Group Presentations

Everyone has done an amazing job with the group presentations so far and I've really enjoyed watching them.  The play that has interested me the most is Titus Andronicus.  Not only because it is so gory (which I'll have to admit is what got my attention initially) but because it seems like a dense labyrinth of intertwining stories, all dealing with revenge. It  made me wonder how it was received by audiences when it came out in the playhouses.  How did Elizabethan audiences like that the "bad guy" was a woman?  How did they respond to the violence?  Did they use red ribbons? I looked up a quick synopsis of the play on the Internet to be able to blog about it but it is definitely on my summer reading list. I'm just not the beach-read chick lit type I guess. 

To be fair, Titus drew first blood, killing Tamora's first son, but it is still horrifying to me what Demetrius and Chiron did to Levinia.  This takes the Shakespeare rape scene to a whole other dimension not unlike some horror movies I've seen. The poor girl doesn't even get to live after managing to identify her attackers with a stick and her stumps! Which leads me to wonder if maybe Shakespeare got into some kind of trouble or got bad reviews because he definitely toned down the violence in his later works.  This was his first tragedy, right? Maybe he wanted to make a splash to get noticed, or perhaps he was channeling the rapes of of Roman and Greek mythology that were brutal and animalistic.  Zeus was a pretty dirty guy.

 I'd like to talk about Aaron.  Who is this guy and why is he so evil? is he some kind of personification of minority oppression and frustration?  It confuses me that he sacrificed himself for the baby he had with Tamora considering everything he tells his captors about his evil plot and the fact that the only regret he has is that he didn't commit more evil in his life. By the way, I thought Craig did a great job with the speech Aaron gives before he gets buried. 

On a final side note, I love that the group brought up Sweeny Todd.  In the synopsis of the play I read it says that before Titus put Demetrius and Chiron in the meat pies, he slit their throats and let their blood drain into a basin.  JUST LIKE SWEENY. good job guys.

mind on my Shakespeare and Shakespeare on my mind

As You Like It Rap

All the world’s a stage

And we’re just players

My dad was exiled

‘cause Fredrick was a hater

Like Jacob and Esau

And the bowl of stew

Usurped his power

This story’s not new

I am not Rosalind

I am Ganymede

Went to Arden so Fredrick

Couldn’t mess with me

Took his girl Celia

But she knew the truth

Still had my back like

Naomi and Ruth

Wherever thou goeset

There I will go

But I made it up to her

By the end of the show

Met some boys back home

Orlando had no game

So I showed him how to love

But I used a different name

Ganymede was a

Pretty-faced boy

Taken to Olympus

To be Zeus’s toy

So it makes sense

That everyone wants me

O-l-i-v-e-r

And that wench named Audrey

Everyone got married

‘cause it’s a comedy

Took off my guise

And told them it was me

So What I can’t rap

I don’t give a S#*t

This is my paper

On As You Like It

Term Paper Ideas

I had a really hard time making the connections between Myth and Shakespeare this semester either out of ignorance on the subject or the astounding density of my skull, and I can see how this will continue to be a problem when I become a teacher and try to cover Shakespeare. I need to figure out how to make these myths related to Shakespeare relevant enough to hold the attention of my students while helping them make their own connections between the texts. good luck.

Why do kids hate Shakespeare? Is it the unfamiliar language or an inability to find the parallels to modern life that are only visible if you are familiar with the myths he is alluding to? What do need to know about mythology to get something out of Shakespeare? How do you teach these things alongside the plays?

My intention is to mold these questions into some kind of term paper that is not just about teaching but finds a balance between an inquiry in the best methods of how to teach Shakespeare and a discussion on what I have learned about mythology this semester that I will use when teaching Shakespeare.   

cheers.