Creative Engagement - Shakespeare Behind Bars

In Shakespeare Behind bars, it was interesting to see how closely the inmates seemed to connect with the play, often reflecting bits of themselves passionately through their characters. During personal interviews, many of these inmates revealed what they had done that landed them in a prison setting and many of them became both emotional and remorseful. For me, their words came off as very truthful and their feelings appeared raw.

However, in many sociology and psychology courses, we learn that recidivism (resorting back to crimes) is incredibly high amongst released inmates. Similarly, many studies show (sadly) that it is unlikely for an inmate to be behaviorally reformed while in prison (though they may undergo serious religious/faith reformations).

Which position do you guys feel holds up more? Did the men in this video appear to be remorseful and reformed? If so, did their participation in the Shakespeare program perhaps aid this? Or do you stand behind the statistics and studies? Let me know what you think!

Rumination: Shakespeare Behind Bars

When reading an original Shakespearean play, it is important (if not entirely necessary) to take into consideration the small writing in the margins. Often, these clarifications tell us how a character spoke their dialogue (was it sarcastic? bitter? whispered? laughed?) They can also give us a feel for the emotion behind the words (if a line is said by a character followed by the stage direction of "storming out the door" we can tell that the dialogue was very emotional and intended to offend or insult). While these stage directions and voice clarifications help enhance a reader's interpretation of the play, physical performances of the plays often stray from these directions, changing their meaning. In "Shakespeare Behind Bars," several slight (and perhaps unintended) changes to the play's portrayal have altered its meaning and tone.

For example, when viewing the performance of the prison inmates during their lines of dialogue, it is hard not to notice the way they intensely elevate the volume of their speech. In many instances, they are almost yelling their lines. Perhaps this is reflective of their own personal experiences within prison: participating in the play may be the only time throughout their incarceration term that they feel that they have a voice. Do they yell their lines because they are caught up in the excitement of finally being heard? 

Typically in performances, actors are encouraged to speak their lines clearly and slowly as to avoid appearing "babbling"to the audience. However, many of the inmates say their lines very quickly, establishing an air of anxiety in their words. This slight change in tempo gives Shakespeare's play a different tone than originally intended for the text  - however this tone change does not harm the play's effect; instead, it offers a different view of a famous text. The anxiety in the speech of the inmates also brings an air of passion into their dialogue. This passion may very well be fueled by their emotional stories about how they became incarcerated. One man, who spoke about having a very tumultuous romantic relationship with an ex-wife appears to allow his feelings of frustration, loss, and guilt into his performance. In this way, perhaps Shakespear behind Bars is more reflective of real life than the original text is.

Rumination: Sarcasm in Volpone

When performed, written text often takes on a different meaning. Subtle literary references to character, sarcasm, and judgmental undertones become exaggerated in theatrical productions as to convey the meaning to the audience. For example, someone who is hinted at in the text as being overly materialistic may appear on stage in ridiculously gaudy attire. Similarly, a character who is hinted as secretly being a homosexual may take on a voice or stance on stage that is stereotypically indicative of being gay. While the text version of these productions are often more difficult to navigate through when looking for these subtle elements, they are rewarding in the sense that these elements are seen in their raw form. A deeper reading of texts such as Jonson's "Volpone" can help its readers to grasp onto some of these elements that can often be overlooked in reading - particularly the element of sarcasm, which is often difficult to convey through text.

When being tried, Celia is quoted as saying that "And heaven never fails the innocent." While perhaps these words were meant to be hopeful, they are loaded with sarcasm and come off as mildly humorous to the reader. They tie into our current day sayings about how the "good guy" always finishes last. Perhaps Jonson, the author, intended to use her words as a commentary on the way that heaven, God, and even our own society and governments DO fail the innocent. This scene however, is not the only place where sarcasm appears throughout the text.

In one scene, when Volpone makes his entrance Voltore cries out that "here's the ravisher, the rider on men's wives, the great impostor, the grand voluptuary!" but later goes on to change his position when he instead suggests that perhaps torturing Volpone would prove his sickness to be valid. When first reading this, I took his words literally and was very confused. However, a further investigation into the text showed that he was sarcastically suggesting the idea of torture - a suggestion that changed the air surrounding the situation and made other characters in the scene uneasy.

Taking into consideration later sarcastic references to wealth and old age, one can view Jonson's work as pretty humorous. To me, his writing is almost that of a comedy when you examine the spitfire dialogue between characters.

Rumination - Self vs. The Collective Whole

While reading "Utopia" by Sir Thomas More, I could not help but feel uneasy about the constant debate over what matters more in life: personal freedom or protection & fairness. It is common to hear the saying "life isn't fair" but if it could be . . . should we strive for it? Are we selfish for craving freedom and individuality when we know full well that we could end a lot of human suffering by giving up this piece of ourselves? How much should we sacrifice? Essentially, is one person more important, less important, as important as the collective whole?

"Utopia" hits on several of these questions. Speaking to More, one of the characters presses that "... as long as you have private property, and as long as money is the measure of all things, it is really not possible for a nation to be governed justly or happily. For justice cannot exist where all the best things in life are held by the worst citizens; nor can anyone be happy where property is limited to a few, since those few are always uneasy and the many are utterly wretched" (Utopia 543). Here he is arguing that anything held private by an individual that is not shared with the community can only harm said community. He attributes the loss of  justice to the idea of private property and seems to suggest that as long as money is used to fuel the economy and settle debts, happiness is unachievable. However, this leads me to wonder: what kind of happiness does he mean? Is he referring to the raw "happiness" that you feel walking barefoot through the woods as you think to yourself how perfect it feels to exist today? Or is he referring to that overwhelming happiness that you feel when you breathe a sigh of relief now that your upcoming exam has been pushed back for a week?

All of this debate brought me to re-read a few sections from George Orwell's 1984, which is famous for it's portrayal of government as being overpowering and restrictive of personal freedoms. In several instances, Orwell uses the dialogue between his characters to argue that when people choose protection over freedom, they lose a part of themselves and become almost zombie-like. Speaking of the community in chapter 5, he writes that "until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious"(Orwell 5). In this way, the community is seen as powerless. Not only did they surrender their personal freedoms for the collective whole, but they also relinquished control of their fists.

A later Science Fiction interpretation of Orwell's "1984"and More's "Utopia"named "Little Brother" attempts to continue raising these issues but in a more realistic setting. Among countless other things, "Little Brother" comments on the use of "EZpasses" and pressures it's audience to recognize the danger in allowing the government to monitor and track your every move. (Upon first reading this I thought it was a stretch - until this week when I received a 130.00 ticket in the mail from my spring break trip to South Carolina this year. Even though I was not actually caught speeding - I'm from Jersey, I can't help myself - I was given a ticket because the time elapsed between one EZpass scan to the next was considered too short for me to have been going the speed limit). Anyway, all three texts raise similar issues. I find it interesting how many years this same storyline/argument has been going on in literature, society, and government without resolution.

Wildcard - A Sign From Above

The letter I SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN last year to the boy's who lived below me at Montclair State University. They will never know the extent of my sleep deprivation  . . . 

:)

Rumination - Lady Anne Halkett, A Gender/Religion Commentary

While reading Lady Anne Halkett's work from The Memoirs, I couldn't help but pick up on the many references to gender and religion of the time period - both subtle and direct.

The passage beings"this gentleman came to see me sometimes in the company of ladies who had been my mother's neighbors in St. Martin's Lane, and sometimes alone, but whenever he came his discourse was serious, handsome, and tending to impress the advantages of piety, loyalty, and virtue" (1764). In her description of his discourse, Halkett attributes the gentleman with not only masculine characteristics and adjectives, but with personality traits such as piety, loyalty, and virtue. These attributes make him masculine, but also make him almost godly. The traits of "piety, loyalty, and virtue" have religious undertones and are each expressed directly in the bible. It just so happens that these traits that are typically used to describe a "good Christian" are here used to describe a "good" man. In this way, we see religious expectations and expectations of manhood intertwined.

However, masculine roles are not the only ones commented on in this passage. Halkett later writes of these traits when she admits that "these subjects were so agreeable to my own inclination that I could not but give them a good reception, especially from one that seemed to be so much an owner of them himself"(1764). In this way, we see her embracing a typical female role as she engages in servitude to the gentleman. This can also be taken as suggestively religious if we take into account the way the man is deified by the adjectives used to describe him.  Through this lens, perhaps her servitude to him may be representative of a "good Christian's" servitude to God.

Creative Engagement - Laura Thatcher Ulrich

I was inspired by the video blog for this week that began with the question: how much historical context can be seen through diary entries? How much of it is valid, applicable, or of interest to us? This led me to comment on a movie that I watched for a history course, "A Midwife's Tale" by Laura Thatcher Ulrich.

Laura Thatcher Ulrich created the film “A Midwife’s Tale” in order to provide an introspective view on life for a typical woman during the 18th century. Her work focused on analyzing and making a visual representation of the diary of Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived during the time period. A lot can be said about the time period and women's role in society at the time by looking at the text. For example, all of Ballard's diary entries are incredibly short, direct, and to the point. Her sentences are often grammatically flawed, lack verbs, and have tense disagreement. There are repeated misspellings and improper capitalizations. This careful examination of her writing may suggest that women during the 18th century were not as well educated as men, or at least not provided with the same learning opportunities. This lack of education is seen through her writing skills and can be broadly attributed to other women of the time period. 

Focusing more on the actual content of her diary entries, we see that almost every day she writes about falling ill or the sickness of a child. These entries directly parallel historical facts that disease and illness dominated the 18th century and was essentially inescapable. Her diary captures this historical fact and records it in a more personal context. Similarly, we see that most of her entries describe her role in helping these ailing friends and family members - suggesting that women's roles at the time were that of helpers who engaged in servitude and healing.

Creative Engagement: John Keats ♥ Shakespeare

As I was reading Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare, I found a striking thematic similarity between the sonnet and the poem "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats. In Sonnet 18, the woman described is seen as so beautiful that death could never claim her - she lives on through the narrators description. Similarly, in Keat's work the Nightingdale too is made immortal - it lives on through its song. Both author's references  could also be intended to suggest that, like the lady and her beauty & the bird and his song, a poet is made immortal by his poetry. Take a look for yourself!

John Keats. 1795–1821

624. Ode to a Nightingale

MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,	5
But being too happy in thine happiness,
That thou, light-wingèd Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.	10
O for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delvèd earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South!	15
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainèd mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:	20
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,	25
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.	30
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,	35
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.	40
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmèd darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;	45
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast-fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.	50
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,	55
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.	60
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path	65
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that ofttimes hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.	70
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is famed to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades	75
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—do I wake or sleep?

Creative Engagement - Sidney

Alright well I absolutely, 100% DID NOT write this myself. But I couldn't help reading it and muttering a silent "amen" to myself.

"What can I say? He loves her, or thinks he does. She tries to be kind, or at least he thinks she does. He pushes his luck--that he admits (in the Fourth Song). And she dumps him (in the Eleventh Song). If you see no ironic, self-mocking humor in his descriptions of his struggles with desire and reason, in his description of love's effect on his performance in combat (#41 and #53), in his claims about his poetic inspiration (#1 and #74), you aren't reading carefully enough. If these poems are read with no ear for that irony, "Astrophil" comes off as a pompous fool. If read with sensitivity, the cycle shows how the whole medieval doctrine of "courtly love" and the courtier's ability to rise to the stars by love (Bembo) may be appreciated even while it is subjected to an enormously entertaining and subtle critique. Perhaps love's "ladder" has agendas of its own, independent of its "climbers"? And what of the Beloved, in Bembo, that useful mortal starting point whose beauty soon is left behind by the Lover as he (always "he") rockets into union with the Divine? What does she get out of all of this? More importantly, what does it cost her?"



Anyway, I took this excerpt off of the following site from Goucher College:
http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/sir_philip_sidney_.htm

Take a look at it if you're interested!


I would have to agree with it entirely in the way that I percieved the entire text as somewhat ironic and almost . . . well, pathetic. :)

Lyrical Assignment: Usher - Confessions Album

One of the albums that I found to be an ideal lyrical album is "Confessions" by Usher where most of his songs deal with the experience of losing the love of his life. Like the album title says, most of the songs are confessions of an affair with other women and overall the album as a whole gives off the message of "please take me back". This idea of destroyed relationships and begging for forgiveness is also reflected in several of the music videos that accompany these songs where he often winces and drops to his knees as he lyrically recounts the incidents. At the start of the song "Confessions II" (one of the videos listed below) he almost comes to tears after finding out that his "girl on the side" is pregnant and his "girl at home" is inevitably going to realize his infidelity. The rest of the song is full of doubt, panic, and confusion over how to tell his girlfriend about the situation.




At the end of this video & song you see/hear glass shattering. This leads into the next couple songs, including "Burn" which follows the storyline. In this song, he talks about how their relationship can not come back from such a tragedy and that it must end. A later song, "Truth Hurts" continues this same theme of remorse.





These songs, as well as the rest of the album, parallel his life at the time. Months before this album was released, Usher underwent a very emotional breakup with a girlfriend that he had known since childhood. While some of the songs stray a bit from the truth (there were indeed other women in his life, but no pregnancy scares ;-) ) they still succeed in conveying his feelings about the breakup.

1	Intro	(0:46)
2	Yeah!	(4:10) Performed...
3	Throwback	(4:01) Lyrics - ...
4	Confessions [Interlude]	(1:15)
5	Confessions [Pt. 2]	(3:49) Lyrics - ...
6	Burn	(4:15) Lyrics - ...
7	Caught Up	(3:44) Lyrics - ...
8	Superstar [Interlude]	(1:04)
9	Superstar	(3:28) Lyrics - ...
10	Truth Hurts	(3:51) Lyrics - ...
11	Simple Things	(4:57) Lyrics - ...
12	Bad Girl	(4:21) Lyrics - ...
13	That's What It's Made For	(4:37) Lyrics - ...
14	Can U Handle It?	(5:45) Lyrics - ...
15	Do It to Me	(5:45) Lyrics - ...
16	Take Your Hand	(3:03) Lyrics - ...
17	Follow Me

Rumination #2 – Dual Manipulation of the Sexes

Sir Thomas Wyatt’s “They Flee from Me” poetically describes the chase and loss of a mistress. The poem itself serves as a male sexual fantasy but strays from the literature of its time by incorporating rejection at the poem’s conclusion. This rejection serves as a literary power shift from man to woman and suggests that women, as well as men, are capable of using and manipulating their partners.

The language of the poem, while clearly sexual, is also centralized around the concept of “hunting.” Speaking of his many mistresses, the speaker states that “they flee from me that sometime did me seek, with naked foot, stalking in my chamber. I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek, that now are wild and do not remember that sometime they put themselves in danger” (lines 1-5). In these lines, the women he is referring to are paired with verbs and adjectives that are commonly applied to the actual act of “hunting.”  They are “stalked” in his chamber while barefoot (“naked foot”) which is representative of their inherent vulnerability. Additionally, they are described as “gentle, tame, and meek” and are later considered “wild.” These adjectives, while used to describe the women in the poem, are more commonly attributed animals being hunted. This relationship between mistresses and prey exposes the power that the male speaker holds over the women that he pursues. His elevation in status, however, is not permanent.

Later in the poem, after detailing their sexual encounter, the writer gives the mistress a voice when she asks “dear heart, how like you this?” (line 14). This is the first instance of power being attributed to the woman – the man in the poem is made to answer to her, therefore showing a small shift in their roles. The speaker, softened by the intimacy of their encounter, goes on to say that “it was no dream: I lay broad waking. But all is turned through my gentleness, into a strange fashion of forsaking; and I have leave to go of her goodness, and she also, to use newfangleness” (lines 15-19). This instance ties into the title of the poem, “They Flee from Me” in the sense that after their sexual encounter, the mistress is the one to walk out on him. While not too heartbroken, the speaker is certainly surprised at the role reversal that has taken place after getting intimate with the woman in the poem. She uses him as a gateway into a world of “newfangleness” which is described literally as a fondness for novelty, fashion, and overall fickleness. The woman is able to enter into a realm of elevated status by using her sex appeal to get what she wants from the speaker in the same way that he used his status to get what he wanted out of her. When she is done with him, she casts him off in pursuit of bigger and better things.

In essence, Sir Thomas Wyatt’s poem serves as a commentary on the dual manipulation of the sexes and exposes the underlying incentives behind such encounters between man and mistress.

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

They flee from me that Sometime did me Seek

              1They flee from me that sometime did me seek

              2With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.

              3I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,

              4That now are wild and do not remember

              5That sometime they put themself in danger

              6To take bread at my hand; and now they range,

              7Busily seeking with a continual change.

              8Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise

              9Twenty times better; but once in special,

            10In thin array after a pleasant guise,

            11When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,

            12And she me caught in her arms long and small;

            13Therewithall sweetly did me kiss

            14And softly said, "dear heart, how like you this?"

            15It was no dream: I lay broad waking.

            16But all is turned thorough my gentleness

            17Into a strange fashion of forsaking;

            18And I have leave to go of her goodness,

            19And she also, to use newfangleness.

            20But since that I so kindly am served

            21I would fain know what she hath deserved.

Rumination #1 Femininity in Beowulf - A Darker Side

The tale of Beowulf is one of action. Much of the story’s emphasis is on men, battles, and quests for fame instead of  on females or personal relationships. Women are rarely mentioned in the story, with the exception of Wealhteow and Grendel’s mother. The incorporation of these women into the text appears intentional; the author of Beowulf calls into question the delicacy, innocence, and beauty commonly associated with femininity by contrasting Wealhteow and Grendel’s mother in terms of their physical description.

The first mention of Wealhteow in the tale occurs when she is serving the men in the hall. Wealhteow embodies femininity in her physical appearance as well as her actions. She is described as “queen of Hrothgar, heedful of courtesy, gold-decked, greeting the guests in hall; and the high born lady handed the cup […] till come the moment when the ring-graced queen, the royal-hearted, to Beowulf bore the beaker of mead” (lines 614-625).  By engaging in servitude to the men, Wealhteow embraces a traditional female gender role of submissiveness and politeness. Her name is made synonymous with “queen” and “high-born lady” in an attempt not only to compliment her status, but also to praise her for her femininity. In general, she is viewed as innocent, courteous, and essentially untouchable. However, her beauty holds an unmatched power over the men that surround her. Her introduction to the story serves as a manifestation of femininity that the author of Beowulf later goes on to challenge with the addition of Grendel’s mother to the poem.

Instead of focusing on her motherly qualities – such as her desire to selflessly protect and defend her child – the author chooses to focus on the gruesome physical appearance of Grendel’s mother. This is done partly to portray her as inhuman, but also to shed light on an alternative view of femininity. The author of Beowulf writes that “the livelong time after that grim fight, Grendel’s mother, monster of women, mourned her woe” (lines 1261-1263). He utilizes this text not to create sympathy for the mourning mother, but to demonize her by referring to her as a “monster”. Such a description offends traditional views of women as being delicate or docile. Speaking of her later stages of grief, the author writes that “his mother now, gloomy and grim, would go that quest of sorrow, the death of her son to avenge” (lines 1280-1282). In this instance, we are presented with femininity not as a symbol of innocence and purity, but of rage, manipulation, and revenge.

The passages on Grendel’s mother are not the only ones that allow us to examine this tainted, darker side of femininity. The yonic symbols present in the text also compliment this idea. One of the first yonic symbols to appear is the cup that Wealhteow carries to the men in the hall. The cup itself is a symbol of femininity, yet it contains alcohol – a drink that, in excess, can cause people to wreak havoc, harm themselves, or be taken advantage of. In this way, the cup shows a side of Wealhteow that is not explicitly described – her ability to manipulate. Another yonic symbol, the lake where Grendel’s mother resides, is frequently referred to as a “murky moor” (line 1409). The fact that the water is unclear again suggests that something evil lurks beneath its surface. This foggy image also suggests that things are not always what they appear to be, which translates into the idea that femininity too is not always what it appears to be.

This is my test post

TaDa!!