Most people don’t like Shakespeare. For whatever reason, something about long winded monologues that could be summed up in about two sentences, poetically insulting reads, drama that would make a telenovela seem tame, and a surplus of themes and convoluted motifs don’t appeal to general public. I just can’t imagine why and for that reason I feel the need to correct your wrong opinions. It’s the modern age so opinions hold more weight than facts and you should feel shame for having thoughts other than mine. Shame. Shame. Shame. But I digress, you aren’t here for my childish cynicism, nor are you here for my off kilter humor, so I’ll get into the meat of this dish: something I deeply, affectionately, more than platonically, love about Shakespeare.
Cue the fanfare, for we are going to be talking about characters! Look at me go, using “we”, pretending like there is some sort of conversation going on and not just a nerd with too much power screaming at a brick wall. Frigg and Freya, am I lonely
Something I’ve always admired in Shakespeare’s writing would be his characters and their interactions. It’s just something about horrible and fantastic people spouting puns and innuendos like a job that gives me these warm fuzzies inside. The characters, such as anyone in any Shakespearean tragedy, are always these downright awful people doing awful things to other awful people.
Shakespeare’s characters always have this strangely realistic, and yet somehow so cartoonish, portrayal of human, and occasionally nonhuman, relationships. The characters themselves are unique and quirky, but they don’t seem too over exaggerated. I remember being younger, maybe sixth or seventh grade, and reading a Midsummer Night’s Dreamand feeling such a strong connection to Puck that I had never felt with a fictional character before. I was an odd kid and I didn’t really have any real connection to any of the characters I had known in the media I devoured before then. While Puck wasn’t exactly a role model, with his archetypal trickster personality, he was definitely much better than Walter from The Mask.
Speaking of things that are completely unrelated and lacking in a good segue, Shakespeare’s characters’ personalities always fit perfectly within the narrative he is trying to tell. A good example, i.e one I can think of off the top of my head, would be the entire cast of Hamlet. The characters seemed to modelled to show the ugly world of the elites and the ruling class. The biggest example of which would be Claudius who backstabs and schemes as this twisted form of self-preservation and hunger for power. The very definition of a weasel.
There are more examples and plenty more connections that a more intelligent person would make, but I wrote this at ten p.m. while my WiFi decided to stop existing and effectively cutting me off from getting this done on time and on a piece of scrap paper because I don’t have anything to type on bedsides my phone and for whatever reason pictures won’t work for me and without the rubric because of course. I swear the universe has something against me. So, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
This is fantastically witty and I had so much fun reading it. I like the discussion of Shakespearean characters, and how they differ from play to play. Excellent job.
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