Deception  in Much Ado About Nothing

 Deception is probably one of the main themes of the play, because  lots of characters are constanly deceiving each other, so that many characters in the play had deception.

The first deception was when Don Pedro dressed up as Claudio in order to flirt Hero in his name. I believe it was justified in a way because he was trying to help his best friend. But at the same time he could just went to Leonato and talked to him without disguising himself to Hero. It effects the outcome because if Don Pedro wouldn't have hooked Claudio and Hero up, then Hero wouldn't have gotten slandered on her wedding day.

The next deception was when Don Jon told Claudio that the Prince flirted Hero for himself. It wasn't justified because he only did it for revenge, and it didn't effect the outcome because it backfired. One of the most biggest "deceptions", I believe, is when Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into believing they're in love with one another.

To me, it was justified because it wasn't really a deception. They truly did love each other. It effects the outcome because they end up getting married. But the biggest deception of them all is when Claudio is tricked into believing Hero cheated on him. It wasn't justified seeing as it was done for money and revenge. It effects the outcome because it causes Hero to get slandered at her wedding.

 The last deception is when Claudio believes Hero is dead. It was justified because Claudio slandered Hero so I guess you could say he was paying the price for that. And it effects the outcome because in the end Hero and Claudio get married.

Füsun

Much Ado About Nothing

       Here is the BBC version of Much Ado About Nothing. Enjoy it :) (by the way, they show Beatrice's and Benedick's conversation which we can say their "row" in a great way.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV66ODrTRG4&feature=relmfu


Burcu Vatanseçer

Let me see if I can navigate this blog now. -- Let me say, first, that the Tempest Ladies were wonderful to have here, and I hope everyone else enjoyed them too. I agree that the performances were terrific. I've invited them to view our blog and participate in it as well. By the way, they're hoping to return next year, with a production of Twelfth Night. it would be great if that could happen and we had a Shakespeare group to welcome them.

How about Much Ado? Has anybody viewed any productions of it? There is a Kenneth Branagh production that is said to be 'excellent' --  if anybody finds it, post a link or tell the rest of us where to go.

So blog away, and I'll see you on Monday.

CE

"Spirits to enforce, art to enchant...."

Hi all,

Having seen The Tempest twice in the space of four days, I thought I'd write a review of sorts while it's still rather fresh in my memory.

Firstly, the play surpassed all my expectations, it was absolutely spellbinding -- I was rather taken with the idea anyway right from the start and figured it would be interesting, and possibly quite good, but it was very, very good.

The thing I liked most is how simple (in the best sense of the word) and natural the play is: there are no elaborate stage devices, no technical stuff, no costumes save for the hats & some sheets of fabric (I'll come to that shortly), and no background music except for what's played on stage. This might have been a shortcoming, but in this case it lets the actresses' talents shine through even more clearly.

When the Tempest Ladies came to class on Wednesday, and I asked how they would go about performing around 15 or so characters, being only six people, they explained that they used hats on stage to signify who is who. I found the idea intriguing, but had some doubts as to how they would be able to maintain the character when the person who's playing it changed from scene to scene. Well, I'm really happy to say that my doubts were eliminated rather quickly -- it's fascinating how each character has his own identity, and that remains unchanged throughout the play, who is playing Prospero for instance doesn't really matter, because Prospero as a character doesn't change according to the person playing it.

The use of music is appropriately done, especially at the beginning when the play starts off with a bang (quite literally). The singing wasn't half bad either! For me the memorable instances were when the Harpie was on stage (the screeching was proper unsettling) and in sharp contrast to that, the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand, which was quite sweet.

Prospero's epilogue is spoken by all six actresses in turn, which I thought was a nice touch and an appropriate symbol for the unity of the play. And if the project was to please, then they have definitely succeeded, rather exceedingly so.

(Right now I'm trying to find something to criticise, to balance out all the praise I've heaped on, but can't come up with anything, so.)

If you missed this performance, you will rue the day for the rest of your lives! And I'm only half joking!


-- Idil

Much Ado About Nothing, etc.

I've just finished reading Much Ado (how wonderful is it, by the way), and came across an interesting fact about the title while I was reading some of the notes: apparently "nothing" and "noting" (which means gossip or rumour) sounded the same in Early Modern English, so there's three puns in the title alone -- "nothing" as in no thing, "nothing" as in the Renaissance meaning of the word, and "noting", which most of the play revolves around.

And here are some songs from the Early Modern era, just because I felt like it, basically:

Pastime With Good Company: (Written by King Henry VIII himself, no less)

Now is the Month of Maying: (This song is surprisingly "inappropriate" if you pay attention to the lyrics, and "fa la la la" is apparently what songwriters used to put into the lyrics in those days if they were too liable to be censored, so those parts are left to one's imagination I suppose! Was there ever anything written in the Renaissance that wasn't laden with double entendres, I wonder.)

Enjoy!

-- Idil

Sayings from Hamlet that've made it into English

As we all know, Hamlet is an unexhaustible source of witty phrases and profound expressions, but here's a list of phrases from the play that the language we speak today still retains (I've compiled this list with the help of a) my memory, b) the text of the play ("the play is the thing") and c) Wikipedia. In some cases I'm not sure if the phrase was already widely used in Shakespeare's day, or if he made it popular.) Feel free to add more!

*"mind's eye"

*"primrose path"

*"neither a borrower nor a lender be"

*"to thine own self be true"

*"giving more light than heat"

*"to the manner born"

*"more honoured in the breach than the observance"

*"there are more things in heaven and earth, ..."

*"brevity is the soul of wit"

*"method in madness"

*"an old man is twice a child"

*"every dog has its day"

*"hide fox and all after" which is now known as "hide and seek". People played hide and seek even in the 17th century, it's quite bizarre!

-- Idil

Hristina Davul

M.Bakhtin :

What Michael Bakhtin believes that “the text often contain double discourses” (Hamlet,343)

 

Political ideology of the official culture        and      reflecting the popular or traditional culture

This means he does not care just about the hierarchy, the kingdom, and its politics, but also about common people and their tradition. Because if the book jus contains: the political ideology of the official culture, the book is going to be so artificial and unbelievable. In order to be more real and give us more references about that society, He is explaining us also the commoners and their traditions too. “The discourse of Carnival, as Bakhtin understood it, is infused by the down-to-earth priorities and values held by the underprivileged or plebeian “second world” of commoners, or “folk”. Because that world is concerned with basic issues of survival, with the substance and reproduction of life, the language of Carnival is substantially concerned with the body, with eating, with sex, and with death (343)

“But something in between” I like this word of Bakhtin about the discourse of carnival in the play Hamlet everything is in between. The tone is in between half dark and half joyful,half funny and half serious, half real and unreal, half aware and half mad. This makes the play grotesque: “neither simply “funny” as we might say about a situation comedy, nor “serious”As we expect a high drama like Hamlet, but something in between”(343)

“Claudius is something like Carnival’s lord of Misrule (343) Claudius by killing his brother hamlet, in a way he insults the rules of the society too. His discourse generally is carnivalistic. He is disrespectful even to the death of the king and makes celebrations on it. With this way “mingling sex and death, comedy and tragedy” (344). However, we cannot say that so much he is mocking the authority; the only aim of him is to wear the crown. According to my other research “Claudius is a bad man, but a good king” I agree to this idea because really he is maintaining everything about the society in a good way. On the other hand, he is a bad king because he killed his brother and married with his wife. Therefore being a bad man does not mean not being a food ruler. Machiavelli rules can prove this idea. 5.1.1

The same carnivalistic situation appears also in the grave-diggers speech, “who typifying underprivileged labor in their work, their language, and the [ir] social attitudes”(344). According to this gravedigger or clowns Ophelia has committed suicide and she should not be buried in the way of “Christian burial” .But because she is a gentle women, is given the right but because she is not privileged and she has money. Money and being royal can change everything. Nobody can say to her anything. What is carnivalistic about this situation is that the comic dialogue that they are on the issue of death and life. These two clowns, they are aware of everything. They are showing us the political situation and the society’s values of the period. They are reflecting the idea of justice. There is no justice in this society because they clearly know that if somebody else would do what Ophelia did, they were not let them to make the burial ceremony. But they are not sad about this, the opposite; they are enjoying the situation because they know that the only real rules of the world are “death and change”. Because they know this reality, they do not care about it and they accept it as its. Hamlet after this speech, he understands that we are running after nothing.

The Mind Is Like an Ocean; It's Big, It's Dark and It's Bigger Than All Of Us

Let's begin with the question; what is psychoanalysis? It is a psychological theory found and develeoped by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Freud's theories are directly or indirectly connected with unconscious. According to him, the motives affecting men an women are mainly and normally unconscious and mind is always dual in nature. One of his theories deals with the structure of psyche. Freud divides it into the id (passionate, irrational, unknown and unconscious part of the personality), ego (rational, logical, orderly and conscious part of the personality) and superego (projection of ego, the part which is outside the self, making moral judgments, telling us to do the good rather than incline towards bad, it is what we learn from our parents, teachers or religious institutions. It is basically our knowledge gained through society.). Theory suggests that what ego and superego tells us not to do is repressed so all of what lies in the unconscious mind has been put there by consciousness. Conscious serves as a censor. Repressives only emerge in disguised forms; in dreams, in language in art or in neurotic behavior. In our pool of literature, it is the base upon which we concieve our interpretations of written works. Criticism through psychoanalysis is widely known as Psychoanalytic Criticism and it is about analytic interpretive process of how mind and personality works which are poured on a piece of paper.

In human history, sexual desires have always been more repressed ones than other supressed thoughts, fears and dreams. If we narrow the scale, one of the repressed unconscious desire is the childhood wish to displace the parent of our own sex and take his/her place in the affections of the parent of the opposite sex. Freud called it the Oedipus Complex.

Janet Adelman studies the role of Gertrude in Hamlet in her article "Man and Wife is One Flesh" through psychoanalytic criticism. Diagram goes like this;

So what Hamlet suffers is actually his blame towards his mother and at the same time the realizations of his repressed feelings about her. The real reason why his father is dead is his mother's sexuality, it drove Claudius to act this way and Hamlet is also subjected to it. His negative feelings towards Claudius is not because he killed his father but because he's being with his mother and the way this draws Hamlet's repressed feelings to the surface. So we come to understand that in the middle of all what happens lies his mother. 

I think it is a nice approach to the play using the mind games. After all it's big, it's dark and it's bigger than all of us. 

Bengisu

Madness

I think the whole play (Hamlet) is about madness but a different kind of it.  The main character Hamlet is mad from the start.  He is mad about getting revenge.  He wants to avenge his father and this desire causes lots of people’s death.  We see a massacre at the end of the play which shows us the madness once more.  Madness is not just a mentally thing.  It can appear with desires we have.  It can happen when we are too conscious.  That may be a message from the play.  Hamlet is aware of who did what.  He sees a ghost and he is not doing any extreme behavior towards the ghost.  He just wants revenge.  He is not after fame or becoming the king. Hamlet is not like King Lear.  King Lear was caring about fame and wealth.  He couldn’t understand the difference between truth and lie, and then he becomes mentally ill.  That is what we can call a mental problem.  He understands the truth in the very end and he was sorry for what he had done, but it was too late.  Hamlet wasn’t feeling regretful.  He avenged his father in the end.  So what do you think about these plays madness situation?  Is there a reason for both Lear’s and Hamlet’s madness or they are just doing everything wrong?

Batuhan

Some Pictures :)

Burcu 

Helen Mirren on playing a man's role in the tempest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12649182

Füsun Erol 

The Tempest

 

Milan's deposed duke Prospero and his gorgeous daughter Miranda have been discovered alive and well - on a desert island. And now wedding bells are ringing for young Miranda and Ferdinand, the dashing heir to the throne of Naples. Prospero, thought killed when his brother Antonio took over Milan in suspicious circumstances, had actually been living in luxury on the island for the past twelve years. Always a bit of a wizard, the sorcery student had used his magical skills on the island's inhabitants - airy spirit Ariel and moody monster

O brave new world, That has such people in't! Miranda (above, centre) Act 5, Sc 1

Caliban - who waited on him hand and foot. Despite his cosy life, he was set on paying back his double-dealing brother and crony Alonso, King of Naples, who'd conspired to dupe him of his dukedom. So when their ship came sailing by, it was revenge time! With a wave of his wand, Prospero BEACHED the ship and: CONVINCED Alonso that his son Ferdinand was drowned; Left the shipwrecked lords AGHAST with magical visions; TERRIFIED the traitors Antonio and Alonso;

---

Prospero Duke of Milan, until his brother deposed him. Luckily for him his magic studies allowed him to control the spirits of the island he and his daughter were abandoned on. Miranda Miranda was only tiny when she and Prospero were abandoned on the island, so Ferdinand was the first young man she'd ever seen! She's a real catch for him. Ariel This airy spirit can fly, become invisible and make illusions. Controlled by Prospero, Ariel does the old duke's bidding - but with one eye on being free again. Caliban Living on the island before Prospero, Caliban is a monstrous creature who repaid Prospero's initial kindness by trying to rape Miranda. Since then, the two haven't got on.

Finally, he FOILED a plot between Caliban and drunken sailors Trinculo and Stephano to take over the island. But the magician soon showed his softer side. When Miranda and Ferdinand fell hard for one another, Prospero arranged an amazing illusion show for them. And after Ariel gave him an earful for his treatment of Alonso and Antonio, he freed and even forgave them. As the happy group left the island, Prospero had one last command for hard-working Ariel that must have come as a great relief to everyone - "calm seas"! We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Prospero 4, 1. You taught me language, and my profit on't Is I know how to curse. Caliban Act I Sc II

Füsun Erol

Gertrude in Hamlet

     The interesting part is, Gertrude drinks from the goblet and killed because of the poison. Is it a mistake or a suicide? I think it can be suicide, Claudius might told her the plan. Maybe, she helped to Claudius for killing the old Hamlet. Claudius might told all his plans to her and at the end, she couldn't stand it and drinks it. These are the questions which can't explained. 

     What do you think about it? 

    Burcu

Shakespeare and Hamlet

     Freud made a connection between the writing of Hamlet and the death of Shakespeare's father. Hamlet was written immediately after the death of Shakespeare's father in 1601. It is also known that, Shakespeare's own son died at an early age bore the name of "Hamnet", which is identical with "Hamlet." 


     The other issue is, Shakespeare is associated with the Ghost in the play. He is the one who comes as a revenant, authoritative. The Ghost's command is "Remember me", "Do not forget", Shakespeare wanted to be remembered. It is clear that he played the part of Ghost in Hamlet. As Marjorie Garber says, we do not yet seem quite able to give up that ghost. 


Burcu

The Issue of Remembering and Forgetting in Hamlet

     The play of Hamlet is generally based on remembering and forgetting. The first basic example is Ophelia. She is associated with the need to remember. Laertes and Polonius always force her to remember things about Hamlet. Laertes urges her to "remember well" his cautions about Hamlet. 

    There are two terms named "Erinnerung" and "Gedachtnis" that means memory and revenge. The ghost always says "Remember me", "Do not forget" to Hamlet. With this repetation, Hamlet memorizes those commands, he does not forget them and he makes the revenge. But Hamlet needs to do is, not to remember, but to forget. At first, Hamlet had Erinnerung, the consciousness of loss, but then it turns into Gedachtnis. 

Burcu

Hristina

The Soliloquy of the work Hamlet is so interesting.... It let me think the speeches that we are doing by ourselves… We can never lie to ourselves and in fact in here by questioning the life order and the acceptance of the death… Also he is questioning himself.


Hristina