With our abrupt switch to The Winter's Tale, I thought I'd blog about that today (I'm still a little unsure about what we are supposed to blog about, but that's okay) I'm not very familiar with this story, as this is one of Shakespeare's plays that I have not read. With this in mind, I looked up plot details about the play online, and discovered a few interesting details:
1. In the past, there has been discussion over whether this play is a comedy or a dramatic romance. It shows details of both.
2. Shakespeare was ridiculed in his time for talking about the "coast" of Bohemia, which is a landlocked province of what is now Germany, and in Shakespeare's time was a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire. Some historians have tried to vindicate Shakespeare by showing that in his time Bohemia's boundaries included part of the Adriatic coast. History in Shakespeare...I was waiting for my major to crop up in this class...
The first act of The Winter's Tale was interesting, but so far I think that I like plays such as Hamlet or Othello better. Leontes seems to be a one-dimensional character to me, with his instant switch from best friend to attempted murderer. None of Hamlet or Othello's soul-searching for Leontes, he seems to be more the Anakin Skywalker-type villain, for those of you who have seen Star Wars: Episode Three (Confronted with a problem? Don't talk to your wife or best friend. Just join the dark side and start executing people). Perhaps Shakespeare was trying to make a point about jealousy with Leontes' dramatic transformation, showing how people can rapidly become consumed and change by hatred. However, I thought Othello was a much better example of jealousy and character depth, as he was manipulated, deceived, and finally decided to trust his enemy after a lot of mental torment. Leontes' sudden change seemed slightly unbelievable to me. Maybe more insight into his character will be revealed in the next act.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your tactic of looking up the genre of the play first, as I did the same. Sparknotes told me it's a genre-defying tradicomedy, but I'm thinking I'll decide for myself in the end. So far the plays we've covered have dealt with non-confrontational characters. Maybe Professor Burton is trying to teach us something about communication. :)
ReplyDelete(I tried to changed the link to open a new tab, but I failed. Sorry about the ugly removed comment)
I thought this was interesting too, the lack of proper genre. Along with that, I found it interesting that a Shakespeare play has a decently happy ending, particularly one in which the main character has planned a murder in the first act!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the play could fit into both genres depending on how the actors portrayed it. Maybe that was one of Shakespeare's points. Some of the events in life that we see as dramatic can be viewed by others as comical.
ReplyDelete