Midterm Blog

When I first started blogging I wasn't quite sure how to get started or what was expected in the posts. I find that doing the blogs instead of writing a paper here and there forces us to take a closer look into the material that we read. It's nice to see how everyone else interprets Shakespeare's works as well.

After rereading my posts I've found that I focused more on the topic of the relationships portrayed between the characters. It seems that in every play we've read of Shakespeare's love seems to be included within every conflict.
I first wrote about Shakespeare and the idea of "Toying with Emotions" in A Mid Summer Night's Dream. He seems to ridicule the idea of love and that love makes it easy to stir up conflict between the characters. In A Mid Summer Night's Dream there are many characters, such as Hermia & Lysander, Helena & Demetrius, as well as Oberon & Titania, that rise to the occassion when their emotions are on the line. It's as if Shakespeare knows that this will cause drama and the audience will be intrigued.
My second post was similar to my first. In Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare his approach regarding love is not so vivid between the characters that I wrote about, Beatrice and Benedick. Instead his approach to these two characters was to make it seem as if they hated each other. He makes the other characters plot to come up with a scheme to make Beatrice and Benedick realize their love for one another. Regardless the idea of love is still involved and emotions once again have been toyed with.
My third post was a little different than the first two, and not quite as long. I probably could've wrote a little more on the subject, but I wasn't as crazy about this play as I was the other two. I wrote about Shakespeare's play Othello and the disloyalty of Iago. We learn that Iago uses Othello's love for Desdemona to bring him down. Again, Shakespeare uses the idea of love to stir up conflict between the characters in this play as well. However, Iago is portrayed as a villain and probably could've used almost anything to bring Othello down due to the fact that Othello trusted him so much.
In conclusion, in every blog I've written it seems to me that the main topic I focus on is where the conflict lies in Shakespeare's plays. Love always seems to be present at some point or another. I didn't realize until rereading my blog posts that this has been my main focus. I guess it's easy to relate to. Overall, I enjoy blogging about Shakespeare no matter what the topic may be.