A bit more with math...

So, before I move on to the plays we are going over, here's another one for all of you:

Going back to our discussion of The Tempest, it was brought up that "wench" during Shakespeare's time was simply a way of referring to a lass.  This, of course, sounds unnatural in our time.  Now, again to humor you, here's a way to tie it into math.  If we were to ignore the original meaning of this word, a mathematician might prove how a woman is a "wench" thusly:

But first, a side note: I did a proof in LaTeX for this that I like better, but it doesn't like the formatting and it won't link up nicely.  So instead, here is somebody else's:

http://www.anvari.org/fun/Gender/Proof_that_Girls_are_Evil.html

Of course, this is based on the bad connotation the word has attached to it today.  Looking it up in the dictionary will lead many (I think) to find that they didn't fully understand it before.  At least, I didn't know what it was.  Probably because I grew up just knowing it was "bad."

Now, for all the ladies reading this, this is what you should REALLY read.  First, I'm sure many of you have seen this before, and probably hate it.  Now, I want to tie this into something that Kent wrote earlier this week on his blog here: http://kentlloyd232.blogspot.com/2012/01/mans-attitude.html

Second, let's look at reality:

Isn't this something along the lines of what happens or you wish would happen when you see things like this?  I simply wanted to put this in here to further the thoughts of Kent on how men--then and now--always seem to want to make themselves appear as "God's gift to women," but how they wind up just putting others down and making them a whole lot less desirable.  Of course, this is something that may occur more now with women than it did then.  What do you all say?

Math and Shakespeare

This is for you Professor Burton:


http://math-fail.com/2012/01/math-and-shakespeare.html

I definitely approve of this comic.
So you all get the "To be or not to be" joke, sqrt(4b^2) is positive or negative 2b. Thus, it is 2b or naught 2b. Get it? Sure, naught is stretching it a bit, but I definitely liked it.  Anybody else?

Comedy

So, The Merchant of Venice was pretty funny.  It was definitely a lot easier for me to catch all of the jokes used throughout the play, and it helped when there was a big set-up to the punchline.

Much of this play, of course, revolves around the three thousand ducat debt.  By the end, you kind of even forget Bassanio winning the right to marry Portia.  In the beginning, I totally agree with Sarah's post about the onset of the said debt.  You can see her's here:
http://zittingsarah232.blogspot.com/2012/01/christ-like-love.html

I find it interesting, however, that it changed so much so quickly at the end.  Through one misfortune after another, Antonio is bankrupt and cannot pay.  Then, Bassanio steps in with the needed money.  However, Shylock really does play the devil and insists on the flesh.  And then it all comes to a quick and convenient conclusion through the crafty words of Portia.  I, for one, felt a bit bad for Shylock--everyone conspired against him.  He, of course, wanted revenge too much, but being forced to change religion even?  That brings to mind the scene from The Fiddler on the Roof where Tevye finally exclaims "No! There is no other hand!" Here's the audio for his internal struggle over Chava converting to Christianity:

On the other hand, Shylock had definitely been more concerned about his money than Jessica's conversion, so maybe it wasn't such a big deal to him really.

Now, for some more comedy, as the title says.

Here were some of the scenes I found to be humorous:
     1. Portia says that the Neapolitan Prince speaks only of his horse.  Anybody else think of the Dauphin from Henry V?
     2. Tubal and Shylock's conversation.  I really think the audience enjoyed Tubal's character.  He switches from one sort of bad news about Jessica's spending habits directly to "good" news about Antonio's misfortune, and then switches back again.  I got a very clear picture in my mind about the drastic facial changes Shylock should go through after every sentence Tubal speaks.
     3. Of course, the court scene.  Again, the audience would have loved Portia and Nerissa's entrance.  And then the part with them taking the rings and, back-to-back before that, having their husbands say something about basically giving them up for Antonio's sake while they are standing right there.  Poor guys.  They'll definitely be scrubbing toilets this weekend.

Of course, there were many funny bits and others that I would like to look into more, but I won't go over all the small lines, nor will I delve into anything else right now.  That can be for my "Post-Class Reflection" that I want to start up.

Just something funny

So, nobody has posted anything about this yet.  I think it's pretty funny, even for someone who hasn't read Hamlet before.  For those who have read it or are familiar with the plot, how does it compare?

Not the best quality video, but still funny.

Sharing Shakespeare

So, as one of our classes learning outcomes, we are trying to share Shakespeare with those around us.  I thought I'd share a couple of these:

First, a funny one.  Last week, I was over at a friend's apartment where I made some pizza with my new pizza stone. (And yes, it is amazing and if Shakespeare had had one there'd probably be an entire play devoted to it.  It'd probably be a Romance play due to mysticism, or something like that. Anyway, enough of this rambling.)  While eating the pizza, we watched a movie on her laptop (she has Netflix).  She asks what I want to watch, and I jokingly say "Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss" because she was just scrolling past it and--let's be honest--really??? But, that reminded me about Henry V, so I seriously said we should watch that.  Sadly, she replied that she'd rather watch the former.  Fail.

Needless to say, we didn't watch either.

This next one will be fun.  This Saturday we are going to watch The Merchant of Venice.  And I have a friend coming with me.  Sadly, I'm not as cool as that sounds.  She actually brought it up first.  But still, I think that it'll be a lot of fun.  I can honestly say that bringing a date to a proper Shakespeare play hadn't really crossed my mind before now, so let's just say that there is hope for me yet!!!

Putting many voices into Shakespeare...

So, as I mentioned in class, a friend of mine put together a short clip of one of Shakespeare's sonnets being read by many people and then pieced together.  This was brought up in class because of Austen's post here: http://allredausten232.blogspot.com/2012/01/collaborate-distill-little-experiment.html
It's a bit late, but here it is!

Bravery: In the play, reality, now…

So, as I was reading through Henry V, I noticed that Shakespeare portrayed many of the English as incredibly brave. A great example of this would definitely be York, who says (at the Battle of Agincourt), "My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg the leading of the vaward." So, basically suicide for honor.  Amazingly, he pulls through despite the enormous odds against him.  Again we see:

"EXETER: The Duke of York commends him to your majesty.

KING HENRY V: Lives he, good uncle? Thrice within this hour I saw him down; thrice up again fighting; from
                              helmet to the spur all blood he was."

It is definitely interesting to note the difference between this Duke of York with most people today.  So, what's the difference?  Why is such bravery so unique and rarely seen?

First, I definitely imagine that Shakespeare definitely appealed to his main audience (namely, the English). Naturally, he'd paint the under-dog victors in a radiant light.  Let's face it: playwrights are in show business, and they need to sell.  In a history like this, characters like the Duke of York are probably played up a bit.  Don't get me wrong: he was definitely brave to do this.  I'm just saying he and his men were probably all shaking in their boots until adrenaline took over.  It's the same principle we always see (and, for me at least, feel) in NCAA March Madness.  Take last year for example:

     1.  Especially at the beginning, how would a team like VCU feel when facing the big-name teams they
          were matched up with?
     2.  How did you feel when they kept winning?  For me, I didn't even see a single game of theirs, but they
          were definitely my favorites, nothing in them could be wrong, and I was proper gutted when they lost
          to Butler in the Final Four.
Who says Shakespeare couldn't have played on these basic human reactions in order to better appeal to his audience?

Secondly, there are of course people out in the world who would likewise overcome their fears in the time of need and exhibit similar bravery.  So, I'd like to focus on YOU (or me, you decide).  Are you one who would be able to cast away fear in a way that outside viewers would deem a worthless effort?  Even for smaller things.  Do we have the ability to exhibit courage in our daily lives?  Do we do the things that we know are right, or do we take the path of least resistance?  Just a little something to think about I guess.

Follow-up on tennis in Shakespeare

So, as I said in my last blog (forever ago…I really need to get better at this—it comes down to just writing it out in the end after all), here’s a bit about Shakespeare and tennis:

            

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/sportshakespeare2.html   (under Tennis)

http://tonyaanna.tripod.com/id4.html

and 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis

Interestingly enough, Wikipedia just talked about modern tennis.   So instead I refer to the Medieval Fair episode of Arthur where Muffy goes on to play tennis but then leaves once she learns they will play authentically—with wooden racquets and a ball that (dare I say it?) really does resemble a “gunstone.”

In addition to this, here is what was posted about this episode on http://scribblingsofjo.blogspot.com/ :

"Muffy loses a tennis match to her double. AND gets her heritage dissed. Turns out that Other Braid Girl is related to Henry V, a sore spot to Muffy because her family is a first generation of social climbers with no blue blood at all. Ouch, girl!"

Funny how, as a kid, I never caught on to that.  Who'd have thought that I'd discover Muffy's doppelganger was related to Henry V after I read Henry V??? 

Henry V

So, since I was out of town this weekend I didn't get a chance to post this earlier (no internet).  But, here it is for the first bit of Henry V.

To begin with, I was very surprised at how specific the Chorus is when they tell the audience to forgive them of the failures of the theater in representing castles and great hosts of people.  I suppose I had just never before imagined that something like this would actually be part of a play.  It was mentioned briefly in class that it was this way, but I still was surprised.

For the rest of Act One, I felt like I could follow the general plot really well.  It was pretty funny to have him compare his fight with the French as a tennis match.  Being a tennis player, I readily picked up on this.  I hadn't ever really thought much about tennis during Shakespeare's time before, so I was surprised to see this as well.  I'm going to look further into that and I'll let you know what I find by my next post!

The Tempest

I haven't read a play by Shakespeare since...I think it was my freshman year of high school.  So, that's something along the lines of nine or ten years ago.  Needless to say, I am mostly unfamiliar with the writing style of Shakespeare's time.  However, I wanted to see how much I could understand simply through a casual reading of The Tempest before I went to any supplementary materials to verify what I thought to be the plot. I was pretty proud of myself to find that I had, by and large, understood all of the most important parts.  However, I definitely found out how easy it can be to get lost in the wordiness of certain passages--resulting in a re-reading of the passage at least one or two times--and I also feel like I have no idea what the puns are.  I can tell through the feeling I get during certain scenes that humor is being portrayed (at least, I think so...), but I am totally lost as to the humor.  Hopefully I'll get better at that.

Anyway, I'm sure you don't want to hear too much about the play since you can read it yourself, but here were a few parts that I found to be interesting:

1.       I really liked the boatswain.  I just loved how, in the moment of danger to the ship, he told the  nobles exactly what he wanted them to do and when they started to get uppity he told them that he cared more for himself than he did for them.  This made me laugh, and I decided (even though he only appears at the end after this) that he would be one of my favorite characters in this play.

2.       Why does Prospero call Miranda a wench so often?  Was it normal in those days?  I know I'd get slapped quickly if I were to say it now.

3.       I find it interesting that Miranda was the one who first proposed a marriage between herself and Ferdinand.  It doesn't seem like many women did that at that time--even today--as far as my knowledge goes, and I suppose it could be attributed to her lack of familiarity with any women of the day or social norms for "modern women."

4.       Okay, my favorite part of the play was when the witch Sycorax was first mentioned.  Is anybody else a Dr. Who fan?  Yes. Direct hit. Does anybody know what I am referring to in saying this?  I don't know how many people really follow Dr. Who over here.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on The Tempest.

It starts...

So, this semester I am taking a class on Shakespeare's works.  I'm really excited about it too.  I think it will be a very good counter-balance to my math-heavy schedule, and I've always enjoyed the stories in plays.  While I am by no means a thespian, it will be nice to discuss the plays that we either read or watch as a class, and it seems like it is really set up to have fun and enjoy the works of Shakespeare.  Again, this is a very nice change from many other classes that are set up with very specific goals.  Here, we get a lot more freedom.  It reminds me of a drawing class I took in high school: we listened to music, had flexible deadlines, and had a whole lot of fun.  I've also thought about how an attitude similar to this could really help a lot of students in math classes.  Whenever I feel uptight about something, I really lose desire to do any of the required work.

Anyway, that's just me kind of throwing in a few thoughts about this.  All in all, I really look forward to this experience and being able to learn more about Shakespeare's works, how to understand them, and then being able to better articulate my thoughts.