Month: June 2005

Speak of the Villain

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

Recently I read (I think it was in Bloom’s “Invention of the Human”) that Claudius does not count as one of Shakespeare’s better villains, because he basically only does one bad thing (which most normal men could also be capable of), and feels guilty for it.

Sure enough I get back from vacation and About.com has their favorite villain poll up. I think this one is skewed a bit, though, as they bill it as “favorite” villain and then in the actual poll call it “most notorious”. I’m thinking that most peole just recognize Iago better than anybody else. How many casual Shakespeare readers could identify Titus Andronicus at all, much less compare Aaron the Moor against Cornwall from King Lear? Iago’s the easy answer.

Claudius, by the way, is not on the list.

The Tempest : What was Prospero’s original plan?

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The Tempest may end happily enough with everything working itself out, but it doesn’t start that way. Fate has placed Prospero’s enemies within his reach, and he promptly crashes their ship on his island. Somewhere along the line, he decides that the best move is just to reveal himself and get a ride back to the mainland.

But was that his original plan? He’s obviously got some pent-up anger over having been exiled here in the first place. He could easily have sent the ship and all its passengers straight to the bottom of the sea, too.

Was Miranda falling for Ferdinand part of the plan? Was his daughter his motivation for getting off the island in the first place? Or did he change his whole plan around to accommodate her?

King Lear as a graph, for your convenience

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

Who killed whom, and who merely betrayed whom in King Lear? Now you can see it all in one easy graph. Comes with a description of all the characters and relationships so you can follow along a little more deeply than just “Oh, green means married, ok…”

I’ve always thought it would be neat to have this sort of “map” for the plays. Naturally not as the only way you read the play, of course. More like a roadmap so that when you think you’re lost you can refer back to it and gain some confidence that you understand what’s going on.

Shakespeare vs. Britney

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I found this little battle of great artists while browsing today, and thought I’d share. The premise is simple, if a bit tedious – define what is important in defining art, then pick two “great” artists (ranging from Britney Spears through Stephen King to William Shakespeare. Then state how well each of your artists attains the goals that you set. See how much work it is? That’s why I’ve linked right to the last page which shows the scores.

Two things that would make the game more fun — be able to add new artists, and let mob rule determine a set of defaults for each artist if you don’t feel like selecting from a dozen checkboxes. There’s really nothing to stop you from just selecting the best values for Shakespaere and the worst for everybody else if you wanted to, but where’s the fun in that?