While I was unsure before about whether or not Shylock is villain or victim in The Merchant of Venice, upon closer inspection, the BBC "Theatre in Video" production seemed to be leaning towards villain. Shylock's character is dressed in all black, and the actor chosen was shorter than any other. Whether intentional or not, the visual difference between Shylock and other men sets him apart from them, and the black clothing suggest evil or darkness. Maybe even a 'black heart'. In the climax of the play, the court scene, Shylock and Antonio are placed much more closely on stage than I would have pictured them. The producers seem to be saying, "look at this man, he can stand a foot away from a good man like Antonio and demand his life." Villain. The physical closeness of the characters, and Antonio's friends intense pleadings with Shylock, reveal a heartless and unforgiving man.

The themes of mercy and justice were also extremely emphasized in the film. Shylock refuses to have mercy on Antonio, saying he wants justice to be fulfilled. Portia(disguised as the lawyer Balthazar) tries to convice Shylock to take his money and leave. The actress helped me to better understand the theme in the way she softly, almost pleadingly, encouraged Shylock to show mercy. But when the tables were turned and Shylock was the one in need of mercy, the judge spared his life before Shylock could even ask. The judge said it was "the see the difference in our spirit." So once again Shylock is the villain, the one who showed no mercy and asked for justice. It was the judge, by Antonio's request, who portrayed the Christian concept of mercy when he could have dealt Shylock with justice.

So there you go, Shylock is the villain and he got what he deserved. Right?

Oh.. poor guy..

Some other things that I noticed about the production:

Antonio(right) saying goodbye to Bassanio(left) with
Portia(disguised as lawyer) listening in.

• It was set up like a stage production, but obviously for a movie viewing audience. The actors talked too softly for a play, moved around too much, and interacted with the camera.
• I like that all the [asides] that weren't to another character were directed at the camera. It formed a connection between me and the character, like they were confiding in me as a viewer.
• The setting was very minimalistic, but the costumes were extravagant. Called attention and focus to the actor.
• Camera angles usually focused on speaker, but sometimes captured powerful emotions in listeners
• Shylock's daughter, Jessica, didn't have a Hebrew accent. This is a foreshadow of her running away with a Christian and not identifying herself with the Jews.
• The women in the court scene were not very well disguised as men. It emphasized the gullibility and ignorance of the men for not recognizing them.

As we're getting into The Tempest, there is a storm and a shipwreck and there are at least three separate groups (that I know of so far) that are stranded on the island. It seems odd to me that the very first thing someone in each group did was assume that everyone else was dead, and then look to see what they could gain from the situation.

Commonality of wrecking a ship
"Every day some sailor's wife, the masters of some merchant, and the merchant have just our theme of woe. But for the miracle-I mean our preservation-few in millions can speak like us." -Gonzalo
This quote suggests to me that shipwreck, and death and loss resulting from shipwreck, was very common in Shakespeare's day. In a brief history of Bermuda, there are four historic shipwrecks documented from 1500-1699. Which means there were many more that were not written about, obvious from the map here. So it seems like the characters of The Tempest were somewhat justified in thinking that anyone not with them must have perished. But there does seem to be some other reason why many of them gave up hope so quickly.


Let's all assume everyone's dead
Ferdinand: 
"The ditty doth remember my drowned father."
Alonso:
"My son is lost."
Sebastian:
"Milan and Naples have more widows in them of this business' making than we bring men to comfort them."
Antonio:
"'Tis as impossible that he's undrowned as he that sleeps here swims"
Trinculo:
"I should know that voice. It should be-but he is drowned, and these are devils."


What do we stand to gain?
Ferdinand:
"I am the best (highest ranking) of them that speak this speech (Italian)."
Ferdinand assumes the king, his father, is dead. And therefore assumes that he is now king.
Gonzalo:
"Had I plantation of this isle... and were the king on 't... I would with such perfection govern, sir, to excel the Golden Age."
Antonio (to Sebastian):
"My strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon thy head."
Sebastian (to Antonio): 
"As thou got'st Milan, I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword. One stroke shall free the from the tribute which thou payest, and I the King shall love thee."
If the king, his son, and any witnesses are dead, Sebastian becomes king and Antonio gains his love and freedom from tribute.
Stephano:
"Trinculo, the King and all our company else being drowned, we will inherit here."
This quote pretty much sums up all the others. Stephano, a butler, believes that everyone higher ranking than him is dead, and plans on inheriting what would otherwise go to men above him.

The coat of the King of Naples.
 (What all these men were after)

Can't get any higher than the top
It's interesting to note that, though he believes his son to be dead at first, the king, Alonso, eventually finds hope and goes out to "search for [his] poor son." He is the only character who doesn't have anything to gain from the death of another. Since Alonso is already king, no one else's death would be beneficial to him, so he hopes his son lives. All the other characters have something to gain from the death of others, and so give up hope much more quickly. Sebastian and Antonio even go so far as to try and kill the King and Gonzalo so that they can be in higher positions of power when they return home. I'm sensing some Macbeth parallels here...




If I only had a brain.. or a conscience.
The case of Antonio and Sebastian stands out from the others. While all the other ambitions of characters rely on fortune, or misfortune, granting them the death of a superior, Antonio and Sebastian's ambitions must be taken by force. It is easy to justify taking power when the men before you were killed by nature, but it should not be so easy to justify killing for gain. Shakespeare's characters, however, seem to be burdened very little by their consciences. When speaking of murder Sebastian asks, "But for your conscience?" To which Antonio basically replies, 'I haven't got one. Nothing bothers me.' His justifications for the murder of the king are reminiscent of Berowne of Love's Labour's Lost justifying his pursuit of women. If they can put enough words together, then they can justify their actions to themselves. Sebastian's conscience seems to be won over, as he replies, "Thy case, dear friend, shall be my precedent." So these two men, who seemed so lighthearted and upright, justify murder and treason in less than five minutes.


Is Shakespeare's comment here that ambition is more powerful than moral conscience? That man will kill to get gain? And that those who don't bring themselves to murder are just as ready to accept the death of another if it benefits them? If so, who's death do you stand to gain from? Ever thought about it?

May I say that our class trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar was great? Well, I'm going to say it anyways. It was great. I had a fun time getting to know the people in my car who I probably never would have interacted with any other way. And the play was really well done. Seeing Shakespeare live is such a big difference from reading the text or watching a movie. Although I will admit that every time the lights went down to the "winter" setting of black and purple I had a hard time keeping my eyes open...

One of the things that really interested me while watching the play was how they used costumes to promote a theme or develop a character. There's really no way to organize my thoughts on it without getting long and drawn out, so here they are in all their unorganized glory:

Hermione wearing white in the beginning and when she comes back to life, and Perdita wearing white. It emphasized their innocence, Hermione as faithful and Perdita as Leontes true daughter.

Purple and black clothes set the stage for winter. Winter colors. Shiny, black shoes and tuxes and formal clothing for winter.

The men changed to brown suits in the spring and the tones of the girls dresses were a lot more earthy and reminded me of spring and life. It was more natural.

The clown in striped pants. The clown in striped suit after he is made a "gentleman." Character continuity. Rank didn't change him. Helped make the actor recognizable after a wardrobe change.

Autolycus' coat. Can I just say it was awesome? Really, I want that coat. On the outside it was tan and plain, like the facade he is trying to portray. On the inside it was woven and messy and all kinds of crazy colors. Like his true personality could help bursting out every time he turned around. His clothes were so complex and interesting. The wig and the hat, his boots went all the way up to his knee. It was just a really unique combination and somehow it all worked, like the different sides and faces of his character.

Florizel's cape was kinda lame. Frilly and off one shoulder. Held on by a string that kept slipping off. Maybe it shows how insubstantial and pretty-boy esque his character was. He does take the cape off though, so maybe running away with Perdita is his growing up.

Paulina. Why did she make me think of a cranky British nanny? Well.. that's how they dressed her. I just couldn't get over how old and out of place she looked. But maybe that's a consequence of being the voice of reason, you feel out of place and get a bad name for it. And isn't she, in some ways, Leontes' nanny? She smacks him on the hand every time he does a "bad thing" and tries to be cheerful.

So there's my jumble of observations from a Winter's Tale. There's not really any opportunity to interpret a director's costuming decisions when we're just studying the text in class. So this was fun.
Until next time, Hakuna Mutata.

Oh, and P.S. don't forget the bear's costume. I'm so glad it didn't look like this:

Today's blog posting is going to be a little less about Shakespeare, and a little more about me... I know, gasp. How selfish of me.

So as we are getting more into this blogging business, a point that seems to keep coming up is finding an online identity. Blogs are interesting when you know who you are, know what you like, and are witty about sharing it. Right? But we aren't all born knowing the answers to these questions. Some people never figure out just who they are. I usually count myself as one of those. So the question is, how do I create an online identity, when my identity in reality is still up in the air? I don't have a major (it got the X about a week into this semester) and I don't have a single clue about what I am vaguely interested in. Inside my head there's this battle where on one shoulder is a little kid saying Hakuna Mutata, it means no worries. I can grow up to be anything in the world, as long as I believe. And on my other shoulder is a grumpy old lady telling me she's tired of working, just give up now, I'll never find anything I want to major in. Actually, she looks kinda like this:

But the point is, blogging Shakespeare related to something that interests me is actually kinda scary. Because what interests me is everything and nothing. And yet, as I was reflecting on my hopeless situation today I had a thought. A brilliant thought, if I do say so myself. If Shakespeare knew so much about the nature of humanity, he must have known about people like me, too. The world is full of indecisive people who are struggling to find themselves. And although they may not be the great protagonists of Shakespeare's plays, I am sure he included them somewhere. So that's what I'm here to do, look for me in Shakespeare. As we read through some of his great works this semester, I'll be on the lookout for the lost and confused, the people who are in the midst of self discovery. And who knows, maybe I'll discover a little bit of myself along the way. Hopefully it won't be the old, wrinkly part:)

FYI: The title is a Merchant of Venice quote

Just from the first act of Winter's Tale, it seems that loyalty is going to be a big issue. First there's King Leontes' wavering loyalty and belief in his wife, Hermione. There's the loyalty that should exist between friends such as Leontes and Polixenes, which apparently Leontes is now disregarding. And there's also the questionable loyalty of the servant Camillo. Camillo is interesting though, because we're not quite sure what he's supposed to be loyal to. He is a servant of King Leontes, and therefore should be loyal to him, but Camillo seems even more interested in truth and saving the life of King Polixenes. Are Camillio's loyalties somewhere a bit more valuable than in his master's word? It seems to me that his loyalties lie with doing the right thing, with life and truth. But these bold values make him traitor to the crown. Already, the theme of Winter's Tale is more one of loyalties lost than kept, and the consequences of breaking trust.