Monday, February 6, 2012

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?
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2 comments:

  1. KaylaFebruary 7, 2012 at 6:20 PM

    I think it's an interesting topic, but kind of broad at this point. Were you thinking of just doing one or two plays, or just a more narrow subcategory of that topic?

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  2. UnknownFebruary 8, 2012 at 9:20 AM

    hmmm, well I've found a few articles on this topic that focus on Hamlet. Since there's so much deceit and spying going on in Hamlet, I could probably focus on that. Thanks!

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