It's All Part of the Plan

As far as previous students' posts go, I was most interested in Ian MacArthur's posts because I know him personally and was in a class with him last semester while his writing process was going on, so I wanted to see how the story I kind of saw happening with him as he talked about it before and after this other class really played out in blog form. Two of his posts I read and really liked are here and here. It was cool to see how his thesis comparing Iago and The Joker developed, plus to see how solid some of his ideas were even early on (such as the awesome line about how villains are only interesting if they drive the story plot I found in his rough draft). I feel like he faced a lot of the same challenges I'm going to face, so it's a great resource to be able to look at his writing process.

I'm pretty sure connections like this is exactly what Dr. Burton was planning on happening. Like the Joker says, "It's all part of the plan."

A wicked new thesis

Shakespeare’s villains embodied the fears of 16^th century England. They were fascinating and terrifyingly complex characters. Perhaps then, Christopher Nolan’s Joker, as a representation of post 9/11 fears, is a descendant of Iago, Edmund, and the rest of Shakespeare’s reprobate band.

I just posted that on Facebook and am awaiting the virtual tar and feathers. I tried to shave it down but this is the best I could get for right now. I decided  to focus primarily on the point that contemporary villains are still based off of Shakespeare's model. I am going to dedicate some part of the paper to further exploring the villains, particularly through their soliloquies, and then come to my main point.