Dear Shakespearean Cohort Members,
I beseech you. I was here sitting in the library pining for a good paper topic, but the result was nil until I let go absolutely. So I have a novel idea. Okay maybe this idea has been done, but it is new to me. I am asking you my colleagues for a term paper topic. My reasoning for this is that I am going to have to give a 3 minute presentation to the class on the term paper in question. If I give a boring ass presentation that no one gives two shits about then I am not only getting a bad grade but I am effectively wasting your time. Thus I think it would be advantageous to all of us to find a topic to our liking. Just add a comment to this blog post with your term paper topic suggestions. I am open to any and all topics. Let's make this interesting. The more extreme the better. I look forward to reading your ideas.
Cohort Forever,
Roberto Amado-Cattaneo
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Caliban and Smerdyakov
First things first. When I was a child my family had a bay Hanoverian by the name of Caliban. He was beautiful, but until I read the tempest I had absolutely no idea were the name came from. Honestly I thought my mother made it up (LOL).
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| Caliban |
In a piece entitled "Philosophical Anthropology and Dostoevsky's 'Legend of the Grand Inquisitor" author Ellis Sandoz refers to Smerdyakov from The Brother Karamozov as a, "moral Caliban and biological half brother and son of Ivan" (Sandoz).
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| Smerdyakov |
Both Smerdyakov and Caliban have interesting features make them similar. In the case of physical appearances both characters lack a certain verisimilitude. Meaning both are of them by all intensive purposes are described as human. The use of the term human is more loosely used in the case of Caliban because he is described as have attributes of a fish. Along those same lines both characters are described as having a peculiar odor. They are both stinky individuals, and like the old saying goes, "cleanliness is close to godliness" which in some ways may have implications the odor that they both emit lend to there less than human nature, since man was after all created in the image of the creator. In relation to Smerdyakov it seems his fishy looking exterior is manifested in his greased hair and oddly immaculate exterior. His clothes are out of fashion but sharp, and his boots are well polished. It could also be mentioned that Smerdyakov is also a epileptic which also removes him just a little more from the norm, even though this is not a physical deformity it is non the less a handicap of sorts.
In terms of there roles in thee perspective stories both also fill a similar role. Not only are they both outsiders because of physical attributes they are both disenfranchised heirs. In the case of Caliban he and his mother ruled the island until Prospero came to town. Caliban's mother Sycorax is offed by Prospero and now the heir to the rule of the island becomes slave to Prospero. In much the same way this is the plight of Smerdyakov. He is presumeably the son of Fyodor Karamozov just like the other three brothers, however Smerdyakov is denied any entitlement to the family estate and is resigned to be nothing more but Karamozov's epileptic cook.
This all seems pretty straight forward and where the confusion comes in is Smerdyakov as a "moral Caliban." I don't necessarilly find one more moral than the other in terms of their actions. However it may be reference to Smerdyakov plight being similar to the moral of Caliban. Or it could be that Smerdyakov story is a moral version of Calibans story. In my opinion Smerdyakov is the moral Caliban because he was for all intensive purposes trying to do the right thing. The guy had a fucked up child hood followed by a even more awkward adult life, where he was osstrisized and neglegted by his family, and when they did have any connection with him is was either to use or abuse him. Unlike Caliban Smerdyakov gives what he received, place in there a moral, "Treat those as you woulde have done unto yourself. Otherwise you are either going to have your head bashed in with an iron paper weight, framed for murder, or driven insane by the truth." The moral Caliban.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Back to the Boar
In a blog that I have already posted I wrote about the boar in Shakespeare's work. However as I continue on this journey I find that as I try to move away from the boar it pulls me back in. The boar seemed like a good starting point for some analysis of some of Shakespeare's work especially in relation to the poem "Venus and Adonis" but the boar is everywhere in Shakespeare's work. Appearing in "Venus and Adonis", "Antony and Cleopatra", "As You Like It", "A Midsummer Night's Dream". These few works are the ones I have read thus far, also these examples are works that actually use the word Boar. If I were to expand my search to Boar characteristics I would find much more of the boar. It would appear in "King Lear" and "Pericles" and surely many more which I have yet to read.
The Boar characteristics are interesting because they are somewhat analogous to the certain baser male attributes. I would seem that more often than not that male characters in Shakespeare who get jealous, angry, violent, and stubborn are likened to a boar. In most instances this is not explicit but non the less the correlation between these male attitudes and the behavior of the wild boar have certain parallels. Another thing is that quite often when male characters are exhibiting these boar characteristics they are also putting themselves in harms way, because they become blind like a dumb beast, and like the boar they go fighting to there death. And ironically enough Adonis's behavior ends up getting him killed by an actual boar. Another interesting boar behavior coupled with the actual boar is a scene in "Antony and Cleopatra" where men Manent Enobarbus, Agrippa, Maeccenas gloat about the feast they had. Eight whole boars feasted on by twelve people. The men in there "Boar" mode actually consume boars.
While exploring plays that we will not be reading in this class I came upon a wonderful example of the boar. I watched the film version of Richard the III with Ian Mckellen and there was a line in there mentioning, you guessed it, the boar. I found the line later in the actual play and it goes as follows:
Richard the III Act V Scene 2
Henry, Earl of Richmond:
Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,
Bruis'd underneath the yoke of tyranny,
Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we march'd on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash and makes his trough
In your embowell'd bosoms --this foul swine
Is now even in the centry of this isle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn.
From Tamworth thither is but one day's march.
In God's name the harvest of perpetual peace
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
Sounds like a good war time speech to me. The idea of killing that most foul swine the boar is a "beautiful" image for soldiers. The boar that drinks your blood and feasts on your disemboweled bodies in it's trough.
The Boar ladies and gentlemen, the Boar, one of the many manifestations of mans grotesque and unsightly underbelly. The boar is the dark and primitive animal side of men. If there ever was a beast that were a sensualist it is the boar. If you took Fyodor Karamazov from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and transformed him into his spirit animal he would without a doubt be a Boar. This aspect of the Boar and man my speak to a universal notion that a little Boar dwells within every man whether he releases it or not.
The Boar characteristics are interesting because they are somewhat analogous to the certain baser male attributes. I would seem that more often than not that male characters in Shakespeare who get jealous, angry, violent, and stubborn are likened to a boar. In most instances this is not explicit but non the less the correlation between these male attitudes and the behavior of the wild boar have certain parallels. Another thing is that quite often when male characters are exhibiting these boar characteristics they are also putting themselves in harms way, because they become blind like a dumb beast, and like the boar they go fighting to there death. And ironically enough Adonis's behavior ends up getting him killed by an actual boar. Another interesting boar behavior coupled with the actual boar is a scene in "Antony and Cleopatra" where men Manent Enobarbus, Agrippa, Maeccenas gloat about the feast they had. Eight whole boars feasted on by twelve people. The men in there "Boar" mode actually consume boars.
While exploring plays that we will not be reading in this class I came upon a wonderful example of the boar. I watched the film version of Richard the III with Ian Mckellen and there was a line in there mentioning, you guessed it, the boar. I found the line later in the actual play and it goes as follows:
Richard the III Act V Scene 2
Henry, Earl of Richmond:
Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,
Bruis'd underneath the yoke of tyranny,
Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we march'd on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash and makes his trough
In your embowell'd bosoms --this foul swine
Is now even in the centry of this isle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn.
From Tamworth thither is but one day's march.
In God's name the harvest of perpetual peace
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
Sounds like a good war time speech to me. The idea of killing that most foul swine the boar is a "beautiful" image for soldiers. The boar that drinks your blood and feasts on your disemboweled bodies in it's trough.
The Boar ladies and gentlemen, the Boar, one of the many manifestations of mans grotesque and unsightly underbelly. The boar is the dark and primitive animal side of men. If there ever was a beast that were a sensualist it is the boar. If you took Fyodor Karamazov from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and transformed him into his spirit animal he would without a doubt be a Boar. This aspect of the Boar and man my speak to a universal notion that a little Boar dwells within every man whether he releases it or not.
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