosalind disguising herself as a man to instruct Orlando in the ways of winning her as a woman.4 The staging of the scene needs, therefore, to be more wide open than the constraints of circle bordered by chairs would allow. 26 April 2007 This scene has elements of suspense which further heightens interest and helps depict a character of happiness and transformation through the use of colour. The most interesting element of this staging was the decision to costume Tamora in a white robe and Lavinia in a red robe. Much of the literature focuses on Lavinia as a symbol of sacred chastity and on her lost virginity as a threat to the continuity of the power structure.5 As such, one would quite normally expect Lavinia to be costumed in white to further underscore the signifying of her as the character of purity and virgin innocence. Certainly those honours do not rightly belong to Tamora who would today probably be labelled a slut. That it is Tamora who wore the white robe is fascinating. The symbolic reason for the unexpected switching of the colours may be to enhance the idea that Lavinia has been violated and stripped of her innocence, essentially at the hands of Tamora in figurative if not literal terms. The red robe of Lavini6a can also imply the violence that is enacted upon her and, further, act to foreshadow the voluminous amount of blood that will be spilled throughout the play as Titus wreaks vengeance on her despoilers. By contract, the whiteness of Tamora's robe acts as an ironic counterpoint to the idea that this wantonly sexual woman is the symbolic possessor of Lavinia's lost virginity. The choice also works to confirm that critical idea that though Tamora is hardly admirable, she is a loyal and committed mother to her sons, cretins though they may be.789 In fact, it may even mean more for Tamora to be a loving mother figure to such hideous offspring. In the portrayal of such facts and minute details, there is an engagement of the interest levels in seeing how the colours help heighten the character of the scene rather than anything else. 3 May 2007 The choice of setting in his scene is all-important. This scene highlights the idea contained in Titus Andronicus that words and weapons are interchangeable. It is the words of Lavinia toward Tamora that ignite the desire to rape Lavinia and the idea of cutting out her tongue and removing her hands is to keep her from providing the information on who raped her. In other words, she can't speak the names of her attackers nor can she write them. This sets up the idea that words can be used as weapons by indicating the victims of her attackers.10 The choice of setting here was a library decorated with swords. Traditionally, of course, one expects the most dangerous weapon to be the sword, but it is the words of a book that Lavinia uses to cause the most damage to her oppressors. The idea is that power is nothing without knowledge. Titus all along has the weaponry to enact revenge upon those who have violated his daughter, but he didn't have the knowledge of who those people were.11 The library also, of course, acts to set up the inversion of the idea of words as weapons. The scene is an ironic foreshadowing of the fact that Titus will deliver to Lavinia's attacker's weapons that are actually intended as messages, thereby strengthening the connection that is made between words and weaponry. It is this scene that really points up how set design can be utilised creatively to accentuate the finer points of a thematic idea. The concept of this scene taking place within the seemingly safe domestic confines of a house, involving a young student and engaging a classical text to ignite the rage of Titus is sheer genius and offers a terrific opportunity for counter pointing the bloody violence that permeates the play. The use of blood and other features of gore in this scene help the audience relate to a level of fast paced and well spaced out apprehension about the turn of events. There is ample scope here to play with setting and lighting. 10 May 2007 The use of a particular object in theatre is of utmost importance in grabbing the attention of the audience and focussing the same on the real essence of the scene. The casket test is an interesting scene from a staging viewpoint. For one thing, it is really quite remarkable that Portia follows her father's rather ridiculous rules; most of Shakespeare's comedic women are notable for defying their fathers or other authority figures.12 Therefore, there must be an element to it that serves to rationalize Portia's decision. The underlying and hidden message in the casket test is that the only type of person who could solve the riddle is one who knows the right perspective. At first glance, the casket test seems perfectly objective; there is not inherent class-based unfairness. The idea is that anyone from any strata of society has an equal chance of choosing correctly. But there is, implicitly, a class conscious inequality at work.13 In order to choose correctly, it is really important to understand the value of wealth. Poor suitors would just naturally confuse the ornamental brilliance of the gold or silver caskets with having truth. With the use of this centre piece in staging, there is a definite play of metaphor from the point of view of the director's portrayal. The centre piece of the staging of this scene should then highlight the equitable standards of wealth that exist between Portia and Bassanio. One way to do this would be to subtly hint at similarities between the two. Perhaps they could be dressed in the same colour scheme. Or the staging could be conducted in such a way that movement is directed toward placing them in the same positions as they move around the caskets. It is essential to create a subtle connection the minds of the audience that Bassanio can pick the right casket because he is of the right class and so understands the true value of wealth. Another idea would be to have them speak in the same rhythms and use similar inflections. Anything that highlights their class distinctions would be effective. 17 May 2007 This scene is another study in the use of metaphor and correct and appropriate positioning of the same. This is especially crucial in scenes that deal with the depiction of class, community as well as religion. The use of a Star of David on Shylock's heart to represent that he is a Jew could not be more appropriate. Let's face it: The Merchant of Venice may be described as a comedy and Shylock's dehumanization may have met with gleeful laughter by audiences throughout its performance history, but Shylock is not a character who has any place in anything other than a tragedy. He is a tragic figure, as despicable as he may be at times.14 There is a careful balance between the Jewish connection and the overall air of depression that marks the basic characteristics of Shylock. If The Merchant of Venice may be said to be "about" anything, it is most certainly about anti-Semitism.15 No other character in the play is as vitally interesting as Shylock and once he gets his (undue) comeuppance, the rest of the play seems rather superfluous and meaningless. In fact, it is not unknown for some productions to end the play following Shylock's conversion and discard all the rather uninteresting stuff that comes after. It would perhaps be a dynamic and bold move to further underscore the idea of Shylock as a figure of systemic anti-Semitic oppression by not only having him wear a Star of David at all times, but even by dressing him as a concentration camp survivor. It seems fitting, however, because Shylock's character and personality seems to be shaped entirely by his race and religion according to the other characters. That Shylock is meant to be identified as an outsider and that his conversion to Christianity takes place within a comedy signifies that the Venetians couch the sentence in terms of the salvation of Shylock's eternally damned soul justifies such a bold costuming choice. The idea of juxtaposing the irony of Shylock's tragic downfall taking place within the confines of a comedy should be as profound and its inclusion in the first place. The use of irony has strict boundaries in this scene so as to cater to varying religious sentiments. The best part about Shakespeare's plays is that the characters are studies in cultural and societal nuances. Try Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. This money lending Jew fit the typified framework which was associated with the cunning community at that time and Shylock with his dialogues and choice of words became a huge hit merely because he was just like them and yet different in the way he had been portrayed in lieu of the situations that surrounded him as a father. 24 May 2007 Shakespeare's main arena included one where he affected people through his intellectual, yet seemingly ordinary and therefore, easily accessible message. Shakespeare managed to imbibe a sense of physical action into the rather static state of affairs in the thearetical scene upon his arrival. Also, he was phenomenal as far as creating symbolic instead of purely realistic plots were concerned. The Winter's Tale is very often treated in a tripartite manner in productions in keeping with the fact that the very feeling of the play changes constantly. The opening two acts stand in direct contrast with the scenes taking place in Bohemia.16 The first two acts are the only ones that actually take place in the winter and are juxtaposed with the light hearted and spring-like Acts Three and Four, as well as the revisit to the opening locale in Act Five which has changed following a rebirth of sorts. Because the scenes in Bohemia are set in such a direct contrast, it behooves the delineation of the differences to stage the opening two acts oppositionally. The Bohemian scenes take place outdoors, free from construction. The best way to differentiate therefore would be to stage a scene like this indoors, taking full advantage of the enclosed space and creating a sense of claustrophobia. The characters all feel as if things are pushing down on them.17 Leontes is clearly giving in to paranoia, seeing the world as filled with enemies desiring to do him harm. As such he should be staged in such a way that he makes it difficult for any other character, especially female characters like Paulina to physically approach him. The other characters are also given to the feeling of encroachment; they can see Leontes slipping into madness, but are powerless to do anything about it. Therefore they should be staged in such a way as to heighten those feelings of impotence. The idea of Leontes standing high above the others on a platform works well enough in realising the lack of power of the others, but it is still missing that vital component of paranoid claustrophobia so vital to Leontes character. 31 May 2007 Okay, let's get it out in the open. The final scene of The Winter's Tale is one of most ridiculous things one can ever hope to find in Shakespeare. Taken on a purely literal level, the ideas involved in this scene are ludicrous: that nobody would recognize the statue is real, that Hermione would allow herself to be imprisoned for sixteen years, that Leontes would make a vow to Paulina to never remarry. It definitely crosses the line into soap opera plot device territory. And that is perhaps the best way to deal with. Treating it directly as realistic opens up the definite potential for expressions of derisive laughter from the audience. And treating it metaphorically on a level of the power of art to transform an audience raises the spectre of failure and more derision. Therefore, it seems that the best way to treat this scene is as a pos modern meta-narrative on the suspension of disbelief. The audience reflects not at all on the other ridiculous aspects of this or any other play18. The idea that a bear chases off a character sounds funny in the stage directions, but it can prove quite effective on the stage. Equally so is the fact that an audience obediently accepts the idea of witches having a force on the actions of Macbeth. These things are, in some ways, no more outlandish than Hermione's living statue, but they are presented contextually in a way that make them acceptable. By contrast, there is too much that is unacceptable about the climax of this play to allow it to play realistically. The Winter's Tale sets itself up for taking distinctively different approaches to the shifting tenors of narrative19. It seems easy enough to challenge the audience expectation by presenting this scene in a way familiar to all who have ever watched just a single scene of a soap opera. Conclusion. What has been learned here is the power of staging in bringing about the more subtle aspects of Shakespeare's plays. Reading the text of these plays is an entirely different experience from watching them performed. The literary constraints are bypassed through the use of lighting, sound, set design and staging. It becomes possible to enhance even just one character's psychology through the use of lighting or colour of costuming. One can appropriate the indecision of Macbeth by engaging the use of light and shadow to highlight the battle between good and evil taking place within. Equally important is the understanding that sometimes taking a risk and going beyond the obvious can have tremendously satisfying impact. The use of a colour scheme in Titus Andronicus is a perfect example. While Lavinia is the obvious victim and Tamora the obvious villainous, dressing them in colors that are at odds with the traditional expectations creates a more profound intensity. The color red typically is found on the more highly sexualised character and to find Lavinia wearing that colour while Tamora is dressed in virginal white forces the audience to more directly confront the simplistic use of such devices. The lessons that have been most deeply ingrained is that often staging a play with which so many people are familiar works best by challenging the expectations they naturally bring. These kinds of characterisations have come to signify the blueprint for all kinds of characters in modern literature - heroes, villains, heroines and of course, the loving parents. In fact, Shakespeare did not even spare kings and royal scandals in his writing - they were all there; thirsty for each other's blood, adventurous and of course, very daring. This aspect of Shakespeare's writing has been a matter of much research and discussion. In his characterisations, Shakespeare invariably managed to bring out the extra ordinary from the ordinary and thus he made heroes. Masters of this art in modern times have included T S Eliot and Thomas Hardy with their unforgettable characters. The stories that have been depicted have modern day parallels with varying degrees of the shrew like qualities found in vamps and their ilk. Also, modern day writers have learnt to create characters with shades of grey instead of characters that are either strictly black or white. This kind of experimentation led to the conception of evil or ignorant turning good in modern literature. Here, I play with the word ignorant when speaking of evil, because Shakespeare was a man of elevated perceptions. This led him to pen various works of literary genius which were enlightening and heartening. The theories of compassion when applied to the nuances of one's ordinary daily life are what Shakespeare's stories and poems were all about. In this context, it can be found that modern day writers try and bring about perceptive powers in their writing to deliver a certain message or target a certain audience. In this way, they draw heavily from Shakespeare's work. The contextual qualities of Shakespeare's writing are every modern writer's dream to achieve. While Shakespeare's poetic grandeur in presenting his scheme of things may be elements that a modern writer gives a miss to, there are underscores of his poetic nuances that have become common speak in the English language. "A rose is but a rose" being one of my personal favourites. The choice of words Shakespeare made in order to draw fitting parallels for situations and characters alike have been adopted by many a writer in describing various scenes in the same context. While these parallels may have been way ahead of his time and unusual, they were nevertheless hailed as pieces of quality work. In this, writers of modern literature go a step further and show how these parallels can be further expanded upon with the crispness of modern day language constraints. But the influence of his parallels and the poetic appeal of his words are elements that one cannot miss in the underscores of various modern literary works. References: 1. Booth, Stephen. King Lear, Macbeth, Indefinition and Tragedy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983. 2. O'Connell, Michael. "13 The Experiment of Romance." The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy. Ed. Alexander Leggatt. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 3. Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide. Eds. Stanley Wells and Lena Cowen Orlin. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003. 4. Kahn, Copplia. Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, Wounds, and Women. London: Routledge, 1997. 5. Green, Douglas E. "Interpreting 'her martyr'd signs': Gender and Tragedy in Titus Andronicus." Shakespeare Quarterly 40, no. 3 (fall 1989): 317-26. 6. Bulman, James C. The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare in Performance. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1991. 7. Shapiro, James. Shakespeare and the Jews. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997. 8. Knapp, James. "Visual and Ethical Proof in The Winter's Tale." Shakespeare Quarterly 55. 2004 Read More