Personal Evaluation

1. Learning Outcomes—Well, I’m working on them. I try and make some connection to the learning outcomes with every post, and between the posts. I’ve put tags on my posts to help organize and show what I’ve been doing, though it is by no means perfectly labeled. I haven't posted as much as I should have, and I haven't done much real analysis yet.

2. I’ve read Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, and The Winter’s Tale. I’ve also read some outside history and a critical theory, and lots of blog posts.

3. Links and connections—I have a few links to my own posts and to some others that I’ve appreciated. I also do make a few explicit connections to other learning, learners, and non-Shakespeare texts. 

4. I’ve gotten most excited about the history around the history play, and the stories have been built from and that could be built from the things I’ve read. I enjoyed watching Hamlet and reading Romeo and Juliet (and hearing the echoes of countless references). I like finding links, mental links from one story to another and from life to fiction and back to someone else’s life. That’s what’s the most fun. As far as how this might affect my life-long learning, I’d say that I’ll be continuing to look back to Shakespeare and other great works of literature and historical things for inspiration and spice for my own creative writing, as well as just having fun reading them.

5. I liked my Feeling Hamlet-Like? post, just because it was fun. But as to what my best work has been… I think I agree with Brooke in her evaluation that Justice and Mercy and my Rambling History were probably my best posts, they have inter-textuality, socialness, and proof that I did a bit more reading than just the plays.

6. Jessica V. has made my experience better, by making nice, encouraging, stimulating comments. I’ve also appreciated her post of ideas for posts, which I haven’t yet used, but the idea that there is a list of ideas is an encouraging thought. Brooke R has also helped out by setting up a performance that I can join. Martin M.’s blog has also been very entertaining… I enjoyed Scrambled is the Head That Wears the Crown.

Reviewing Sara's

19 very substantial posts. They are substantial, in depth, focused on the learning outcomes, and the whole nine yards. I remember Professor Burton has mentioned several of these posts as exemplary such as “I just interviewed Ian Mckellen!” post and the “An Actor’s Point of View” post. If I were to make a suggestion, the only thing I could say is to make a smaller lighter post every once in a while. It’s kind of intimidating looking. But, that’s just me. I think Sara seems to be doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing.

Taming Romeo?

Before I started reading Romeo and Juliet, I looked at a few articles of literary criticism on it. One of the ones which interested me most was an article The taming of Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet discussing Juliet taking charge and “simulating maleness” to sort of tame Romeo and use him as a way of escaping from her own trapped social position. It was a very gendered reading and it rather annoyed me. I was rather annoyed at the author saying that Juliet was acting male because she was realistic and to the point.

He says that he believes that Juliet “demonstrates her independence and masculine mindset” and that “[Shakespeare] inverts the gender roles, making Juliet engage in behavior usually exclusive to men.” He backs this up with the falcon imagery. Juliet is likened to the falconer, and Romeo to the falcon, though normally falconers are male, and the falcons used were female. I kind of see this, since I do see the passages he points out—the clear references such as “O for a falconer’s voice / to lure this tassel-gentle back again”(II. 2. 158-159) and also the references to Romeo being in the dark (like a hooded falcon)—so I do see the falcon imagery that Mansour is talking about here. Mostly I just don’t like him saying that this means that Juliet is “simulating maleness” as he says or even that “Juliet demonstrates her skill at mastering Romeo.”

Also, Mansour talked about Juliet being the falconer related to the earthbound and limited state of women at the time, and that this relates to her being rational and less flighty and speaking in “Juliet does not take wing in her words as Romeo does.” Perhaps, in this scene this is true, but during other parts of the play Juliet certainly has long and beautiful speeches and is just as melodramatic as Romeo is.

It was an interesting article.

What I Think of....

...When I Think of Romeo and Juliet.

I've never read Romeo and Juliet before, but I feel well acquainted with the story. Of all of Shakespeare's plays, this one seems to have worked its way most thoroughly into many different levels of culture.

The first thing I think of when I think Romeo and Juliet is "cliche".

The second thing I think of is a movie called The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns. Despite the frame story dominated with annoying humans, I enjoyed this imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling.

Then I think of West-Side Story and the Hindi version Josh (I've only seen the Hindi version).

While thinking about Indian references I think of a song in the first Telugu movie I ever watched, Bommarillu.

Also, Romeo and Juliet was also the play the characters in the second Hindi film I ever watched, (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) were studying in their English class.

As far as books I've read... Romeo and Juliet is also referenced in the second Twilight book, New Moon. She actually makes an interesting question "what if" question based on the play.

Another book I've read which is fairly clearly inspired by Romeo and Juliet is Son of the Mob. Where a mob boss's son falls in love with the daughter of a police chief (or perhaps it was a detective, I don't remember anymore).

But this is not even a significant fraction of different places Romeo and Juliet have gone. It's just a few of the first things I think of when I think of Romeo and Juliet.

The Merchant of Venice, Star Wars Edition

I’m thinking about writing a fanfiction story using the basic plot of The Merchant of Venice, altered slightly, and adapting it to the characters and setting of Star Wars, with Obi-Wan having Antonio’s part, Anakin having Bassanio’s, Padme having Portia’s, one of the handmaid’s having Nerissa’s, and perhaps Asajj Ventress having Shylock’s... etc. It could be fun. It might even work.

The Interesting Characters of Merchant of Venice

Antonio- He recently made my list of fictional characters I’d like to give a hug to. His generosity to his friends, especially Bassanio, knows no bounds. He also knows something about the other sort of charity too, seeing that he did give Shylock a much more merciful outcome in the courtroom than anyone else there seemed to want to (well, I’m not sure about Bassanio), despite the fact that he despised Jews, and considering what Shylock wanted to do to him.Some people see their friendship as being homosexual, though I certainly prefer the homosociality explanation

Bassanio- Bassanio seems like a rather unremarkable fellow. He does have the good luck to have a good friend and to win a good wife, but I’m inclined to disapprove him. He wasted an awful lot of money, and  he also declares near the end that he’d rather give up all he has, including his wife, and all that he doesn’t have in order to save Antonio’s life. Friendship, I approve of, but that’s not you should declare in a public courtroom.

Gratiano- Nerissa’s husband annoyed me. I mean, it was a little funny to have Shylock’s praise of Portia as a second Daniel turned back on him, but he was still a highly prejudiced and unmerciful person.

Jessica- She’s the daughter of Shylock, but she treated him in a rather heartless fashion, eloping with someone of a religion that her father hated, and stealing a large amount of wealth as she did so. One interesting thing I noticed about her is that when she was talking to Launcelot she spoke largely in prose, but sometimes she speaks in iambic pentameter (such as when she’s telling the Lorenzo—the friend of Antonio and Bassanio she elopes with—to catch the casket of the wealth she stole from her father) and at least once she spoke in a couplet “If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife, / Become a Christian and thy loving wife.”(Act II, Scene III, 20-21)

Launcelot- He was not quite the dashing knight of the Round Table. His character is a comic one, a servant of Shylock who  quits and works for Bassanio instead, and makes foolish remarks. He annoyed me.

Portia- I like Portia. She’s a strong, intelligent character and her describing her suitors from various countries was my favourite part of the play. She’s smart enough to save her husband’s best friends life, and then find a way to ensure that she took precedence in her husband’s priorities over his very close best friend.

Shylock- Despite the fact that Shylock shows no characteristics that make him likeable, and instead shows a highly disturbing desire to carve into a living human’s flesh, I do feel sorry for him. He was hated all through his life for being a Jew, and in the end he has to give up being a Jew to live. That robbed him of his identity, even though the rest of the conditions that came with it were more merciful than anything else he would have gotten.

If you've gotten to the end of this, congratulations. I know that when I have anything to say I say a lot. When it rains, it pours.