As I was sifting through my old notes from class, back when ideas were hitting me at a steady pace I discovered my topic for my blog. Since the midterm I have been trying to figure out what I want to blog about, slash what I can blog about based on my interest. I have decided to blog about optimism in Shakespeare’s works to prove the man’s positive perspective on life. This may seem a bit simple and several people have expressed concern and curiosity about this however I feel that I am up to the challenge.
There may be curiosity as to why I am choosing to write on this topic. Well let me address them now! One: I consider myself an optimist. It is true that we all have our off days but overall I am a happy person. Two: I want to prove that the Bard was an optimist. He did have trying times which led to the darker plays (this goes back to everyone having bad days, weeks, months, or years) but over all there is proof of a lifelong of happiness and positivity manifested in his works.
I am going to discuss three plays to achieve this, they are:
1.) The Tempest, this is one of his last plays full of Prospero’s hate and resentment and yet in the end of the play the message is forgiveness, a positive to twist considering with a few tweaks the play could have gone in the opposite direction. I feel like this can demonstrate him as a wise optimist.
2.) In order to make a convincing argument I cannot skip lightly over the tragedies as pointed out by Natashya in a comment. For this I am going to look over Hamlet for the obvious symmetry to Hament and because even though it is a little tenth grader cliché I really like the play! (This might partially be attributed to Kenneth Brannaugh).
3.) I have not decided on a third play yet however I know it is going to be a comedy. This will be to demonstrate youthful optimism . . .I think.
There are a few other things that I want to examine in this area of study.
1.) I think it would be really interesting to investigate and compare Shakespeare with another famous author. In seriously running through the list or famous authors I have collected in my head over the past three years I think I might have found a perfect match. Edgar Allen Poe. Though they are from different eras I feel that this will only serve to prove my point further.
2.) I will want to examine his life in my present course of action, I would find it difficult to leave out of the equation entirely. However, I can specify what areas of his life I will be putting on display. One is his relationship with his wife. I needed to drive yesterday and my drive led me to Borders. I really wanted a good book to read so I decided to walk around the whole store and look for something cheap but uplifting to read. Well immediately past the literature section I found . . . well I don’t remember what it was called but I found a section with a bundle of books on Shakespeare (see the most current post for more info!) One of the books I found was called Anne Hathaway. It was a feminist reading of the life of Shakespeare and his family. This meaning that some feminist needed an argument for the cause and had nothing of consequence on her own life so she went digging around in the lives of people who could not defend themselves and discovered a profound ability to make up trash. I may have taken that too far but I have heard too many things about the couple having a positive relationship to like anything like that. So I will route around in that book some more and develop a more solid argument.
This post may leave you with question and that is good. I think it means I have accomplished something because I have made you curious? Unless the question are founded in this simply not making any since . . . Well know that I will answer your questions either way and would love any suggestions you might have!
