Katelyn Karls
Friday, April 26, 2013
The End
When I signed up for this class, I knew I needed to take it for a couple reasons. First of all, to graduate. But really because I knew that in a year I would be thrown into a classroom of 14 year olds and expected to teach them about this brilliant man named Shakespeare. And finally, I wanted to have the opportunity to engage with his works in a college setting where there would be deep thought and freedom to explore his writing in my own way. As I make the final push to graduation, I'm glad I have had the experiences (including Shakespeare class) that I have at MSU even though I have wondered many times why I was here. As I finish my last papers and presentations, I can only hope that I'll have something worthwhile to pass on to a bunch of high school freshmen next semester :)
Sunday, April 21, 2013
It’s
All in the Family
When we are born, we cry that we are come/
To this great stage of fools
-King Lear Act 4 Scene 6
William
Shakespeare, forever read and admired and forever unnecessarily dreaded in high
schools, approached writing similarly to many other literary geniuses, but his
works rise above the rest in their timelessness. Shakespeare describes common life experiences through
dramas, and he never avoids the questions that confuse and discourage our
finite minds. Shakespeare
understands deeply and intimately the pain that makes up the human experience,
and he knows better than anyone else how to portray the experiences that we do
not dare try to put into words. In his plays, we read stories of betrayal, conflict,
and untimely deaths, the very experiences that pierce us deeply and leave hurt
buried inside our souls.
Unfortunately,
we often extract the poignancy from his genius when we categorize his works as
tragedies and comedies, outlining their structure and dissecting their parts. Who are we to give labels to his vivid
replications of our own lives? The
labels remove the reality from his plays so that we see his works as literary
devices and strategies, not reflections of ourselves. If we could look more deeply into his works, we would see
their power not only as stories about fictional people, but as stories that
mirror our own lives.
From
his willingness to explore senseless pain, Shakespeare understands something
more deeply than any other author in history. He understands the excruciating pain and joy that make up
the family unit and how family contributes to our tragedy. He brings to life the fears deeply
buried in all of us that relate to our most carefully guarded secrets. His work with the family embodies
Alexander Pope’s idea of poetry as “What oft was thought but ne’er so well
Exprest.” His plays attempt to
unbury the confusion in our souls accumulated from the tragedy of our
experiences. The betrayal of
children, the cyclical return to childhood for the elderly, and the madness of
family members are kept hidden from view in our own lives, but Shakespeare
writes unashamedly about these very occurrences. The family is a creation so intricately constructed yet so
prone to unrest, and Shakespeare captures its intense beauty and pain.
Whether
we will admit it or not, our families are the center of our lives. We joke about our crazy parents and our
drug addict cousin Nellie, pretending it doesn’t hurt, that it doesn’t tear us
apart. We run from the messiness
that is family, escape to college and escape to work, but they call us back,
call us home. Our hearts ache for
that place that is the center of joy and sorrow, the only place in the world
where we are known. So many scars are
exposed, mistakes unhidden and unaffected by our fake, worldly identities. Into these complicated depths of ourselves
Shakespeare beckons us.
Before
looking at the family in Shakespeare’s King
Lear, it is important to understand the significance of the family bond in
Shakespeare’s time. Common
traditions such as the parental blessing ritual and courtship, betrothal and
inheritance customs are often lost on modern readers who read from a much more
individualistic background. In
Shakespeare’s time, however, the family bond was sacred and a person’s family
determined the trajectory of his/her life (Young). The common blessing ritual shows the significance of the
bond. Morning and night, the
children would kneel before their parents and ask for a blessing. The parents would then call to Heaven,
asking for blessings on their child.
This ritual symbolized the respect and obedience with which children
related to their parents. Also, in
Shakespeare’s age, the father was the ultimate and unquestionable head of the household,
whether tyrannical or loving.
Finally, this cultural respect for the parents also meant children were
required by Elizabethan law to care for their parents in old age (Young). Having these family characteristics as
a background helps us view Shakespeare’s works and the meaning behind them more
clearly.
One
of Shakespeare’s most intimately woven and frighteningly real subjects is his treatment
of the family unit, and often his plays center around events that happen when
something in a family goes terribly wrong. In Hamlet, Hamlet
is avenging the murder of his father by his uncle who married his mother,
displaying some very complicated family dynamics. In Romeo and Juliet, the
action springs from family rivalries.
Here Shakespeare portrays the power of a family’s honor and loyalty,
common family characteristics in that culture. In light of this family attribute of his works and the
cultural significance of the family unit, perhaps one of the most troubling
scenarios that Shakespeare brings to life is the betrayal of family
members.
In
King Lear, the most unfortunate
series of events is set in motion by an initial familial conflict. Lear, an aging king, must decide how to
divide his kingdom among his three daughters. He asks his daughters to speak of their love for him
individually in order to help him decide how to divide the kingdom. One daughter, Cordelia, refuses to play
his childish game. Cordelia says,
“Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave/ My heart into my mouth. I love Your Majesty/ According to my
bond, no more nor less” (I.I.88-90).
This opening scene of stubborn pride from both Cordelia and her father
sparks the destruction of that familial bond, and from their conflict the
action of the play begins. Merideth
Skura explains the treatment of family in King
Lear in her article, “Dragon Fathers and Unnatural
Children: Warring Generations in King Lear and Its Sources.” She says,
The
mutual destruction in Shakespeare's play is psychologically and painfully
realistic […] Lear's childish self-centeredness smothers Cordelia; her
youthful declaration of independence tears him apart and drives him mad.
The pity and terror elicited from audiences come from watching fathers and
children attack, humiliate, and abandon each other (123).
Lear is a flawed, human father, but he is
also victimized when his other two daughters turn against him. Goneril and Regan both profess their
love to him in gushing words, only to turn their backs on him later. They abuse their aging father, taking
from him everything he possessed.
They manipulate him, refusing even to give him knights and kicking him
out of the castle during a bad storm.
Lear is heartbroken, and he eventually goes mad. He says of his daughters’ betrayal, “The
daughters’ ingratitude is like violence of one part of the body against
another: “Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand / For lifting food to’t?”
(III.IV.15-16).
In
the same play, another familial plot occurs between the nobleman Gloucester and
his bastard child, Edmund. Gloucester, a well-respected nobleman, reveals at
the beginning of the play that he fathered a bastard child who of whom he is
ashamed. Edmund, jealous of his
legitimate brother Edgar, devises a plan to trick his father into believing
that his Edgar is going to usurp the estate. Gloucester believes the lie, severing the strong
relationship with Edgar. These
breaks in family loyalty are heartbreaking and striking.
The horrible tragedy that occurs at the end of the play tears us more
deeply because of the severance of important familial relationships.
Paired
with the fractured relationships with their children, both Lear and Gloucester
are aging men, losing their authority in the world as well as in their own
families. Shakespeare’s treatment of old age shows
an understanding of the phenomenon that everyone experiences. He raises the question that we often
avoid until the end of our lives.
What is the point of life if we are to return to dust? Lear, once a powerful king, has been
reduced by old age to a physically weak, mentally ill, lonely man. Gloucester’s blindness and his suicide
attempt convince us of the hopelessness of his future. Shakespeare is showing us our futures
and the futures of those we love in the lives of these aging men.
The
elderly return in a cyclical way to be as they were as babies, unable to
provide for themselves the most basic of needs. The cycle takes an active, productive human life and renders
it suddenly useless and helpless.
The elderly sit in wheelchairs staring into space. If they are lucky enough to remain
cognitively aware, they may spend their days on puzzles or watching
television. They are no longer
able to provide for themselves, becoming a burden to their children and
relatives. The life that was so
full and purposeful so quickly is depleted of its meaning. All the endeavors that a person has
given himself or herself to suddenly mean nothing as they are tucked away in a
room of some facility, where they barely see the world or the sunlight. Walking the halls of a nursing home, it
is common to see short biographies on residents’ doors. The stories tell of the accomplishments
of their lives. One was an astronaut,
one was a brilliant teacher, one gave his life as a doctor working overseas in
impoverished neighborhoods. And
now they sit, watching television, with only a plaque on the door to remember
their life.
Walking
the halls of the nursing home where I worked in high school, it was common to
hear people yelling from their rooms, have a hand reach out and grab mine with
a death grip, and to breathe in unpleasant odors resulting from uncontrollable
bowels. Martha talked in
gibberish, Maxine sang unrecognizable songs from her childhood, diabetic Betty
stole cookies from the fridge, Lucy sat smiling in her wheelchair, cognitively
aware and yet unable to communicate after suffering from a stroke. Fred was wheeled off to his daily
dialysis appointment and Agnes received her pills in a spoonful of pudding. Some residents had visitors every day
while others had no one. Some
talked fondly of their families while others eyes clouded over with the hurt
and pain of severed relationships.
Like
many of these people, Lear has had great success and many friends and
accomplishments in his life, but from Cordelia’s initial act of rebellion, one
by one Lear loses his friends and family until he is left alone on the heath
with only his Fool and Poor Tom as company (Collington). He descends rapidly into depression and
madness as his success is stripped away and the cycle of life reaches him at
last. Drenched and wandering through
the tempest, Lear prays, ““You heavens, give me that patience, patience I
need!/ You see me here, you gods,
a poor old man,/ As full of grief as age, wretched in both” (II.IV.268-271). As the storm continues, Lear sinks
deeper and deeper into madness, losing his sense of reality.
Shakespeare
uses madness not as a comical occurrence, but as a realistic portrayal of the
end of life, knowing that his audiences know mental illness, amnesia, and physical
suffering. Shakespeare knows that
they have family members who are mentally struggling and that there has been
great tragedy in their families. Lear
sinks deep into depression and eventual madness after his two daughters, Goneril
and Regan, turn him out of the castle and into a nasty storm. As he wanders through the rain and
wind, he at first has a sense of reality.
He speaks of his age, his daughters’ cruelty, and the injustice of his current
circumstances. However, he begins
to lose his senses, talking of the “tempest in [his] mind” (III.IV.13-14). Shakespeare paints the picture of the
terrible storm as a symbol of not only the political storm, but the storm
raging in Lear’s mind after he has suffered from these severed relationships
with his children.
Lear’s
struggles would have come anyway with aging, but the severed family
relationships make the end of his life so much harder. It seems that one can handle the
challenges one faces with a support system and a family to lean on, but facing
old age and death alone is very frightening. When I worked at the nursing home, the most troubling to me
of all the old age was a man named Bill. He suffered from muscular dystrophy and was actually only
forty years old. He lived in a
place that smelled of death. Of
course, no one would advertise a nursing home that way, but really, people
moved out of this Earth every day in those rooms. Bill stayed. He
stayed for twenty long years. He
lived alongside mental illness, physical decay, and hopeless lives.
The
sadness that one felt upon meeting and spending time with Bill was not only
based on his physical condition.
Many people suffer disabilities and yet lead joyful and meaningful
lives. The heart-wrenching part
about Bill’s life was the desertion of his parents and family, the failure of
the family unit. His parents only
managed to visit every few months.
Bill spoke with bitterness whenever he was asked about them. Bill needed his family, and they had
deserted him.
Our
family is the crux of our support, but in an instant it can become the crux of
our deepest pain. In a society
that is becoming more and more individualistic, we are losing something of
great value. Yes, families often
fail and often fall apart, but maybe this happens because we do not place value
on those relationships, and then we wonder what went wrong when they fail. Most things that are worth anything
encompass both joy and sorrow, and the family unit is one of those things that
we cannot lose. Our families are
flawed. They will fail. But those relationships are worth the
pain.
That
is why it is so relieving when Lear and Cordelia reconcile their relationship
at the end of the drama. There is
a sense of peace and rightness that overcomes all the bad things that have
happened. The ending is far from
happy; the audience shudders as Cordelia takes her last breath and Lear falls
dead on top of her in his grief. However, there is a sense of closure knowing that they died
together, reconciled and full of love for one another. In the same way, Gloucester’s death is
sweetened by his joy at the revelation of his son Edgar, who he learns is
alive.
Shakespeare
asks us to take a good look at our disabled world. It is a world where pain and sorrow abound, where daughters
turn their backs on an aging father, and where illegitimate sons trick their
fathers into hating their brother. Cordelia speaks of the inevitable injustice, saying to her
father as they are taken away to prison, “We are not the first/ Who with best
meaning have incurred the worst” (V.III.3-4). It is our ability to grapple with the tough questions that
will lead to more maturity (if less understanding). None of us can change the brokenness of the world, but we
can choose what to do with it in our own minds and with our actions. In King
Lear, Shakespeare deliberately illustrates tragedy in the context of family
because his audience would have understood the pain he was trying to
portray. He challenges us to think
about the tragedy in our own lives and face the realities of the world in which
we live.
Works Cited
Collington, Phillip D. “Self-Discovery in Montaigne's ‘Of Solitarinesse’ and King Lear.”
Comparative Drama
35.3, 4 (2001-02): 247-269. Web. 13 April 2013.
Skura, Merideth. “Dragon Fathers and Unnatural Children: Warring Generations in King
Lear and Its Sources.” Comparative
Drama. 42.2 (2008): 121-148. Web. 13
April 2013.
Shakespeare,
William. King Lear. New York: Pearson
Longman, 2005. Print.
Young, Bruce W. Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. Westport:
Greenwood Press, 2009.
Print.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Thoughts on Frederick Turner
I think having gone through the process of writing my own sonnet a few weeks ago, I was way more amazed than I would have otherwise been. The rhyme and the meter of his poems is so perfected and brilliant. When he was reading the first piece, The Undiscovered Country, I would stop on a line to try to understand it and by the time I had caught up he was at the next sonnet! I really enjoyed the experience of listening to him read and share his own work.
When he introduced The Undiscovered Country, he described the experience of traveling alone, of being in a place where no one else that you know exists. I was thinking about this scenario as I listened to him read about the traveler's fulfillment, loneliness, and thoughts. I remember feeling this sweet aloneness one time when I was traveling in Nicaragua. We had traveled for hours trying to get to this remote spot on an island in Lake Nicaragua. We got there and were swimming in the lake, and I had this moment of realizing how alone I was. I had a few friends with me, but besides them, no one in the world knew where I was. My parents, my boyfriend, and anyone in my normal context had any idea what I was doing at that moment. It was a weird feeling... one where I felt very alone in a world that was huge and unexplored. As I listened to Frederick Turner's poem, I was reminded of that moment and the meaning that these experiences add to our lives.
When he introduced The Undiscovered Country, he described the experience of traveling alone, of being in a place where no one else that you know exists. I was thinking about this scenario as I listened to him read about the traveler's fulfillment, loneliness, and thoughts. I remember feeling this sweet aloneness one time when I was traveling in Nicaragua. We had traveled for hours trying to get to this remote spot on an island in Lake Nicaragua. We got there and were swimming in the lake, and I had this moment of realizing how alone I was. I had a few friends with me, but besides them, no one in the world knew where I was. My parents, my boyfriend, and anyone in my normal context had any idea what I was doing at that moment. It was a weird feeling... one where I felt very alone in a world that was huge and unexplored. As I listened to Frederick Turner's poem, I was reminded of that moment and the meaning that these experiences add to our lives.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
I've recently been fascinated with Les Miserables. When a movie comes out, I always am inspired to read the book, even though it should be the other way around. As I have lost myself in the incredible (and incredibly long) text, I see many connections to King Lear. In both, I find myself thinking, "that's not fair!" It seems to be a dilemma that literature is unafraid to approach. Why should the innocent suffer? Why do our good deeds not result in a rewards? In fact in these novels, it is the exact opposite. The moral, good, loved characters experience great tragedy in their lives.
In both plays, there is the much-loved protagonist who suffers unnecessarily. Jean Valjean spends years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family. He spends his life hiding from Javert, never able to find forgiveness for his one wrong move. Lear also makes a mistake at the beginning of his play that causes unbearable suffering and his deterioration into madness.
Fantine is much like Cordelia. She risks her heart with a man who says he loves her, only to be completely abandoned by him and left alone with a child. Like Jean Valjean, she cannot escape her misery as society refuses to forgive her for having a child out of wedlock. Cordelia, the image or perfect beauty and honesty, loses her family and her life for a wise choice. Both of these women are presented as images of purity, but in the end they lose their lives because of the cruelty of others.
Both of the plays end with a cathartic moment of familial happiness. Cossette (Fantine's daughter) is reunited with Jean Valjean when she learns the truth about his past. The reconciliation is moving, and Jean Valjean dies in peace after a long, hard life. Cordelia and Lear also experience reconciliation. Lear has lost most of his sanity, but he recognizes his daughter. At the end of their time together, he says, "Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish." His grieves the hurt he has caused, but receives forgiveness from his daughter.
Forgiveness is the connection that I see. Unforgiveness causes great pain and suffering in both great works while the power of reconciliation shines forth as the characters eventually choose to forgive one another. True, none of the noble characters get what they deserve, but in the end there is peace in their lives.
In both plays, there is the much-loved protagonist who suffers unnecessarily. Jean Valjean spends years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family. He spends his life hiding from Javert, never able to find forgiveness for his one wrong move. Lear also makes a mistake at the beginning of his play that causes unbearable suffering and his deterioration into madness.
Fantine is much like Cordelia. She risks her heart with a man who says he loves her, only to be completely abandoned by him and left alone with a child. Like Jean Valjean, she cannot escape her misery as society refuses to forgive her for having a child out of wedlock. Cordelia, the image or perfect beauty and honesty, loses her family and her life for a wise choice. Both of these women are presented as images of purity, but in the end they lose their lives because of the cruelty of others.
Both of the plays end with a cathartic moment of familial happiness. Cossette (Fantine's daughter) is reunited with Jean Valjean when she learns the truth about his past. The reconciliation is moving, and Jean Valjean dies in peace after a long, hard life. Cordelia and Lear also experience reconciliation. Lear has lost most of his sanity, but he recognizes his daughter. At the end of their time together, he says, "Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish." His grieves the hurt he has caused, but receives forgiveness from his daughter.
Forgiveness is the connection that I see. Unforgiveness causes great pain and suffering in both great works while the power of reconciliation shines forth as the characters eventually choose to forgive one another. True, none of the noble characters get what they deserve, but in the end there is peace in their lives.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Moments of Strength and Weakness
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth.
-Cordelia
In a moment of high pressure, young Cordelia takes the high road, standing in contrast to her brash father and sisters. The depth of character in this young, beautiful girl took hold of my sympathies from the beginning. She is offered a kingdom, a husband, and her father's favor in exchange for a few simple flattering words, but she decides not to play their game. I find the relationship between her and Lear fascinating because it is not like she hates him and is rebelling against him. Instead, she loves and respects him, but in his faults she cannot support him. How difficult it is to stand up against a loving parent, to tell an elder that they are wrong. Honesty truly shines forth in the opening scene.
I really am enjoying this play. I think it interests me because the relationships are so complex and real and messy. This dysfunctional family is relatable to me, and I think that is why I enjoy tragedy. It reveals moments of weakness and moments of strength. Both King Lear's brash decision to banish his daughter and Cordelia's decision to be honest... Those moments shape our lives and have such lasting consequences. With these moments, words have the ability to do great damage or to bring about peace. This idea reminds me of a passage from the Bible that talks about the tongue.
I really am enjoying this play. I think it interests me because the relationships are so complex and real and messy. This dysfunctional family is relatable to me, and I think that is why I enjoy tragedy. It reveals moments of weakness and moments of strength. Both King Lear's brash decision to banish his daughter and Cordelia's decision to be honest... Those moments shape our lives and have such lasting consequences. With these moments, words have the ability to do great damage or to bring about peace. This idea reminds me of a passage from the Bible that talks about the tongue.
Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
James 3: 5-6
I recently had this experience while traveling with a group over Spring Break. We had been traveling for... too long, and during a 14 hour layover, my tongue took over in moment of weakness. I exploded in anger at a friend when she gave me some simple advice. This explosion was out of character for me, and afterward I realized the consequences of my momentary weakness. Shakespeare of course understands this human experience of momentary decisions, and he plays with the experience a lot in King Lear.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
My Sonnet Attempt
I read through some sonnets in the Hughes book, and this was one of my favorites.
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote;
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway'd the likeness of a man,
Thy proud hearts slave and vassal wretch to be:
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
Tonight when my husband got home from work, he was... crabby. And then I was... crabby. It happens, right? Anyways, he left for a little while, and I'm thinking it is the right time to hit him with some poetry when he gets home :) I've never written poetry for my significant otter, but we'll see how it goes! My sonnet is about the night we started dating. I don't think it sounds very good or very Shakespearean, but I gave it a shot.
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote;
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway'd the likeness of a man,
Thy proud hearts slave and vassal wretch to be:
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
Tonight when my husband got home from work, he was... crabby. And then I was... crabby. It happens, right? Anyways, he left for a little while, and I'm thinking it is the right time to hit him with some poetry when he gets home :) I've never written poetry for my significant otter, but we'll see how it goes! My sonnet is about the night we started dating. I don't think it sounds very good or very Shakespearean, but I gave it a shot.
To My Significant Otter
Your shaky hands hold mine so soft
Around, around, around we walk.
The night is cool, the stars aloft
Around, around, around we talk.
Hopeful hearts run wild tonight;
Whispered hopes from deep do strive;
Imagined love on tongues alight
As quiet words on air describe
The terror that we feel inside.
The pumping of our beating chests
Advises us to run and hide
Lest in another soul the future rests.
The mystery of a romance
That time may bring to love perchance.
Monday, February 18, 2013
As imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
I'm interested in the conversations that have been taking place in class as well as on the blogs in regards to imagination. There seems to be an insecurity when it comes to literature and "saying smart things." Our discussion of the imagination interested me. Professor Sexson said that there are no correct interpretations of anything, but just two kinds of misreadings, or levels of thinking... which doesn't make me feel much better about not saying smart things. And then we looked at Coleridges definition:
The primary Imagination I hold to be the living Power and prime Agent of all human Perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I Am. The secondary I consider as an echo of the former, co-existing with the conscious will, yet still as identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to re-create; or where this process is rendered impossible, yet still at all events it struggles to idealize and to unify. It is essentially vital, even as all objects (as objects) are essentially fixed and dead.
So as "imaginers,"we are usually drawing from what has already been created and the original is so brilliant and so inspired that we spend our time trying to make sense of the divine essence of the primary Imagination. We mimic that essence through words and paintings and notes of music, but those objects remain fixed and dead. I like that Coleridge uses the verb struggle to describe this process of the imagination. I falls right into Shakespeare's description of "giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." This is the process we experience as Lit majors that many other people never get to experience!
I've struggled with it. I hate those times when I have nothing to say. I think there is a correlation there with the rude mechanicals. I feel like Bottom, bumbling along without much to contribute to the world.
And I blog on... :)
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