The Honest Gonzalo

                For this week’s Shakespeare blog I will be discussing The Tempest. The act which I would like to talk about is Act II.i. The character which intrigues me the most in the scene is Gonzalo. Out of all the characters in this scene he is the only one who stays open minded about the situation they are in. Constantly through this scene Gonzalo is attempting to tell the Lords to make the best out of their situation or they will make it worse. An example of this would be when Gonzalo states, “that our garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water.” I believe this is one line in this scene that truly expresses how Gonzalo is trying his best to make the best out of their situation. While the Lords are blaming others and each other for Ferdinand’s death Gonzalo is saying let’s all calm down and take in the situation we have been placed in and go from there. While Sebastian continues to blame his brother for Ferdinand’s death Gonzalo uses lines like above to change the conversation. He is saying the salt water has not stained their clothes, but yet gave them a glossy new look and that they are as fresh as they were when they first put them on. One reason I really like Gonzalo in this scene is because he seems to speak up against Sebastian. When Sebastian is talking about the lady Gonzalo states, “my lord Sebastian, the truth you speak doth lack some gentleness and time to speak it in: you rub the sore, when you should bring the plaster.” This line makes me really like Gonzalo’s character because it shows that he is not afraid to speak up for what he thinks is right. Sebastian is causing a situation to become worse and Gonzalo speaks up to say with no disrespect but I think you are making a the situation worse that it already is. By speaking up, Gonzalo transitions the hostile moment to a moment where he talks about how he would run the island if he were king. In general, I chose this scene for my blog this week because I believe Gonzalo is an interesting character who should not be looked over. He is a character of control and really helps the hostile situation in this scene. These speeches which Gonzalo gives about the island really helped me paint an image of what it may look like. I liked how Gonzalos character is an honest character.

Shakespeare's Tragedies and These Shining LIghts

                For extra credit we were asked to compare a play that was being performed at our school, These Shining Lights, to something we have discussed in our Shakespeare class. For me I considered These Shining Lights to be a tragedy that reminded me a lot of Shakespeare’s tragedies.  This semester we have discussed Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello, all three which are considered Shakespearean tragedies. While watching These Shining Lights, bits and pieces of the play reminded me of these Shakespeare tragedies we had discussed in class. To begin with, each of these plays had an enlightening moment before all chaos erupted. For example, in Romeo and Juliet we see the happy marriage night Romeo and Juliet spend together, and in Othello at the beginning we see Othello and Desdemona declare and defend their love for each other to her father. Much like these two plays the beginning of These Shining Lights all the way up until the intermission was pretty happy. We saw woman beginning to get more rights, and the lead character Katherine enjoying her job and making three really good friends. After intermission this all goes downhill. We learn that all the woman were poisoned by radium and there is nothing they can do about it, which leads to Katherine’s death. This resemblance of the tragic ending I was talking about before is what I considered to link Shakespeare’s tragedies to These Shining Lights, but there is one main difference between the two. Unlike the woman in Shakespeare’s tragedies Katherine fights back. She is not dying for a man such as Juliet and Desdemona does, instead she fights the company trying to help the other woman who were affected by the radium, and were not brave enough to defend them. I really enjoyed Katherine’s character because of this. Although she was dying the tragic death that much of Shakespeare’s female characters had done, she was not just a character who was a back shadow to a man. Instead she was an inspirational character, a character who the audience knew meant much more to the play than just a backdrop to a man, or a character who took her life for a man. She fought for woman’s rights which distinguished her from Shakespeare’s female roles. These plays do relate to each other in the way that they both have very tragic endings. Although we do not see the other women’s deaths in These Shining Lights it is somewhat predicted.   In conclusion, I would say the comparison between the Shakespeare and These Shining Lights would be the tragic ending, but in contrast it is Katherine who is the stronger female which sticks out.

The Manipulative Iago

                For this week’s blog it is Iago that has caught by attention in Act V scene i. In this scene Iago betrays Roderigos trust, and it is this betrayal and manipulation that I find interesting. In this scene we see once again how Iago is causing trouble for everyone, but for me this scene makes me really dislike Iago. Roderigo trusts in Iago and in the end Iago does not care enough about him to even spare his life; once he gets what he wants from Roderigo (Cassio stabbed) he kills him. Iago begins this act by setting up Roderigo saying, “Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he come: wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home: quick; fear nothing; I’ll be at thy elbow”(V.i). As the reader of the play we know that he is just setting up Roderigo, and although Roderigo is willing to commit the crime it is still hard to read and not feel a little bad for him. After Iago tells Roderigo what to do he informs us the audience of his plans in his soliloquy saying, “ I have rubb’d this young quat almost to the sense / now, whetere he kill Cassio, or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, every way makes my gain”(V.i). This soliloquy but Iago right before the action takes place shows the audience what I meant earlier and that is that although Iago has been stealing from Roderigo the entire time, it is this set up that really shows how little Iago cares about Roderigo or anyone else. The fact that Iago not only leaves Roderigo to take the blame for Cassio, but he stabs both Cassio and Roderigo and then departs; returning only to make himself look caring. This scene in the play is one of great importance to me because it showed me that my thoughts about Iago this time have been correct. Not only does it confirm for me that he is manipulative, but it showed me that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. For me, the fact that this scene shows how little Iago cares about others and how he will stop at nothing, helps me prepare for the upcoming events prepared by Iago. This scene added suspense to the play for me because after all the commotion that happened all I could think was what will happen next.              

Development of Othello

For this weeks blog, the scene I would like to Act one scene three. In this scene the duke of Venice is talking about how the Turks are about to invade. You would think this would be a very serious matter right? Since it is them being invaded, but no once Brabantio comes into the scene this “very important” war matter gets covered up by the fact that Brabantio believes his daughter has been corrupted by magic.  Brabantio says, “She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted by spells and medicines bought of moutbanks; for natur so preposterously to err, being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense, sans witchcraft could not”(I.iii.). I find it interesting that in this play Shakespeare makes the love affair between Othello and Desdemona more important than the Turks attacking. The Duke of Venice completely puts aside the fact that his country is being attacked to deal with a matter of something of not great importance at all. On the other hand though, although Shakespeare interrupts the scene of the Duke of Venice speaking about the Turks at the same time Shakespeare is developing Othellos character for the audience. After being accused we learn how Othello and Desdemona fell in love, and while doing so we learn, through how Othello speaks of Desdemona, how genuine of a character he is. While defending himself Othello says, “If you do find me foul in her report, the trust, the office I do hold of you, not only take away, but let your sentence even fall upon my life”(I.iii). This on sentence by Othello shows how noble he is not only to Desdemona, but also to the Duke of Venice. Othello is willing to put his office he holds on the line just to prove his loyalty to Desdemona. The last reason this scene is important is because it tells the readers the story of Othello, the story which he tells Brabantio and ends up making Desdemona fall for him. We see a side of Othello that makes the reader feel for him emotionally. He says “of moving accidents by flood and field of hair-breath scapes I’ the imminent deadly breach, of being taken by the insolent foe and sold to slavery, of my redemption thence and portance in my travels’ history”(I.iii)  This line by Othello really helps the reader emotionally develop Othello in their head, and helps to really understand his character by understanding his past. In conclusion, although this may only be the third scene in the first act, I believe it is a very important act for character building of Orthello.