Blog

This semester my blogs have focused generally on language and specifically on the way it is employed by Shakespeare as a tool of characterization. In reading over my blogs I’ve come to see that language in Shakespeare is almost like a character in and of itself in that it has distinct qualities from play to play. For example, the ethereal, dreamlike quality of AMND is very different from the military world of Othello, and this is mostly done through the diction Shakespeare chooses. In AMND we get words like “moon,” “fairy,” and “potion,” while in Othello we get “ensign” and “honesty.” The words don’t just signify characters in the play, they also alert us to the themes Shakespeare is working with: in AMND he is asking us to consider to what extent human beings control their own existence, which is magnified by the presence of “fairies” and “potions,” and in Othello he is illustrating how devastating the outcome can be when we accept the world unquestioningly, as Othello readily accepts Iago’s “honesty.” The language doesn’t simply operate as a tool of communication, but rather almost as something that has an agency of its own. The consequences of the utterance of just one word sometimes has more impact on the outcome/plot/genre of the play than a whole slew of actions committed by secondary characters. For example, in Othello Iago says one little word, “Lie,” and from that we find a stock of material for critique: he is making two puns (“lie” as in he is lying to Othello, and “lie” as in his wife is sleeping with another man); it illustrates how he never tells a complete lie, but allows his listeners to use the very little that he says to create entire fictions from the wells of their own insecurities and anxieties, as Othello does; it signals how Othello’s speech will devolve from that moment on in the play, to the point that he becomes completely incoherent; and it is the word that encapsulates why the play is a tragedy and not a comedy--the words Iago spews are never discovered to be lies until it is too late. It almost seems as if the worlds Shakespeare’s characters inhabit are governed by diction and not by the gods they continually appeal to. By focusing on language I have also been able to recognize how what the characters say themselves is as important as both what other characters say about them and what they don’t say. This is especially illuminating when considering MAAN, a play in which characters have open secrets and where a marriage is agreed upon without the two main participants of said marriage having said one word to one another. It also helps in examining the main characters in Othello isn Richard III, both of whom are acted upon by others in that they are continually being described by the other characters in the play (“black ram,” “lascivious Moor”/“foul devil” “lump of foul deformity”) and use those very characterizations as tools to carve out their desired places in society. Othello uses his exoticism to attract others to him and Richard uses his deformity as a reason for his treachery.

What I enjoy about the blogposts is that they are interactive: I am able to respond to the text in ways that we are unable to do in class because of time constraints and I’m able to respond to the ideas of my classmates. I recently read Paulo Freire’s article about the banking concept of education versus  problem solving education, and I think the blog is a very good example of the problem solving concept. It generates new ideas and discussion, and it challenges me to develop the thoughts that I have when I read the texts. Instead of simply jotting down notes that pop in my head on the margins of my book, I’m allowed to expand on them more fully in an open space where I can get feedback. Also, I can return to these blogposts when writing an essay or preparing for an exam. When combined with all the posts on PBworks, it’s like I have an entire other textbook full of valuable information I can use whenever I need.