Jewlius Seezer

While I was reading the passage for today, I noticed a few interesting things.

When Brutus spoke to the crowds of angry mobbers, he spoke in prose. I thought that was unique, considering that he is supposed to be a grand orator. Perhaps he was trying to speak in a way the crowds would connect with. He also uses a lot of repetition, such as the word IF, like lines 17, 19, 29, 31, 33. If this, then that statements seem popular with him. And he uses them persausively to play upon the emotions of the people.

Antony goes the full nine yards with dramatics. He speaks in verse, and has extreme repetitions and pathetic pleas. The question of "what is ambitious" seems to be a popular idea in his first speech. He also continually calls Brutus and company "honorable men," so they must be right in their accusations against Caesar.

Not that these people would particularly care, but I saw several images that linked to Christ. References to wounds, especially in body (chest), traitors who killed their master, and insistence on worshiping the body.

This not extensive, but just a few things I found interesting. Have a nice day!

Progress Report

1. I meeting some of my self-inflicted goals for the semester. Most of them, actually. Just not in the way that I'd like to, or in the time that I feel is goodly for my schedule and what needs to be done. I'm getting reading done, and I do research, but then I neglect to post, which is stupid.
2. This semester, I have read Hamlet, King Henry V, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Tempest. (Confession: I have not finished all of the plays, of which I am severely ashamed. I'm finishing them off, though. A little each week.) I use Shakespeare study guides, like No Fear Shakespeare, and I also use wikipedia as a starter tool to look up authors and articles on the plays that I am reading. I have looked into the idea of language as a theme, music in plays, and also politics in plays.
3. I'm awful at linking to my own blog, but I enjoy commenting on others. I also mention other learning and classes in my posts.
4. I actually really love Shakespeare, and I love discussing his plays. Some, more than others. I find it most engaging when we get to talk about what we've learned, because that way, I get to bounce things around with other, more intelligent people than myself. Personally, I've noticed certain themes that continue to be written about that I have no intention of addressing on the outset. Like politics. And yet I have noticed it in almost all the plays I've read. I've noticed that while I have a love of research, I also have a love of going ADD and never posting before running off to the next subject. This is not a good habit. I wish to repent.
5. I have done pretty well on commenting intelligently, and the posts I do write up are the result of some good brainwork. Unfortunately, what I need to work on is actually posting the things that I've been working on, so that people (like my dear teacher) can see that I have been making an effort for this class.
6. I really love reading/listening to Whitney's ideas. She seems to come up with some really creative blurbs that get me thinking. I work well off of Sarah Jane and her blog as well. She brings up her opinions and then makes connections that I hadn't thought of. When she posts, it gets me going, and then I want to look up that information and go deeper into it as well. Joanna is another one that I follow. I enjoy her posts on the women in the texts, and how they feature in the plays. I find Max's in class comments amazingly intriguing, and I want to go diving into the ideas that we brainstorm in small groups.

Peer Evaluation: Sara Da Silva Castro

Number of Posts: 19, and they're pretty darn good posts as well. I actually follow her, and I really enjoy her posts, which are pretty regular, and really intelligent. I would say that she goes above and beyond, sometimes posting several times a week, and they are all informative and interesting, as opposed to being useless, like some of my own are. I love the labels on the side that show which posts relate to which plays and learning outcomes. It's very well organized. I particularly loved her posts on scansion and her interview with her mother. The scansion post blew my mind, and made me go back and look at some of the plays that I read. I'm looking into that with my blog (but of course I haven't posted yet) because she's inspired me! I think a good quality that goes across the board is her ability to find something interesting, and then dig after it and learn more about that aspect of the play. She is straightforward and well organized, and that makes her blog very easy to read. I don't know that I have a lot to suggest in improvements. She's very regular, and keeps her posts varied with pictures, videos, links,etc. Perhaps the same thing I have to work on, linking with peers' blogs. She did an amazing job, though. Keep up the great work!

"Partly Racist Warning"

As I was just diving right into this play, I decided to stop flailing about, and start swimming around and start looking. I don't want to bash my head on the bottom of the pool.

So instead of hurting myself...

I stopped reading and went to Sparknotes, which is one of the best things that ever happened to high school English students/English majors everywhere, and searched Othello.  I found this video a helpful go over of the play, even if the man has a dreadfully dull voice.

Wikipedia, one of the two sources of all information, gave me background information and the source history in brief. This play was written around 1604. Turns out Shakespeare mooched this play off of an Italian play called "Un Capitano Moro", or "A Moorish Captain," by Cinthio. The plays are pretty darn similar. Shakespeare does depart from it, however, in a few different ways. For example,

• Desdemona is the only character named in the Cinthio. Everyone else just has cool titles, like Moor, or Engisn, or Captain. Cool, huh?
• In Cinthio, Iago wanted to get with Desdemona, and was driven by revenge when she refused him.
• In Cinthio, Othello and Iago tag team to kill Desdemona and then cover the murder by making it look like an accident. Othello is caught later and tortured and killed. Iago is caught for other crimes and meets the same fate. Emilia is the only character that isn't dead at the end, and she tells the story. THIS is the most striking departure from the original text.
• Shakespeare adds characters.
• FUN FACT: The notes in some editions of Cinthio's play include a "partly-racist warning."

I hearkened to our dear teacher, and turned to the textbook and found some fascinating information. Like that though Shakespeare's main tragedies focus around "the deadly sins of the spirit" like "ambitious pride, ingratitude, wrath, jealousy, and vengeful hate," Othello is focused on sexual jealousy (Bevington 605). It's not just about the cosmos and the huge scheme of life and the universe, but about "the destruction of love through jealousy" (605). A list of differences between this and the other major tragedies is provided, including:

• Protagonist not a king or prince
• No supernatural visitions
• Social order not taken as seriously
• Not a widespread condemnation of humanity
• Focuses on ideas of divine justice
• Battles of good and evil for favor of the protagonist

I did a little background check on a character I'm interested in studying. Did you know that Iago is one of the few Shakespeare villains who do evil for the sake of being an evil jerk? He isn't driven entirely by ambitious pride or anything else like that. There are elements of that, but he really just wants to be mean sometimes.

And now that I have done all of that, I feel more prepared to jump back into reading. I have found some interesting themes that I want to see if I can pull out and examine more in detail. I'm wondering what literary application I should take with this. Hmmmm.....

A Tragedy for the Ears

... of the Non-Tone Deaf.

...Or the tone deaf...

... And just everyone else.

I just thought that you would enjoy listening to this during the especially HORRIFIC parts of your Tragedies. I'm thinking that I'll start this clip when all the murders start happening. Or, since I'm reading Othello, I'll just apply it to a particular character as his theme song. Perhaps Iago's. 

Anyway, I hope I didn't kill anyone's love of children with this middle school band's lovely attempt at music.

Have a nice day! Keep smiling while wading through the blood-baths you've chosen to read for this next week! (And through the pain from the severe wounds now in your your ears as well. What an awful sound that is.)

Taming a Woman: The Real Mysterious Wonder?

Dear Readers, I apologize for the temporary death. I assure you all that life has been restored to myself and, hopefully, my brain. 


I read The Taming  of the Shrew as one of the comedies this last week. We discussed in class some of the elements that constitute a Shakespearean comedy. I tried to relate those elements to the play I read, instead of just blandly listening to our dear professor. I came up with some interesting conclusions.


The characters go from city to nature, where chaos happens, and then everyone returns home changed, or having learned something, or found someone.
In this play, Petruchio and Kate leave the city and go out on a trip to go back to Petruchio's home after the wedding. When they return to the city for her sister's wedding, Kate the Shrew is not only not screaming and throwing things, she is so good at being a wife that she lectures two other women on the duties of an obedient wife.

What the heck happened?

Petruchio goes to "wive it wealthily in Padua; If wealthily, then happily in Padua" (I.ii.75-76). He gets a wench with a penchant for loud shrieks, throwing things, and a sharp tongue. He plains to break her in, like you would with a horse, and turn her into a "real" and docile woman. 


He uses a variety of mental anguishes that would plague a well-born woman to bits. He ruins her wedding. He publicly embarrasses her. He doesn't let her eat. He doesn't let her get cute new clothes. He doesn't let her sleep. 


All of these torments start at the wedding, when they leave, and ends when they return. So, if  magical things are supposed to happen out in the forest, where there are fairies, crazinesses, and enchantments... Is taming a woman the magical event of this play?


The dialogue is quick and witty, and involves a large amount of puns.
The characters, ESPECIALLY Petruchio and Kate, use each other to build up momentum. In the "courting" scene, Kate and Petruchio have a fun round of words that change meanings and ideas faster than you can read the last line. The effect is that they build up a kinetic energy that is continually fueled by each line, and the bouncing produced bounces more, and then more bouncing, until there is a frenzy.

Something INTERESTING that I found while researching:

So we all know that the dialogue is important in a comedy, but what about the idea that LANGUAGE ITSELF IS A THEME? I found that idea fascinating, and I'm going into that one further. For now, here are some little tidbits that I found.

• Language is what classifies Kate as a shrew. She has a sharp tongue and a ready wit that she delights in using to cut others down. She also likes dissing men.
• Language is one of the ways that Petruchio plans to tame Kate. Petruchio purposefully misinterprets what Kate says so that there is a disconnect of meaning between the two. This causes confusion, and throws off her ability to attack him. He cuts off her arsenal.

Say that she rail, why then I'll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale.
Say that she frown, I'll say that she looks as clear
As morning roses newly washed with dew.
Say she be mute and will not speak a word,
Then I'll commend her volubility
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.
If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week.
If she deny to wed, I'll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns, and when be marri'd.

(2.1.169–179)

These are two ideas that came to my attention when I was perusing online for some different ideas. I want to further delve into these concepts, and find some articles that flesh out these ideas. (Just so you know, these ideas are NOT actually mine. I'm not that smart. I found them on wiki, and I want to expand upon them.)


Well, that's all for now. If anyone knows of a good way to go about starting my research into rhetoric and dialogue, let me know.