The Time and Geometry of Romeo and Juliet

Another month, another infographic… a blast to, er, from the past.

Here’s a infographic discussing the temporal and numerical breakdown of Romeo and Juliet.  Part of workshops for the play from BillWalthall.com.

[updated 12/26/15]

The Time and Geography of Romeo and Juliet [infographic]
The Time and Geography of Romeo and Juliet [infographic]

[updated 3/25/16]

[pdf available for purchase at Teachers Pay Teachers]

Two characters under the same inky cloak

As I dive back into the first scene of All’s Well That Ends Well, I’m struck by Helena’s first words:

I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too.
  • I.i.53-4

Continue reading “Two characters under the same inky cloak”

Titus Andronicus: A History of Violence

After Good Tickle Brain‘s brilliant Mya Gosling released her Titus Andronicus death clock, it got me thinking what a Titus timeline might look like. While hers definitely conveys the over-the-top-to-the-point-of-nervous-laughter-ness of Titus Andronicus, I thought she had left off a few things.

I don’t have her artistic flair, but mine’s got more death (and rape)…

Titus Andronicus: A History of Violence (jpeg; thumbnail)

[download the pdf (507 kb)]

Podcast 107: Troilus and Cressida: “He-Man Woman-Haters Club” edition

[archive]

This week’s podcast continues our two month-long discussion of Troilus and Cressida with a discussion of misogyny in the play. Plus, a happier subject: a review of Independent Shakespeare Company’s Romeo and Juliet.

Continue reading “Podcast 107: Troilus and Cressida: “He-Man Woman-Haters Club” edition”

Review: Romeo and Juliet by the Independent Shakespeare Company at Griffith Park, Los Angeles

Saturday night, my wife and son and I went to Los Angeles’ Griffith Park to catch the summer production of Romeo and Juliet by the Independent Shakespeare Company. Every summer, they present two free Shakespeare plays outdoors over the course of the summer (#ShakespeareSetFree). Later this summer, it’ll be Much Ado About Nothing (which sounds great), but you still have a chance to check out Romeo and Juliet before it closes at the end of the month.

Romeo and Juliet by Independent Shakespeare Company (at Los Angeles' Griffith Park)
Romeo and Juliet by Independent Shakespeare Company (at Los Angeles’ Griffith Park)

Continue reading “Review: Romeo and Juliet by the Independent Shakespeare Company at Griffith Park, Los Angeles”

Podcast 104: Hamlet: A Concept, a Cast, and the Wrap-Up

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This week’s podcast concludes (finally) our three month-long discussion of Hamlet with a look back at the play, wrapping up with some opinion, a concept and a casting.

Continue reading “Podcast 104: Hamlet: A Concept, a Cast, and the Wrap-Up”

Hamlet: the Wrap-Up

It’s been three months since kicking off Hamlet, and at that point, nearly two decades since my last reading and teaching of the play, I began thinking this was a play about royal succession, maybe some kind of oblique metaphor or literary handwringing over the future passing of Elizabeth. That didn’t last long, and it melded into a vague discussion of what it means to be a king, and how and why Hamlet would never reach that height. I toyed with the theme of madness for a while, but I just couldn’t (and still don’t) see this play in any way, shape or form, about real mental illness (at least not so far as Hamlet is concerned… and as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not so sure that Ophelia is mad so much as situationally desperate). No, as I continued to go over this play, I kept coming back to the same motif:

Not madness, but playing madness. Playing at what isn’t real. Which is fascinating in the same way baseball is philosophically interesting. But intrinsically interesting? Not so much. I know I can’t take a three-hour long baseball game. Give me an hour-long water polo game, any day.

So…

Where do I stand on Hamlet? Continue reading “Hamlet: the Wrap-Up”

The heart of Hamlet: the play

Using Professor Rodes’ midpoint theory, let’s take a look at Hamlet.

There are 3728 lines in the play, which means the midpoint is at line 1864, or at Act Three, Scene Two, line 161. Now, Rodes’ theory postulated that you could find at the midpoint (or within twenty lines either way) a speech that perfectly summed up the major theme of the play. The 20-line leeway was to help remove the differences in prose line lengths between individual editions. Of course, given Hamlet’s amount of prose (a solid 27%) and its notorious differences between quarto and folio releases, you’ve got to wonder if this theory still works, or if there will be something rotten in the texts of Denmark.

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Hamlet: The Speech

To write about the speech, or to not write about it… there’s really no question.

Oh, come on. Did you really think I’d spend three months on Hamlet and not discuss what is arguably the most famous speech in all of Shakespeare? (though, honestly, I’m thinking it may very well be the most infamous speech in Shakespeare)

So, here we go:

Continue reading “Hamlet: The Speech”