The Final Path to Understanding Love in Shakespeare: Last Hub Post

This may be a bit of a rehash for those who read my blog recap from last week, but as I feel like I have some things I need to add, it will still be relevant. 

Thesis

Shakespeare, while drawing instances of love from his own life, tries to capture the essence of what true love is in each of his plays (and sonnets), while differentiating each situation with varying circumstances.

Support/Evidence

1. Othello As a Case Study- I talk about Othello's seeming change of emotion, and how that is actually not the case. Othello does not experience volatile love, because he still loves Desdemona when he kills her. His type of love can be considered "idolatrous" because his manifestation of love is the equivalent of worship.
2. Love is an Ever-fixed Mark- Here is a more textual interpretation of Sonnet 116. I wanted to contrast the poem with some of the ideas conveyed in Shakespeare's plays. I came to the conclusion that inconstancy in love is not really love at all. Therefore, in the case of Romeo and his previous love before Juliet, that was not really love because it changed. (This particular entry is still a work in progress.) I also looked at an analysis on shmoop.com and blogged about it.
3. Macbeth the Movie- Here I just wanted to see if I could see any semblance of love in a play that emphasizes the wickedness of one man and his wife. They are in a marital relationship, but it almost seems more like a business partnership. This only had a nominal connection with my focus. I will look at this play a little bit more when I attend the performance at U of U.
4. Shakespeare's Own Romance- This is where I compared Shakespeare's life with this theme of spontaneity in relationships. It turns out that he had a bit of a shot-gun wedding (or sword-point, whichever you prefer). I compared the rashness of his own marriage to that of Romeo and Juliet. Yet we are fairly certain that Shakespeare did in fact love his wife, as he dedicated poetry to her throughout his life.

Conclusions:

• There are connections between Shakespeare's life and the themes of love he used in his plays. 
• Constancy is still valued more by Shakespeare than volatility and spontaneity.
• Sometimes love is replaced by lust in his plays.
• Love takes different forms in Shakespeare's plays, just as it does in real life, but amplified.
• Love manifests itself differently depending on the person. For instance, some do not acknowledge love, others take an obsessive tact.

 So there it is. I will most likely update some of the research next week.

Shakespearean Sonnets: Discovering a New Resource!

As I was on the hunt for a good article or blog about Sonnet 116, I struggled to find something that related to the sonnet in a more focused way (rather than a sketchy misquote). While going through this process, as irritating as it is, I irritably gave up and, in a fit of desperation, I googled "Sonnet 116 analysis." To my surprise, I found this intriguing new website called schmoop.com.

Schmoop contains all kinds of interesting little factoids and information all divided up under subheadings. For instance, under Analysis (on the topic bar), they give several different subheadings, such as Symbols, Imagery and Wordplay,  Steaminess Rating, and Allusions.

Just glancing through, the style of writing is very much like someone who is speaking, and it's clearly geared towards a teenage group learning the elementals about Shakespeare. However, I felt like they made some good, worthwhile observations about the poem:

• "The marriage described in this poem is not a formal contract; rather, it is a "marriage of true minds," a phrase that suggests a deep understanding between two equals, rather than a mere legal bond."
•  "The poem’s central extended metaphor is the comparison of love to a star – specifically the North Star, which doesn’t ever change position in the night sky. This made it particularly important to sailors, who calculated the location of their ships based on the stars."
• They also talk about the conventions of Petrarchan sonnets (although they don't call them that) and the view of love in those poems. 
• In the theme section, the website writers list the themes and then give questions to spur the readers thinking about the poem. 

All in all, I feel like the website actually increased my understanding of Sonnet 116. They bring up the issue of true love in the poem which is basically the antithesis of my main focus. The main aspecto of true love is eternity, according to Shakespeare. I think what it comes down to is the way love can hit you in an instant, but it can also stay with you forever.

Love's Volatility in Shakespeare: A Recap of My Research

This is an important opportunity to take a look at what I have been able to accomplish while looking at how Shakespeare uses spontaneity and volatility in relationships in his plays. In my hub post, I give a pretty good overview of what I wanted to accomplish, but it may be that I need to rethink my direction.

My original main direction: How do characters have such quick changes in emotion and then manage to have successful relationships?

Ways I tried to answer the main question:

1. Othello As a Case Study- I talk about Othello's seeming change of emotion, and how that is actually not the case. Othello does not experience volatile love, because he still loves Desdemona when he kills her. His type of love can be considered "idolatrous" because his manifestation of love is the equivalent of worship.

Shakespeare's Own Romance

I thought it would be interesting to look into Shakespeare's love life, to see if I could find any connections to my focus of volatility in love and relationships.


I found a source located on Google Books about Shakespeare's personal life, called A Life of William Shakespeare by Sir Sidney Lee.

The book talks about some documents that suggest Shakespeare's wedding may have been something of a shotgun affair. I think the source is fairly trustworthy, as they back up their information with numerous primary and secondary sources.

Love is An Ever-fixed Mark: A Close Read of Sonnet 116

In my hub post, I mentioned that I wanted to take a closer love at the relationships immortalized in Shakespeare's sonnets. Sonnet 116 seems like an excellent choice, given that its emphasis is on constancy, as opposed to the aspect of volatility that I hope to make my focus.

Here is a video of Kate Winslet reciting the poem from Sense and Sensibility:

This poem has obviously been picked apart a million times (at least) due to its popularity, which is why I want to make this quick.

Othello as a Case Study: What Shakespeare Portrayed as Idolatrous Love

As I mentioned before in my hub post, I am looking at how volatile the romantic emotions can seem in Shakespeare. Othello is a perfect example of this. He and Desdemona have this whirlwind romance in which they defy the social constraints placed on them. But once they consummate their love, Othello is put in a position where he believes that the very thing he values most has betrayed him. This raises the question of whether he does indeed love "not wisely but too well."

In order to answer this question, it's important to analyze the ways in which Othello expresses love for Desdemona, as well as to analyze the relationship they had before suspicion poisoned it.
For this, I found two sources:

1. Shakespeare On Love and Lust, by Maurice Charney, which I found at Google Books. It focuses on ways love plays out in Shakespeare, and focuses a good part of that on Othello. 

2. Idolatrous Love: A New Approach to Othello, by RN Hallstead, which I found on JSTOR. This article focuses on the sexual aspects of Othello and how they relate to his love for Desdemona.

These sources speak about the obssessive nature of Othello's love for Desdemona, as well as Desdemona's love for Othello.