Shakespeare, Oh Shakespeare, Wherefore Art Thou?

We have begun our section on Shakespeare and his works in class. In the meantime we have been assigned to read Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Discussion began with the basics--what we had already gleaned about Shakespeare from our English classes and so on. Born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare had a relatively comprehensive education that would have put him in contact with literature that influenced his own skill in writing. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. Much of Shakespeare's background is general knowledge so I will focus this entry on my research into The Taming of the Shrew. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a drunken tinker named Sly is tricked into thinking he is a nobleman by a mischievous lord. Apparently, this Induction seems to have no correlation with the rest of the play and is often cut by directors. It is another one of those instances in which Shakespeare's work simply lacks consistency (ex. suspicion surrounding monologues by Hecate in Shakespeare's Macbeth). Anyways, the Lord has a play performed for Sly's entertainment with a primary and sub-plot. The main plot depicts the courting of Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate, and eponymous shrew. Katherina is at first an unwilling participant in the relationship but Petruchio tempers or "tames" her with various psychological torments until she becomes his obedient bride. The sub-plot features a competition between the suitors of Katherina's less intractable sister, Bianca. Stay posted for new insights and revelations into the story as I begin to read the work.

Shakespeare Video Marathon

As Spring Break quickly approaches, the remaining snippets of class have been spent watching videos on Shakespeare. We actually just completed an interesting activity involving the comparison of various interpretations of a single scene from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. In completing this activity, I was able to recognize the differences between a stage production versus a cinematic interpretation of any given scene. There was also a difference in interpretation simply based on the time period or context the director had decided to set the play in. Some performances tended to be more physical than others, drawing various emotions from the audience. By the end of the process, we as an audience concluded that it was more effective to have the excessive physicality as the more subtle interpretations began to bore us. Some interpretations we also found to be way off the mark. The director's choices did not always make sense to us, but we realized that it was simply all part of the creative process. Another difference we found was in the level of awareness in respect to sexual connotations Shakespeare had incorporated into his text. Personally, I tended to prefer mild allusions to these connotations as the blatant ones always tended to come out so vulgar.