Thinking about Friday, June 19

Response to Act I of A Midsummer Night's Dream: More than anything, Egues and his “privilege” stand out to me, which is why I chose to focus on that in my lesson. There are certainly other things to look at, but the concept of marriage depicted in this act seemed so overwhelming to me. I guess I shouldn’t focus on that, though, since my lesson works with it.

“But for the ordinary women in post-Reformation England, only one recognized path remained—marriage, motherhood, and eventually, perhaps, widowhood. The image of an institutionally sanctioned community of single women, headed by a woman, had been ruled out of order—except, of course, in the case of the queen’s household” (193).

So, let’s talk about Amazons. With some knowledge of Amazonians, Hippolyta’s character takes on a whole new meaning. She becomes so much more than she seems to be. Certainly, she is the most problematic of characters in this act. So, what do we make of her? I can’t answer that, but I think I can say for sure that she has to be thought about as more than a meek, quiet, insignificant character. She is, though, only given five lines in the whole scene. But she’s got to be worth more than the five lines. When is she on stage and when isn’t she? Does she interact with other character? If so, who, and how do they interact? Asking these questions affords the opportunity to think about Hippolyta as more than her spoken line, which she undoubtedly is. If she isn’t, then why did Shakespeare make her the conquered queen of the Amazon? Why not just Jane Doe?

Dr S’s exercise really got me thinking about this. With just the two props—a rose and a book marked The Law of Athens—there are so many possibilities. I’ve been thinking about one. What if the book of the Law of Athens was presented on the stage before any characters arrived, on some sort of distinguished podium? The book is open, white pages exposed. Therefore, we have the patriarchy established, or so it seems. Around this prominent figure, though, are growing some roses. And what color are these roses? You guessed it—red roses, so we establish the colors of the gender binary (Amy?). So this book is referenced throughout by the men, pointing out the fact that they have the power to do as they wish with these women; however, when the men aren’t looking, and Hippolyta is finished speaking, she remains onstage, and she playfully rips pages from the book (as Dr S suggested). More than that, though, she begins playing with the roses, which haven’t seemed important up to this point, and just as all but Hermia and Lysander are leaving the stage, Hippolyta passes a rose to Hermia, signifying that neither of them has had their femininity tamed. And in a way Hippolyta is passing the torch to Hermia, saying, “keep this alive. Your sexuality is yours. Don’t give it up to patriarchy.”

Alright, I’ve got to move on to Friday’s acting portion. One thing’s for sure, I was ridiculously nervous about performing my lines. And I wasn’t sure about all the acting when we first started. As has been suggested, we, the literature students, have to get ourselves out of our version of Shakespeare. That was (and is) tough for me, but the acting portion of class has been helping. Honestly, I’ve never really looked at Shakespeare in this way. I can remember seeing my best friend, Robbie, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in high school and thinking it was hilarious, but I can’t remember ever thinking it was funny as I read it, and the same goes for most of the comedies. Trying to be Christopher Sly, though, the humor of his lines has become so apparent to me. He’s freaking hilarious, or he can be. It’s also really interesting to me how simple acting tools, like pausing, can change the meaning of what is being said, and this case, can add so much humor to simple line. Trying to play Sly only reaffirmed my love for him and his plot. Seeing Allen, too, has really helped me see the funny side to all this. Allen, you are genuinely hilarious.

Also, I really liked the exercise where we interchanged gender roles for the characters of Katharina and Petruchio. One of the most important subcontexts to The Taming of the Shrew is gender stereotyping and roles. I think we really see that best in the Induction, because we obviously know that Sly “wife” is a male page. That carries forward, though, and I so I think changing the sex of the actors playing Katharina and Petruchio brings something interesting to that discussion. I can certainly see myself using that exercise if I were teaching The Shrew.