The Not-So Austen Bookclub discussion
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Let's Talk About...Shakespeare
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This made no sense to me because the modern text doesn't have the proper structure of a sonnet and it defeats the whole purpose of analysing the language from the way I see it.
Anyways we studied the following sonnets.
- My Mistresses Eyes
- Sin of Self-love
There were a lot more but I can't remember the names exactly. A lot of his sonnets didn't have names.
I would have loved to analyse the original text.
Btw anyone here a regular visitor of Sparknotes.
As an English student (currently) i have to admire the great masters, including the famous William Shakespeare. I studied his plays at school for many years, including Macbeth (also known as the Scottish play) which i studied 5 times!! Years 8 and 9 we did Macbeth, then in year 10 we looked at it in Drama class and in year 11 we did Romeo&Juliet...and yes Macbeth AGAIN! "Fair is foul and foul is fair:
hover through the fog and filthy air"
"All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
All hail Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of cawdor!
All hail Macbeth! thall shalt be king hereafter!"
...never forgot those lines *grins*
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I haven't read Macbeth other than a couple of acts that we read in Year 7. Those were really fun because we got to act the parts and pretend as if we were actually performing the play. It was really fun.
I however love A Midsummer Nights Dream which we read in Year 8 and had to study. We also had to write a diary entry in the POV of Puck and his role in the story. I got full marks for that.
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We had to write an essay comparing the two texts and explaining how Luhrmann modified the script, setting, costume (etc.) to make the film more suitable to a modern audience. I'm getting the marks back next term
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Also, we have to choose a scene from the Shakespeare's script and perform it in groups. My group chose the very first scene, and the Prologue. In the first scene, there is a quarrel between the Capulet and Montague servants, and they fight each other until the Prince stops them. We're performing next week. :D
I used to hate Romeo and Juliet because it was so cheesy and annoying, but now when I analysed the script, I realised just how well thought-out it was. Shakespeare (or his ghost writer - depending on if the rumours are true) did a really good job with the script.
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We had to write an essay comparing the two texts and explaining how Luhrman..."
That sounds great! We haven't started our Shakespeare unit yet. We only just finished our unit 'Gender in Advertising' which was really interesting, because we had to learn the different advertising strategies that are used to promote products or ideas. We also had to apply gender stereotypes to various advertisements. We're having our assessment for it next week Thursday.
And then we're going to start Shakespeare. We're going to study The Merchant of Venice.
I remember studying Macbeth last year and we had to perform a monologue we wrote based on one of the characters - it was pretty enjoyable :)We're studying Romeo and Juliet at the moment in English. While our class reading through the play - the other classes were watching the Baz Lurhmann movie with Leonardo Dicaprio! *sigh*
I think one of the big questions with the movie adaptations of this epic play is would you prefer the 1968 version, or the 1996 version (with Leo)?
And will this new one coming out this year meet the mark?
I too watched the Romeo&Juliet film years ago at school, with Leonardo Dicaprio in it!! *swoon*.
I love Shakespeare! We're going to be studying Romeo and Juliet in a week or so at my school. It's not my most favourite of plays, but it's ok.
My absolute favourite would be Twelfth Night; Or What You Will. It is excellent! It is so funny, funnier than A Midsummer Night's Dream if you ask me.
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I absolutely adore Shakespearean adaptations!!! They're so well done. The great thing is that in Shakespeare's plays/ texts there aren't any specific stage directions so you can really bring a lot of your own interpretations on set.
It's interesting to see the different ways that Shylock is played. However I personally find Alpaccino spectacular in his role as Shylock.
Out of the two Shakespeare plays I've read in my life my favourite is Merchant of Venice. But I know there are better ones I'll be studying in the near future. Next year we're studying Macbeth.
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Also, reading Antony's 'Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Lend me your ears,' aloud in class was heaps of fun :)
Probably my favorite sonnet by Shakespeare is the one that he says"Love is not love which alters when it alteration
finds." and "Love alters not with it's brief hours and weeks, but bears it out, even to the edge of doom."
Or something like that. Once you get past the 'thee-s' and 'thou-s' he has some really good lines.
However when it comes to Romeo and Juliet, I must say that I have sympathy for neither one. Romeo was a player. (I mean come on. He's down in the dumps about Rosalind, meet Juliet, gets excited, things don't work out, he's down in the dumps again, and kills himself. Seriously man, get a life.) And Juliet was stupid enough to like him. (You poor, poor thing.) Why didn't she marry Tybalt? That would have solved everyone's problems. With the exception of Romeo...he probably would have killed himself over Rosalind in the end anyway.
I LOVE that sonnet! (as mentioned in Austen's Sense & Sensibility, when Mary-Anne and Willoughby first meet). I think its one hundred and sixteen?
...Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.
Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken...
It's beautiful!
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I am having trouble with essay writing and was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to provide some help as to how to structure, write and prepare for an essay.
I'd really appreciate it! :)
<3 Isabelle
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- http://www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/home...
- http://students.acu.edu.au/office_of_...
When i used to write essays the basic format we were tought was to write it like a sandwitch (with a beginning, middle & end). You would have an introduction relating to the topic of the question, the middle part would be your answer with quotes etc. and the end would be a conclusion and summary of your answer to the question.(Hope the above helps mabie?)
Lucinda wrote: "I LOVE that sonnet! (as mentioned in Austen's Sense & Sensibility, when Mary-Anne and Willoughby first meet). I think its one hundred and sixteen?
...Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Ad..."
I know, it's so beautiful! My favorite author has a book that is titled after that sonnet. That's actually where I heard of it.
I love Shakespeare. I have studied many of his plays and have performed in a the play of King Lear. He is one of my favorite play writes of all time.
I do not enjoy Shakespeare. I've only read one play by him, Romeo and Juliet, performed a Comedy of Errors, and seen about four of his in a theater. Especially in book form, it's really hard to get into them (for me). The Shakespearean type of writing requires me to constantly look up the meaning of words, and that always throws me off of "the flow" of things. I can't say I'm a fan.
Lady Poppy wrote: "I do not enjoy Shakespeare. I've only read one play by him, Romeo and Juliet, performed a Comedy of Errors, and seen about four of his in a theater. Especially in book form, it's really hard to g..."
Shakespeare's no for everyone and his word choice can definitely be difficult!
H99 wrote: "Someday, when I memorize a dictionary, I will be able to comfortably read Shakespeare."Exactly!
I love sonnett 18 and 130.
Sonnett 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
sonnett 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
But I think my fav is 18. There's just something about it I loooooooooove.
Not a fan of Romeo and Juliet though. Absolutely loathe it.
Sonnett 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
sonnett 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
But I think my fav is 18. There's just something about it I loooooooooove.
Not a fan of Romeo and Juliet though. Absolutely loathe it.
♥ Innocent Lamb ~ Forever Reading ♥ wrote: "Not a fan of Romeo and Juliet though. Absolutely loathe it"Completely agree with that. And no. 130 is... interesting. XD
I like it. Sonnet 130 is sort of contradicting all those cliches found in love poems and all that and I love that it does that.
Sonnet 64's definitely one of my favorites. I've got that one memorized.
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defacedThe rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay;
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
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'“He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need:
If thou sorrow, he will weep;
If thou wake, he cannot sleep:
Thus of every grief in heart
He with thee does bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.”'
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Sonnet 130 is one of my favourite Shakespearean sonnets.
I love Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet is my favorite
Shakespeare i pretty great:) I like The Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream:)
Olivia wrote: "Shakespeare i pretty great:) I like The Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream:)"Twelfth Night is the best!!! :D I can't really remember A Midsummer Night's Dream, I read it about 3 years ago... But it was pretty good I think. :)
@Kitty, Studying R&J in school ruined it for me. XD :/
νєяαℓι∂αιиє wrote: "Olivia wrote: "Shakespeare i pretty great:) I like The Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream:)"Twelfth Night is the best!!! :D I can't really remember A Midsummer Night's Dream, I read it a..."
:( love this plat so much also much ado about nothing is really good. King Lear too
I haven't read Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear. But I am planning to read more Shakespeare when I can. :)
I was a bit hesitant and nervous when we first started reading Shakespeare in school. Now I love it though!
I love King Lear! I was in the play a couple years ago:) The Tempest is also really great!
Our town's hosting it's first-ever Shakespeare Festival this summer. It's one of those "If you build it, they will come" endeavors. It's really been amazing to see the outpouring of support and interest despite the fact that we're a pretty rural community, which one naturally doesn't stereotype as harboring closet Shakespeare fans. We're preforming multiple shows of Much Ado and Romeo and Juliet, as well as having vendors and workshops. Any suggestions as to things you all have seen in festivals or the like that we should incorporate?
J๏ђคภภค ~ ωє'яє ƒαℓℓιη' тняσυgн ѕρα¢є, уσυ αη∂ мє wrote: "Hhhhhaaaaaammmmllleeeettt."Oooh I started that ages ago but got distracted! :( I must start again soon!
I love it. Anyone seen David Tennant's Hamlet?
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I really want to!!! I've heard it's brilliant!
I love Hamlet. David Tennant's version is absolutely brilliant! Have you seen him and Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing?
I've seen clips (and it looks brilliant) but not the whole thing. Have you?
I'll have to watch it. ;) I'm planning on getting it from DigitalTheatre.
J๏ђคภภค ~ ωє'яє ƒαℓℓιη' тняσυgн ѕρα¢є, уσυ αη∂ мє wrote: "I love it. Anyone seen David Tennant's Hamlet?"No but I must!!! :D
Feel free to ask about interpretations of the texts, fave characters, fave plays and more!