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The Shrew was beyond me, as I could not stomach the way that it celebrated misogyny
Glad to hear I am not the only one. Thanks gents. That play makes my hackles rise. The breaking of a person’s spirit by a kidnapper is a well-known psychological effect. If the victim is sequestered long enough they can even come to believe that they love their captors. Sound familiar? You can bet your bottom dollar that if the play had been one involving the emotional breaking of a black person into slavery the play would have faded into obscurity long ago. I can’t imagine why it is o.k. to put on that play just because Shakespeare wrote it.
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I can’t imagine why it is o.k. to put on that play just because Shakespeare wrote it.
Amen Sister!  Maxine Q.
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Anyway, it's the Venetians who come off looking bad, in my opinion.
Agreed. I can't cheer for the ruthless self-serving b'stards, as they gloat in their destruction of Shylock. Even Portia seems markedly short of that which droppeth as the gentle rain. [my-work-is-done emoticon]
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Maxine Q.Every time you sign yourself as Maxine Q., an odd little song starts playing in my head: Oh Maxine Quordlepleen, I'm in love with you Maxine Quordlepleen... (sung to the tune of "Oh Denise Scooby-Doo" by...um...some group or other...) Don't-feel-like-looking-it-up e
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Carpal Tunnel
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Every time you sign yourself as Maxine Q., an odd little song starts playing in my head:
Oh Maxine Quordlepleen,
I'm in love with you Maxine Quordlepleen...
This veteran thanks you sincerely. [harrumphing-petulantly-again emoticon]
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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These two to that:
Maxine: I'm am puce with jealously!
Rapunzel: Thanks, I never did know how to pronounce M's name!
IP
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Max, congratulations, my friend! Keep at it, keep at it...
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Billy the Bard wrote it as he saw it. Mostly his plot devices are trivial (except for his historical plays). The canvas of language, the swoop and soar of the words, were what his audiences came to see and hear. They certainly weren't there for the magnificent sets or the authenticity of the actors' make-up. The plays caught their imaginations and took them out of their generally miserable existences for a space. The plots were simply devices on which to hang the oratory and it was the oratory which worked the magic. The better known the plot, the easier it was for Bill to grab the gray matter in the audience and stir it.
Oour Wullie was a child of his times. Why would he question something as self-evident as the low status of the Jews? He was a keen observer of events around him but he was not a trained anthropologist, nor was he any kind of a social evangelist. He wasn't trying to improve the human condition, he was commenting on it and even entertaining it. The hounding of Shylock may have struck him personally as vaguely unfair, but it made a good story; his audience evidently agreed. And even well-liked scribblers such as Master William got little in the way of money and had to eat.
To Elizabethan audiences, MoV was a comedy. To us, it appears prejudiced, unfair and to some (as has been stated above) just totally unacceptable. Nonetheless, as a story it MUST be judged in its historical context, in my opinion. If a modern playwright wrote it, I would think it was totally unacceptable myself, Nazi propaganda. Personally, however, even though I know that Henry V was basically a murderous brigand for whom fighting was the main object in life, and that Shakespeare was basically glorifying that, I can enjoy the play without assigning any real value to the message.
[FWIW/rant]
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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old hand
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old hand
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CapK
You've made some good points there. I could have expanded upon my earlier post to point out that, though the sentiments 'expressed' in MoV or the Shrew, seem abominable, the plays themselves have a great deal that is admirable in them too. Whilst I would not wish for anybody to apologise for the misogyny of the Shrew (and I have, alas, seen some critics try), I would equally not wish to ban the play either. That would be, IMO, similar to saying we should ban the Bible because of all the racism and misogyny permeating virtually every chapter/book in it.
Apart from the truly brutal scenes between Petruchio and Katharina, there is much that is wonderful about the Shrew - and I suspect it might make a great experimental play - with cross-dressing, or gender reversal amongst the characters.
Funnily enough, of course, Kate becomes one of my favourite Shakespearian characters precisely because of what she has to go through - and the fact that she has such sharpness of character, and retains some of it even at the end.
Similarly, MoV contains some great moments and speeches, and whilst I deplore some of the attitudes present in it, I don't mind seeing it performed on stage. Again, I suspect that a good director could subvert the anti-Jewish message by undercutting the dignity of the WASPs (judicious editing, costuming and acting should do it?)
So while I may rant and rail about certain antediluvian attitudes in Shakespeare, I would not wish to see any of the plays banned.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Surely in MOV they were WCIs (White, Catholic, Italians) rather than WASPs.
Bingley
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