M4M (and love for Professor Shapiro)

Partly because I also read As You Like It this past week in preparation for going to the play, and partly because two lectures is really an insanely fast pace to go through an entire play, I felt as if Measure for Measure went by in a flash. I think that that feeling also owes a lot to the fact that Professor Shapiro in incredibly well informed and engaged, and gives you the feeling that he could talk for a month about each play. Despite the fact that the class has probably fifty people in it, he does not really lecture, but engages everybody in discussion. This could be deadly, but he is a strong enough teacher that can keep the discussion going in the direction he wants it to, and he is able to strike a balance between telling us things and having us figure them out on our own. One of the things he said about Measure for Measure (which is, by the way, a disturbing play full of unappealing characters and STDs) is that one of the most troubling things about it is the fact that it shows people outside the bounds of normal society, who have lost their way and are stuck in some terrible holding pattern. Mariana, who was betrothed to a lover who refused to marry her when her dowry money was lost, and can only live the life of a recluse, "on the shelf," is one such character, and Barnardine, a prisoner on death row, who forgotten by ruler and justice, continually drunk, and ever unrepentant, is another. This was very powerful point, and one I had not thought of on my own.

Another thing that's great about the Professor is his reading ability. He read some key speeches aloud in class yesterday, and it just made you feel the lyricism an the emotion of the verse. It's amazing, the way that Shakespeare's words can make you agree with, or at least sympathize with and try to understand, the most incredible range of perspectives. Take the speech of the Duke's that Shapiro read us:

Thou art not thyself,
For thou exists on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not,
For what thou hast not, still thou strive'st to get,
And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain,
For thy complextion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor,
For like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee.

Basically, what Shakespeare is saying is, "life is bleak and then you die," but it's so beautiful you could almost agree with him.

NB: On the subject of things that the Professor said that broadened my perspective, I feel as if I should make a postscript to my T&C comments. I no longer think it is quite so misogynist. Although some of the dialogue is terrible towards women, I realized after the discussion in class, that Shakespeare is showing the viewer, though the action of the play, the injustice of women's vulnerability in the midst of the brutality of warfare, and the way that Cressida has to take steps to protect herself by finding a new lover. It does not make her appealing to the audience, but it shows the way that she can take control of her own fate in an adverse situation.

And now, on to Othello...