Cordelia's Love

"Unhappy that I am , I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth, I love your majesty

According to my bond; no more nor less." (King Lear, Act 1 Scene i)

Cordelia's above response, the only truthful one of the sisters' declaration of their love for King Lear, is the statement that sets this tragedy in motion.

"love...according to my bond."

As she says "I love your majesty according to my bond," this infers that Cordelia recognizes the duty she has to love him as her father and king. This would be loyalty as a result of fealty to the king as her ruler, as well as the commandment we all have to "honor they father..." It is interesting that she tacks on "no more nor less" as well. I think that she is genuinely sorry that she cannot say she loves him as her sisters say, but her integrity keeps her from lying. Instead, she qualifies her statement by assuring King Lear that her love is not less than that of duty for

both king and father.

"heave my heart into my mouth"

The first part of this quotation is interesting as well. She says "I cannot heave my heart into my mouth." First of all, this is such a visual description of what her other two sisters have done previously. Can you picture someone taking their heart, pumping and bloody, and heaving, throwing, pushing that beating bloody piece of muscle into their mouth? Someone would only do that if they were desperate and Cordelia is not. It is also interesting to note that the idiom "my heart was in my mouth" nowadays means that you are scared or nervous about something, sort of like butterflies in your stomach. But, I think that Cordelia is not afraid of saying her true feelings, but sorry that she cannot flatter her father and king like her other sisters have done.

The Stage

After King Lear tries to get clarification from Cordelia about what she means by this quotation, and saying "nothing," he flies into a rage and pretty much disowns her. I think he does this for quite a few reasons, but one could be for his appearance to his other subjects that are there. It is a pretty big blow to your pride when someone says that they love you out of duty, after others have said so many flattering words to you. I think King Lear would not have been so quick to jump to conclusions had Cordelia said what she had in private. But, to save face on his "stage," to keep up his act as the awesome king that everyone adores, he disowns her and she flees to France.

We have come to the Midterm...

I can always tell when we are at Midterm, because I reach my peak tiredness, wake up earlier and earlier every day, and weekends are not only cold physically, but mentally as well. But, let's see how I have been doing with Shakespeare:

Learning Outcomes

1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy

I definitely have more literacy than I did before September. I have now read in their entirety: Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, Love's Labor's Lost, As You Like It, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet. Of all of these works, As You Like It is the play that I have the most in-depth knowledge about, with details of the play, as well as connecting it contemporarily.

Prior to this class, I had seen Hamlet live, and The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor. But, now I have seen Kenneth Branaugh's As You Like It, as well as The Winter's Tale in Cedar City and Macbeth at the Castle Theater. Especially with seeing Macbeth, I now understand more fully theater in Shakespeare's time.

I have also seen some parallels between Shakespeare and Contemporary/Visual Culture in the past few months that I haven't seen before. Not only are there parallels between characters, but also the use of titles, missionary work, and parallels to my own life as well.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically

I think that so far I have preferred contextual analysis over textual analysis, but I have done some of both. For textual analysis, while comparing Hamlet and Laertes, I minced words to discuss their righteousness. I also looked at the use of "The Man in the Moon" in The Tempest Contextual analysis was done about themes like Nature v. Nurture, I compared the banished Dukes in The Tempest and As You Like It, and probably my favorite post was when I discussed Romanticism in light of The Tempest.

With productions, I have analyzed As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, and Macbeth. I mostly analyzed them contextually, but with As You Like it, I did do a little bit of textual analysis.

3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively

I feel like engaging with Shakespeare Creatively is more than just a performance or imitation of some sort. I have enjoyed connecting Shakespeare to painting, art history, as well as interpreting his lines to apply them to our life through video. However, I also did a little exaggerated version of alliteration to prove a literary point about Love's Labor's Lost.

4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully

With this learning outcome, I have shared globally, shared with my immediate family, and done this blog!

Self Directed Learning

I admit, it has been hard to blog off the cuff instead of thinking, "Oh man, I have to write about something pertaining to Shakespeare today!" But, I think I am getting better at applying Shakespeare to my life and all of the classes that I am dealing with right now. I think recently I have been more self-directed, as I have found the "All the World's a Stage" theme. My husband came home the other night and I had been working on the video I made about the Internet for hours instead of doing other homework...

Collaborative and Social Learning

I have enjoyed working in smaller groups, because then there is a guarantee that someone will comment on your blog, and you can also talk about them in class as well and continue the conversation over the internet. I usually also talk to my husband about what I am doing, and he laughs at my enthusiasm, as well as me deploring that I wish I had more time to do everything I want to with all of my classes. It has been fun this past week to broaden the learning/sharing horizons, and I am looking forward to doing that more in the future.

Looking Ahead...

I am excited to about the final project, although I'm not sure what I want to do/what there is that I can do, as well as focusing more on what I am interested in on this blog. This "All the World's a Stage" thing has really gotten my wheels turning, so I might keep noodling that out here. (That is unless something else slaps me in the face) Mostly, I think I need to analyze the text as we read more, but I think overall, I have been doing okay with the learning outcomes.

Macbeth Globe Theater Style

My husband and I went to see Macbeth by the Grassroots Shakespeare Company at the Castle Theater last weekend, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Some of the actors were wackadoo, and it was hard not to get negatively distracted by them, but some of the actors were awesome in every part they played.

I really like the idea that the Grassroots Shakespeare Company has of doing the plays close to the way it would have been in the Globe Theater back in Shakespeare's time. Here are some of their ideas that they talked about prior to presenting their production:

1. Sometimes the company only had a few days to put together the production in entirety.

They took only two weeks to prepare for their production.

2. There were no women actors, so men played men and women on stage.

They do have female actors, but men can play men and women, and women can play women and men. (Like an actress was the porter)

3. There were more parts than actors in most plays, so one actor would have multiple parts.

They each played at least two or three characters, and offset this with small costume changes, etc. (The king was killed, then he was a jester in the court, and then he was a soldier in the last scene)

4. There were little to no props/sets on the Globe Theater stage.

They likewise had very little props/set. (Some curtains, ladders, and a bench...some swords)

5. There was no director telling the actors what to do. They also had no director - just actors, musicians and two producers.

5. The audience played a major part in the production: the characters would especially interact with the groundlings, and the audience would boo for the bad guys and cheer for the good guys.

They were very good at interacting with the audience, and even sat in people's laps, came out from under the stage where the groundlings were, and talked to individual audience members. (Macbeth was so afraid of dead Banquo that he jumped into someone's lap)

Needless to say, this live performance was definitely different compared to when we saw The Winter's Tale!

Overall, it was a great production, and I would definitely go see them again. Plus, who doesn't want to watch a Shakespeare production with a castle as your backdrop?!

Sharing Globally

I made a goal in a previous post to create a lesson plan based off an idea from As You Like It. I successfully uploaded an art lesson plan onto a Ning website that is used by many Art Education students at BYU. To extend it globally, I also uploaded it onto a Lesson Plan website. Maybe I will see it pop up on the website later on!

I also looked for someone talking about my theme of "All the world's a stage" that I have been focusing on. I posted a comment on a blog called "All the World's A Stage" by Simone, who talked about wanting to publish a book, perhaps some poems, to get her word out there. I suggested that putting her poems up on the internet was one way of sharing her voice, since that is definitely a legitimate world stage. We will see if she responds!

For an update on my "All the World's a Stage - Family Style," my father-in-law sent a pretty cool response back...I think he understood what I was trying to say in my "teaching" email and video:

Very cool Cassandra! Thanks for sharing....now I'm preparing to BUILD the Easter Pageant Stage over the next 4 months so we can put the great Pageant of the Savior's life on Stage...the biggest Easter Pageant in the World! Hope you can come see it this year, it is the only one of it's kind in the Church. And Michele is preparing to fill the Stage this Christmas with Concerts at the Mesa Temple....which most likely you and Devin will come join us as featured guest singer one of those evenings. The best stage of all to be on is the one testifying everyday of the Savior and His Plan of Happiness.

All the World's a Stage - Family Style

In order to share my ideas concerning As You Like It, I decided to go with a more creative spin than just talking to someone about it. So, I decided to make a little movie about the internet presence that my family has, and then make them, as well as anyone who sees it here aware that almost everyone has some sort of presence if they post anything on the internet.

Like I was talking about in a previous post, "All the world's a stage" can be extended now to a more literal sense, since someone in Dubai could see this blog if they wanted to! I wanted to post this now...and then post about the responses that my family has when they come...

"The Man in the Moon"

In Act II of the Tempest there are 7 instances where the word "moon" comes up. I wasn't even looking for it, and after a while, I just kept noticing it. So, then I had to go back and count...and find out Shakespeare's motive behind this particular word usage:

1. Gonzalo: "You are gentlemen of brave metal; you would lift the

moon out of

her sphere, if

she would continue in it five weeks without changing."

2. Antonio: "The man i' the moon's too slow..."

3. Stephano: "How camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf?"

4. Trinculo: "I hid me under the dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear of the storm."

5. Sephano: "How now, moon-calf! How does thine ague?"

6. Stephano: "Out o' the moon, I do assure thee: I was the man i' the

moon when time was."

7. By this good light, this is a very shallow monster! I afeard of him! A very weak monster! The man i' the moon!"

Here are a few things that I found with a good amount of Google-Searching:

"Elizabethans believed the earth was flat...There was a sharp division between everything beneath the sphere of the moon, and all the rest of the universe."

Moon-calf actually refers to an aborted fetus, "abortive, shapeless, fleshy mass" attributed to the influence of the moon.

According to the Oxford Companion to the Body, the moon is thought of as the most "human" in the heavens (probably because many people found people or faces in the craters of the moon), and as a result of its phases, it has been linked to many other life cycles. Its three most common connotations are: the feminine principle, controlling menstruation, and cause madness, (the term lunacy is derived from the Latin luna, which means moon!).

So What?

With all of this information, I think that Shakespeare is using the

"man in the moon" and "moon-calf" so often because in this act, one, because there is a lot of lunacy going on, but also for the other moon connotations that an Elizabethan audience would have caught. Caliban, for one, does not have a distinctive human or animal form, so it makes sense for the stranded men to call him "moon-calf." Plus, he is driven by natural human vices, such as alcohol consumption... Shakespeare refers to the female using the moon, cycles of life, as well as madness with mentions of "moon" in Act 2.

All the World's a Stage

I realized while in the midst of reading and watching As You Like It, that my "learning plan" was lame. I am an Art Education student for heaven's sake, and all that I am focusing on through my reading and discoveries are themes and motifs in the play, and then a little bit of connection to modern day. But, this included nothing that really spurredme on to victory...and I realized that I was doing a whole different learning plan sort of after the fact.

So, here is what really intrigued me in the play: Rosalind, intriguing themes in the play, and also the social criticism that could be applied today.

All the World's a Stage

Act II scene vii has the famous quote "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women are merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts."

After what is quoted above, Jacques talks about the 7 Stages of Man: Beginning as a baby, and ending, again, in an infantile state. Jacques has a pretty cynical view of the world, which I think reflects Shakespeare's view of the masses:

1. An infant "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms"

4. The soldier "seeking the bubble reputation..."2. "The whining schoolboy"

3. "The lover, sighing like a furnace"

5. The justice with "eyes severe...full of wise saws"

6. The lean and slipper'd pantaloon "a world too wide for his shrunk shank"

7. Another child-like state "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans tasted, sans everything."

We have probably all heard pieces of "all the world's a stage" over the years, taken out of context. Usually I would say that this is a bad thing, but I think just this first part of this quote defines the whole play, without reading the rest of what Jacques said.

Artifice in the Play

The whole play, as I said in my preview post, has a lot of artifice and acting the part. Throughout the play, especially with Rosalind, different characters act in different roles.

Rosalind, as a main example, is:

1. The dutiful niece in her uncle's court after he usurped her father of his throne.

2. The daughter lamenting her father's banishment

3. The run-away when she is banished from the court

4. Ganymede (for traveling purposes, as well as for wooing/matchmaking purposes), as they say in the play "pretty youth"

5. Orlando's love and, at the end, happy wife

Another example that I thought was pretty apparent in the film version was Orlando when he is desperate for food. In order to get food that the Duke and his followers are about to eat, Orlando jumps out of the bushes with knives drawn and threatens their lives unless they give him food first. When the Duke responds to him kindly, he says, "Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you; I thought that all things had been savage here, And therefore put I on the countenance Of stern commandment." Interesting that he decided to act that way, because he thought it would be conforming to the "savagery" of the forest.

The Epilogue informing the Theme?

As You Like It even ends with an "Epilogue" given by Rosalind, in which she admits that this whole production was a play (still in character, but revealing the pageantry of it all). In Kenneth Branagh's film, she does this as she returns to her dressing trailer, walking through the set and all of the film crew. I thought this was a clever way of doing it, although the whole epilogue thing in general was a little strange. In it, she asks the audience to enjoy the play for what it is.

But, I think, as a whole, Shakespeare is commenting on the fact that everyone, whether they admit it or not, has different roles for different situations. It is not just that man has seven stages or scenes of living and this is why "men and women are merely players," but that we all "act" when in different situations. I have two theories as to why Shakespeare decided to write a play concerning this theme:

1. As a social criticism: to point out the hypocrisy of people as they act in order to get things that they want from others

2. Showing that we all inevitably act differently around different people, but it is up to us as to how we act, and that is what makes the difference.

As a result of the Epilogue, Shakespeare was not trying to make people feel terrible about

acting, but was pointing out the pitfalls of taking things too far, and suggesting that honesty is probably the pest policy. So, I guess even though the epilogue made the movie version feel semi-disjointed (since through reading the play there were no cuts or really any scene changes), the epilogue is key to understanding the overall point of the play.

All the World's a Stage: The Internet

In short, Shakespeare does think

that some people are hypocrites

and act to get things, but overall, the

play is suggesting that it is how we act that matters, because we all do. On the subject of "all the world's a stage," I found an interesting blog about Twitter and how this and other social media sites are places for "stage presences," and an NY Times article discussing viral videos and posting videos online as a way of creating that "stage" for people. As a result of these ideas, I think I am going to start working on a series of art lesson plans that connect the students to that "stage."