Blog Post Analysis

When I planned on reading my previous blog posts, I expected to see maybe a slight change in how I perceived Shakespeare: the plays we have been reading are plays that I haven't read, so I thought I would at least have more questions and observations. After reading said posts, however, I have found very little about my writing changed.

I noticed, first of all, that the characters I look at are ones that pique my interest the most, typically because of the language that they use. Lancelot was my first post, and we all know how he spoke (he may have had a small part in The Merchant of Venice, but it was hardly forgettable). My second post was about Isabella and her personality, how she would say and do things that revealed her actual character as opposed to the character to which she wanted to be portrayed. I mentioned her will to "pluck out his eyes", which is probably one of few lines that revealed her true anger toward her brother's supposed death. Finally, I evaluated Hotspur, and that hot-head had many speeches that could be evaluated. I centered on his speech concerning Richard II, calling him a 'rose' and Henry IV as a 'canker'.

Despite my posting concerning the language of characters, my responses to the posts of others seem a little random. I responded to the posts of people who I agreed with and disagreed with, and most of them concerned the themes of certain plays and the relationships the characters have with each other.

All of my posts have at least two quotations from the plays, and each observation is backed up with these quotes. The post concerning Isabella could have been more thought through, since it was based on a lot of speculation, but overall the thought process of each post is directed on a single theme, which tended to be language. Each post uses personal pronouns as well, but since they are blog posts and not essays, I can’t find real fault in using them.

I am glad with the topics I chose to write about and the topics to which I responded: I post about what in the language interests me, and I respond to aspects of the plays that I didn’t take serious note of before. Writing the ideas out have me thinking more thoroughly about different themes and aspects in the plays, which I’m sure is the reason why we are writing these blog posts in the first place.