Mid Term: Reflection of the Blog

Sam Adler

Mid Term Blog

 

My blogs are all similar in the fact they discuss the fight for power.  In Merchant there is a fight for power within the romantic triangle between Antonio, Bassianio, and Portia.  Then in Taming there is a power struggle for who gets to marry the shrew in order for the more prized lady (Bianca).  In my blog I note the animalistic way this play is described and said that " They are like small dogs barking very loudly and are trying to look very scary but everyone knows they wouldn't burst a grape in a food fight."  That quote is actually from my blog about Richard the second but it aptly describes how Shakespeare has his characters interact.  In all the plays there is a fight for who deserves something more than the other person.  Whether it be land, lady, money, power, or rights Shakespeare has all his characters be strong characters as to have the reader question the ways of society during his time.  As Megan responded to my post she wrote "Shakespeare created a female character who has the gusto to speak back to men and state her opinion is ground breaking. This characteristic is what makes Shakespeare both a writer of his time and a writer of all times." I agree with that because he addresses issues that transcend his plays and touches people personally.  He has too many different characters for a reader not to find someone to relate to, or to remind them of something the reader has experienced before. 

I feel that my blog post have changed for that fact that I know more Shakespeare's themes and ideas better.  I can relate it back to previous readings we've had and see how he uses his writing for irony, foreshadowing, and commenting on the times.  I feel that the blogging has helped me interact with my classmates more and try and tackle Shakespeare by myself.  I am not one who came in this class liking Shakespeare all that much and this experience has helped me understand him better than I have before in all my teachings of him.  This Mid-Term blog is great because it makes everyone revisit their work and see what people commented so the dialogue continues and grows. 

I think that themes that I can revisit is the concept of: hunger for power vs responsibility of power.  In Henry 5th we see the hunger for power lead Harry to be a great Henry.  But will his power consume him? Also there will be more discussions about religion, politics, law, and morality all tied together with Shakespeare shaping his plays to have us question which of those are more powerful than the others, and then thinking about our own society and questioning which has the most power.  I'm excited to keep the conversation between our class and Shakespeare's works continuing, and learning how to use the blogs better.