Teaching others to love what I love

As I discussed my own theses and ideas with class members, I was introduced to how much these topics are still applicable and can be exciting.  As I have dug deeper into the literature, I find that I am trying to find something that excites me to the point of sharing.  Iago is such a dynamic character.  His motivations are obscure, his actions despicable, and I am drawn to him because of his simultaneous shallowness and depth of character.  I find myself comparing him to every Shakespeare character that has ever donned a disguise, whether for good or ill.  Iago changes so seamlessly from character.  It brings up the question of identity.  Actors dive into their characters, but how does that factor into when those characters dive into a disguise.  How far does it go? Is the character ever lost?  These questions fascinate me and I find that I am looking for a central idea, but I have a point at which to dive off!

Finding Connections: The Winter's Tale

I have been looking at The Winter's Tale for the last two days for close reading. While I am not finding much, I am finding a few interesting parallels between Acts I-III and Anne Boylen's fall. From my studies of the Tudors, as Henry VIII gets closer to removing a wife that is giving him a lot of trouble there seems to be an increase in tension in the royal court. I sense that Shakespeare is trying to construct a similar rising tension as Leontes' obsession with Hermione's supposed infidelity increases. In Act I Scene II, Leontes asks Camillo a series of rhetorical questions about the queen's supposed behavior:

Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses? Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career Of laughing with a sigh?—a note infallible Of breaking honesty—horsing foot on foot? Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift? Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only, That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?

Shakespeare, William (2011-09-07). The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Kindle Locations 40812-40819). Latus ePublishing. Kindle Edition.

I looked up some terms on the Silvia Rhetoricae website. This type of rhetorical behavior is called excusiato, or stirring others to anger by one's own vehement feeling. This also demonstrates amplification, or the arrangement of words or clauses in order of increasing force. Notice how Leontes goes from "whispering" to touching to kissing to secret meetings, increasing the severity of his accusations by increasing the severity of Hermione's supposed behavior. We've heard about the steps leading to from smaller sins to bigger ones. This small passage by itself is a symbol of Leontes' increasing obsession.  

The chief cause of Anne Boylen's fall from failure was her inability to produce a son after the birth of Elizabeth. Over Christmas Break I read The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, which went into detail on this issue. Henry was already apparently in a relationship with Jane Seymour during one of Anne's later pregnancies. At eight months, Anne miscarried, and the fetus was developed enough that they could tell it would have been a boy. Henry increasingly lost interest in Anne and decided to remove her. Weir's description--as well as other descriptions I've read of Henry VIII when he was in one of these moods--describe Henry as a brooding and obsessive, willing to believe anything he convinced himself, and once he was set on doing something nothing could stop him.

Having taken years to depose of Katherine of Aragon. According to Weir, Henry wanted Anne out of the way quickly. He trumped-up charges that she was having affairs with other men (Leontes deposed Hermione for the same reason) and that Elizabeth and her miscarried children were not his. Anne was sent to the Tower of London, put on trial (much like Hermione, although neither trial could hardly be called "just"), and she was executed.

There are one or two small connections to the Tudors I have found in this play that I also believe support my case, but it would take up a lot of writing. I am thinking about narrowing down my topic to The Winter's Tale and Anne Boylen. Thoughts?

An Idealistic Villain

Like Paul, I read through some of Ian McArthur's posts, who wrote about villains in Shakespeare.  I enjoyed his post on the story of his paper.  He mentioned that he'd thought he had a strong idea about soliloquies and villains, but after meeting with Dr. Burton, realized he needed to develop it further. 

That idea turned out to be that we like villains because they are idealists, which is definitely arguable and is a new spin on the idea of villains' attractiveness.  Ian saw a dilemma--why do people like villains who are supposed to be bad--and decided to answer it through Shakespeare's works.    

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."

The story of Ian's paper

This incredibly fun journey began with our discussions of Don John and how boring he is when compared to Iago and Edmund. I then began wondering what makes a villain like Iago and Edmund so interesting. After watching King Lear, it occurred to me that a great deal of a villain's draw comes from his soliloquies. After that  I began reading the soliloquies of Iago and examining their diction, meter, and theme. That is when I began to notice that Iago is incredibly similar to the Joker on many levels. I thought this idea would be interesting to other people outside of the highbrow Shakespeare crowd and began researching it. I shared the idea with my parents, English major siblings, my wife, and several friends who all have varying opinions regarding Shakespeare. The reception my ideas received was promising! I also noticed a buzz about this online. Movie reviews and blog posts devoted to villains popped up.

The Final Villainous Installment

Shakespeare Term Paper Click Here

This paper has been a real treat to write! I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and am excited to prep it for further publication possibilities!

I am interested in Criterion. I have been reading some of their articles and have noticed that each section of their essay has its own header to set it apart. I would probably want to add something like that too mine. I also noticed the articles tended to use less outside resources. I feel like my paper has a good balance at the moment, but to fit in, I might add more to my own observations. The articles aren't afraid of using "I" so I might want to add a little more of a personal touch to everything.

I found an AWESOME online journal published by UGA called Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation.  They like authors to include sound bits, pictures, and videos into their essays to make them more interactive. I could use clips from Kenneth Branaugh's Othello and The Dark Knight! I wonder if I would need to get permission to do that. They require a short 150-200 word paper proposal that gets the point of your paper across. They also want a short author's bio. So, my biggest chore would be to compact my paper into a single tiny paragraph. I emailed their editor to see if a BYU undergrad was eligible to submit to his journal. I haven't heard back yet, but I just found this journal yesterday. Plus, this journal looks at how Shakespeare influences modern culture! That is perfect for my paper! http://www.borrowers.uga.edu/about

The third possible venue is the Shakespeare symposium at BYU. Their guidelines are the following:

1. A 200- to 250-word abstract (including paper title)
2. 5 key terms from your paper (for purposes of indexing)
3. Contact information (your name, phone number, and email)

, Once again I would need to condense my paper into a tiny proposal. Once that is done I would need to develop a verbal way of presenting my ideas and convert my written prose into a presentation. Perhaps a power-point would be a good start.

Anyhow, on to the main even! My paper is finished and it was a doozy to write!

Video and update on progress

Ok! So here is my video. I have been working on accruing more social proof to help me generate a stronger argument. I still have a few sources i want to track down. But, things are moving along much nicer now that I have hammered out my focus. I hope everyone enjoys this and that it works. I also hope you can't hear my dishwasher roaring in the background.

Responses to Tweethis and ROUGH

Well posting my tweethis on facebook was extremely helpful. A former classmate mentioned some ideas that expanded my view on the whole question I am addressing and provided new avenues for application both within and without the play. My thesis revolves around something of a moral question actually so I got a lot of personal responses to that question that weren't really particularly helpful since they didn't relate to the applications in the text, but they did make me think, and there might be new perspectives which will help me adjust the way I look at the play. My mom actually posted a link to a talk by President Monson which related to that moral question. I've added it to the list of articles I am still planning on reading, so it may come in handy, but we'll see. Overall, I'd say this was not only helpful but definitely encouraging. Success.

And here is my current draft of the real deal. It's mostly introductory material and the beginnings of my proof. (Also, do you think it would be better and more specific if I turned this into a reading of Shylock rather than a reading of the whole play?)

The reason I did not post this earlier is because about a third of the way writing through my first draft I decided to change the focus of my essay radically. And then, of course, there were the polls to stare at...If you've seen my previous theses and thoughts, you can see that although I'm still working within the same theme, my actual argument is fairly new here. I'm still working on weeding it to get rid of the stuff from before that is less applicable now. Bolded portions are main points, so you can scan this and still get a pretty good idea of the content:

Rough beginings indeed, though hope remains!

Here is my four page rough rough rough draft. I am still trying to decide what ideas i want to elaborate on. My citations are rough and I wasn't able to get into Refworks or some of the articles I have found on the Library's website. So the last two pages don't have the references or quotes to back them up that I will have in the finished paper.

Responses to my tweethis were few...one in fact. I got one like. Pitiful. I am, however, shifting my approach and am asking general questions about what makes a good villain and so forth. Any way, here is my ROUGH draft. It has certainly helped me to hone my thoughts in.

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.