No difficulty in choosing here: The Taming of the Shrew. The basic storyline is simply too unpleasant: Katherina, obviously a very unhappy person, is intimidated into submission by a bloke called Petruchio who appears out of nowhere and for no apparent reason decides to marry her. There is lots of beating of servants; how hilarious ( Read more... )

Just for reference, the tragedies are generally considered to include:

Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Troilus and Cressida
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Timon of Athens
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
The Tempest

I've already written of my love for Hamlet and Macbeth as plays; but I retain a deep affection for Romeo and Juliet ( Read more... )

A birthday treat for me, writing on a happy subject. Just for reference, the comedies are generally considered to include:

All's Well That Ends Well ( Read more... )

It's a matter of convention, of course, but I tend to find the scenes with Shakespearean fools rather jarring to the course of the play. It can be done well, of course, but it was an intervention that perhaps worked much better in Elizabethan theatrical idiom than it does now. Romeo and Juliet, for instance, has two comic relief minor characters: ( Read more... )

There is a sort of unwritten challenge in this meme to try and pick different plays for each day. I don't think I'll manage it, but this question in particular prompted me to delve rather deep. One villainess who operates very much to her own agenda, using men and spitting them out again (and they return the favour to her and her family) is Tamora ( Read more... )

It's Shakespeare's birthday! Or at least, the 400th anniversary of his death. What better day to celebrate his greatest villain, Richard III ( Read more... )

This is a close run for me between Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Helena in All's Well That Ends Well. The latter is less well known - basically the modestly born but intelligent Helena - a qualified doctor, no less - fulfills the conditions set by her reluctant husband, by tricking him into having sex with her while under the impression that ( Read more... )

This is actually quite tricky, because Shakespeare's most interesting characters are more likely to be villains than heroes, and if heroes they tend not to be all that admirable. I've written already about Hamlet and Macbeth, nether of whom really fits the bill - Hamlet is fascinating, but one struggles to like him, and Macbeth is certainly on the ( Read more... )

I'm a political animal, and I am fascinated by the way that Shakespeare looks at leadership and kingship, what we might today call governance. Many of his plays are about politicians who get it tragically wrong - Brutus, Richard III, Coriolanus, Macbeth. I think Macbeth is much the most interesting. His character arc takes him from trusted ( Read more... )

It's about time we had some more culture around here. Since it's the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death on Saturday, here is a 30-day meme about the Bard; feel free to chip in or copy as you like.

Day #1: Your favourite play

This is not very difficult: it's Hamlet. To repost most of what I said about it a few years ago, this is pretty much ( Read more... )