Washburn Shakespeare (Spring 2019)

This phrase is widely used throughout discourse in the 20th and 21st Century in regards to the white male's stupidity. As innocent as it sounds (like in the instance of describing two small boys wrestling), it is often used to simply mask the beginnings of toxic masculinity. All too often the phrase "boys will be boys" is used to explain an event that would otherwise be punishable or seen as wrong. This mentality is seen throughout Shakespeare, and especially within the context of Measure for Measure. Though Angelo is often referred to as the epitome of toxic masculinity throughout this play, it can be inferred that all of the males exhibit one or more warning signs pertaining to the topic. I mean; Angelo is all "Who's going to believe some little nun like you, over the most powerful man in the country like me?" with Isabella, so he's a definite contender there. However, Isabelle's own brother is seen to be encouraging his sister to sleep with An

While some people go on grand vacations on Spring Break, and others remain at home and hibernate, I often find myself scrambling more than relaxing. You see, Naka-kon is often in that time and, while I haven’t been an avid viewer of anime in a few years, I still get up way earlier than necessary, apply about three pounds of makeup/body paint, and cinch everything into a corset for a weekend of both revelry and pain. Not much different from Ren Fest. And while I was there, particularly while I was walking around Sunday in a thrown-together costume complete with Sharpie sleeve tattoos and sleep deprivation out the wazoo, it got me thinking. I’ve been to a couple instances of Shakespeare in the Park. Heck, I told myself I’d audition for one when I moved to Topeka (granted that was before I got roped into Ren Fest), and I figure if I need to to dedicate posts to the WUmester, might as well write what I know. And in this situation, what I know is c o s t u m e s. Believe me, it t

It goes without saying that some things just don't age well and Shakespeare is no exception. That being said, it's still hard to get rid of our more modern lens as readers, especially when it comes to touchier subjects. When it comes to a post holocaust world, Merchant of Venice  certainly takes a hit as being anti-Semitic and makes us readers a bit more sympathetic towards Shylock and hate the protagonists (like Antonio) more. Jews have a big history of being treated like absolute (for lack of a better word) shit. I'm sure at least some of us have seen Prince of Egypt and I hope most of us know what World War II was all about, so our generation grew up learning to sympathize with them instead of setting them up to be outcasts. (We could still be doing better, of course, but that's an entire different essay for a different subject.) Then we have Measure for Measure  which involves rape and women being treated like absolute (again, for lack of a better word) shit. We

The fact that people have had to fight for their right to be recognized as human beings is pretty gross, and the fact that people still have to is even more so. It takes a special type of mind to look at someone nearly identical and think "Yeah, that's a sub-human" based on skin color, religion, etc. The mental gymnastics involved in circumventing the obvious fact that we're all the same is kind of impressive, but mostly it's just exhausting. And I think "exhausting" is a good way to describe one of the central conflicts in The Merchant of Venice. Act 2, Scene 1, which we're adapting for the Qualities of Mercy project, really gets to the heart of the matter. Shylock has probably my few favorite lines in the play: "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions--fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same w

Shylock. Father, Money Lender, Jew. This is how we view him, and also how his fellow companions in Venice would have differentiated him from themselves. Now, I've been struggling for a while on what my actual opinion of Shylock is. On one hand, I'm disgusted by the way that the Christian figures in the play treat Shylock. Not only is it outwardly degrading, but it is decidedly un-Christian-like. Christians are taught from multiple passages in the Bible that they should love their neighbour, and that includes others who are different from themselves. However, Shylock's character can also be viewed as a little snobby, and generally overbearing (especially regarding his daughter Jessica), and a little too attached to his wealth and his material possessions. I'm not sure I will ever have the answer to the question posed as to whether or not Shylock is a good character, and whether we as the audience should like him. However,  through closer reading of the text, I'm in

The one thing I keep going back to with this play is that it is somehow supposed to be a comedy. Talking about white priviledge in class made me think even more about this subject. First of all, why is racism funny to some people, in plays, and in modern day reality? Why do we have racist jokes and people constantly making fun of people who are different. And one thing i've been thinking about too since our discussion in class, is how some people think it's okay to just throw around the N word along with tons of other racist and hurtful words. One place I see it a lot is in live video game play, the things I hear people calling other people, who they don't even know, it could be an 8 year old girl and grown men will be calling them the N word or the R word or all kinds of terribly offensive stuff. All because what? they didn't help them get the kill. I had never played Fortnite before and I tried to give it a shot a while back and within 5 minutes of the first game I ha

We see it all the time. Dubbed shows and movies with jokes falling flat among different audiences, YouTube videos of songs put through multiple languages in google translate, plays from different times and different worlds. These days, understanding Shakespeare is to understand a different time period of inside jokes. “I don’t get it,” we say as we skim over a page of lines. “How is this funny?” we wonder as the cliff notes imply what we just read was a joke. And let’s be real, some of these jokes straight up aren’t funny, at least in the day and age of now.  The fact of the matter is that as the world changed, so did our humor and, more importantly, our language. What used to be said in ten words can now easily be said in five. And while the shorthand of today comes with its own nuances and expressions, it's also safe to say we've lost touch of the language of yesteryear.  So how does one interpret material from way back when? How does one begin to understand metapho

Disguises have played a role in both of Shakespeare's plays explored so far this semester, and will continue to play a role in upcoming Measure for Measure, even more overtly. It was, at first, weird to me that Branagh in Henry V chose to use a "disguise" costume reminiscent of Star Wars' Emperor Palpatine (maybe, generously, crossed with Obi Wan Kenobi), but it makes a kind of sense... After all, his disguise allowed him to see what his soldiers wanted, then used that as bait to encourage them to fight for his cause. Very Imperial. Portia, even more so. Right after being released from the marital bondage put in place by her father, Portia takes a guise that allows her a trifold victory: she settles her husband's debt, she enacts justice for Venice, and she takes control and ownership of her love life. In Henry V and Merchant of Venice , Shakespeare has used disguise to enable an integral experience for a character. Henry needed  to know his soldiers'

When we are introduced to Portia in The Merchant of Venice , it is a strikingly similar scene to one in Disney's Aladdin , in which hopeful young royal suitors try to win the hand of the Princess Jasmine of Agrabah.  Honestly, when I reached this scene in the reading I stopped reading a quarter of the way through.  It did not seem relevant, and when I noticed the similarity between this scene and the one in Aladdin , I just did not see any reason to continue reading it.  However, for this post I will be analyzing this scene and others relating to Portia in an attempt to find its similarities with the movie  Aladdin ,  what it adds (if anything) to the play and the character of Portia, and how these two women prove they are "not prizes to be won." First I will begin my analysis with Act 1 Scene 2 where our first encounter with Portia occurs.  She is conversing with her waiting woman Nerissa, gossiping about who has come as a potential suitor as well as the predicamen

This past week I was involved in the group discussion over Shakespeare in culture. With the amount of research I was able to do before hand, it sparked an interest on how certain cultures might understand Shakespeare. One that stood out in my research was Bombay cinema. Now known as Bollywood, the Indian Hindi-language film industry has made many films over these plays that we are studying in class. Director Sharat Katariua has made transformed A Midsummer Night’s Dream into his version of the play. The 2012 film 10ml Love is very popular in the Indian film industry. He has taken the Shakespeare play and manipulated it to involve certain Hindi practices and beliefs. This is just one example on how some cultures turn the plays into films that mimic their beliefs and ways of living.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbcaFL2gJ7s

I know that the relationships in The Merchant of Venice are all kind of odd and related in some way to discrimination or thievery, but I couldn't help myself but feel happy for these people falling in love. I am married myself, and I have always been a sucker for a good love story, so reading the love-soaked and flirtatious dialogue between Bassanio & Portia and Lorenzo & Jessica was really fun for me. I left out Graziano and Nerissa, mainly because I think Graziano is a big ol' jerk and I have no idea why Nerissa would fall for such a big ol' jerk. Anyway, I'd like to share and discuss some of my favorite romantic lines from Merchant. First, a line from Lorenzo from Act 2, Scene 6: Beshrew me, but I love her heartily; For she is wise, if I can judge of her; And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true; And true she is, as she hath proved herself. and therefore like herself - wise, fair, and true - Shall she be placèd in my constant soul (2.6.53-8).

Never was there such a greater pair than that of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern or Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. I know, there’s four names in the title, but let’s be honest they all function in the same manner. Well, sort of. R&G specifically come from Hamlet, and Sal&Sol are from The Merchant of Venice. They’re this neat little package of silliness. Comedic effect? Check. Nearly indistinguishable from one another? Check. Reporters of news? Check. What more could you ask for, right? Sal&Sol are somewhat confused characters that try their best to be interesting. Are they completely likable? No, not really. But neither is any one else in this play. They’re just standing or sitting around and providing random commentary on anything that’s happening. The opening scene displays this perfectly. Antonio doesn’t know why he’s sad but look who’s here to save the day! It’s Sal&Sol with their theories on Antonio’s sadness. All of which are based on things that would make these tw

 Mercy is more than sympathy with life or the loss of life, but it ’ s something one needs to pray for, or to ask from someone more powerful. In this way, the word is supported by a whole system of social or religious hierarchy. When Sherlock is backed up by the law, he is the more powerful one whom the others pray mercy from. However, when his request is no longer protected, he has to ask Mercy from not only the Duke but also Antonio, who by then has the right to distribute Shylock ’ s property. Hadn ’ t been for the gap of power, there would be no need to mention mercy in the court.  In the film we watched in class, I think Shylock is not that a cold-blood person. He is waiting all the time during Antonio gives his last words. Judging from his facial expression, he is not really happy about it, nor does he urge them to stop talking. I think that all he needs is the revenge for the mistreat he has suffered but not to kill someone for fun. Shylock in the film is portrayed as one of

After our conversation this week in class, I really started to think about how do we teach Shakespeare in today's secondary English classroom. Times have definitely changed from over 400 years ago when Shakespeare wrote all of his plays. Going off of Jasmine's post of What to Teach? it really started to hit me that I have no clue how to teach Shakespeare for many different reasons. The first problem I noticed was that today's students are not interested in learning about Shakespeare. They would much rather read something they relate to and can easily comprehend. While in our groups yesterday, I made the comment that the thing I am most worried about when it comes to teaching Shakespeare is how to get my students interested in it. Wanting to teach middle school I will most likely not teach his works, but if I were to be at a high school there is a good chance I will have to teach it eventually. From my experience working with students and from my own experiences when it c

When reading Shakespeare's Henry V, I wondered whether Katherine didn't understand Henry when speaking English or whether she was pretending to not understand him. I think that either way is possible as we only see Katherine in two scenes throughout the play. In performances, Katherine is portrayed in both ways. She seems to understand Henry, but tries to avoid him. I've included a few videos to portray this. While there is elements that support both arguments, the performance of this scene shows the dexterity of Katherine's character in the play. In both performances, there are moments when Katherine seems to genuinely not understand Henry as when he calls her an angel. However, at other moments in the performances such as when Henry tries to kiss Katherine, she seems able to understand him. This is shown in the second video when she runs across the room to avoid him. In the first video, Katherine reacts similarly to how she reacts in the second video, which show

So I'm going to start right off the bat and apologise for the sheer amount of memes in this post. But I think it's important to show that blatant racism, and a refusal to accept or acknowledge white privilege is prevalent throughout our society. Take the meme below:  It's not wrong! More people believe that Bigfoot exists than the existence of white privilege and it's insane. Now, while searching  for "White people be like" memes might have been fun; it did raise a lot of questions just by the sheer amount of memes that pertain to casual racism. It's a well-known fact that many white people are assumed to be stupid, or dumb, and so I was certainly expecting to see more of those "dumb-fail" kind of memes rather than the ones I actually found - most of which looked like this: Anyway, I promise I had a Shakespeare related point: Shylock, discrimination, Venetian Christians, stupid racism for no reason. And they're  existing in Shakespeare and

In The Merchant of Venice , we see this theme of mercy through the Christian characters, which makes me laugh because these Christians weren't full of mercy for the poor Jew Shylock. They FORCED him to become a Christian and showed no mercy, except for not killing him, ha. Wow. So much mercy. It's funny this play speaks of mercy at such high praise. It pretty much says mercy is coming straight from God or that it's a "heavenly" thing. But the Christians themselves lack this so called "mercy." Do we all lack it in someway? How many times can you say for sure that the United States as a whole showed mercy? I can't think of very many, if at all. Mercy, what a powerful thing to have, but no group ever really possesses and uses it. Our world honestly lacks mercy. But we can we have mercy and still be powerful? Think about the prisoners on death row for doing horrendous things. Could we ever show them mercy? What would that say about our justice system and

Cross dressing has been done in many of Shakespeare's plays. This method allowed to give women more of a voice, letting them show their intelligence or even their cunning wit. In The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare gives this voice to Portia, in which she creates a plan to save Antonio. If we briefly go over the case, Shylock is wanting to take a pound of flesh as the debt he was owed was not paid on time. Portia (disguised as the judge) awarded him this, causing annoyance in the court until she caught Shylock on a technicality. Let's look at this quote: "Just a moment; there is something else. This contract gives you not a not of blood; The words expressly are "a pound of flesh:" Take then your bond, receive your pound of flesh; But, in the cutting of it, if you shed One drop of Christian blood, your lands and goods Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscated."                                                      -Act IV Scene 1 line 304-309 Because

This talk was about court cases related to the First Amendment and their appeals to the underlying constitutional principles behind other cases in history. In 2011, Topeka's own Phelps family put this First Amendment to the test. Again. Here's what happened: The Phelps family and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church picketed the military funeral of Matt Snyder, who died in the Iraq War. Matt's father was unaware of this until he saw the evening news. If you live in Topeka, you already know what kind of signs the Phelps's hold up and what kind of reactions they provoke. Mr. Snyder filed a suit against them for intentionally causing emotional distress, however, the Phelps's know how to cover their asses. They were at least 1000 feet away, not within visibility of the church, no explicit mention of Matt's name, etc. etc... This is the case cited in the Snyder v. Phelps case: New York Times v. Sullivan produced the "actual malice standard" w

White Privilege. What was I taught about it? From what I can remember of all the years of my life leading up to college... nothing. Not a single thing stands out to me. I should remember learning about how to address my biases, or how I will treated better than others because of my skin color, or how not everyone in this life gets a fair start. But I do remember these words from my mom, "Be kind. Treat everyone with kindness. Regardless of who they are." Maybe that was her way of trying to make the impact when she didn't have the right words to say. How was she supposed to know how to teach her little white daughter that her life is going to be easier because of her skin color when she was still trying to teach me that everyone is equally deserving of my kindness, meaning that "we're all equal?" She was on the right track though. Be kind. Above all else, to everyone, be kind. These words stuck with me as we read Peggy McIntosh's article "White P

As we’ve discussed in class, one of the central themes of The Merchant of Venice is the concept of “mercy.” From Shylock’s resistance to grant mercy to Antonio, to Portia’s speech of the qualities of mercy in the courtroom, we receive different messages about when and where mercy is deserved. On the seemingly opposite side of mercy, there lies justice. While Shylock is motivated by his underlying desire for revenge upon Antonio, he argues for justice in court for the bond that Antonio has broken. Both Shylock and Antonio seem to have differing perspectives on how mercy should be given. Although they belong to different religions, there seems to be one common theme that the both the Christian and Hebrew Bibles teach about justice and mercy, and here’s the catch. Both men, who claim to be acting in alignment with the teachings of their religions, are disregarding the main message about mercy that is evident in both texts. What does the Bible actually say about justice? The book of De