C.S. Lewis, a Christ-like Teacher

So I've been reading "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis lately, inspired by a renewed love for Christian apologist writing. I love it because it's written from the point of view of a devil giving advice to another devil on how to sway a christian into submission to Satan. C.S. Lewis was a very insightful and brilliant man, and he shows it in his writing. I love the moments while I'm reading this book that make me stop and say, 'hey, maybe I've had that very same problem in my prayers. I should probably do my best to prevent that in the future.' When I read the Narnia chronicles as a little kid, of course I had no idea about the extended metaphor throughout the stories. I just thought that they were good stories. And he is such a great writer, that the stories were fun to read even though I was completely missing the whole theoretical side of it. That's the kind of writer I'd like to be one day; one who can entertain the masses and yet at the same time be able to teach to those who are willing to listen. I think Christ did the same thing with his parables. He kept the truth away from those who were not willing to look for it by entertaining them with interesting stories about real life. Honestly, I think sometimes it's the only way one can speak to the public about religion, especially a critical and skeptical public. To those who don't know what you're talking about, you may seem cryptic or simply entertaining. But to those who know what's really going on and who are willing to study and learn, great truths can be taught more effectively in this way. So as a type of Christ, C.S. Lewis represents to me an excellent teacher, a brilliant, and an inspired writer whom I emulate.

Learning Outcomes

• 1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
  Demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy

  a. Breadth (knowledge of a range of Shakespeare’s works)

  b. Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work)

  c. Performance (stage and screen)

  d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture)

I can honestly say that I had never read any of the plays I did during the course of this semester. I had never seen a Shakespeare play either. Thankfully, I was able to experience The Bard's plays in all of these dimensions: the breadth of his works I am now familiar with has been expanded significantly, mostly because I decided to start watching movie productions of Shakespeare plays for fun, I've become intimately familiar with Hamlet especially, and I've seen two on stage performances and evaluated them, as well as the many I've seen on screen. I've also done a few blog posts about Shakespeare's background, exploring the question of his authorship, and some biographical information.

• 2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically
  Interpret Shakespeare’s works critically in their written form, in performance (stage or screen) and in digitally mediated transformations. This includes 
  a. Textual analysis (theme, language, formal devices)
  b. Contextual analysis (historical, contemporary, cultural)
  c. Application of literary theories 
  d. Analysis of digital mediations

I've had the chance to evaluate Shakespeare performances both on screen and on stage as mentioned above. I've become very familiar with the text of Hamlet, as my research paper was mostly textual analysis. My thesis is based largely on Hamlet's context as part of the tradition of revenge tragedies. I regret that I didn't apply established literary theories as much as I could have, but I certainly had experience with digital mediations with my analysis of how my experience with fanfiction affected my view on the text.

• 3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
  a. Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video)

  b. Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music)

  c. Collaborative creative project

Performance: probably the only time I got a chance to do this was in my prototype video, but it wasn't really my best, uh, performance. :) I definitely did individual creative work with my fanfiction, and I'm participating in collaborative work by combining my project with Cortnie with reference to her ideas on fanfiction.

• 4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
  This includes engaging in the following:

  a. Formal Writing. Develop and communicate your ideas about Shakespeare clearly in formal and researched writing and through a format and medium that puts your ideas into public circulation.

  b. Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing

  c. Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class.

Formal writing: research paper. Informal writing: my blog. Connecting: I've had several chances to share a synopsis of my project with friends and family. It sometimes comes up with "what classes are you taking?" or "What's your major?" One of my friends even demanded that I send her the link so that she could read my fanfiction piece.

• 5. Gain Digital Literacy
  Students use their study of Shakespeare as a way of understanding and developing fluency in 21st century learning skills and computer-mediated modes of communication. Those skills are grouped under the following categories.

  a. Consume - Effective and independent selecting, searching, researching, 

  b. Create - Producing content that demonstrates learning and which can be shared for others to profit from. 

• c. Connect - Engage with other learners within and outside of the class to develop thinking and share more formal work.

Consume: a lot of this was done during the research portion of my research paper, though i think the process could have gone a little more smoothly, had I given it more time. Create: this should be demonstrated during the final, and when I tell everyone about my fanfiction. Connect: As I mentioned above, I've had many opportunities to share with family and friends, but I've also been able to share on a small scale with 'Blogging Shakespeare' and with Henry Jenkins in my requests to do guest blog posts. 

Finally!

So here's my spiel for my final final final stuff!

Here's a link to my original research paper:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cXiQIUKxggKOe9T9--vQUiMxS8wmg4r7PRl__hnqER0/edit
Here's a link to my fanfiction piece:
 http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7986893/1/Jameson
Here's a link to a Prezi, summarizing my ideas:
http://prezi.com/nhejdc_j0net/hamlet-the-isolated-villain/
Here's a link to my trailer video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G3QnyWFnhM

And, my Tweethis statement:
"Hamlet is isolated from the societal norm due to his obscure perceptions of right and wrong, much like Iago, and may therefore be labeled as a villain. This characterization of Hamlet is explored in my fanfiction piece, in which Hamlet is a psychopath and a homicidal maniac."

Education

So I made a little blurb on the prezi that all the girls working on educational projects are putting together. The prezi is about how to update Shakespeare Education into the digital age by making use of digital tools. I just posted about how it could be a good idea to use fanfiction as a teaching tool.

Check it out!


(This is the link Tara gave me)

Last Chapter...

I decided to add a ninth chapter, sort of as a recap of the events. It confuses the plot more, showing the events from a communal perspective, inspired by Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." It takes the reader out of Jameson's head for a moment, and may hint at an explanation for the way he is now.

Also, if I were to rewrite my research paper, I would include my own definition of villainy. So my new tweethis would look like this:
"If a villain is someone who is isolated from society due to his obscure views on right and wrong, Hamlet fits the model of a villain just as easily as Iago." 

So, a note on my trailer video:
I've made a simple animation video of Hamlet talking to Iago, but I think I might want to remake it to include my definition of villainy. Plus, the voices are kind of weird-sounding, and if I make the speech visual, I could probably add music. But here's what I have right now, so you can take a look:

GoAnimate.com: Hamlet vs. Iago by taylor.mccomb

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

FANFICTION PIECE

Here's an official link to my finished fiction piece!
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7986893/1/Jameson

"Comparable Work" Bibliography

So I looked into how I can make my fanfiction piece accessible to teachers as a teaching tool, and I found

• this lesson plan website that lets you post your own lesson plan to share with other teachers. I can post a lesson plan on this site, suggesting to high school teachers that they can have the kids compare fanfiction with the original text - maybe the fanfiction will open up the text in ways that weren't thought of at first. Like mine, for example: maybe you didn't think that Hamlet could be making up the ghost in his mind, or that he is the real bad guy! I'll let you know how it goes...
• I sent in a request to Blogging Shakespeare to see if I could do a guest post on their site, displaying my research content. 
• I sent in a request to Henry Jenkins' blog, asking if I can do a guest blog post talking about my research topic. I let him know that I'm a student studying Shakespeare, and I've done a fanfiction piece testing out Cortnie's theory that Fanfiction works as a legitimate form of character analysis.

Technical Difficulties

Sorry guys, I posted my fanfiction piece last night, but it seems that "Jameson" is not showing up on the general search. I want to make sure that it's searchable, so I took down all the chapters except chapter 1. I'll wait a bit, and see if it posts successfully, then post the rest. Keep your fingers crossed!

Going Live!

ok, I've finally posted my fiction piece on the fanfiction website. I definitely had fun writing. Let me know what you think!

Oh, and here's a direct link to my piece.  Enjoy!

New "Teaser Content" video

... This one is actually under 90 seconds. Sweet!

Iago vs. Hamlet animation

As for the repurposed content, a.k.a. my fanfiction piece, I'm working on it! I just got a bunch of good feedback on it, and I want to make the revisions before I post it on the website. I'll let you know when it's up!

Love's Labours Lost at BYU

Setting the play "Love's Labour's Lost" in wartime is an exciting idea, invoking the jazz club scenery and atmosphere where song and dance could break out at any time. We Americans seem to like the theme as a backdrop for movies, especially romances (i.e. "The Notebook," "Captain America," "Australia"... ), probably because of the easily recognizable costuming and nostalgic familiarity. It also helped us distinguish the men on separate levels, as they were all dressed according to rank. Although I couldn't figure out why Biron was dressed as a lower rank than the other three lover-boys. It's like it set him apart as the center character that he is, without allowing him those extra lines that make him an obvious focus in Shakespeare's original. In fact, after I'd read the play, I could have sworn that Biron was the main 'hero' of the play, but the presentation seemed to downplay that by dressing him down, I suppose.
I think the wartime theme meshed especially well with the resolution of Shakespeare's storyline, as the women could assign the men to service in the military as proof of their love, rather than to isolation in the mountains as hermits. The set up with Moth and Don Armado throwing jokes back and forth really worked well also. It is full of Shakespeare jargon that normally doesn't make a ton of sense, but my friend Ashley, who hadn't read the play, laughed at all the right times, probably also with the help of the cue cards. I think the pacing of this scene was really smart, because the whole play ran pretty evenly, until this scene, which made it seem much more like a battle of wits, and you could tell it was funny even if you didn't understand it. The other time I noticed the pace speed up a little was when the women were gossiping, which I think was very fitting for a vanity mirror scene with a bunch of girls talking a mile a minute.
I thought I had missed something important when I missed the first scene, because all the men were dancing with women, and I thought the story was supposed to be set in a women-free zone. This is what made Costard being caught with a woman so confusing, and there were also a few other things that added to that confusion, including the additional characters that shared some of the women's lines, making it hard to tell which girls were the lovers.
I was also a little disappointed because I think some of Biron's speeches were cut out, including his monologue on love, which is kind of funny. And some of Don Armado's lines were cut short too. Those were just the ones I noticed, so there might have been more. But I think it was probably necessary with the addition of the musical numbers, because the play ended up taking about two and a half hours! I think I actually like the stylistic choice of adding in the musical numbers, because it added to the atmosphere of a night club in that time period. Though I think if the dancing was added in for this purpose, it probably wasn't worth it, considering the confusion it caused. 
However iconic the scenery and costuming, the production probably desired a little more thought towards the application of an older text that had not anticipated this era, but I'm sure it started out with something brilliant!

Prototype "Teaser Content" Video

I'll probably have to figure out how to make this video a bit shorter! I think maybe for my second attempt I'll do a Prezi or a Powerpoint just because the camera makes me somewhat uncomfortable. But, here it is.

As for my market study, I'm thinking the readers of fanfiction are a pretty well-defined group. But beyond that, Dr. Burton said that teachers may be interested in this sort of media as a teaching tool, and psychologists may also be interested in Hamlet as a psychological specimen of homicidal mania. I figure the best way to get this sort of content out to teachers would be through lesson plans, but I'm not totally sure yet how to bring this sort of material to the attention of this group. I'll keep you updated!

The English Symposium

     I attended the section on fairytales, as well as the one titled, "The bard, and the man." Professor Bruce Young, who was moderating the event section, mentioned that Shakespeare was never called "the bard" in his time, which I thought was kind of interesting. I wonder why people really call him that, as I've always thought it was kind of a weird name. Anyway, the first girl's paper discussed how the many interpretations of Othello have inspired filmmakers to present Othello in ways that highlight certain aspects of the character, mostly discussing the lighting in Orson Wells' film production of Othello. She also points out that Othello refers to himself as a changed man in the end when he says, "That's he that was Othello, Here I am." She uses it to support her thesis that there is a difference between the Othello who loved his wife, the Othello who became jealous, and the Othello who regrets his deeds.
     Then the next person presented on "The Tempest" and how Shakespeare was critiquing humankind, which has a tendency to "play god," like Prospero, and is punished for it. Prospero learns his lesson, and gives up his powers because he cannot control the power of God, being human. The third paper was about emasculated male characters in "Peter and Wendy," and I didn't exactly see the connection between the three, besides maybe the theme of "what it means to be a man." :)

My Intro

Here's a copy of the intro to my whole piece. Let me know if you have suggestions!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o_TzX3itDQgTHvf8wHGZ5jB8U1M_xFo1BaThiNbmCk8/edit

I'm going to keep adding onto it, so you might see me in the middle of my writing process!

Love's Labours Lost

Probably my favorite part about this play is the rhetorical word games all throughout. Like when Costard tries to get himself out of punishment: "The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner." he sort of skirts around the subject, claiming to present the reason why he is there, but not explaining himself clearly: "In manner and form following sir, in all those three: / I was seen with her in the manor-house, sitting with / Her upon the form, and taken following her into the / park; which, put together, is in manner and form / following." And in the performance done at Shakespeare's Globe, Costard was such a little performer. http://streaming.factsonfile.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/PortalViewVideo.aspx?xtid=41375
But my favorite character was actually the princess. Just like Mikhaela said in her paper, Shakespeare writes strong women characters. I'm not really convinced that the Princess cares for Ferdinand until the end, and even then, she has the guts to challenge him to a year of hermitage. She must be playing with his head, and certainly with the audience as well.

Prototype

Ok, here's my 'prototype' of my fiction piece. I wrote out the climactic scene in the story.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hqQG5U7yUsT33rGUYqkprU6f_bJ2GpEWGUrcKoOBWGM/edit

Ellie's Paper

Ok, I LOVE Ellie's ideas, and I was surprised to see how well they actually fit with mine. We used a lot of the same quotes from the text to make a similar argument. As a part of both our arguments, we said that Hamlet's ghost is really just a projection of his inward desires, but I think using Jung really helped Ellie express this idea more clearly. I felt like some of the textual quotes could have been explained more for those who haven't been studying Hamlet closely, and there were a couple style suggestions i could give, but I thought it was very articulate and well organized. Here's Ellie's paper. It was surprising to see how close our papers were, and I think I could bring in some of Ellie's ideas into my creative writing project! I'll have to ask her opinion on how I could go about that... btw, here's Ellie's blog.

Homicidal Mania in Hamlet

In doing some research for this fanfiction piece, I found a scientific article discussing how a diagnosis of homicidal mania has affected legality over the years.
Eigen, Joel Peter. "Diagnosing Homicidal Mania: Forensic Psychiatry and the Purposeless Murder."
Medical history 54.4 (2010): 433-56. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

The working definition we have now for homicidal mania is, "the propensity to kill related to an actual
delusion, an absurd motive to kill related to no known motive, or an impulse to kill that was
"sudden, instantaneous, unreflective, and uncontrollable".21"

I think this perfectly describes Hamlet, as his mania is directly related to a delusion, with an absurd motive to kill. I also mentioned in my paper how Hamlet was "unreflective" towards his actions, in the same way that some of the people described in this article show a lack of remorse. I think Hamlet really is suffering from Homicidal Mania, and I'm also playing with the idea of sociopathy.

I wonder if any scholars have tried to diagnose Hamlet's psychological condition....



So this has sort of morphed with another one of my assignments from my creative writing class. For that class, I need to write a 15 page character development in response to these questions.
so here it is!

Final Draft

MY FINAL DRAFT...Just so you know where it is.

Fanfiction

Before I start, I suppose I need to make some decisions about how close I need to stay to the text. The ideas I'm throwing around are more like adaptations, so I'm hoping Cortnie will have some feedback on how to go about creating fanfiction. I'm staying away from archaic Shakespeare language, because I think that defeats my purpose of making Shakespeare more accessible, specifically to fanfiction readers. I let her know some of my ideas here. Here are some of the ideas I'm working on:
I'm thinking setting could be a sort of modern-day murder mystery, where Hamlet's mother dies slowly of cancer, but Hamlet suspects his dad of giving her drugs and taking her life away too early. So when he goes to see a grief counselor (Polonius), he starts showing signs of obsession and madness, and after a hallucination of his mother's ghost, he kills his counselor/psychiatrist, and gets away with it. So then later, he finally kills his father, his brother (Laertes) suspects his guilt and confronts him about it, getting himself killed.

So What's Next?

My paper is done! But I'm not. Next step: FANFICTION! Cortnie is a fanfiction......fan, and wrote her paper on the legitimacy of fanfiction as a medium for critical analysis. Fanfiction is a reworking of original text, sort of like an adaptation, that is basically an entirely new work. I thought it'd be interesting to see how a fanfiction version of Hamlet would turn out, with the new spin of Hamlet as a villain. Maybe I could even have him kill Ophelia directly... I'm not sure about any of the specifics yet, and in fact I have so many questions! But here are some samples of Cortnie's fanfiction so you can get your toes dipped in the water: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/936227/Angels_Innocence.

Post-Interview

Finally it's over. Well, mostly. My paper could have used a little editing for concision. And some of my sources were outdated. If I'd fulfilled my research dream, I'd have gotten some articles more directly related to my topic, and from this decade. Maybe even more about the revenge tragedies, and how those might connect Iago and Hamlet as revenge characters. That would be nice. Also, Dr. Burton made a really great point: the idea of isolation in my paper could become more of a focus. Maybe psychologists would know more about how isolation from society affects the psyche, and may have negative effects. Hmmmm...

So now the questions is, how can I transform my topic into a more presentable, easily accessible format?

ok, cool: pic of original printing of hamlet

Pictures of an old book (1623)

rough draft

So I need me some feedback. Please?
MY GOOGLE DOC

Outline

So...I'm sort of behind. Sowwy. But I got some more research done today, and my ideas are getting a little more fleshed out, even though I don't exactly have a draft yet. oopsy! well, since I got some more research done today after following the librarian's advice, I found a few more updated articles (since most of the books and stuff I found were from the 80's), I made like half an outline. I swear there's more in my head, I just don't have the time right now to write it all out. Anyway, if you keep watching the document, it'll start to grow right before your eyes! :) here's the link to the document:
google doc

Tweethis results

Ha, not exactly helpful, but something. Oh, my friends.

Horatio a figment of imagination?

Horatio spends most of the play talking to Hamlet, and he seems to be the only one privy to all of Hamlet's actions of revenge. Horatio is of course, a real character, as he has minor and unimportant lines addressed to the Queen, Osric, and Fortinbras. But a large part of his character serves only to provide the couch on which Hamlet lays as he confesses all his thoughts to his psychiatrist. He never gives very definitive opinions, and sometimes only addresses Hamlet, though other characters are in the scene at the same time. Just before the play, Hamlet speaks to Horatio saying, "There is a play tonight before the king. One scene of it comes near the circumstance which I have told thee of my father's death." But I looked back, and Hamlet has no interaction with Horatio between this moment, and when he asks him to swear never to tell about seeing the ghost. Hamlet never explicitly told Horatio about the ghost's plan for revenge. Unless, of course, this conversation with Horatio is supposed to refer to a conversation that really did happen, but was never shown? Horatio happens to also be the only person to whom Hamlet shows any affection. I wonder if maybe Horatio could be partially imagined, at least the Horatio that helps Hamlet more clearly form his ideas and implores him to be cautious at times. What do you think? Could Jimminy-Cricket-Horatio really be a projection of Hamlet's revenge, or maybe his actual conscience?

Tweethis:

Here's my tweethis statement on facebook:

we'll see if I get any responses!

oh, Ps, it looks like I got a couple responses from the blogs I commented on:
Blog
Blog

Phase 2: progress

PHASE 2!

Performance Analysis

Annotated Bibliography

Digital Media/Online Sources

Digital Media/Online Sources

Social Proof

Social Proof

and, the other forum

social proof/digital media

OH, I'm strugglin. It took some time to get a username on AACT, but I posted on the forum, asking costume designers what their approach would be to designing a 'good guy' costume for Hamlet. I also posted it on their facebook site, so maybe I'll get some feedback eventually.
 FB
Forum
It just sort of feels like I've been fishing for a while, and nothing's in the water. Maybe I need to change my tactics...
 Hopefully that discovery on blogging Shakespeare will help.
I've also posted on a couple of blogs, but nothing back yet.
Blog
 Blog
Blog
i also sent an email to the agent of this famous actor... who did a performance by himself depicting an assortment of Shakespeare's villains... and Hamlet. So I was curious to know why he figured Hamlet should be included in a plethora of Shakespearean bad guys.

research: fun stuff!

At first I found it extremely difficult to find articles related to my topic. I found a bunch of bibliographic references from the World Shakespeare Bibliography Online, but I couldn't gain access to them through the library. So I put in some Inter-library loan requests, but they were taking some time. So I took a little library trip, found some books on the shelf, since I knew where all the Shakespeare books are (fifth floor, PR 2900 and so forth), and had a party. I checked out probably more than I could read, and I am still wafting through all the information. Sad thing is, I found some really cool articles on other interesting topics, but didn't really want to change topics at this point. Anyways, here's the main ones I came up with, though there will probably be more in the future, as I just got an email back from the librarian. She says I can find dissertations and theses in Proquest, or on the Shakespeare Subject Guide under the Books tab: dissertations
She also said that there is a print volume database in the library:
"Also, another great place to look for critical essays and articles about various aspects of Shakespeare's plays is Shakespearean Criticism.  The print volumes have a wonderful cumulative index that you can review by topic (e.g. Revenge), by characters (e.g. Iago or Hamlet) and also by plays.  The volumes contain the full text of the essays and articles as well.  There is an electronic version but access to the cumulative indexing is difficult.  If you are in the library any time soon, you should pay a visit to the Humanities Reference area on level 5 and use this resource (call number HUM REF PR 2965 .S43 – ask at the desk and they can help you find  and use it)."
 Library trip tomorrow!
Ok, back to my bibliography. As a tentative thesis, which I guarantee will change, at least for style:
"Though generally Hamlet and Iago are not considered on the same plane of discussion, the juxtaposition of a tragic hero and a tragic villain will show that the line between these roles is less defined with an intimate perspective."

Thorndike, Ashley H. “The Relations of Hamlet to Contemporary Revenge Plays.” PMLA vol. 17 No. 2, 1902.

This article discusses the revenge tragedy, and all of its particulars, which have been set by the original Spanish Tragedy called ‘Jeronimo.’ One section lays out all the common characteristics of the revenge tragedy, and the second section displays how heavily Hamlet draws on this original play. Having a scholarly reference for what exactly a revenge tragedy is could be helpful to me, because my comparison between Iago and Hamlet draws strongly on the fact that they are both characters driven by revenge. I referred to this in an earlier post. I found this source on the World Shakespeare Bibliography.

Draper, John W. “Honest Iago” PMLS Vol. 46 No. 3, 1931.

The character analyzation in this article provides a perspective that allows a little humanity to be seen in Iago’s character. Whereas most write him off as a heartless villain, Draper takes into account the fact that Iago is driven by revenge for cuckoldry, which was seen as extremely pathetic in the Elizabethan era, making him the butt of ridicule. Hamlet’s revenge is also partly motivated by cuckoldry, but for his father. His first soliloquy is about how quickly his mother gets married, so it must bother him. Maybe the two character’s motivations are even closer in nature than I thought. But the difference, I think, is that Hamlet is protecting the reputation of his father, rather than himself. It may be a ‘selfless act,’ unless the ghost is a figment of his imagination. I found this source through

Khanna, Urmilla. “The Tragic Hero in Shakespeare: the Dramatic Significance of His Isolation.” New Delhi. Orient Longman Limited, 1974.

This book is an overview of the tragic hero in Shakespeare, primarily using Hamlet as an example. It describes the characteristics of the tragic hero being in isolation due to their “pursuit of identity beyond the socially approved and recognized limits.” I think I could use some points in this book to actually prove that Iago could fit the mold for a tragic hero. I found this source by searching the shelves nearby “Shakespeare’s Villains.” I figured it would give a helpful argument for the opposite side.

Coe, Charles Norton. “Shakespeare’s Villains.” AMS Press. New york, 1957.

This book discusses a formula for creating good villain characterization, and supplies an analysis of Iago as an example of a well-developed and believable villain, explaining that these standard are only relevant to modern Shakespeare scholars, because Elizabethan audiences accepted villains, ‘with or without motivation’ because they regarded them as stock characters. Because the motivations behind a villain matter more to present-day scholars, the definitions of who is a villain and who is not has become more fluid. When describing the steps for good characterization, Coe uses Hamlet as an example. Is there a modern-day formula for what is a villain and what is not? I found this source by searching for books related to villains, preferably those that discussed my characters.

Hyman, Stanley Edgar. “Iago: Some Approaches to the Illusion of His Motivation.” McClelland and Stewart ltd. New York, 1970.

This book gives the answer to that question, as it describes Iago in his role as the traditional stage villain: motivation to war perpetually against all that is good, using falsity and deceit, and accompanying this with proud candor regarding his intentions in asides and soliloquies. I found this on the shelf in the library near the books on Shakespearean villains and heroes.

 

Exploring Social Media

So... since I haven't had much luck with emailing costume designers, I decided to take a different approach. I'm focusing more on Shakespeare's villains, and how they would be defined. I found this really cool site called "Blogging Shakespeare" that did a series on Shakespeare villains, analyzing different characters as villains:
Iago the Villain
So of course I suggested Hamlet as a villain! We'll see what happens.

oh, ps: I'm following them on twitter too. I don't much like the medium, but it could be good, for my purposes.

Othello

So, I don't know if this is breaking copyright laws or anything, but Othello (1995) is on youtube in full:

So of course I watched it!! I have to admit that by now, I probably have like, the teeeensiest little crush on Kenneth Branagh. Especially after seeing 'Much Ado About Nothing.' What? Don't Judge.

And of course he was brilliant again in Othello. All of the acting was really well done, and every line expressed with real feeling. I think the lines were all very close to the original script, and it was very authentic. The costumes were, I suppose, what you would expect of the time and place. The thing I noticed most about costume was that Othello constantly wore a white cape with gold lining, maybe to represent his innocence in the matter; but during the scene in bed when he kills Desdemona and himself, he suddenly switches to black, maybe to represent the evil side of himself.Iago, on the other hand, wears a sort of Robin Hood getup throughout the whole movie. Besides, of course, the end, when he just has his blood-stained white undershirt. Maybe this could show how he puts on this charade through the whole play that he is a good, humble, and honest man. But in the end, you can see clearly the blood on his hands. I noticed this mostly because they don't make it clear exactly how he gets blood on his shirt; there's lots of action, and then it seems to just show up there by the time he is caught. It could have been underneath his jacket the whole time since he killed Roderigo, you never know.

The beginning scene showed gondolas riding across the waters in Venice, and the beginning was full of cool stuff: Desdemona wore a black veil to her secret wedding. Who wears a black veil to their wedding? Hmmm, foreshadowing maybe? I also thought it was pretty cool how Iago and Roderigo were looking in on the wedding, spying on the secret marriage. It makes the beginning lines make a little more sense, as in the text you can't really tell what they were talking about at first. Iago on the outside of the building, claiming that he had no foreknowledge of the events, is a pretty good image too, because it makes you wonder whether Othello and Iago are close enough for Othello to invite him. This could actually be an interpretation of more of Iago's motivation behind his heinous acts: Othello doesn't tell him about something really important to him, but instead invites Cassio as his best man... there could be jealousy for Cassio on another dimension.

I also took note that when Iago was telling Othello about Desdemona's 'unfaithfulness,' Othello flashed back to when her father said, "She has deceived her father, and may thee."
As the play goes on, after the beginning, you can see how close Iago and Othello are, Othello always calling him "honest Iago," and the two spending so much time together. And at the end, when Iago's true acts have been revealed, he and Othello kneel on the floor staring at each other, even when others are addressing them. You can see Othello searching for something in Iago's eyes, and Iago's confliction, maybe between love and hate. Then after Othello kills himself, the stabbed Iago lays himself at Othello's feet, almost like he's paying him respect.

I think seeing this production really helped me see another perspective on the interpretation of Othello and Iago in terms of costuming and acting. I had always seen Iago almost as a robot, just dying to cause all the trouble he possibly can for no reason at all, but this movie displayed him as a more complex villain: conflicted, sorry, evil, loving, and hating all at the same time.

Revenge Tragedies, and Iago

Since I would consider both Iago and Hamlet to be based on revenge, I thought I'd look into whether they fit the bill for being called 'revenge tragedies.' So I looked into what exactly a revenge tragedy is.
Wikipedia lists these characteristics for a revenge tragedy:

• A secret murder, usually of a benign ruler by a bad person
• A ghostly visitation of the murder victim to a younger kinsman, generally a son
• A period of disguise, intrigue, or plotting, in which the murderer and the avenger scheme against each other, with a slowly rising body count
• A descent into either real or feigned madness by the avenger or one of the auxiliary characters
• An eruption of general violence at the end, which (in the Renaissance) is often accomplished by means of a feigned masque or festivity
• A catastrophe that utterly decimates the dramatis personae, including the avenger

Obviously Hamlet fits all these characteristics perfectly, but what about Othello? It might not exactly fit the bill, but I'd say it's halfway there. There is no secret murder, but a secret marriage, before the action of the play begins. No ghostly visitation: just Iago, practically without motivation (this may partly be why he seems so villainous, is because his real motives are so hard to determine). But after that it fits pretty well. Iago sets his plans in motion, which injure Montano, kill Roderigo, and injure Cassio. Othello, the auxiliary character is driven to madness by jealousy, "that green-eyed monster,"and in the end Desdemona, Othello, and Emilia. Sad day.

So what are Iago's motivations?

The first reason Iago cites is that Othello has promoted Cassio over himself to lieutenant. That is reason enough to be pissed off, but what about the body count? It's simply insufficient to motivate the mind games Iago plays with the Moor and everyone around him, even his own wife.
In the text, he implies that Othello may have slept with his wife, and that he would get even with him "wife for wife," even if it was just "for mere suspicion of it." It's almost like Iago is searching for any excuse to take down the Moor, assuring himself that Othello is "of a free and open nature," gullible to his machinations.

And the last thing he says in his first monologue just... irks. His comment that Othello will be "tenderly led by the nose / as asses are" reminds me of that scripture, 2 Nephi 26:22, where it talks about the devil leading saints away with a "flaxen cord." I find it also hypocritical, that Iago talks about how easy a target Cassio will be, and that "he hath a person and a smooth dispose / to be suspected," when the very thing causing his revenge is the rumor of revenge. Iago is setting his hate upon Othello, when he very well may be just the same as Cassio, with a 'person and a smooth dispose to be suspected.' David Snodin must have found Iago's character so enigmatic, that he made him the focus of a sequel to Othello, based around a "Fugitive" sort of plot: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/iago-by-david-snodin/2011/12/19/gIQA8r6BLP_story.html
That would be a fun read. :)

bahaha

Progress Report

So my research paper topic is not exactly perfected yet, but I have a basic sketch of what I want to do for my paper. I've decided to focus on a comparison between Hamlet and Iago as revenge characters. As background to this, I've decided to bring in some information about the genre of the revenge tragedy, the characters' different uses of deceit and subversion, and how these would be portrayed on stage in costume.

I don't exactly have a thesis yet, but in my analysis so far, I've noticed that these two characters have a lot in common, but they play sort of foil characters to each other. Iago is what Hamlet would be without his good intentions and the audience's sympathy. Hamlet is a character that the audience is supposed to follow with sympathy as they watch his sanity unravel as his plans unfold in success. This has often been portrayed in his costume slowly falling apart, and losing layers. On the other hand, Iago is an immediately pernicious character, distrustful immediately, whom the audience hates as they watch his plans cause tragedy as they slowly unfold in failure. This is usually portrayed in dressing him up in 'bad guy' clothes. Yet sometimes, depending on the director or the designer, Iago will wear 'good guy' clothes, until later in the play as he turns into more and more of a distrustful character, he is dressed more like a 'bad guy.'


Here are the phases we went through last week, and where I discussed them:
Textual Analysis
Textual Anlaysis
Social Proof,  
Social Proof,
Exploration
Exploration

A few Responses on Costuming

So, my emails out to theatre companies haven't really brought up a lot, but one woman gave a lot of suggestions for other places I can look into costuming. Here's what I sent:
Hello,
I'm a student at Brigham Young University, and I'm working on a Shakespeare research paper, focusing on a comparison between Hamlet and Iago (in Othello). I was wondering if you've ever done costuming for these characters before? Even if you haven't, I'd be curious to know what your approach would be towards costuming these characters? How would you show Hamlet as a relatable, or sympathetic character, and how would you show Iago as a 'bad guy'?

This is the response I received, looks like my bad! :

Hi Taylor,

While our CDG Local 892 is a union office whose membership includes costume designers working in film and television, we do not have information into the members’ working research/working styles.  You could do some research by looking up any film version of “Hamlet” via www.imdb.com (Internet Movie Database) and looking under cast/crew to see who the costume designer might have been on that particular film.  You could then check our www.costumedesignersguild.com website to see if that particular designer is a member of our union, and click on their name to see if they have contact information.  You can also peruse our CDG magazine (downloadable online) to see if you find anything that way.

But you might have better luck checking the NY union www.usa829.org the United Scenic Artists Local 829 as their members do include costume designers who work in theatre.  Best of luck!

Best regards,

Cheryl Marshall

Receptionist Administrative Assistant, Ext. 0

Costume Designers Guild IATSE Local 892

Phone: 818-752-2400 & Fax: 818-752-2402

cmarshall@cdgia.com