363.
i loved act 3! it was hilarious.
here's what's going on:
A of E finally appears with D of E and a couple of guys from town, headed to A of E's home. when they get there, however, D of S is there blocking the gate. Adriana won't let her husband inside because he's a cheating wanker! A of E finally leaves to have dinner out, and tells his goldsmith to bring the necklace that he was having made... so he can give it to some wench he sleeps with! to get back at his wife!
next, Luciana (Adriana's sister) is with A of S telling him that it's okay to cheat on Adriana, he just needs to be more sneaky about it. great. A of S is falling in like with her but is totally freaked by all the confusion going on. D of S comes in with fart, fat, and female jokes. the act ends with D of S off to see if there's a ship leaving that can take them away from this crazy place.
this act was so funny and felt a lot faster-paced than act two. in scene one there is a hilarious passage playing on the word 'break'. yes there is a fart joke in there. a witty fart joke. it's great. this is where we see Shakespeare's amazing ability to play with words starting to blossom. i cannot wait for the later plays when it's even more developed and hilarious.
i am not feeling A of E and Luciana. A of E is a womanizing fool with an anger management problem. Luciana is telling this guy to be more slick in his cheating? come onnnnn. she says:
'alas, poor women! make us but believe,
being compact of credit, that you love us.
though others have the arm, show us the sleeve;
we in your motion turn and you may move us.'
men just have to make women think they love them to keep them happy because a woman's world revolves around her man. yeesh.
A and D of S, on the other hand, are hilarious. act 3, scene 2 is hysterical. read it. now. i would love to see this scene played. the continuation of sass from Adriana is rocking my world. i am hoping she won't end up a changed woman by the end of the play. we shall see!
it interests me how Shakespeare has these opposite types of men and women playing with and against each other. i know we will see this a lot more in later work. i love the conflict it creates between the characters and the response it elicits from me, the reader. i'm excited to be able to dig deeper once we have some more plays under our belts.
quote of the day:
'it is thyself, mine own self's better part,
mine eye's clear eye, my dear heart's dearer heart,
my food, my fortune, and my sweet hope's aim,
my sole earth's heaven, and my heaven's claim.'
-S. Antipholus; act 3, scene 2
for tomorrow: act four
-rebecca may
I totally agree. This is by far the funnier of the three acts thus far. That famous wordsmith uses some hilarious euphemisms, most of which I had to think about awhile.and suddenly "there it is!"
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't teach high school, I wouldn't find the Luciana character very believable. Cheat better? Nah! But after 24 years of high school, I know that in love anything is possible.
Looking at your quote from a purely poetic standpoint, it's a gorgeous rhythmic playground. The whole thing could be read in straight iambs, but the potential molossus (three stressed syllables in a row to those who aren't freakish English Major nerds) in "mine own self" and "sweet hope's aim" give those pieces a hammer-thud quality that I always see permeating in the Romantics, particularly in Blake and Keats. Absolutely stunning.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the passage, I too found the melody was lovely. Even in the earliest works, Will has captured the rhythm of the heart with the rhythm of the rhyme. I am totally not an English nerd, but I can feel the approval of many of my friends who are.
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