William Shakespeare - Julius Caesar and King Lear

WILLIAM SHAKESPERE

JULIUS CAESAR AND KING LEAR

I was dubious about reading Shakespeare because of the pretentious and intellectual connotations attached to his works. However I read nine of his plays in the space of two weeks and found this to be key to my acceptance of the plays. I found meaning in Shakespeare because each new play I read made all the ones before it more defined - like building on an argument that suggests a reflective outlook on life. In the end he converted me, not to his plays, but to his frame of mind. I learnt that there are two important things in life that can balance and outbalance happiness: Hope and love. 

What makes Shakespeare difficult is that the time it was written in tends to get in the way of contemporary story telling. I found some things were less easy to accept that others in terms of their necessity and value. For example in Measure for Measure the moral plot is about a woman selling her body to save her brother from death which doesn’t quite resonate today as much as it may have done back then. And so, instead I found myself questioning death and life - which one is easier –instead of the morals behind sex.

A Winters Tale

A story about a man who has success and love but is corrupted by human emotion.

Measure for Measure

Death? A dreamless sleep or a gateway to an afterlife of bliss or purgatorial suffering?

“I humbly thank you. To seek to live, I find I seek to die, And seeking death, find life. Let it come on.” (Claudio, 67)

Antony and Cleopatra

Living for love. Is living for this alone enough?

Timon of Athens

Money Vs Love. Defining flattery from feeling and which of the two is more important. Resentment to a world gone mad with money and all that that plagues

“Timon is dead, who hath outstretched his span. Some beast read this; there does not live a man.” (Timon)

The Tempest

Communist Utopia. Releasing you from dreams and from reality.

“You taught me language, and my profit on’t Is, I know how to curse: the red plague and you For learning me your language” (Caliban, 44).

A Midsummer Nights Dream

Reality within illusion.

“When they next wake, all this derision Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision And back to Athens shall the lovers went With league whose date till death shall never end…” (Oberon, 71)

King Lear

What happens to a man who has power and love but looses them both? Re-birthing into the world - transcending from dreams to reality.

“You do me wrong to take me out o’th’grave; Thou art a soul in bliss; but lambound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like wolten lead” (Lear, 178).

LEAR ANALYSIS AND GIVEN WORLD

I compared the hierarchy of royalty in King Lear to those that have power these days – celebrity and the media. I drew out my ideas on thin pieces of paper which I stuck on top of every page of a gossip magazine.

“Scratching at the surface”

Lear Analysis put into the form of a magazine . The mask on top represents identity, the eye holes are blacked out because King Lear has no emotional identity - he is King but not 'father'.

The reason it is in the form of a magazine is because of the contrast in hierarchy these days. In time gone by the Kings and Queens had power, money and fame and these days it is celebrities that have power, money and fame. And as opposed to riding through the streets in carriages to be seen, our power people ride the red carpet and get published in celebrity magazines.

The first page is about fatherhood and King Lears absent relationship with his daughters

We do not know these people that we judge and look at in magazines. We think we do because the journalist writes factually, but we forget about what gets left out, exaggerated and manipulated. King Lear is regarded as a happy and fulfilled man because of his day job as a King. He is so successful that it overshadows how he feels day to day as a human being. We should not always believe what we see in tabloids and nor should we believe that what they say is the be all and end all - things are not always as they seem.

A picture of a father, daughter, son and nephew.

A quote from the film 500 Days of Summer: 

"It's these cards, and the movies and the pop songs, they're to blame for all the lies and the heartache, everything. We're responsible. I'M responsible. I think we do a bad thing here. People should be able to say how they feel, how they really feel, not ya know, some words that some stranger put in their mouth. Words like love, that don't mean anything. Sorry, I'm sorry, I um, I quit. There's enough bullshit in the world without my help".

  King Lear neglected his daughters and took them for granted and when he finally realised how important Cordelia was to him it was too late.

What's Beneath the Surface?

Julius Caesar

Power Vs Love. Is love the one that matters when all else is said and done? What should we do with the time we have, when death is the inevitable end?

“This day I breathed first; time is come round, And where I did begun, there shall I end, My life is run his compass - Sirrah, what news?”(Cassius, 101)

THE JULIUS CAESAR INSTALLATION

My analysis and artistic response to King Lear prompted my analysis of Julius Caesar. I set out to create a string of life that symbolized a journey made up of love and power. I hung this 'string of life' either side of a ladder to create the shape of a mountain. On one side I attached artifacts of love from family and friends: REAL LOVE. On the other side I attached artifacts of success and a desire for acceptance: FLATTERY LOVE.

The side of real love is made up of letters and mementos from my family. Everything could be opened and objects/cards/quotes could be found inside.

The side of flattery love is made up of celebrity magazines. Again, inside every magazine was something extra to further illustrate the flattery love in the play.

"The hardest thing in this world is living in it. be brave. Live" - Joss Whedon. This comes at the top of the 'mountain'.