tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7136593454417242564.post5666878541054273258..comments2023-02-27T03:53:34.869-05:00Comments on New Paltz Shakespeare: Claudio likes Hero whose dad is Leonato who's freinds with Don Pedro....Cyrus Mulreadyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07949993053589030711noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7136593454417242564.post-91488747154454212442012-09-28T16:49:35.304-04:002012-09-28T16:49:35.304-04:00It's a great insight that the confusion over n...It's a great insight that the confusion over names is linked to the problems of identity within the comedy. If we think about Benedick and Beatrice, for instance, their names having a similar meaning points to (perhaps) the similarities between the two of them that eventually draw them together. Christine puts this nicely in her comment--that characters are often shown to be "intimately interwoven" in these plays.Cyrus Mulreadyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07949993053589030711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7136593454417242564.post-14350590003911510392012-09-27T03:59:18.017-04:002012-09-27T03:59:18.017-04:00I think this concept of confusing names definitely...I think this concept of confusing names definitely taps into Shakespeare’s compulsive obsession with role-switching but even more so into his passion for exploring and creating convincible social dynamics for the relationships between his characters/people in general. So far, I don’t think I have read one play by Shakespeare in which all the characters are not intimately interwoven with each other. In a way (even though all these connections are initially confusing) I think he is really trying to help get us to understand what fuses all the different characters together. We already know he was famous for his specificity in language, I wouldn’t put it past him to name each one of his characters deliberately for the purposes of building a foundation for the kinds of relationships that are responsible for driving the play. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15261150192376744547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7136593454417242564.post-28089795640980982072012-09-26T19:02:27.279-04:002012-09-26T19:02:27.279-04:00I definitely agree that the similar-sounding names...I definitely agree that the similar-sounding names of characters in Shakespeare's plays lead to the audience's confusion, and I'm sure it's intentional on Shakespeare's part. What I always keep in mind, however, is that these plays were meant to be performed and not just read, so connecting an actor's or actress's face to a particular character name would certainly help to make clear who's who. It is interesting to know what the characters' names mean as well as how they correlate to one another. In Much Ado about Nothing, Don John's name confused me most; I can't help but think of Don Juan when I hear Don John, though I'm not sure is Shakespeare would have known anything about the Don Juan legend (El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra by Tirso de Molina, the first written version of the Don Juan legend, was published in 1630, 14 years after Shakespeare's death).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com