Personal Learning Progress Report

Learning Outcomes

I feel like I’ve done fairly well with meeting my goals, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I found myself kind of changing my original reading plan to give it more variety (for example, I didn’t end up sticking with the poetry/art gallery idea for every play because I wanted to experiment with other ideas). I met all my goals for what I would read (I finished all the plays), but I think I could have done better with my blogging about my experiences with them. I feel like the learning outcomes I’ve done a good job meeting are: Engaging Shakespeare Creatively (through poems, art, etc.), Sharing Shakespeare Meaningfully (in that I frequently discuss my experience with my peers—I could do better at capturing that in my blog), Gaining Shakespeare Literacy (in breadth and legacy particularly). I think I need to work a bit more on Analyzing Shakespeare Critically, as well as the performance and depth aspects of Shakespeare Literacy.

Reading and Research

I have read: Hamlet, Richard III, As You Like It, Othello, and the Tempest, and some of the sonnets. Other resources I’ve used have been online sources, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, Google searches, and the “No Fear Shakespeare” on Sparknotes. I also have used social resources, like when I asked my brother for his thoughts on Othello as an actor.

Personal Impact 

For me personally, my study of Shakespeare has been most engaging when I can discuss what I’m learning with friends, and when I can tie it in with my personal creative writing interests. (For example, my poetry post about Richard III made me feel much more connected with the text  and I really think that play will stick with me more deeply because I interacted with it.) I also am noticing that one of my favorite ways to read the text is to read it looking for ideas that can be universalized, or ways that the story taps in to the human experience in a deep way.

Personal Evaluation

I think I’ve done a really good job of improving my life-long learning skills, and tying the texts into my own thoughts and life in a powerful way. I think I could do better at researching and at tying in my experience to others in the class (linking, learning from others’ posts, tagging my posts with learning outcomes, etc.)

Peer Influence 

Jessica V: I find she tends to have really original ideas, and even posted an entire list of them, which I found really helpful and fun.

Martin M: Left a comment on my blog with a little bit deeper question than normal, which made me think and was fun to reply to.

Peer Blog Evaluation: Brooke R

Awesome job Brooke! Love your blog! (and your name too... :) 

Number of Posts: 21

Quality of Posts: I think she has done an excellent job at meeting the “two substantial posts weekly” standard.

A Strength: I feel like Brooke really does a good job of researching things and thinking of creative ways to look at Shakespeare. I really liked her “Beauty is Pain” blog post, because she showed that she had researched it, (while also putting in a pitch for the library and encouraged the rest of the class to do the same). It brought up an interesting view of the culture in Shakespeare’s time, which added depth to the things we’re studying. She also seems to be doing a really good job of connecting with peers.

Suggested Improvement: I noticed that Brooke had a lot of variety in her post topics. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it might be cool to tie some of them together in a broader theme or focus kind of thing. 

Shakespeare Through the Eyes of an Actor (Follow Up)

Guess what! My brother wrote back to me about his experience playing Othello in the Shakespeare festival! (Just for context, when he performed it, he actually only did the very end scene of the play, where Othello does his monologue, and then kills himself.)

Here’s the part of my email where I asked him for his thoughts on it:

 “I do have a kind of a random request... And if this is too like, pulls your brain out of the game, just lemme know and that's cool. But I am just about to read Othello in my Shakespeare class, and I just wondered if there was any way you could send me a little description of your experience with acting it, and playing that specific role. Like, did it change anything about how you look at life, or people, or did you feel some super intense emotion or not, and like, how much do you feel like you were able to put yourself in your characters shoes, those kinds of things... I just want to know how the story feels different from the perspective of someone who's acted it.”

And here is his reply:

"So Othello thoughts velocemente... I did feel really really enveloped in my role when I did it mostly because to perform an extreme part like that well, you have to try to feel at least a little of what they felt and put yourself in their shoes as best you can. To be honest after playing the role of Othello, I feel for the guy! like reading a story like that by itself leaves you feeling like okay that was kind of weird but playing the part helps you empathize (sypathize? hmmm) with him. Like his love for his wife really is freakishly awesome!! It's a kind of love that's strong enough to kind of steal away the common sense normal people have (like not to kill yourself and stuff). It's a deep love so completely real in the mind of Othello that life itself becomes secondary to the love he shares with his wife. So yeah obviously we would say that suicide isn't the best way to deal with tragedy but it illustrates a beautiful idea of how to live and love. (just handle bad outcomes less rashly you know?) any way those are my thoughts : )"

This was a really cool experience for me to see how acting affected my brother’s perspective on Othello. I think it’s interesting how he seems to feel more strongly about the deep love aspect of Othello himself, rather than his previous tragic downfall that lead to the tragedy in the first place. It seems to me that the scene he acted made a lot deeper impression on him than the rest of the story, which he only read or heard, because he only had to become that part of Othello. I think it makes sense, that since the deep love aspect is what the scene he played was all about, that emotion, and sympathy for Othello is what stuck. Putting ourselves in the characters shoes makes the story become about us too, and not just the characters, so it sticks.

Thinking about this whole idea has made me want to put myself in the characters’ shoes more as I read these plays. I think that if I could do that, there would be whole aspects of it, or themes embedded in it that I could never see any other way.

(Thanks to my little bro for taking the time to share some thoughts J)

The Willow Song

I have now finished one of the most heartbreaking tragedies that I have ever read. I’m not gonna lie, I almost cried twice when I got to the end of Othello! Shakespeare really did a fabulous job making this play moving and thought provoking. And within this most heartbreaking play, by far the most moving scene to me was the scene in which Desdemona sings the famous “Willow Song”.

                The song reminded me a lot of Ophelia’s Song in Hamlet, which interestingly was one of the most moving scenes for me in that play. It got me thinking a little bit about how often Shakespeare used music in his plays to express the emotions of the characters. They’re not always sad songs, some are happy, some are just drinking songs, but I think Shakespeare knew very well what he was doing when he put a song into his work.

                I decided to research it a little bit, and I found an interesting article on britannica.com, about the use of music in Shakespeare’s plays. The article included the following, taken from the Merchant of Venice (Act V, scene 1):

                Here will we sit and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubins.

Such harmony is in immortal souls,

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

I loved this! It felt like a little look into Shakespeare’s head, and how he feels about music.The article also talks about music in many aspects of Shakespeare's life, and it's cool to see a little deeper into that element of his work. I think this little bit of research really made the Willow Song more meaningful for me.

It turns out that most of the melodies to the songs in his plays are unknown. But a lot of people have just taken his lyrics and adapted them according to their own interpretations. I decided to look on YouTube, and see what kinds of things people had done with the Willow Song. There were a lot of different versions, which was cool because with each melody that someone has come up with, there’s a little bit different tone, and you can kind of see a little bit into how that person might have experienced the scene differently from what I did.

Here are a couple different versions I found: The first is from the 1995 film of Othello, and the second is one of a set of five Shakespeare songs composed by Arthur Sullivan during 1863 and 1864. (I thought it was cool to get some from different time periods.)

Board Games and Tragedies

Random little fun-fact I found about Othello:

So, as I was kind of casually searching Google for interesting things on Othello, I generally got two kinds of results. Othello the Shakespeare play, and Othello the board game.

I played the board game Othello with my family growing up. It’s actually a fairly complex strategy game, sort of like chess. For those of you who haven’t played it, here’s a really watered down version of how it works.

• There are two players
• Each player has an equal number of double-sided tiles. One side of each tile is black and the other is white. One player is black and one is white.
• It’s set up on a green board, kind of like a chess board, with little squares to put the tiles in
• The goal is to end up with more tiles of your color on the board.
• The players take turns placing one tile on the board. Black must put tiles down with black facing up, and white must put down white facing up.
• When you when you “bookend” pieces of the other player (or get one of your color on both ends of a straight row, with the opponent’s color in between them), you turn them over, and “capture” them (they become your color).
• You take turns putting down one tile each until the board is full, and then whoever has the most of their color wins. (for a better explanation, click here)

So, I was naturally just kinda curious about whether there was any connection between the title of the game, and the play. I clicked on a link to a Wikipedia page, and discovered that the original game was called “Reversi”,  but was re-named by a Japanese game company. It said the following about the the selection of the new name for the game, “Othello”:

“The modern rule set used on the international tournament stage originated in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan in the 1970s: the Japanese game company Tsukuda Original registered the game under the trademark name Othello. The name was selected as a reference to the Shakespearean play Othello, the Moor of Venice, referencing the conflict between the Moor Othello and Iago, who describes himself as "two faced" and more controversially, to the unfolding drama between Othello, who is black, and Desdemona, who is white. The green colour of the board is inspired by the image of the general Othello, valiantly leading his battle in a green field. It can also be likened to a jealousy competition (jealousy being the central theme in Shakespeare's play), since players engulf the pieces of the opponent, thereby turning them to their possession.”

What the?? Who knew? I was totally fascinated that a board game I’ve known about for years actually ties in pretty fabulously with one of Shakespeare’s greatest Tragedies!!

Anyway, just a little side-note really, but I thought it was interesting. J

Through the Eyes of an Actor (hopefully)

So, once upon a time, my little brother did a little Shakespeare acting. He actually had the chance to play the role of Othello in the Shakespeare festival. Since I am now reading and studying Othello, that suddenly means a bit more to me.

     He performed the scene in which Othello kills his wife, Desdemona, which has got to be one of the most heart wrenching scenes of all time! And I remember my brother doing a phenomenal job performing it. But the thing I loved the most about his performance was that the emotion in his face was not just an act. He was really feeling something! Every time I see an actor pull that off, it makes me want to pick their brain, and find out what it’s like; whether they really feel it that much or are just good fakers, and if it leaves a really lasting impact and makes them think or not…

     So, I have sent off an email to my brother (who is currently serving a mission in Rome), asking if he could tell me a little bit about his experience. I may not get a reply by the end of this week, but I’m really excited to see what he has to say. In the meantime, I’m going to look for any other sources I can find on that idea.

     Hopefully more to follow!

Shakespeare's Chick Flicks

Firstly, my apologies for my tardiness in posting for “As You Like It”. Better late than never though J

Secondly, I have discovered through reading “As You Like It” that Shakespeare invented the chick flick.

Okay, maybe not the inventor; but he had the romantic comedy thing down! I guess I kind of expected the comedies to be more straight funny type comedy. But I found that, while they are pretty dang hilarious, they also explore a lot of deeper issues. "As You Like It" isn't just a love story, and it isn't just a funny story; it's also a story about best friends, and about gender roles, and about family ties and family betrayals. I think that’s one of the reasons we girls like this whole “chick flick” thing. It’s funny and gives us our sappy-love-story fix, but also lets us work through the deeper emotions and struggles, and usually leaves us feeling just a little more hopeful. Pair that up with a bucket of ice cream, and we’re good to go!

I had originally planned to do a poetry collection for each play I read, but I could not, for the life of me, find any poems about “As You Like It”. I was, however, able to watch the 2006 Kenneth Branagh film version of the play. It worked out kind of perfectly actually, because I had just finished pondering the chick-flick-ness of the play, and then I actually got to watch it in chick flick format.

I really enjoyed the movie, but aside from just enjoying it, I was really surprised at how much insight it gave me into the play. Watching it performed added a whole new level of depth to it for me. On the flip side of that, however, there were some things that I thought were cheapened by the film, and had more depth in my own imagination. I decided to come up with a list of things I think were deepened or enhanced in my perspective, and things that were affected for the worse after watching the film version.

My Richard III Art Gallery

My second goal for Richard III was to create an Art Gallery based on my experience reading it. So here it is! Each picture has a link to where I found it, and a caption briefly explaining my thought process behind it.

This was my favorite painting that I found of Richard III. I really like how it captures his expression immediately after his dream of all the ghosts of his victims gives his conscience a little kick in the pants; seeing him wrestling with that was one of the things that made him seem most real and human, while most of the play, he is very hard to read into.