Thursday, May 9, 2013

"one may smile, and smile, and be a villain"

Hello Readers!

In case you are not a super Shakespeare nerd like I am, the title of this post comes from the play Hamlet. Hamlet is my absolute favourite of Shakespeare`s tragedies, and could rival for the position of my favourite Shakespearean play. If you would have asked me before this year, I would have told you it was my favourite.

I have read Hamlet at least five times. Three times through school necessity, and twice on my own for my own enjoyment (I told you I was a nerd). I love Shakespeare so much that I took a full year course dedicated to studying the works of Shakespeare, or at least as many as we could cover. This course was undoubtedly my favourite from my third year of University. The professor was amazing, and really passionate about the subject he was teaching. I find that is really important. If the professor loves what he/she is teaching, it becomes hard not to follow their enthusiasm and love it yourself. I don't think that would have been a problem for me, regardless, but it was nice to have a dedicated teacher. But, back to the point. Before this year and my amazing professor, Hamlet would have been my favourite play. But I was introduced to many of Shakespeare's comedies---which I never really had looked into. I'd read most of his tragedies, but had always skipped over the comedies. Not this year--as we had to study them and write papers on them. My favourite comedy we've studied, and that I've read, is Much Ado About Nothing. It is witty and strangely romantic. I loved the characters of Benedick and Beatrice, and their banter with each other. I loved Shakespeare's portrayal of women through Beatrice, who is saucy and authoritative and witty. My favourite quote from that play is  "As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out." The play is full of hilarious lines such as that. 

Hamlet is still close to being my favourite, because it contains everything that Shakespeare has ever written about: lust, sexual disgust, revenge, madness, murder, fights...just to name a few points. I think that I love Hamlet the character, and that I could possibly be in love with him. He is crazy and a murderer, yes, but that really doesn't surprise me. 

I tend to always cheer for the bad boys in fictional stories. I'm obsessed with Loki from Thor (the comics started my love, although Tom Hiddleston doesn't hurt my affection). Hamlet's madness is explainable and his genuine regret and grief when his love (SPOILER!!!!) Ophelia kills herself because of her own grief. It is in moments of sadness and lamentation that my love for Hamlet as a character grows.  My love of the bad boys has lead me to read the a series by Marie Hall, the Kingdom Series Collection. In which a fairy god-mother finds soul mates for notorious bad boys, like the Mad Hatter (my favourite), or the Big Bad Wolf.  This series satisfies my need for the "bad boy" who really isn't that bad. I love the bad boys with a soft side. Hence my love of Hamlet. 

This is probably one of the most pointless, and random posts I've made. Just the mood that I'm in I guess. Check out all the pieces of literature I mentioned for awesome reads. I'm obsessed with books in general so it shouldn't really be a surprise that my post is about this lol. 



Am I insane? Do you have a favourite Shakespeare play or character?

Love, 
Becca
xoxoxo

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