Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Is the play, by design, a puzzle?

  1. #1
    stanley2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    294

    Is the play, by design, a puzzle?

    Professor Mahon noted Professor Muir's comment that much of the criticism of MV is not so much wrong as selective and partial. Did the author, then , design the play to foster conversation?

  2. #2
    Registered User mona amon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    India
    Posts
    1,502
    I think the author wrote the best play he could at that moment, and designed it so it would bring in the most money at the box office.
    Exit, pursued by a bear.

  3. #3
    Registered User Jackson Richardson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Somewhere in the South East of England
    Posts
    1,273
    What was Professor Muir's comment? Without knowing that it is impossibly to respond intelligently.
    Previously JonathanB

    The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1

  4. #4
    stanley2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    294
    I picked up Professor Bates' intro to ROMEO AND JULIET. He writes: "So it is that, like VENUS and LUCRECE[narrative poems], A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and ROMEO AND JULIET are companion pieces. As DREAM is darkened by something of the night, so ROMEO is a tragedy that keeps surprising us with flashes of comedy. What, then is MV?

  5. #5
    stanley2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    294
    I would like to fix an error. The above quote from Professor Bates should end at "comedy." The words "What, then is MV?" are mine.

  6. #6
    Registered User prendrelemick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Yorkshire
    Posts
    4,871
    Blog Entries
    29
    Having seen a RSC production I now know it is a comedy first and formost - a cruel one in parts, but the audience was laughing along like good Elizabethans.
    ay up

  7. #7
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Near Chicago, Illinois USA
    Posts
    9,420
    Blog Entries
    2
    Quote Originally Posted by mona amon View Post
    I think the author wrote the best play he could at that moment, and designed it so it would bring in the most money at the box office.
    This is how I see the Merchant of Venice as well.

  8. #8
    stanley2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    294
    In CLIFFSCOMPLETE we find:"THE MERCHANT OF VENICE asks a lot of questions and doesn't often answer them...........[the play] ends in harmony, but it leaves enough questions unanswered to keep the audience debating the important issues that it raises." The play begins: :In sooth, I know not why I am so sad." Professor Bevington wrote: "The question is haunting: what is the matter?" One might then ask: why is the RSC audience laughing? Solanio says: "Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time: Some that will evermore peep through their eyes / And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper...."(1.1.51-3 or so). The RSC people are major league big time pros. Perhaps they made Gratiano the leading character: "Let me play the fool! / With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come, / And let my liver rather heat with wine / Than my heart cool with mortifying groans"(1.1.79-82 or so). When in the court scene Portia says: "Tarry a little; there is something else"(4.1.203 or so), some might laugh if Shylock is patiently waiting for Bassanio to step aside. Professor Muir also wrote: "In some ways THE MERCHANT OF VENICE appears to be the most straightforward of Shakespeare's plays, a kind of fairy story, with a beautiful princess, a handsome suitor and an ogre. It is often the first play to be studied in British schools." Therefore, Shylock and Antonio are mad at each other and the nice lady tells them to staighten up and fly right.

  9. #9
    stanley2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    294
    I also misspelled the name of Professor Jonathan Bate.

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 2
    Last Post: 12-28-2010, 05:13 AM
  2. Xmas Morning, Play by Play
    By AuntShecky in forum General Writing
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 12-18-2009, 02:12 PM
  3. Puzzle a Day
    By papayahed in forum Forum Games
    Replies: 36
    Last Post: 09-17-2009, 09:49 AM
  4. Puzzle
    By Il Penseroso in forum Personal Poetry
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 08-05-2007, 01:38 PM
  5. How can you regard this play as a morality play?
    By Macbeth1 in forum General Literature
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-21-2007, 01:56 PM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •