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

Interesting analysis of Iago

 ...as a bumblebee...
http://literature-classics.factoidz.com/shakespeares-othello-understanding-iago/

Costumes, Hamlet, and Iago

Yesterday I interviewed the head of the costuming department at BYU, mainly just to ask some questions out of curiosity about costuming, and how a 'good' guy's outfit would be designed, and how a 'bad' guy's outfit would be designed. She said that usually it's different for every culture, but in western culture, we normally ascribe certain colors with certain meanings. Like green, which would connote jealousy; red, which means anger or devilishness; and black, which means evil.

For Iago, she said it depends on the designer, but you could costume him in something that would make the audience immediately find him untrustworthy, like putting him in a cloak, or dressing him above his rank.

For Hamlet, usually the designer will start out with layers that denote his rank, and the audience will slowly watch him coming undone, losing a jacket, untying his shirt, and so forth.

But most importantly, she gave me info on how to get a hold of costume designers who have designed Hamlet and Iago in various productions!

So here's the idea: I think I want to investigate into the devices of deceit used by both Hamlet and Iago, with the main focus being a comparison of the characters. After all, looks how much they have in common!

• driven by rage
• kill everyone around them
• have 'secret identities' - Hamlet makes everyone think he's crazy, and Iago makes everyone think he's a good guy
• had lovers whom they hurt and betrayed
• they both make someone murder someone else (accidentally or on purpose) - Claudius kills Gertrude, Othello kills Desdemona
• As time goes on, the audience loses sight of what their motivations are - Iago probably just does it for fun, Hamlet probably actually starts to go crazy, killing his friends unnecessarily

Hamlet: driven by revenge, but because his dad was killed
Iago: driven by revenge, but because he didn't get the promotion he wanted... maybe it's the motivations that make the difference....

Can you think of any more similarities??

p.s.

Link for a website that designs costumes for Hamlet:
http://www.shakespeareincostume.com/Shakespeare_in_Costume/hamlet.html

Pssssst!

Kayla pointed out that I may need to focus my topic a little, so I thought I'd narrow it down on Hamlet, as there's tons of spying and deceit going on in this play. Claudius kills his brother in secret, which upon finding out, Hamlet decides to act crazy, making Claudius and Gertrude ask Rosencrantz and Gildenstern to spy on Hamlet. And then for the queen's safety, Polonius spies on Hamlet and him mom, which gets him killed, and moves the plot along.

I think Othello could also be useful in my study though, as I ago's planning includes a lot of spying and deceit to make his plans work. I think it could be cool to sort of campare Hamlet and Iago as foils of each other. Both of them use a lot of lying and deceit, but Hamlet is a 'hero' while Iago is a 'villain.'

hmmm...


So I emailed about 6 artistic directors for Shakespeare theatre companies, asking them about how they would stage a spying scene. I want to know what disguises they would wear, whether they would show the person hiding to the audience, and so forth... I'll let you know how it goes.

Spying and Dropping Eaves

So, Shakespeare has a motif.
Maybe a few. But one of them is having his characters spy on one another. And it tends to help move the plot along quite nicely. If Polonius hadn't been eavesdropping, Hamlet wouldn't have killed him, Ophelia would have gotten over Hamlet, and Laertes wouldn't have challenged him to a duel.

It can also help characterize certain personas in his plays. In Othello, if Iago hadn't spied to see the wedding, he might not have known about it. Because he uses it to his advantage, attempting to use the secret wedding to bring down Othello, you can instantly see the malice in Iago's character, and know to a small extent what he is capable of.

ps, this is kind of funny:

Spying also helps Shakespeare explore the deeper themes in his plays, like when King Henry V puts on a disguise in order to get the real feelings from his troops, which inspires a famous monologue talking about why King's have it bad.

Research paper topic? Whadda ya think?

Manga hamlet

Shakespeare's plays are very adaptable, as his characters can always be interpreted in more than one way. That's why his plays are classic - because they can adapt and continue to work with modern media. That is why Manga worked so well with Hamlet. Manga can easily set up a stage on which any imaginary world can be effectively represented, with the result of a performance-like presentation. Yet there is also the benefit of being able to see the words, and to follow them at your own pace, making it easily digestible. That is probably why it took e much less time to read the whole manga book than it did to listen to the audio version. I was confused about who the audience may have been in mind: possibly teenagers, but the introductory articles seemed to address a scholarly Shakespeare audience. In all I suppose Manga is accessible to a wide variety of audiences, and it may very well be for everyone. None of the text was original; they were all Shakespeare's words, but there were some omissions in the text in order to make the characters succinct, and to fit it all within a small cartoon book.
The Manga presentation of the characters was interesting, as they represented Hamlet as much younger than 30, probably more like a teenager. This is part of the reason why I figured this version may have been directed at teenagers, to get them to identify with Hamlet. Horatio was a Buddhist, almost like Hamlet's sort of guru-buddy. And Laertes was represeted with long hair and armor, like an ancient Grecian war hero, fitting to his name.
The setting was always drawn out, so there was no need for stage directions, though some thigns were added in, such as when King Claudio squeezes Hamlet's shoulder excessively hard while entreating him to stay in Denmark in the beginning of the play. It gives a hint of that strain in their relationship. In the audio version, I imagined the scene with Ophelia going nuts to be in the castle, as Laertes returns, but Manga does this scene in the river/pond. I like this, because it sets up the idea of Ophelia hanging out around the water a lot, and it would make sense that no one would think twice if she were just chillin there, thinking of drowning herself, because she likes it there. I think this medium provides the perfect way for younger audiences, probably about teenage age, to get into Shakespeare with a little more ease.