The production of Winter’s Tale that we watched in class was well done. I thought the actors were above average. I am not a drama critic and I have only seen a handful of plays but I believe this play was very well done. The portrayals of the characters were very accurate to the text.
Leontes was depicted as mad and infected with jealousy in the scene in Act 3. I thought the character played the part of a mad man well. His facial expressions helped him come of as a mad man. And he seemed to ignore everything that Hermione said in a very believable way. My problem with his character was that he seemed a little wacky. By that I mean his character was almost silly. I think it would have came off a little better if he was to have a more angry tone, sort of like the one Laurance Fishbourne played in Othello. Also when he cried it was sort of amusing. I think he could have done better. His depiction in the later act was good. They had him dressed in more humbler attire and he seemed to be very level headed.
Hermione was great. I loved the actress who played her. In Act 3 she was superb. The emotion she evoked locked me to the screen, I felt genuinely bad for her. She wasn’t too emotional for the stage nor was she trying too hard. She had it just right. She was an honorable woman. I felt she had just the right amount of dignity and pride on her way out. In the later scene, well she didn’t do much but stand there. She plays a statue well! When she came alive I felt it was fitting. I was waiting to see how she would act when it was time for her to come to life and I was pleased when she did it the way she did. It wasn’t tacky.
Paulina was the voice of reason. She was ok. In Act 3 she was good but when it was time for her to be very emotional, she wasn’t as good as Hermione. I’m not sure what I would do to make that part better, but it seemed put on when she was yelling down at Leontes. I did enjoy her part in Act 5. She was soft enough to be heard and set the mood well. The way she was stirring Hermione to life was ok but it got to the point to where I was saying to myself, “come on already lady, wake up!”
Friday, November 20, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Blog 11
Othello and Antony and Cleopatra both deal with their fair share of ethnocentricity. Shakespeare uses certain characteristics of people to support these views. Whether he was trying to support ethnocentricity is unsure to me, my goal is to compare and contrast a few instances in which some of the character traits within the play show this.
In Othello, the main character, Othello is not full blooded Venetian. He is treated as an outsider because of his half blooded nature. And he sees himself as an outsider. Because of his ethnicity racial epithets are used against him. Some of the slurs used against him are “the thick lips” which can be found Act 1.1 and “old black ram” which can be found in Act 1.1 also. Since Othello is not a full blooded Roman, his lack of self control towards the end of the play can show what he lacks according to the Roman ethnocentric view. Romans are seen as strong, rational, and very masculine men. As the play progresses and Othello starts to lose control over his emotions. And being that he is losing control because of what he thinks is a woman’s doing, this shows great weakness. To the Romans, lack of emotional control is very much a woman’s trait, that stereotype still lives on today. With certain signs showing Othello there is a reasonable doubt that Desdemona is innocent, Othello chooses to pull a George W. Bush and trust his gut feeling. Romans would look down upon this, as it is a sign that Othello has lost some sense of reason.
The way Anotony and Cleopatra deals with the ideas of the east and the west is interesting. As stated before, Roman culture was very masculine. And it is fitting that the person to truly control a Roman would be a woman in Egypt. Cleopatra is a woman of Egypt, she eventually gets the very brave man of war Antony to follow her off of the battlefield in a retreat. Ironically during the end of the play after Antony killed himself, Cleopatra later kills herself in a more masculine way. Using the Asps to bite her is a very Roman idea, which in itself represents masculinity. She seems to die in a way that suggests she is in control, while Antony killed himself attempted but failed to kill himself in Act 4.15. In that scene he says he doesn’t know who he is, having an identity crisis as a Roman is not very honorable and shows weakness on his part, while Cleopatra always seems to be in control of her life.
In Othello, the main character, Othello is not full blooded Venetian. He is treated as an outsider because of his half blooded nature. And he sees himself as an outsider. Because of his ethnicity racial epithets are used against him. Some of the slurs used against him are “the thick lips” which can be found Act 1.1 and “old black ram” which can be found in Act 1.1 also. Since Othello is not a full blooded Roman, his lack of self control towards the end of the play can show what he lacks according to the Roman ethnocentric view. Romans are seen as strong, rational, and very masculine men. As the play progresses and Othello starts to lose control over his emotions. And being that he is losing control because of what he thinks is a woman’s doing, this shows great weakness. To the Romans, lack of emotional control is very much a woman’s trait, that stereotype still lives on today. With certain signs showing Othello there is a reasonable doubt that Desdemona is innocent, Othello chooses to pull a George W. Bush and trust his gut feeling. Romans would look down upon this, as it is a sign that Othello has lost some sense of reason.
The way Anotony and Cleopatra deals with the ideas of the east and the west is interesting. As stated before, Roman culture was very masculine. And it is fitting that the person to truly control a Roman would be a woman in Egypt. Cleopatra is a woman of Egypt, she eventually gets the very brave man of war Antony to follow her off of the battlefield in a retreat. Ironically during the end of the play after Antony killed himself, Cleopatra later kills herself in a more masculine way. Using the Asps to bite her is a very Roman idea, which in itself represents masculinity. She seems to die in a way that suggests she is in control, while Antony killed himself attempted but failed to kill himself in Act 4.15. In that scene he says he doesn’t know who he is, having an identity crisis as a Roman is not very honorable and shows weakness on his part, while Cleopatra always seems to be in control of her life.
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