Extra short post today, because I don’t have much to say about this play. Henry VIII. The last of the Bard’s histories. (Both in terms of when it was written, and in the chronology of the histories themselves.) If I were to rank the Bard’s plays, this would rank very near the bottom, but that’s not what I want to…
Tag: bookstagram
Richard III
Perhaps this is unimaginative and obvious, but I can never help but think of Richard III and Macbeth as…well, kind of the same play. In the best way. Both have villains/anti-heroes/terrible men that drive the action and are our protagonists of the story. This can give us a rather uncomfortable experience, as we are made to feel complicit in their…
A Winter’s Tale: Love and Forgiveness
As you know if you have been reading this blog, there a few plays from the Bard that have let me feeling less than satisfied. However, A Winter’s Tale (similar to Timon of Athens) proved to be an absolutely delightful surprise. This was one of those that I really didn’t know anything about going into it. Scratch that. I knew…
Henry VI and All His Parts
For the purposes of this blog, and since I am quickly running out of time to complete my blogging challenge, I have decided to cover Henry VI Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 in one blog post. None of these quite live up to most of the other histories (except King John and Henry VIII; they form the less impressive half of…
All’s Well That Ends Well…except it’s not so well
I’m just going to say it: All’s Well That Ends Well is problematic as all…well, you fill in the blank. The plays that are famously problematic (Taming of the Shrew with gender, Merchant of Venice with anti-semitism, etc.) have remarkable redeeming qualities, and are much more than just the one aspect for which they are controversial. This play, much lesser known, does not…
King Lear
For me, King Lear is one of those plays that I love and admire, even though I am convinced that 90% of it has gone over my head. But I mean that in a very good way. It’s not particularly difficult to understand or anything, but there is simply so much there! It is astounding. The first thing that must be said about…
Henry V
I really, really love most of Shakespeare’s histories. I think they have some of his most interesting characters and ask some of the most interesting questions. Henry V is no exception. To me, this play has a lot to say about the role of government, particularly the role of our leaders. (Now that I am starting to write about this, it…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Let’s get right down to it. The truth of the matter is that I feel a little bit strange about A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is definitely a brilliant play (possibly even one of Shakespeare’s best comedies?) and it’s hilarious and witty and sarcastic and delightful. But here’s the thing. For me, this play has the largest gap (at least…
Macbeth: A Huge Favorite
There was only one choice for what I would post about on Halloween: Macbeth. Macbeth is very close to my heart. It was (for all intents and purposes) my first introduction to Shakespeare and remains a dear favorite of mine. So much so that if I was made to choose only one favorite Shakespeare play, it would have to be this…
Henry IV, Part 2
We are moving right along today to Henry IV, Part 2. First things first: this play contains one of my favorite soliloquies ever. Period. It comes from Henry IV when he talks about sleep. This is not Shakespeare’s most meaningful or important soliloquy, but I am very partial to it because I find the language absolutely stunning and gorgeous. (I’ve…