Great Tragedy, in One Word

~ duane ~ 9 Comments

Here’s a game to play.  I’m curious if you’ll all indulge me, or think I’m nuts. Take a tragedy, and tell me what it’s about….in one word. I’ll steal the easy one:   Macbeth is about ambition. Who’s next?   Feel free to repeat if someone else uses your play, especially if you have a different word in mind. (The tragedies, for whoever needs a reminder:  King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, Timon of Athens.  I’m only really expecting folks to hit on the first 7 or so, I think the last three are less well known to casual readers.)   [The idea springs from a conversation with a coworker where Anthony and Cleopatra came up, and I was trying to explain why although I read it in high school I think I would better appreciate it now, later in life.  I tried for a comparison, “If Romeo and Juliet is _______, then Anthony and Cleopatra is ________” and found that while I had the answer straight in my head, I couldn’t adequately explain it in as few words as possible. So I wondered if we could collaboratively come up with a single word that would encapsulate each of the great tragedies.]

Will On The Hill

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10045.html The United States Congress does Shakespeare.  Apparently it’s part of an annual arts and education fundraiser.  Never heard of it before, but it sounds like a positive thing. On a related note, I always wonder about women who say Taming of the Shrew is their favorite play.  Is it that they choose to see it with a wink and a Katarina victory at the end?  Or that they enjoy the debate about the real meaning?  I suppose that sort of like a Jewish person saying that Merchant is their favorite?

The Psychiatric Times, on Hamlet

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http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/52396

I like finding crossover references like this (which, by the way, is dated 2005).  Most folks know, I’m sure, that it was Freud who came along and suggested Hamlet’s issues with mommy.  Here is a psychiatric view of that argument and more.  As a matter of fact the article opens by crediting Freud with “persuasively answering” the question of Hamlet’s delay.  However it then goes on to question Freud’s character-centric analysis, showing the positive side of examining interaction between characters rather than just individual motivation.  I’ve got to sit down and read the whole 5 pages.