This blog is just a brief update and explanation on what plays I chose to read from each of the categories. Don't worry i did not actually roll a dice to makes this decision!
For the history I am going to read Henry V. The reason for this is because freshman year when when were learning about pathos, ethos and logos in my English 251 class my professor showed us a clip from Henry V and, the Kenneth Branagh version, and it was quite inspiring.
Next come the comedies, I chose Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice. Taming of the Shrew because it is my mothers favorite movie, though I haven't watched it with her since I was a little kid, and now that I am at a more mature age I would like to see why she likes it so much. I chose The Merchant of Venice because of my experience seeing it performed this past summer. I was surprised when I saw that it was listed as a comedy, granted it ends with weddings, however, in the performance I saw the play ended with Jessica, the daughter of Shylock mourning the tragedy that has befallen her father because he himself would not administer mercy to Antonio. This interpretation suggests that it is a tragedy rather than a comedy, so I will be studying it as a problem play.
Othello was the most intriguing tragedy to me because I have heard it talked about often enough to become curious. However, unlike Romeo and Juliet one can get by hearing about it without coming to a basic understanding of the play. This is because the latter is so often taught in high school and though I only attended one year of high school I too could not cross the thresh hold of the dungeonous place without a basic understanding of the play despite the fact that I have never read it.
Last semester I read A Winter's Tale last semester in my 295 class and Cymbeline seemed so unheard of that it frightened me so for a romance I am going to read The Tempest. Apart from knowing that Shakespeare wrote a lot of sonnets I knew nothing of his poetry before the start of this class. As of now I still know nothing except for now knowing the different titles. For one who is somewhat frightened of modern poetry let alone renaissance poetry I may be to ambitious in the undertaking of reading A Lover's Complaint, but the title intrigued me and I am determined.
