Shakespeare... Dead and Loving it

[Salome]

on moments like this (and many others) I really miss Zoorapamanda around here

I just bought Shakespeare's complete works 2 weeks ago
got to love it!

 

[brettig]

zoorapa? haha

My fave plays:

King Lear - madness, madness, madness
Henry V - rousing
Romeo and Juliet - young love
Macbeth - To quote Donald Kaufmann 'Isn't that fucked up??'

Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream never resonated with me quite as much as they should.

 

[brettig]

 

[foray]

I hated Julie Taymor's (director of Frida) Titus. Too stylistic. Loud. Took away from the script and everything else.

foray

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

Midsummer's

 

[Salome]

zoorapa? haha

well, it could have been zoogangstarapamanda

so it wasn't that bad

 

[arw]

The miserable have
no other medicine
but only hope.

 

[AvsGirl41]

Much Ado About Nothing I think that is the funniest comedy, with Midsummer Night's Dream a close second. But I think both are more entertaining when performed than read...

But when we did Macbeth, I liked it much more than I had previously, but Hamlet is still my favorite. I always enjoyed Antony and Cleopatra as well.

My favorite sonnet, I had to memorize for the same class. Let's see if I can remember it:

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment
Love is not love when alters when it alteration finds.
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh no, it is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and it not shaken
It is the star to every wand'ring bark
Whose worth's unknown, though his height be taken
Love's not Times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Beneath his bending....aahhh!

I'm even forgetting my Shakespeare!

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

actually I have a whole bunch of bard quotes that I love...somewhere. I'll post them a bit later. Right now I actually have to finish writing this Shakespeare essay..the nature and limits of feminine power as illustrated in Macbeth and King Lear. Lovely.

"Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt."
-Measure for Measure

"This above all; to thine own self be true."
-Hamlet

 

[cujo]

That's what is great about a lot of Shakespeare's writings... empowered and dynamic women were in short supply in literature back then... too bad women couldn't play themselves with on stage performances...

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

most of shakespeare's women were still weak characters when you begin to analyze them. Lady Macbeth? Appears strong, stronger than her husband, but ultimately kills herself because she can't deal with the guilt. Moral? Women in power is unnatural (and written as a sirect response to Queen Elizabeth, who was in power at the time).

Shakespeare was quite liberal, but not THAT liberal. Hamlet's mother causes pain and descention in the kingdom by marrying Claudius. Women and politics. Desdemona has to die at the hands of Othello because he doesn't believe her and she doesn't stick up for herself. Katherine (Henry V) marries King Henry only to please him, as well as her father.

On the other hand, Juliet DID stab herself where Romeo was too chicken to, and had to take poison

It is strange that men played women....As you like it...men playing women playing men...

 

[cujo]

I don't think I declared Shakespeare as the most proactive member of the gender egalitarianist movement... but, I do agree with what you have said. The female characters he portrays do have flaws, but they are tragic flaws... I think their weakness is more a consequence of plot design, rather than a sign of the times. The majority of the male characters exhibited just as much torment and fault as many of the women. A discrepancy did exist between the two, but both sexes were represented as dynamic rather than just the stereotyped Elizabethan...

I don't think anyone accused Willy of being ahead of his time, but his plays definitely redefined the genre...

 

[arw]

Daffodils, that come before the swallow dare, and take the winds of March with beauty.

 

[arw]

All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told.

 

[verte76]

I love Shakespeare. I don't have a particular favorite play or even quote. There are too many great ones to be able to just pick one.

 

[arw]

O, how this spring
of love resembleth
The uncertain glory
of an April day,
Which now shows all
the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud
takes all away!

 

[IWasBored]

arw, whyest art thou not on aim?


damn that was pathetic...

 

[arw]

oh crap, I didn't realize I wasn't!

that was very clever IWB!

 

[hippy]

As much as I love Shakespeare... I must say that I'm completely burnt out on him!

Taking a class including all of the harder plays = TOO MUCH SHAKESPEARE


I would say to all that love the bard so much, check out other drama from the time period. I took a class in English Renaissance Drama (everyone BUT the bard) and it was phenomenal! I would definitely recommend it... reading other plays makes you realize that Shakespeare wasn't in a league of his own, he wasn't really unique... just the most famous! lol