Prompt 1:
Which work is more strongly condemnatory of human sociality (that is, the everyday practice of social relations), Timon of Athens or (the Cardinal Stage production of) Lord of the Flies? Please be as specific as possible in your answer, using quotations from the Shakespeare text and careful description of the production (perhaps supported by some Google searching to recover character names, etc.).
Lord of the Flies production still, Cardinal Stage 2013
Prompt 2:
William-Henry Ireland's forgeries of Shakespeare's autobiographica humiliated some fairly important literary figures of the time (Warburton, a major scholar and editor of Shakespeare, and Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson, were both taken in; the letter knelt and kissed the profession of faith). What is it about the prospect of handling a Shakespearean artifact that made these men abandon their good sense and learning? Those of you who felt a thrill handling early manuscripts, consider especially how and why it is that old stuff, handled by long-dead people, gives you a rush. How do things link us in to the past? And in particular, what would Shakespearean things offer those of us who seek to know the poet better? This is prompt asks for a speculative response, but please speculate by means of specifics. Please refer to the Shapiro article and any of the materials on display at our Lilly Library session on Wednesday.
The lock of hair William-Henry Ireland enclosed with the letter and verses to Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare's wife). Houghton Rare Book Library, Harvard.
Responses should not exceed 300 words. Please post by midnight Sunday. We will discuss these responses on Monday.
The works Timon of Athens and Lord of the Flies can both be easily viewed as extreme criticisms of human’s social interactions/structure. Both describe the downfall of a society (Timon’s Athens and Lord of the Flies’ makeshift island community) through human relations. While these two are similar in their viewpoints of man, I found (the Cardinal Stage production of) Lord of the Flies to be a harsher/more extreme critique of human sociality.
ReplyDeleteThe story features young school children as its main characters as they become stranded on a remote island and have to fend for themselves. For me, the key concept to consider was the fact that the characters are children. The child is the archetypal symbol for innocence and purity; a human not yet contaminated by society. However, Lord of the Flies and the Cardinal Stage Company portray these children as savages who resort to killing each other when left alone, a polar opposite from the child’s general image of purity. Though Timon’s tirades against society are formidable, his character is an old man who has had lots of time to experience and be shaped by the corruption of the world. Since the children of Lord of the Flies have just been thrust into their own society, their rapid descent into savagery is a more extreme depiction of human relations.