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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Stereotypes, and SHAKESPEARE!!....DUM DUM DUM(Dark music playing in background)

As always, "writers tend to reveal themselves more than they'd like in their writing." I think most things are influenced by our own beliefs, just like how the great Shakespeare does. For example, he depicted the nobles like Leonato as clean and sophisticated, while the watchmen were dirty and ragged. Maybe it was a correct rendering of the times, but it could be his own views. I see much class reference, but not so much racial, seeing as how he lived in England, and that would be mostly white majority. However, by depicting the Prince himself as black, he does show maybe he believes that all people should have rights to rule, or once again showing his own views.
I have heard that Shakespeare was Anti-Semitic, but it could be slander. I do believe he is a great man. While on the concept, I love the character of Benedick. I don't know why.

2 comments:

anna said...

Hey Terry! Great post! I liked how you compared the topic with Shakespeare himself. We never seem to discuss in class the author's life that triggered the literature, so that was a really interesting point. I also really enjoyed the tone of your blog, it sounded philosophical (:

Falindrith Lanthaloran said...

Well, about the anti-semetism...
There are a few references that I've seen in his plays where someone is called a "jew" as an insult or something similar. But this seems to be, again, the attitude of England at the time. So is it another stereotype, or Shakespeare just trying to appeal to his contemporary audience?