Today’s Totally Random
Line(s)
There’s some ill planet reigns:I must be patient till the heavens look With an aspect more favourable. Good my lords,
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
that honourable grief lodged here which burns
Worse than tears drown: beseech you all, my lords,
With thought so qualified as your charities
Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so
The king's will be performed!
Hermione
The Winter’s Tale Act II, Scene i, Line 107
You should know by now
that The Winter’s Tale begins with the king, Leontes, becoming convinced
that his wife, Hermione, is having an affair with the King of Bohemia. There is
no infidelity whatsoever taking place, but that doesn’t stop Leontes from
having his wife thrown in prison for this supposed crime.
Hermione’s speech above is her acceptance of this
fate. It’s pretty understandable; no crazy words, and relatively straight
forward syntax. I don’t feel a need to explain it any further to you.
Would you like to comment on it? Perhaps you’d
like to say (particularly if you’re of the female persuasion) that this whole
thing - the plot of the play, these lines, all of it - is nothing but out and
out sexism. Perhaps you have a better word for it. It would certainly be
understandable of you to say that. But if that’s how you feel, are you upset
with the author for writing this? He’s dead, you know. So being upset with him
won’t get you too far. Are you upset with our current culture because Shakespeare’s
works are still so central to it? Well that’s rather shortsighted, don’t you
think?
When a conservative wants to ban a book about gay
kids or about a view of history they don’t like, the liberals scream ‘Book
burners!’
When a liberal wants to
change a flag they don’t like, for whatever reason, the conservatives scream ‘Woke!’
And now, when many of
us want to keep Shakespeare in our world, some of you will scream ‘Sexist!’
Aren’t we all alike in that we are all just carbon-based beings lost in the weeds?
4 comments:
Why are your underpants in the weeds??
They fell off the railing where they were drying.
That's your only take away here, eh?
Well, I was also thinking that:
1. I would unfortunately expect some degree of sexism from Shakespeare's time. I mean, women weren't even allowed on stage - why wouldn't they be thrown in prison for an imaginary crime?
2. I'm therefore not upset with the author for writing what is true of the time. Just as I can't be upset with people writing about racism during times of racism or colonialism during times of colonialism, etc.
3. Am I upset with our current culture? Well. I wouldn't say being upset with our current culture is shortsighted. I think women have every right to be upset with the current culture. We are, to some extent, treated as second class citizens still. There is still a gender pay gap. We still can't control decisions with regards to our own bodies (a man can get a vasectomy no problem but if a women asks for a sterilization procedure, some doctors will still say, "We need your husband's permission" or "What does your husband think?"). We wish we've come farther as a society but it took an entire "Me Too" movement for women's word to be taken more seriously in terms of rape and sexual misconduct. Similarly to Hermione, if a crime happened to a women, it was still the woman who was persecuted -- even today. It's not a problem of yesteryear.
4. Should we ban Shakespeare because his words speak of these issues? Certainly not. That's how you repeat history. If we ban difficult topics from the shelves then we have no way of learning about them and from them. Should we tear down statues and flags and change football team names? Maybe we need to zoom out and see how much collective hurt is being done and whether we could do more good by changing than by keeping. But I don't think we should tear down statues/change flags/erase history without take a breath to consider it first. T. Jeff owned slaves during his lifetime. Are we gonna come for his monument next? Over 600 enslaved people worked at Monticello. Are we going to tear it down? Do we need to tear down statues and monuments or do we need to educate and bring more truth to the surface?
5. Who is right and who is wrong? Well I'm right and you're wrong of course! Or you're right and I'm wrong? It's all a matter of perspective, of course. Is there right and wrong? Morally, I think so. If we can't collectively agree that the holocaust was wrong, then I think we as a society should probably wish for a meteor to wipe us all out.
Well now, there's a comment!
Thank you.
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