I really wish that I could do this with every play/book that I read. But, I think that would probably kill me because this was pretty intense to add on to the rest of my school work and work work. But, it was pretty awesome reading the play so fast, and then watching it right away.I would like to say that I have been disappointed with the endings of the last few Shakespeare plays we have read, and this one did not help my thoughts. I guess I'm just not a huge all of a sudden "happily ever after person," I like the slow resolve that is more like rea
lity I guess.
In both the play and the movie, everything just works out in the end - everyone gets what they want, everyone gets married and even the evil duke (even more evil in the movie than in the book with his wide eyes and always yelling) just up and decides to become religious and give the old duke back his "kingdom." I dunno, the only couple that I really feel good about is Rosalind and Orlando, anyways. I'm excited to talk about the nitty gritty of this play and Kenneth Branaugh's movie in the next few posts!
It seems like Shakespeare either takes one side or the other, right? Either his plays (generally speaking) show a terribly tragic ending, or almost, superficially happy, would you say? Do you think we owe our "always a happy ending" mentality in the West to him?
ReplyDeleteI agree, although I'm not sure I could make that statement completely since I haven't read much Shakespeare. However, I don't think we owe the "always a happy ending" to him. There are way too many tragedies in his repertoire. I think we owe the happy ending stuff to propagators of the American Dream, DISNEY, and maybe Hans Christen Anderson ;)
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