PDA

View Full Version : completely lost



sheneta
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
I have to do a report on this play and although the plot seems intresting the stage changes to much there is to many scenes and to much going on at one time are you sure this play is Shakespeare's work.

byquist
06-04-2005, 09:05 PM
Yea, a lot happens but it all comes together in that last long scene. It does make sense and all connect. Shakespeare also has created one of his finest women in Imogen. Harold Bloom, the Shake. expert, says that she is too great a character to reside in the play.

CrazyGeekGirl
11-12-2006, 11:53 PM
Yes, it's Shakespeare. I like Imogen, but I'm not sure I'd call her Shakespeare's greatest woman... there are a lot of great ones if people would really look...

Woland
02-02-2007, 02:37 PM
Yea, a lot happens but it all comes together in that last long scene. It does make sense and all connect. Shakespeare also has created one of his finest women in Imogen. Harold Bloom, the Shake. expert, says that she is too great a character to reside in the play.

Yea well, Harold Bloom says a lot of things. He may be right, she is a very strong and memorable character. I like Imogen, maybe my favorite female character I've read in Shakespeare, aside from Cordelia.

dramafreak
09-14-2007, 04:14 PM
Yes, it [I]is[I] Shakespeare. It, in my opinion, it is one of his best. The plot is very confusing at times, but like said above, it comes together at the end. Kudus to Shakespeare with the great writting in this play...I am Imogen in the Shakespeare Festival compition in Ceder City, Utah, And I agree, Imogen is amazing. She is so strong, and such a well devolped character.

Abdiel
09-20-2008, 04:18 PM
It's definitely Shakespeare and you can tell this from its beautiful language: no one else writes like that but Shakespeare. Sure, the plot is complex and some events seem quite improbable (it's claimed that Shakespeare wrote this play to flout all the rules of good drama, like unity of time and place, kinda like he wrote The Tempest to prove that he could follow rules if he wanted to), but we're talking about Shakespeare here: when is he ever conventional?

It's got the usual Shakespeare motifs like British and Roman history (with slight twists), the heroine in disguise, the buffoon suitor and the real lovers, themes of infidelity in marriage and love, betrayal (both sexual and political), war, a scene with a potential rapist (but, again, with a slight twist) who tries to rob a woman of her chastity, and a lot lot more.

In fact, if you look at the play, it's like Shakespeare combined all of his previous themes into one super play. The only difference is that in Cymbeline, because it's a Romance (which makes it doesn't have to stick hard to the realm of possibility as much as his tragedies or histories), is that at the end all the good people ALMOST get what they deserve, and all the bad people (Cloten and the Queen) die. The play always verges on tragedy, but providence works its power and things end on a brighter note than darker.

It's definitely one of my favorite plays of Shakespeare's and I love the language and characters, especially Imogen; and Cloten's just hilarious. The language is spectacular, especially that funeral ode, "Fear no more the heat of the sun/And the furious winter's rages...." The lines, "Golden lads and girls all must/As chimney sweepers come to dust" are some of the most famous in poetry, even though this play is not that well known to the general public. T.S. Eliot loved those lines and parodied them in a poem of his, and he also called this one of Shakespeare's greatest works.

Anstasia
03-08-2011, 08:27 PM
Hi guys,

I am stuck with this play. I am having a hard time following the plot. If you could recommend sources which would make this more understandable that would be great. I really would like to have a diagram of the plot if that's possible. So if you've seen one, I'd like to use it.