midterm blog

Out of the three blog posts I have done so far this semester, my focus generally ends up being on the main characters, more specifically the main ruling characters within the plays. Looking back on my first post, “Women Rule,” I really like how I was able to present my idea and support it and even though it was the first one, I still think it was one of my best. Even the title shows my focus being on the power of women at the time and goes on to discuss the power Portia has over the play both as a woman and disguised as a man. My second blog post titled, “Audience’s Reaction,” began to take me away from the more structured, essay like post found in the previous one and more toward a conversational, questioning one. Here, I started by discussing where each play took place and Shakespeare’s hand in editing the actual events. At first he played it safe by keeping the plays off of the country of England, but then all his history plays, many of them controversial, became centered on England, and their royalty. Lately, I’ve been finding that I am very curious as to how the audience would have reacted, or the current royalty would have reacted to the portrayal of one of Shakespeare’s plays. Unfortunately, that is something we can never really know, but to have that insight and other people’s opinions of what happened is also interesting to me. Hence, the reason why in this post I noticed myself beginning to ask more questions hoping to spark a discussion with other people in the class. My last blog, “Prince Harry,” was even less formal than before, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. In that one I kind of feel like I was jabbering on, blurting out ideas just hoping they fit together. At the time, I didn’t know if Harry would become Henry V, a man I had always thought to be this great guy, but even at the start of reading Henry V, I am still waiting to see it happen. Although, I have to say he is really good at covering his back such as in the case of issuing those death warrants. He still has time to redeem himself in my eyes…

Many times, especially in the more recent two blog posts, I asked questions a lot trying to see what others would respond to and what their thoughts were. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work. I know Professor Mulready responded to two of them, but only one student responded to one other of my posts. Maybe I need to work on my approach, maybe they aren’t interested in what I’m saying, or maybe I just get lost in the quay, it’s not a big deal, just a note to consider.

As Therese mentioned in her blog, I also believe the blogs to be a great way to discuss topics and ideas that we did not get a chance to discuss in class. Sometimes ideas are sparked in class or there is something that either interests or bothers us and by writing informally about it we begin to see where our thoughts are going or gain insight from other classmates. It also gives those who are quieter in class a chance to show off what they know and think. It gives our thoughts some place to go instead of staying dormant in our minds.