Summer Brief- Information About Shakespeare

5 Quotes

"I am in blood, Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er. " (Macbeth) Macbeth Act III, Scene IV, Line 135-137

"I kissed thee ere I killed thee, no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss." (Othello) Othello Act V, Scene II, Line 359-360 

"This momentary joy breeds months of pain; This hot desire converts to cold disdain." Lucrece 690-1 

"What's done is done." (Lady MacBeth) Macbeth Act III, Scene II, Line 14 

"Tears harden lust, though marble wear with raining."The Rape of Lucrece, Line 560

5 Selected Pieces of Writing

"Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak

Of one that loved not wisely but too well;

Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,

Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,

Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away

Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued 

   eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

Their medicinal gum." 

(Othello) Othello Act V Scene II Lines 402-412

" DESDEMONA Why do you speak so faintly? Are you not well?  OTHELLO I have a pain upon my forehead, here. " 

Othello Act III Scene III Lines 325-326

"In troth, I think I should, and undo ’t when I had done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition. But for the whole world? Why, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for ’t."

(Emilia) Othello Act IV Scene III Lines 71-77 

"This earthly saint, adored by this devil,

Little suspecteth the false worshipper;

For unstain'd thoughts do seldom dream on evil;

Birds never limed no secret bushes fear:

So guiltless she securely gives good cheer

And reverend welcome to her princely guest,

Whose inward ill no outward harm express'd:"

The Rape of Lucrece, Lines 85-91

     "Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn 

     The power of man, for none of woman born 

     Shall harm Macbeth." 

(A Bloody child) Macbeth Act IV Scene I, Lines 79-81

5 Motifs 

Horns 

Hell and Demons

Hallucinations

Violence

Possession

5 Characters 

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)

Lucrece (The rape of Lucrece)

Othello (Othello)

Iago (Othello)

Tarquin (The rape of Lucrece)

5 Locations

A Candlelit Bedroom in Italy

The Wilds of Scottish Moorland 

A Dark Room in Rome filled with torn paintings, bloody sheets and a weeping woman.

A 16th century Venetian deserted town square on a humid night.

The darkened hallway of a Scottish castle filled with the sounds of frantic whispering 

5 Pieces of Information about Shakespeare

• Shakespeare Cursed his own grave so people would leave his bones alone. 
• Shakespeare was a Catholic in an era where being a catholic was illegal.
• Between 1585-1592 Shakespeare was not mentioned or recorded in any way, shape or form this was known as his "lost years". Most historians suggest he was on hiding from the law.
• Shakespeare hoarded grain.  
• Until Romeo and Juliet, Romance was not considered a worthy topic for tragedy in literature. 

Summer Brief- About The Author Part 3. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare 

William Shakespeare has been seen as a revolutionary writer within the western literature.

His Plays looked at conflict, corruption, manipulation , race and a plethora of other issues that weren't as deeply explored by other playwrights at the time.

 Though his work reflected a lot of the patriarchal anglocentric values of the english public. His portrayal of othello tried to show as a three dimensional character struggling with his race and trying to become more than the colour of his skin, however Othello's character still played to many western stereotypes such as the brutal violence and anger of black men. 

Shakespeare's female characters also reflect the misogynistic views of elizabethan and jacobean times. Most of the female characters fall into unflattering tropes and stereotypes such as the vain empty headed beauty, the virginal naive one and the angry woman. Ones that seem to have more dimension such as emilia in othello or beatrice in much ado about nothing show independant thoughts which may be grey in morals but show a complexity and intelligence to their  character. But even then it's shown that even the more independant of women have their lives and views effected by the men around them.

What I like about shakespearian plays and the way shakespeare writes is that it reveals to you what english society and it's culture was like in the 16th century. The fact that Shakespeare sets his plays in Italy because  "In those days, Italy was known to have very devious and sophisticated people which went well with comedies amongst other types of plays like tragedies and histories that depended mainly on things like deception and even sexual passion to run the plot of the plays."[1]

The thematic side of shakespeare's writings interest me the most, because topics such as lust and conflict should be contextualised to the 15th and 16th century rather than seen as modern interpretations of the same themes. Back then a lot of shakespeare's works were interwoven with biblical messages and motifs.

Summary Of What I Found Out About William Shakespeare

• Slight Biblical influence within his plays (not really in his poems though, they were more about a bi shakespeare talking about how hot men and women are and how hot he is for them)
• His plays reflect the times they were set in and give you a look at the moral and social inclinations of the english public in that era.
• Shakespeare was starting to question race and gender stereotypes within some of his plays.
• Everything is a Metaphor , Simile ,and Dick or fart joke.
• And if it's not that then there is an 70% chance it's about oral sex

Summer Brief- About The Author Part 2. Angela Carter

Angela Carter

Best known for the bloody chamber Angela Carter is seen as one of the most influential writers within the last century. Carter's stories challenge female stereotypes turning the hero's and heroines such as in the Bloody Chamber where she has the mother of the bride rescue her daughter instead of the woman's two young sons such as in the original tale. Angelia tries to abolish the troupe type of women usually written in stories. She also focuses on both male and female  desire, however such as seen in the snow child a hetrosexual mans desire tends to be at the expense of female's desired. 

The violence and sexualisation of revised children's tale lead to outrage among many students and scholars who began to study it. However as Carter said, "I was taking ... the latent content of those traditional stories and using that; and the latent content is violently sexual."

And in this I see truth. Tales traditional contain violent retribution and constant imagery of the importance of female virginity and the impurity and evilness of women who are always hinted a being overtly sexual and as a result of this sinful. 

Within feminism angela has been seen as a controversial figure, embracing the works of marquis de sade, whose work carter deems as one of the first pieces of discourse to look at the liberation of the female sex as something more than procreation. Most feminist of the time argue that Marquis work commends those who use their sexuality for their own pleasure but punishes those who decided to have children and take on the traditional role of a wife.

Summary Of What I Found Out About Angela Carter

• Her work wasn't made to just startle or be controversial but to start a conversation about how sex and violence are such an integral part of traditional fairy tales.
• Angela pushed feminism and literature to delve deeper into the complexity of female sexuality as well as the way we as a society treat female sexuality.
• Angela spent a great deal of her life and her work trying to question what it is to be a woman and how the feminist ideals at the time needed to become more open to the idea of change and evolving within itself.
• Best Works: The Bloody Chambers, Night At The Circus and The Company of Wolves 

Summer Brief- About The Author Part 1. Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka 

Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian Playwright and poet whose works tend to be influenced by the deep rooted folklore and traditions of Nigeria most commonly on yoruba traditions. He also uses his plays to talk about the ways to critique oppressive systems of government from imperial britain to african dictators such as Mugambe. 

"The oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it"

Soyinka was very open in criticism about the moral injustice against the oppressed and even when in england , studying at leeds university he wrote multiple columns for the eagle a satirical magazine on academic life a black man, criticising many of his university peers. 

What I get from Soyinka is that through his life he knew that he was a lot better of than most nigerians and began to use the luxury of being a highly educated Nigerian man to begin to criticise at first,  the racism and bigotry that was rooted deep within western imperialistic culture and attitudes before realising that the way Nigerian and african governments and dictatorships oppressed their people in a similar way to the colonialistic empire that once ran it and he began to criticise the way things were in africa as well. There is an obvious growth in Soyinka's theology that is mimicked within his work. He began to look more toward the oppressiveness of a regime rather than just the colour of those who ran it. A point which I agree with is that the oppressor can be any colour. 

Plays such as The Lion And the Jewel dealt with Nigeria's uneasy relationship between its progression and it's traditions. As someone who has a Nigerian family I can concur that this sort of inner conflicts between progression and tradition still go on especially when it comes to the contrast of western ideals of progression and nigerian views of tradition and progression. 

During the build up to civil-war in nigerian Soyinka became much more involved in politics from an activist standpoint and bean meeting up with the opposition, discussing political views and the future of nigeria. He was then imprisoned by the federal government in which he began a series of poems criticising the nigerian government. 

His life has been a constant criticism of government's, social stigmatism, religious extremism and questioning how Nigeria deals with  progression and modernisation that tends to contrast with Traditions. 

Summary Of What I Found Out About Wole Soyinka 

• His works reflect what was the constant conflict within Nigeria on both a cultural and political level
• He was very aware of the need to understand that not everything was black and white in the ever evolving clashing of modernisation and tradition and that a lot of the strife is due of miscommunication and arrogance on the ideal of both sides.
• There is difference a between racial and political oppression and both need to be called out since both cause the oppression of the minority.
• Best works: The Lion and The Jewel, Death and The King's Horseman, Poems From Prison  

Day 1-Everyday/casual/what they wear the most

I haven't had much time to draw and develop my own personal characters lately so I'm using this 30 outfit challenge to both improve my digital and anatomy skills but also to reconnect with my characters and use this as a way of developing their personalities digitally. I'm going to focus on the triplets because their my main characters in this and depending on how I feel I'll either do all three of them or one for each day.