Shakespeare late plays final

Measure for Measure

Themes: Virtue (What is Isabella willing to give up? Have sex with Angelo, and save brother? or is virtue more important than her life

-Spectrum : one end is isabella (ideal virtue), middle is claudio (condemns brothels, but cannot abstain from premarital sex), and sexual/deviant side is Lucio, Pompey (sexual, benefit from prostitution)

-Angelo is hypocrite

-Characters in play don’t obtain goals through strictness and virtue, but sincerity. (Angelo being hypocritical causes downfall, Isabella marrying Duke goes against virtue, but it’s what she wants, Claudio escapes by being sincere)

Appearance vs. Reality

• Idea of “dramatic irony, something audience knows but characters do not”

  -Duke Vincientio being Friar

  -Isabella switching with Marianna (Angelo’s promised wife) to fool him (bed trick)

  -Duke and Provost plan to send Pirate’s head to Angelo instead of Claudio

  -Angelo is fake, appears very moral and upright, but does the same stuff he condemns other people for doing.

  -Isabella, to be virtuous and save brother, she must look to be unjustly and promiscious

  -Duke planned to tell Isabella when she was at her lowest point that Claudio was still alive rather than immediadly, letting her beleieve he was dead

  **Appearing to do the wrong thing for the right reason is seen as good, being upfront about faults and mistakes is good

Justice and Liberty (Too much freedom is bad)

**Play is called Measure for Measure bcuz Duke tells Angelo the only way to make up for killing Claudio is killing himself

-Excessive freedom can foster injustice (When Angelo gets into power, he abuses it and uses it for bad things

Agency and society (Fortitude)

• Most of the characters lack knowledge/ power over own lives

  -Claudio and Isabella, Duke cant control own city

  -When Claudio and Isabella lack power to abstain from premarital sex, they lose even more power in the process

  -Angelo’s inability to deal with his sexual desires for Isabella in a positive way leads to his downfall

  -Exception : Duke mannipulates everyone behind scenes, he has the most power

Role of Women

• Marianna is reduced to “Women who only wants to have sex with husband, coerced into sleeping with Angelo to fix marriage he left”

• Isabella is also unable to defy societal expectations of being a women

• Lucio : “Women have very little agency to defy expectations put on them

Symbols

Brothels Sybmolize moral decline of city under Due Vincientio. Pompey becomes an executioner from a pimp, symbolizing the death of one vice leads to another

Measure for Measure : Comes from Matthew 7:1:2, when judging others, be mindful of yourself : Mostly Angelo. Lucio (Is very overtly sexual and deviant, tries to convince Isabella that sleeping with Angelo is right choice to save brother, but gets punished in the end; constantly mocked authority and Duke in front of his face, is forced to marry prostitute)

Othello

Themes

Prejudice

• Many characters in the play racially profile Othello, call him “exotic and scary” due to him being Moor (Muslim). Specific terms (Barbary horse and thick lips). He was seen as an outsider in white Venetian community, and eventually became the “scary monster” they sought him out to be

Appearance vs. Reality

Iago : tricks characters and deceives others (idea of green eyed monster; envy). Encourages Roedrigo and Othello to misinterpret what they are seeing (Rod sees Bianca and Iago talk, Othello sees Desdomona and Cassio talk

Jealousy

Iago is “green-eyed monster”.

• Othello is consumed by jealousy when he sees Desdomona’s hankerchief being taken by Cassio, kills her in rage

• Rod is jealous of Othello for taking his position

Manhood and honor

• Cuckhold (horns for Othello)

• Cassio says reputation is everything, refuses to fight Othello because he’s mentally unwell

• Idea that Othello is very manly due to being war hero, Desdomona sees him as exotic and war hero due to being outside of Venice (anthropophagi, multi headed monsters)

Womenhood and sexuality

Loyal women vs. whore (Desdomona vs. Bianca)

• This is ideal imposed on women by Men (Women only act the way they do in retaliation to their husbands; Emilia; Iago’s wife, says this)

• Emilias initially goes along with Iago’s plan to please him (have poor relationship), but then exposes his plan

Symbols

Hankerchief : Symbol of Desdomona’s love, crafted by Egpytian seamstress, passed down from Othello’s mother to him. Says she should use hankerchief to “subdue” father

Animals : Othello is “Barbary Horse”

King Lear

Themes

Family relationships

Destruction of family relationships. Bonds broken between Lear and daughters Goneril and Reagan. Lear strips financial support from suitors. Goneril killed Reagan over lust for Edmund. Relationship between Edmund, illegimate son Edgar, and how Edgar saved Gloucester by convincing him to not kill himself

• Does loyalty come from legitmacy or illegimiacy?

  -Edmund is seen as exotic due to being illegitimate

Authority and Order

• Lear talks about divine justice when children go against him

• Lear is able to compel both daughters to follow his orders in dividing kingdom, asks both daughters to profess their love

Disintegration, Chaos, Nothingness

Lear goes mad when daughters betray him and won’t listen, compares women’s privates to hell itself. Parallels with disassociation with British state

Nothing : Cordelia says her love is worth nothing, her love for him is nothing. Nothing means when everything is destroyed, is not possible to comapre anything to anything else. Both Heroes and Villains are killed, resulting in “nothing”. Lear at the end of play holding Cordelia’s body repeats “never,never,never”

Old Age

Lear wants to free himself from burden of ruling. Old age forces people to regress, subjected to forces of physical nature and physical needs

• Goneril and Reagan mock Lear for his old Age, says he’s crazy. Age brings weakness to them.

• Play suggests age should command respect

• When Reagan and Cornwall tortured Gloucester and gouged out his eyes

• The fact that Lear’s daughters treating him poorly is exentuated by age, all they care about is power.

Fooling and madness

• There is “fool” in play, has the greatest insight on Lear’s madness

• Kent “well-known/trusted scholar guy”. Calls Lear a fool and calling him nothing for giving up his authority. Says he is ensuring his own destruction

• Lear gains more awareness as he moves from sanity to madness. Raving resembles the riddles the Fool makes. World itself does not make sense (world of death, raging storms, and children who turn against parents does not make sense)

• Edgar also becomes mad beggar

Blindness insight

• Tragic errors Gloucester and Lear make in judging their children form figurative lack of blindness. Cornwall and Regan make Glouecester blind, serves as literal reminder of blindness they had. Only when he is blind can he actually “see” truth”

• Also irony, Audience knows secrets about whats going on, reference to how GOds are prayed to yet do not answer, become kind of audience

Symbols

Stars, Heaven, and Gods : Order depended on heavens. Stars above us govern conditions. Stars are metaphor of order and disorder. Act 1 Scene 2, eclipse happens, Gloucester says it is due to chaos in Lear’s court, banishment of kent and departure of Cordelia. Lear and Gloucester appeal to stars to fix kingdoms.

Animals : Brutal nature men can ascend, women are centaurs. Animals are brutal, yet still better than men. People like Goneril and Regan can talk about beauty and honor, and still stab father in back

Clothing : kent dresses up as common Begagr Caius to still help Lear, Edgar dresses up as poor beggar. Good characters discard fine clothing to hide/ do plans, Goneril and Regan still have fine clothes yet scheme and are bad people.

Winters tale

Loyalty, fidelity, honesty : Cammiles exile and return to Leontes are based on presumed disloyalty to King Leontes. Hermione’s percieved lack of disloyalty causes Lear to order her death. Loyalty to one’s family (Polixness and Florizell). Leontes thinks he is championing importance of marital infidelity when he wants Perdita, Hermione and Polixeness to die, but is actually disloyal. Polixeness tries to stop son from marrying Perdita, thinks son is dishonest but is only being genuine. Basically, upholding loyalty is not simple. Cammilo also could either be loyal and kill Polixeness, or be disloyal and let innocent man live. Antigonus, Paulina’s husband could either be loyal and leave infant Perdita on beach, or take her and be disloyal. Those who are blindly loyal are evil, those who actually stop and think (Cammillo) are seen as good

Close relationships

Leontes and Polixeness are like twin lambs, makes their fight even more heartbreaking. However, wives complicate their relationship. Polixenes close friendship with Hermione is seen differently by Leontes. Perdita and Florizel’s relationship threatens bond between Florizell and Polixenes. Relationships between friends,child, and spouse are all seen as important

Youth, Age, and Time

Camillo says Mammilus is innocent as he is young (Gave hopeless Sicilians reasons to live), Leontes and Polixenes were like two twin young lambs, very innocent. Aging leads to sin basically, also Father Time guy

• Resolved through children. When Leontes sees Florizell, he looks almost exactly like Polixenes, is so moved

• Instead of dwelling on Atigonous’ death, Leontes encourages Paulina to remarru Cammilo

Seriouessness,Levity, and humor.

Begins like tragedy, but has extended episode drawn from pastoral romance, ends like comedy.

• First, Leontes brings on suffering due to paranoia and jealousy. Othello and him are similiar. Then moves to Bohemia, becomes “Pastoral Romance”; pleasures of country side, young love. Comedies are defined by this idea of “return to normalcy”

• Slap stick comedy : Antigonous gets chased and dies off stage from bear attack. Leontes encourages Paulina to move on from grieving and marry new husband, “return to normalcy

• Basically confused audience on what correct response to play is.

Evidence, truth, persuasion

Once Leontes makes up mind about Hermione, no one can convince him otherwise. What counts as defnitive proof? Oracle of Delphos says Hermione is innocent, but Leontes refues to believe him. Only beleievs after son and Wife die. HOW STRONG FALSE BELIEFS CAN BE DESPITE EVIDENCE

• Autolycus (robber guy) : convinces sheperd and son to do as he wishes, has them go to party so he can swindle them.

• Cleomenes and Dion try to persuade Leontes to remarry, Paulina also comes in between and reminds him of what he’s done.

• Leontes persuades Camillo to remmary Paulina

• Revealing Perdita’s true identity absolves Leontes of her death, lets her marry Florizel

Justice and natural order

• Leontes unfairly punishes Hermione for crime she hasn’t commited, leads to her death, death of Mamillus and abandonment of Perdita. ‘

• When Polioxenes finds out about Florizel and Perdita, punishes Sheperd for their relationship

• idea that justice is dealt with things being in rightful place (Camillo exiled from homeland, Leontes family broken up, Leontes and Polixenes friendship ruined, Perdita goes from princess to Shepered’s daughter

• All comes together during sheep shearing, Polixenes is dressed as mere citizen, Florizel is dressed as herdsmen

• Play ends with everything being set right

Symbols

Seasons : First three acts are in winter, Mamillus prepares to tell Hermione a story (coincides with how start of play is a tragedy). Next acts are in summer and spring, signaling how comedic they are.

The Tempest

Themes

Loss and restoration

Prospero’s attempt to recover lost duke of Milan drives plot.

• Ariel lost freedom to Sycorax, = now serves Prospero

• Caliban who was rightful ruler of island was overthrown by Prospero

  -By creating shipwreck for Alonso, Prospero attempts to get justice/restore honor, also causes Alonso to lose son at sea

Through reaction to losses, characters reveal true natures

• Through losing son, Alonso finds error in overthrowing Prospero, gives up right to Milan, restores Prospero to power and restores relationship to Milan and Naples

• Ariel serves Prospero, but Prospero frees Ariel and returns back to Milan.

• Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio never show remorse for overthrowing Prospero, are ambitous in plan to kill Alonso

• Stephano and Triniculo seek power through violence.

• Caliban hates Prospero opposite to Ariel. Serves Stephano to kill Prospero

• Gonzalo says “the characters found themselves when no man was shown”

Power

Who has power and when? Who’s entitled to it. Power taken through force leads to political instability.

• Antonio and Alonso’s plan to overthrow Prospero leads to Antonio and Sebastian’s plan to kill Alonso, like Prospero taking over Caliban’s island leads to him wanting revenge

• Only when Prospero refuses to take revenge on Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian and Caliban does cycle break. Now Prospero and Alonso come to common understanding, reconciles relationship through marriage through children

• Compromise and compassion more effective that power and violence

Magic, illusion and Prospero as playwright

Play begins with Prospero’s magic, and ends with Prospero’s magic, Tempest and how Propsero asks Ariel to send ship SAFELY back to italy.

• Audience sees Prospero use magic and illusion to manipulate scene

• “All of life is dream and reality is death”, Prospero controls what happens next and influences plot

Magic = Playwright’s literary techniques

• Prospero is usually lurking in shadows

• Prospero steps out of role as playwright when he puts on masque for Ferdinand and Miranda. Prospero is stand-in for Shakespeare for himself.

Colonialization

• During this time, Europe was trying to sail around world and colonize world. Through Prospero and Caliban

• Caliban is seen as monster, Propsero is seen as conquering him.

• Prospero thinks Caliban should be grateful to him for educating him

• Relationship between colonizer and colonized is seen as bad, Prospero sees Caliban as savage, Caliban wants revenge

• Exposure to new people leads to racism and intolerance.

  -Sebastian criticizes Alonso for allowing daughter to marry African

• Stepahno adn Triniculo view Caliban as trinket to sold back home

• Gonzalo’s musings of world with no crime (criticization of colonization)

Symbols

Propsero’s cloak and boats : Source of Prospero’s power, Takes them off during two points, once when he tells Miranda his history, and again gives up magic.

-Gonzalo arranges for Propsero’s books to be taken with him to Milan with Miranda and him

-Without books, Propsero would not have power to summon Tempest and restore relationship to Milan and Naples

Caliban asks Stephano to seize Prospero’s books, when they make plans to murder prospero

Prospero wants to retire his magic and books, conincides with Shakespeare also retiring

Tempest : represents political upheaval in play. When Courtiers and ships are tossed by storm, nature has more power than sailors and courtiers. State of disorder continues until injustice done to Prospero is righted. When everything is resolved, Prospero promises calm seas