A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes...

Sometimes I feel the term “dream” is thrown around a little too freely these days. To go into more depth, I mean to say that a dream these days is usually more of an aspiration of aim (which I can’t help but think that it holds a correlation with the forgetting of dreams people have during sleep, even though it’s obviously entirely unrelated altogether). Remembered dreams are sometimes entirely unbelievable, even while asleep, but they also can lend a very real feeling. An example of this that I can recall is the dream I once had of my mom getting terminal cancer. Within this dream state, I felt a very intense sense of grief and sadness and cried throughout the duration of the dream. I somehow realized this was nothing more than a dream and after eventually waking up; I had dried tears on my face. There must be something to be said about the effect dreams have on reality or the contrary. To this effect, my initial comment and reflection on the play in general is that of the resonance that the character “Puck” leaves in his closing monologue of the conclusion to the play performed. As the lowly characters finish their performance of “Pyramus and Thisby”, there is commentary made on the death of the characters Pyramus and Thisby which Puck attempts to reconcile with the notion that the audience may just imagine the actors as characters from a dream and that it was a fleeting moment that may vanish forever. Maybe dreams are merely glimpses into our imagination that we cannot otherwise access. Maybe they’re to be paid more attention as a learning opportunity to be applied to real life circumstances. From a physiological standpoint, dreams are deposited knowledge or memories that are unnecessary to withhold and the ones remembered coincide with the moment one wakes from sleep. But as a romanticist, I can’t help but hold on to the idea that dreams signify an important concept or moment in life that leads to an enlightened understanding.

In a clarifying moment, Titania wakes and suddenly realizes her fabricated love for an ass (Bottom) which was the first thing that she saw after waking. Before her slumber she held primary interest in her fairies and their duties (mostly maintaining the wood as their queen sleeps as to not disturb her) and her fairy king, Oberon. So in this instance the queen of the fairies wakes with a different mindset and in a dream-like state of imagined love/admiration. If my entirely fictional idea of dreams being a reflection of or future prophesy of memories or life circumstances then Titania’s momentary lapse of rational and logical judgment and thought process would be a good reflection of this.

And this ends my incredibly irrational expression of unrealistic ideas…

School of Night/Hughes' Essay Response

           Many people hold William Shakespeare in such high regard as a poet and playwright and many people even consider him to be the founder and originator of the modern play as we know it. When asked, a friend of mine freely associated Shakespeare with Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, tragedy, Othello and forbidden love that ends badly. The source of his legendary resonance in English literature probably is founded in his ability to write to and entertain all facets of his audience. Not only did he create in a language that wasn’t exactly used and spoken in daily life but he also possessed relatability in his works that blanketed the entirety of English society. Ted Hughes provides a detailed background and description of influences and effects of Shakespeare’s plays in that a lot of his monologues and dialogues included both “high” language of the times as well as lines and parts understood by the masses. Hughes provides a good example of the opening speech from Twelfth Night:

If music be the food of love, play on,

O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,

That, notwithstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,

Of what validity and pitch soe’er,

But falls into abatement and low price,

Even in a minute.

Hughes evaluates this further:

                “The three words here that might have given his groundlings pause are ‘capacity’, ‘validity’, and ‘abatement’. On the other hand, they were all words that some other Shakespearean character might have pounced on, fondled and turned: ‘Fine word, capacity!’ (as several here and there are inclined to do). And they are all words that would be appreciated by that higher audience, the classically educated phrase-collecting lords.
                The striking thing is what Shakespeare does with each of these words. ‘Capacity’ is immediately reduced to a plain image: ‘Receiveth as the sea.’ In other words, it is translated: capacity=spaciousness, roominess, infinite ability to contain.”
The ability to speak to literally any audience is one of the most difficult challenges an author or artist faces in attempt to create an original, relevant and entertaining piece. This, I believe is exactly the reason for the appreciation and use/reference of Shakespeare often still today. William Shakespeare has resonance!

Emily Harris' comment on "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf

Last semester I was introduced to Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own" and at the time a particularly enticing section sparked my interest and that was the discussion of William Shakespeare's fictional sister. Although this essay doesn't have a substantially strong connection and relation to the playwright and poet himself, it does raise a very interesting and insightful inquiry: what if Shakespeare had a sister? Obviously this question is easily responded to with acknowledgement of the time and societal expectations of a woman.
Anyway...as for my very first blog post EVER, I decided to share my initial thoughts and comments on connections to William Shakespeare. Much, much more to come!