One of the two scheduled walks for our trip (the other is the Jack the Ripper Tour, which I missed), the Shakespeare Walk began in London proper and continued in Bankside. It was a great tour: we crossed the London Bridge, saw the George Inn, several alleys mentioned by Shakespeare and Dickens, the site of [...]
Tag Archives | shakespeare
Shenandoah Shakespeare Express
What a treat! I was able to see more theatre in the last two days than I have in the last two years thanks to Dr. Greg McNamara’s efforts to bring the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express’ “Rife with Mischief” tour to Macon State College for two performances and two workshops. I was unable to attend the [...]
Ophelia
Sir John Everett Millais’ 1852 painting “Ophelia” might be subtitled “Western Literature’s Woman.” It seems to me that the history of Western Literature has prescribed this role for its women: the drowned suicide of men’s struggles for power and control. Ophelia is the metaphor for a real world of patriarchal desire for control. Ophelia is [...]
The Lessons of Titus
Titus Andronicus goes to great — almost hyperbolic — lengths to make this clear, though it is often overlooked trying to make ethical sense out of a morality tale. I believe that Titus Andronicus shares this quality with Euripides’ Medea: both of these plays unsettle us in ways that we might not be willing to face.
O Mistress Mine
O Mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming, That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting; Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know. What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter; What’s to come is still unsure: [...]
The World of Hamlet
Maynard Mack, in his essay “The World of Hamlet,” states that his subject is, indeed, the world of Hamlet. By this he means the imaginative state of mind we enter when we see or read the play. All great plays have their own microcosm of people, actions, situations, thoughts, emotions, and much more that is [...]