Henry V is a play that falls into the category of a history. The play was set in England in the early fifteenth century. The play is a tense one due to the fact that King Henry IV died and his son Henry V, has just taken over the throne. The now King Henry V, was a bit of a rebellion who hung out at the tavern with thieves and drunks, decided to clean it up a bit in order to win the approval of the English people and the court. King Henry V lays claims on parts of France based on distant lineage in the French royal family and a very technical interpretation of ancient land laws. The French prince finds this all rubbish and sends King Henry V a nasty letter telling him so. After receiving the letter King Henry V decides to invade France. The news of King Henry V invading France trickles down to the common people he rules and they prepare to leave their homes and families to fight for him. The English win the war against France and Henry will marry Catherine, the King of France's daughter and their son will become King of France. The marriage between the two will unite the two kingdoms
The Merchant of Venice is another one of Shakespeare's comedies. And like the others its not a comedy as we would see it. It is a comedy because of the ending and because of the marriages that take place. Other than that I didn't know much about The Merchant of Venice. It was written in 1594 a little after an outpouring of anti-semetic outrage that was triggered by the case of Roderigo Lopez, a Jew who attempted to murder Queen Elizabeth. This play raised many controversies such as it is anti-Semetic, does it criticize anti-Semetism or does it just represent anti-Semetrism without endorsing it or condeming it. Another controversy was the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio. Where they just great friends or was there a little more happening behind closed doors? Being the good friend that Antonio is, he tells Bassanio he will lend Bassanio the money he needs to go and win the heart of the heiress Portia. But with Antonio's money tied up right now in his ships he does not have the cash on hand so he tells Bassanio to go and see who will lend him credit. They find Shylock, a Jew, who will lend them the 3,000 ducats with the promise from Antonio if it is not paid back to him that he will take a pound of flesh from his body. Bassanio leaves to win the affections of Portia and leaves Antonio to worry about his ships. As time goes by, Shylock comes to find that one of Antonio's ships had been wrecked and that there would be no way for him to pay him back so he takes it to the court to receive justice. Meanwhile Bassanio had become Portia's husband and receives a letter from Antonio that he will be killed because he was unable to pay the bond to Shylock and he has decided to take the pound of flesh from his heart. With the help of Portia, who gladly gives 6,000 ducats to Bassanio to take to Antonio to save her husband's best friend. While Bassanio is with Antonio, Portia dresses up as a young judge that saves Antonio from death. I really liked The Merchant of Venice. It was a fairly easy play to follow and had a happy ending for the most part. Bassanio gets the girl, Antonio lives on, Good triumphs over Evil. I found the ending a bit sad too. Shylock in the end loses everything, his daughter ran off and married a Christian, his lifesavings and assets now belong to the city of Venice, and the court took his religion away from him, making him convert to Christianity or die.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.--Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd." Hamlet is the one play that I had heard of and read before this class that we have discussed. The quote above is one of Hamlet's famous soliloquies. We know that Hamlet was the rightful heir to the throne after his father, the late King Hamlet, was killed. But his mother remarried his uncle Claudius and he became the new King. Denmark is preparing for war with Norway because before the late King Hamlet died he fought and defeated the King of Norway and in turn took all his land. Now the new King of Norway is preparing to attack Denmark and reclaim the land that his grandfather lost. The ghost of King Hamlet shows himself to Hamlet and tells him of how his death came to be. After absorbing this new knowledge Hamlet decides to take revenge on Claudius. He forms a plan to act insane so that no one will take him seriously and he plays the part so well that everyone believes him to be mad. Hamlet succeeds in getting revenge on Claudius but ends up dying shortly after as well. I really liked the play of Hamlet. It was different from all the other plays that I have read so far. It has a lot of different elements to it such as murder, insanity, love, great friendship, deceit and cunning. I found it much easier to follow due to the fact that I had read this play in high school and I was able to decode it better.
When Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar, he wrote it in the era of Queen Elizabeth I. During the time of Queen Elizabeth I's rule she was 66 and had not announced an heir, much like Julius had not announced his, people started to think that if no heir was produced before she died England would be reduced to chaos such as in the War of the Roses. This was also a concern in the play of Julius Caesar. If Julius was to go off to war and died there would be no one to take his place which could send Rome into chaos. We learn as we read the play that Julius is a charismatic and enterprising general of the Roman Army and that he takes over most of NW Europe and is still able to remain a hero in most of the poorer civilians eyes. But along with dedicated followers he also makes enemies. Some feared that with Julius becoming the absolute ruler of Rome that Julius's power would send the Roman Empire into slavery. With this fear, Caius Cassius and Marcus Brutus decide that the only way to break the tension is to kill Julius Caesar. But in the end killing Julius Caesar is what sent the Roman Empire into turmoil. Instead of fixing the problem like they thought it would it only made it worse. I didnt like JC as much as I did The Tempest. To me, Julius Caesar was a little harder for me to follow along with and understand. It helped being able to watch parts of the movie. By watching parts of the movie I was able to get into the play more and better comprehend it.
The Tempest was the first play that we read in our Shakespeare 201 class. This was the first time I had heard of the play. Granted my knowledge on Shakespearean plays was limited to the plays that I read in high school in my senior year. Before we dove into the play too much we learned that The Tempest is a comedy. A comedy in Shakespearean time was a lot different than what we would consider a comedy in today's time. When we think of comedy we think of jokes, laughter and down right funny. A Shakespearean comedy is a play that ends well or has a happy resolution such as marriage. Throughout the play there is always some sort of power struggle between the characters. We first see this when Alonso, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio, Stephano, and Trinculo are on the ship that is caught in the storm and is trying to tell the boatswain how to do his job. The boatswain isn't having any of that and tells them they can do whatever they like on land but out here on the sea he knows what to do better than any of them and tells them to get out of his way. Another power struggle is between Prospero and Caliban and Ariel. Prospero seems to think since he saved both of them from horrible fates that they should be enslaved to him even though they have performed many tasks for Prospero that would in normal circumstances would have given them their freedom. Also with the relationship between Prospero, Caliban and Ariel there is the role of the barbarian and the civilized. Caliban is portrayed as a "barbarian" due to him not knowing Prospero's language or how to read or write but the true barbarian is Prospero. Prospero is the barbarian because he thinks that since he has taught Caliban how to read, write and speak his language that Caliban should be his slave. But Caliban, in return for being taught those things showed Prospero around the island, showing him where to get food, water, shelter and wood for a fire. The same goes with Prospero and Ariel's relationship. Prospero saves Ariel from a hollowed tree that he was trapped in and in return he wants Ariel to be his servant. Ariel performs tasks for Prospero without complaint and he asks to be set free but Prospero calls him ungrateful and keeps putting off his freedom. I really liked this play. I especially liked how it ended with Prospero asking to be set free. He breaks the "third wall" by engaging the audience in the play asking us to clap to set him free. I think that Shakespeare is being portrayed by Prospero in that moment because we know that this was the last play that he wrote by himself and he is asking to be "set free" himself.
