Reading Shakespeare

Source: www.roomone.training

Shakespeare, man of mystery. Enough is known through public record to know that the man existed. However, any personal detail is unknown, to the point that there isn't technically proof that Shakespeare wrote the plays we read today. I personally adhere to the camp that he did write them, that we owe his friends a debt of gratitude for putting his works together in the First Folio. Why complicate things? Besides, the bigger matter is the plays themselves. Works of art that literally created a sizable portion of our English language and have lasted hundreds of years because of their eloquence and humanity. Read any Shakespeare plot line, examine the themes, and you will see present day humanity playing out before your eyes. Homo sapiens haven't changed as much as we'd like to think over the centuries.

Why all the fuss about Shakespeare on the blog today? Well, I've read multiple Shakespeare works over the years, but in my past ten years as a teacher, Romeo and Juliet is the only one that has popped up in my curriculum. I know it well and it's easy to teach because, thanks to pop culture and the nature of teenagers, everyone already knows it for the most part. This year AP Literature brings me to teaching other works, like Hamlet and Othello, and new experiences in the teaching of Shakespeare.

Ah Hamlet, emo before emo was a thing. An emotional wreck, spilling his guts and emotional distress soliloquy after soliloquy, Hamlet at first reminds me of whiny Romeo. Of course, Hamlet has good reason (Romeo not so much). In short, his father, the king, has passed away; his uncle marries his mom a month later, denying Hamlet his dreams; a rival country is planning an attack on Denmark; his father's ghost is walking the castle watch tower with a secret; a dear one commits suicide; murder and general mayhem reveal themselves. It's a mess like only Shakespeare can create and put into motion through poetry. I'm enjoying it.

Of course, some of my students will tell you differently. Pulling apart Shakespeare can be intimidating. It's never been particularly intimidating for me, although I bought new copies of each play in No Fear Shakespeare editions, just in case. Haven't needed it yet though, so I started to wonder how it is Shakespeare clicks for me. I am a reader, which helps, but even I don't know the meaning of every little odd word and detail Shakespeare uses, so how is it I understand? It came to me in a teachable moment one day.

We'd reached Hamlet's first soliloquy (Act I, scene ii), read through and settled into a worksheet to pull it apart for meaning. Immediately they felt lost and didn't hesitate in saying so. At first I thought, what's there not to get, but proceeded to reread the beginning with them (lines 129-132 in my edition):

            "Oh that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
             Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
             Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
             His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!"

I realized as I read that I was only using one phrase and two other words of those four lines to translate in my head. So I told them to pick out the familiar words and string them together for meaning, ignoring all else. Conversation progressed something like this:

Me: What happens if your flesh melts? (Indiana Jones, Shakespeare beat you to it.)
Class: You die...you'd be dead.
Me: What does "Everlasting" mean and why is it capitalized? Only proper nouns are capitalized.
Class: It means forever...so it's a name?
Me: Who is the only being we claim to be a forever being?
Class: God
Me: What does slaughter mean?
Class: To violently kill.
Me: And adding "self"?
Class: ohhhh...suicide!

And using those couple of items, they pieced together for me that Hamlet wants to die and would commit suicide, except his God has made it a sin to do so. It was a learning moment for them, figuring out how to read some of this craziness and it was a learning moment for me to be able to show them, when I hadn't been sure how to do so before. It doesn't make it easy though...it still takes time to slow down and go through the lines, digging for previous knowledge and connecting those pieces together. But it's a starting point. They'll be reading Shakespeare next year and some of them in college even, so hopefully we've made a good start of it.

What about you readers? Any luck with Shakespeare?

The Literary Alchemy of Harry Potter

I went straight down to discuss Emily Dickinson's
"Soul at the white heat" afterward, based on what
he said about alchemy in writing.

When you hear that the local college, your alma mater, has a speaker on Harry Potter coming in, there's not much choice but to attend. How often is it you get to hear from a man titled the Dean of Harry Potter Scholars? I'm going to be up front with you though. I'm writing about this because it was a great lecture on a really cool topic, a book topic no less, but it's also a somewhat involved topic, all new to me. So, I apologize ahead for any gaps in my info. I'll provide information for further study at the end.

Anyway, at the end of September, Youngstown State University (YSU) held a lecture titled Literary Alchemy, featuring Harry Potter, given by John Granger, Dean of Harry Potter Scholars. I decided to go on that information alone and invited the biggest Harry Potter fan friend I have, SR. (She's read the books multiple times and is my go to for HP detail checks when my students or I write on the topic, such as parts of this post!) Then I received a flier in the mail that convinced me I had to go.

Harry Potter in connection to Lewis, Dickens, and Shakespeare? Yes please. The background they have in common is alchemy. There is so much information here, but a few points I remember pretty well. According to Granger, besides the attempts to turn lead to gold alchemists are known for, alchemy is about spiritual purification. In literature, certain authors have used alchemical symbols and tropes in their storylines to represent their character's quest for purification. For example, there are color schemes and stages connected to alchemy. The most obvious element, based on alchemy's more well known principal, is gold, the purest form a medal can achieve. When Romeo and Juliet die, their families declare peace by erecting GOLD statues in their children's honor. And what is Harry always chasing in his Quidditch matches? A GOLDEN snitch. Then there are the colors black, white, and red. Sirius BLACK? And ALBUS, white in Latin, Dumbledore? (The Twilight series book covers aren't a coincidence either.) Besides colors, there are seven stages in an alchemical cycle. There are seven Harry Potter books, with the later books' plotlines cycling through seven stages each. Each of these authors' stories reaches the ultimate goal of alchemy as well: a transformation of character(s).

And these are just the minor details. There's also the types of characters involved. Pairs of opposites working together, for example. Romeo and Juliet come to mind with Shakespeare, Ron and Hermione in Harry Potter, and Edward and Bella in Twilight. One character in each pair represents the hot sulfuric element of alchemy (Romeo, Hermoine, and Bella), while the other is the cool mercurial element (Juliet, Ron, and Edward). The two characters in each pair play off of each other, becoming more than pawns in a plot.

If you're not convinced this is not all coincidence, or if you're completely lost by my gaps in knowledge, here's some contact information to start reading further. You can always Google "Alchemy in Harry Potter" too. A little side note: JK Rowling studied alchemy in school and so did Granger, which allowed him to easily pick up on the alchemical elements Rowling so carefully pieced together. In an article from 1998, Rowling states:

      “I’ve never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that’s a different matter.
      To invent this wizard world, I’ve learned a ridiculous amount about alchemy.
      Perhaps much of it I’ll never use in the books, but I have to know in detail what
      magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the
      stories’ internal logic.”

Here's the information I promised! John Granger not only invited emails, but will also connect you with further reading. Go, explore, and learn something you may have never known about the never ending wonders of our literary world.

Juliet's Nurse Would Make Shakespeare Proud

Juliet's Nurse, by Lois Leveen
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: September 23, 2014
Category: Literature/Fiction
Source: I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Shakespeare. The name thrills some, makes others cower. English teachers get excited, students groan. Shakespeare has many claims to fame, from the English words he created that we still speak today, to a huge portfolio of works that have survived almost 400 years after his death. Shakespeare is also shrouded in mystery. While there is proof that the man existed, certain camps of thought question his authorship. Some believe it was a group of men working together. The movie Anonymous puts forth the idea that one nobleman, whose high societal rank kept him from full involvement with the theater, wrote everything and used lower standing Shakespeare as his cover for publication. Whatever your belief - or even the truth - there's no doubt that these works have stood the test of time, the proof not only in the fact that we still read them, but that they are copied and added onto repeatedly.

The Shakespeare play that comes to mind first is Romeo and Juliet, mostly because I taught this play for years and will be back to it this year. It is also the play whose themes and plot I see repeated most often in movies and books. In recent years I've noticed authors writing books that are "take-offs" of bigger works, such as Rhett Butler's People, an authorized sequel to Gone With the Wind, and The Wind Done Gone, which is an alternative version of the same, told by Mammy's daughter. Sometimes these add-ons fall flat, but they're worth a try, because the successful ones make the original that much richer.

All of that to say, this is why I requested Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen. It is the story of Romeo and Juliet told from the perspective of Juliet's nurse, but more, as the story starts with Juliet's birth, leading up to the events we all know will end the story. In Shakespeare's play, the nurse is an eccentric "old" woman who loves Juliet very much, having mothered her more than anyone else. Her conversation isn't always appropriate and she's a little more supportive of crazy teenage antics than most adults would be. I couldn't wait to read it and see the nurse come to life beyond what her Shakespeare role hinted about her.

And Leveen did not disappoint. As Leveen's story progressed, I started looking for events that would align with what I knew of the Nurse's life from Shakespeare's play. Tidbits only, brought fully to life here in Leveen's work, and turning what we thought we knew about Juliet and her Nurse on its head.   I was just as delighted as pieces of Shakespeare's beautiful dialogue began to appear in all the right places, but heard from a different perspective this time. I imagine much of my enjoyment of Juliet's Nurse comes from my intricate knowledge of Shakespeare's original play, so maybe it wouldn't be as exciting for others. Yet, just about everyone is familiar with Romeo and Juliet and could appreciate the fuller background Leveen weaves. For Shakespeare or Romeo and Juliet fans, Juliet's Nurse is a must.

Tell me readers, are you a Shakespeare fan? Have you read any "take-offs" to a bigger work?