Dear Hamlet: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Sweet Smoke of Rhetoric!

I just finished reading Act III of Love's Labour's Lost. The use of wordplay in this particular play is excessive and takes a central role in the play itself. Often, the characters spend more time bantering and discussing their use of language than they do actually living life itself or moving the plot forward. But, this in and of itself becomes an important part of the story. I found particularly interesting in this act Shakespeare's use of language to contrast the fool of Armado and the passion of Biron.

The Abstraction of a Dream

Dreams are strange things. They are often inexplicable, random, and unexpected. On top of that, they are rather uncontrollable. Interestingly enough, I believe that this same description could be applied to love. This seems to be a theme in the play that I have been assigned to read and study in my Shakespeare class, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Heart versus the Head

I am beginning to read Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare. I have never read this play and, though I have heard the title, know little about it. In preparation for my reading, I have read a synopsis of the play and its general storyline. These are my thoughts in anticipation of the play.

The Missing Post

Well, it has come to my attention that I completely forgot to post on Friday. Whoops. The reason is simply that I had a paper due on Friday that I focused my attention on and thus pushed the need to write a post out of my mind. I will have to do better in the future. But this is a blog about Shakespeare. So what can I learn about Shakespeare from this experience?

The Timeless Tale and the Fable

This past Saturday yielded the excellent opportunity to view Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, performed live on stage by the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Needless to say, it was a great experience. I will list some of the thoughts that I had concerning the play, and then say a little about what struck me the most about this presentation of The Winter's Tale.

But...What If It Didn't?

Venus de Milo
via mlahanas.de.

What if the statue didn't come to life? In our Shakespeare class the other day, Dr. Burton was discussing some points regarding the analysis of live productions of Shakespeare plays. We have been reading The Winter's Tale, and in reference to the final scene, Dr. Burton said that even though he has read the play and knows the end, when he watches live performances, he finds himself anticipating the moment that Hermione is "resurrected" and her statue comes to life and wonders, "Is she really going to come alive?" Well, what if she didn't?