JK, guys. She's really alive.

For my last (hopefully) Winter's Tale post, I'd like to talk a bit about Paulina.

She really does have beef with Leontes. Reading it, I though, I know it's been fifteen years, but you're still guilt tripping him. SURELY he felt bad enough, as seen in Act V? Nope. Not enough.

Leontes (V.i.2826-32)

     Whilst I remember
     Her and her virtues, I cannot forget
     My blemishes in them, and so still think of
     The wrong I did myself; which was so much,
     That heirless it hath made my kingdom and
     Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man
     Bred his hopes out of.

Doesn't sound like he's full of godly sorrow, regret, and anguish for what he's done? He sees himself as so imperfect next to her, and that he never deserved her from the beginning. But, he also destroyed her? Imagine how much horrendous guilt he felt! Paulina seems pretty heartless as she's raking and stabbing him with each little reminder that, oh by the way, you killed your perfect wife and both of your children.

But in the end... she's really been faking it? She was just hiding the queen the whole time? (By the way, wouldn't you eventually just want to escape if you were trapped in Paulina's house for fifteen years?) Did she enjoyed mentally torturing Leontes?

And, why didn't she get killed off for harassing the king? (Just a thought.)

Clearly, Paulina is NOT a Pollyanna.

Romance. Oh great.

I can't think about anything now without thinking about Professor Burton's lecture on Romance and hopeless idealism in relationships. At BYU, a girl is very in danger of getting her hopes up. VERY in danger. We've been raised up in Young Women's with this idea that when we go to college, we get find our eternal companions and live happily ever after. Being a freshman, I've just gotten thrown into this world. People get swept up and engaged in three weeks, married in the next three, and having their first child nine or ten months later! Heck, even in my group, both of the guys are married! It's a very inane process to the outside world. As I've gotten more sucked into the idea of getting, well, swept away and falling madly in love, I remember Professor Burton's stories and think to myself, "Am I living a fantasy? Am I really getting worked up over something that doesn't exist?"

I'm pretty sure that's how Perdita's mind was working as Florizel was pronouncing his true, deep, heartfelt emotions to everybody that would listen to him. She seems like a really smart, sharp girl so far. On a plus side, at least she's older than Juliet, who was 13. 15-16 is a good, ripe age to get married, right? Of course, their ideals were different than ours. We assume that by age 16, girls in Shakespeare's time can make rational decisions and are no longer prone to being swept away by huge bouts of emotion. (They're usually swept away by other things. Water, in Ophelia's case.) Compared to Florizel, she is much more grounded in reality and less likely to simply give away herself on an impluse. I think she got it from her mother.

I'm big, you're small, I'm right, you're wrong.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience of not posting this earlier. I was caught up with other assignments and it slipped my mind. Hopefully I can get the hang of this better as the semester goes on.

Anyways, to get on with it. I found Leontes very... wrong. He's okay with bashing out a newborn baby's brains? What is wrong with this man?! He's so blind to his own suspicions and viewpoint that he doesn't see that NOBODY ELSE agrees with him. Even when the Oracle gives him his prophecy, Leontes is wondering, What is this garbage? I thought I was right?

I'd like to take Kara's idea about Shakespeare being a social commentator and run with that for a bit. He must have known someone like Leontes. It's hard for us to think up someone who is so incredibly wrong all the time like he is. Even when faced with the blatant truth and a doubled forewarning that his life will be totally screwed up if he doesn't see the truth, Leontes still doesn't listen. People in Shakespeare's society may have had somewhat of the same mindset, but in terms of being intolerant to others and quick to jump to conclusions. Even in our world today, there are still people like that. People who run with the smallest grain of inconsistency and make a romance in their own mind about how they've been wronged or some other complaint. We all know those people. This is just Shakespeare's way of giving us a broader look at ourselves, by placing these people into his plays and blowing their characteristics into obviousness.

Are you my Son?

Leontes (I.ii.183-195)

Too hot, too hot!
To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;
But not for joy; not joy. This entertainment
May a free face put on, derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent; 't may, I grant;
But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,
As now they are, and making practised smiles,
As in a looking-glass, and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer; O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamillius,
Art thou my boy? 

In The Winter's Tale, we see Leontes struggling with his suspicions that his wife, Hermione, is having an affair with his childhood friend Polixenes. Like in Hamlet, Shakespeare has a tendency to have his characters act. Leontes puts a "free face ... on" so that he may observe his wife and Polixenes without them knowing. He knows that if they see his suspicions, they will shift their attitudes so that they are inconspicuous. Even now, they seem to be careful, "making practised smiles" so that they, in Leontes's mind, don't give anything away. Leontes himself is seen absorbed by this idea, much like Othello was towards Desdemona and Cassio. He claims that "To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods." Since Hermione is pregnant, it's almost a direct statement of his fears. Because Polixenes has been their for so long, he and Hermione had (presumably) had opportunities to be close and develop friendship. In Shakespeare's time, a mention of mingling bloods was an almost outright reference to sex. So if Leontes's thoughts direct their friendship to the  combination of their blood, he certainly suspects that Hermione's unborn child is Polixenes's. He even goes as far as to question Mamillius's paternity by asking "Art thou my boy?"

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with so much DRAMADRAMADRAMA already!

The Thoughts That Remain Below

Although I avidly love Shakespeare now, I never had a taste for it when I was younger. My first experience was as most, reading A Midsummer Night's Dream in the eighth grade. Naturally, I was very bewildered by it. Why were there people name after condiments and body parts and dust particles? Why are they putting things in people's eyes? Why did those guys write such a terrible play? IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!

Nevertheless, Shakespeare kept coming back.

The next year fell prey to Romeo and Juliet. Oh yes, the one that everybody knows. Fortunately for me, this one was not fraught with LSD trips and transmogrifying spells. Just severe misunderstandings and sudden death. Much better, right? Everything is normal there!

Later that year, I was excited to see Verdi's Macbeth opera. Upon seeing it, I was rather dumbfounded. The LSD trips had returned in the form of a zombie Banquo, a child Lady Macbeth stabbing her doll, and a thick, dark liquid dripping down the walls of the set. It was all very spooky and ethereal. Oh yeah, and it was in Italian, so I couldn't understand what they were saying anyways because it actually was another language! Go figure, right?

Julius Caesar,  read my sophomore year, was my least favorite. Let's leave it at that now I'm always bewaring the ides of March.

Finally, with the addition of an AP Literature class in my senior year, I read Hamlet. That's what really got me into Shakespeare. And, it was taught much better than its predecessors. That always helps, right? At the same time, I read some of his sonnets. I loved each one I read, for one was more engaging than the one before. In my free time, I also read Othello and loved it as well. My teacher, Mrs. Fajardo, will certainly remain one of my very favorites and always has my utmost thanks for carefully cultivating a proper Shakespearean knowledge in me.

Because my voice teacher's husband was not fond of the opera, she invited me to go with her to see Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. It was a fairly true reproduction, and everybody still died at the end! Tragedy struck at the opera! (Who would have ever thought?!) Of course, in the operatic world, instead of dying when you get stabbed (or after stabbing yourself in this case), you sing! The fourth and final act was set in the tomb, and was by far the longest death sequence I've ever encountered.

Coincidentally, that same year came with my high school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, set in a circa-1970's Central Park. Finally, I too got high with a little help from my friends. It was a fantastic production, and I finally understood the jokes that flew over my head as an eighth grader.

Ironically, my experiences with Shakespeare are almost following a chiasmus. In a way, it's cool. Realizing that, however, makes me a huge nerd. I hope, dear Reader, that you will enjoy reading my blog.

-Meg