Shakespeare Meme
Day 2 - Favourite Character
Despite a deep urge to say the Constable of France from Henry V ("it is a most absolute and excellent horse"), I am going to be obvious, and yet cheat and name two, for there is no force that can compel me to pick between Mercutio and Horatio.
Mostly because you've got to like someone who is still cracking somewhat dark puns on his death bed. I like Mercutio for all the wrong reasons. He's someone who has never needed to back down and he's never seen a fight that isn't worth it. Oh to be that young and powerful again. He's clever and bright and wild and uncontrollable and I love him. He's a fizzing Catherine wheel.
The most fantastic thing was when we watched Romeo and Juliet (the Baz Luhrman version) in year 9 (so we were 13/14), and teenage boys, proper stroppy moody teenage boys, were in tears at Mercutio's death. Not a dry eye was found in the room at that part. (This, it must be said, was in contrast to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet where no one cared. I've always said that half of the Luhrman version is a very, very good film.)
Horatio is almost the opposite. He's not wild, that's his whole character's raison d'etre. He's sensible and calm and the one trustworthy person in the kingdom (if you're Hamlet). Because, and this is the thing, Horatio is a very poor nobleman, and while everyone else (looking at you here Guildenstern and Rosencrantz) is willing to sell out for money. He isn't.
I suppose the one thing they have in common is that they're loyal to the death (no matter how stupid Mercutio's might have been). I've never been as furious in my life about a piece of literary criticism as when some twerp over at SparkNotes suggested that Horatio might not be telling the truth with the whole "I am more an antique Romanthan a Dane. Here's yet some liquor left." I was outraged, I was offended, I was remarkably and ridiculously glad that they pulled that version of the Hamlet SparkNote almost immediately.
So yes, given that they're fictional characters, I love them entirely too much.
Day #1: Your favourite play
Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line
Despite a deep urge to say the Constable of France from Henry V ("it is a most absolute and excellent horse"), I am going to be obvious, and yet cheat and name two, for there is no force that can compel me to pick between Mercutio and Horatio.
Mostly because you've got to like someone who is still cracking somewhat dark puns on his death bed. I like Mercutio for all the wrong reasons. He's someone who has never needed to back down and he's never seen a fight that isn't worth it. Oh to be that young and powerful again. He's clever and bright and wild and uncontrollable and I love him. He's a fizzing Catherine wheel.
The most fantastic thing was when we watched Romeo and Juliet (the Baz Luhrman version) in year 9 (so we were 13/14), and teenage boys, proper stroppy moody teenage boys, were in tears at Mercutio's death. Not a dry eye was found in the room at that part. (This, it must be said, was in contrast to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet where no one cared. I've always said that half of the Luhrman version is a very, very good film.)
Horatio is almost the opposite. He's not wild, that's his whole character's raison d'etre. He's sensible and calm and the one trustworthy person in the kingdom (if you're Hamlet). Because, and this is the thing, Horatio is a very poor nobleman, and while everyone else (looking at you here Guildenstern and Rosencrantz) is willing to sell out for money. He isn't.
I suppose the one thing they have in common is that they're loyal to the death (no matter how stupid Mercutio's might have been). I've never been as furious in my life about a piece of literary criticism as when some twerp over at SparkNotes suggested that Horatio might not be telling the truth with the whole "I am more an antique Romanthan a Dane. Here's yet some liquor left." I was outraged, I was offended, I was remarkably and ridiculously glad that they pulled that version of the Hamlet SparkNote almost immediately.
So yes, given that they're fictional characters, I love them entirely too much.
Day #1: Your favourite play
Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line