Mr_Shank

In this section I am going to look at Petruchio.  Petruchio acts very strange throughout this section of the story.  He was late to the wedding to start off.  But then when he arrived he was riding a horse that with all its ailments it should have been dead.  Plus his attire was horrendous.  His outfit did not reflect his status at all.  His clothes was all mismatched and his sword was rusted and broken. It also didn’ have a scabbard.  Then after the making a complete fool of himself at the wedding he said that he and Kate could not stay for the feast.

Why do you think that Pertruchio is acting like this? 

-Kody

KATHERINE:
“No shame but mine; I must, forsooth, be forc’d
To give my hand, oppos’d against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen;
Who woo’d in haste and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour;
And to be noted for a merry man,
He’ll woo a thousand, ‘point the day of marriage,
Make friends invited, and proclaim the banns;
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo’d.
Now must the world point at poor Katherine,
And say ‘Lo! there is mad Petruchio’s wife,
If it would please him come and marry her.”

(Act III, Scene II)

This is the reaction of Katherine when her fiance is late to their wedding.  She believes that he plans to skip out on it completely and that he was simply toying with her as a joke.  She states that she was forced into marriage with this man who she does not care for whatsoever, which is understandable with the way that he acts during their wedding.  When Petruchio shows up in such atrocious clothing, everyone is shocked.  They plead him to change his clothes, to not do such a thing to Kate.  But not only does Petruchio refuse them, he makes a fool of Kate and embarrasses her at the wedding and then leaves right after it is done!  It now becomes clear that Petruchio does not intend on simply taking Kate’s money, but still attempting to tame her, making her life miserable.

If you were in Kate’s position, married to an arrogant, selfish man and with no choice in the matter and nothing you could do to undo the marriage or flee, what would you do?  Would you give into his will and be a faithful abiding wife like everyone else was in that time, or would you keep resisting him, knowing that you might have to your entire life?  Realize that giving in would make your life much, much easier, but it might go against your desires.  After you determine what you would do, what do you think Kate will do?

-Ditz

Well, in the first section of the book we had only gotten a glimpse of each character because it was necessary to introduce us as the reader to who we’d be reading about in the rest of the story. Now though, we are starting to see the plot thicken even more when the plans talked about in the first act are actually being carried out, and along with that we are seeing a lot of different sides of certain characters.

For example, for what we have seen of Petruchio before this reading he just seemed like an honest man who wanted to marry a rich woman for whatever reason he wanted to. And now after reading these two new acts we have begun to see how deceitful and cunning he can be. What I mean by this is that in Act II when he is trying to woo Katharina we see how he is trying to make it so she falls in love with him by pretending that none of her innapropriate comments addressed to him affect him at all. This is interesting because it shows exactly how desperate Petruchio is to marry Katharina, I personally can’t believe that even after meeting Katharina he would still wish to marry her. So my question for you is as follows. What do you think Katharina’s thoughts on Petruchio are? Do you think that she finds it odd that he isn’t offended by her attitude that has put off a bunch of men before him? Please tell me your ponderings and then elaborate upon them.

Next I shall be explaining how we start to see a different side of Tranio in this portion of the book. What is meant by this is that before these two acts we have only seen Tranio as Lucentio’s little servant man that did all that he asked him to do willingly. But now we are starting to see that he doesn’t really need to follow orders to feel helpful, he is masquerading as the master and seems to be fine with doing so after filling his bigger shoes. What I mean by this is that in some other works of literature we see a servant rise up against a master, but then they realize that their life is empty without all of the small things that they missed from their previous way of life, so I just found it interesting how we’ve seen Tranio develop a little bit since the beginning of the book. So my question for you is as follows. If you were in Tranio’s shoes and you got to like living as your master, would you ever give it up? Or, maybe would you continue to be the master and you master the servant? Please tell me your opinion on what you’d do and why.

Now also in this portion of the book we also see several changes in Bianca in this scene of the play. What I mean by this is we see her get violent with her sister in the beginning scene and that is not something that we as the reader could guess would happen after hearing about how much of an angel she was. We also finally get the first glimpse of who she actually was when she comes out of her shell and is talking to Lucentio during her music lessons. This is intersting because in these two scenes we’ve actually begun to see who Bianca really is, and by learning who she really is it makes it easier for us as the reader to be able to understand why people like Lucentio, Gremio, and Hortensio could fall in love with her. So my question for you is as follows. What other changes do you think Bianca will go throughout this play? Do you think maybe that she could change so much that nobody wanted to marry her any longer? Please elaborate.

I would like to thank you in advance for reading through this blog of mine and also for responding to it. I would also like to apologize that I did not explain all of the character changes, I only mentioned the character changes that seemed to be of signifigance to me personally. I also apologize that this blog is not as long as my last one.

This is the first post. I am making it up from last week.

Act 1:

As the story begins we have a young man named Orlando who is the youngest son of Sir Rowland De Bois who has passed away and the younger brother of Oliver. In his father’s will he was supposed to be taken care of by Oliver and supposed to have a good education. This is not the case. His brother is neglecting him and treating him like a servant. Orlando finally gets the guts to stand up to Oliver and give him a piece of his mind. When Orlando stands up to his brother he basically tells Oliver to show him the respect that he deserves and that he is as much of his father as Oliver is. Once he gets his point across he leaves the room and Charles enters. Charles is the Duke’s wrestler. Charles came to warn Oliver that Orlando is planning on fighting him and he doesn’t want to hurt Oliver in any way, but if Orlando challenges him he guarantees that he will not be walking by the end of the match. Oliver wants his brother to be hurt in the match.   

Oliver states that Orlando is just jealous of other people, but do you think that Oliver may be jealous of Orlando? If you believe he is jealous of Orlando use proof the story to state your opinion on why you think that. If you do not think he is jealous explain why.

The next scene is of Rosalind and Celia, two cousins who’s fathers hate each other. Rosalind’s father has been banished by Celia’s father. Rosalind is in great grief of her father’s banishment. Rosalind has not been banished because Celia and her are inseparable. Rosalind and Celia are just gossiping when Touchstone a jester comes to give Celia a message. Le Beau enters and starts talking to the ladies about wresting, and how Charles just beat 3 brothers. Next, Duke Fredrick come so talk to the ladies. He tells them about Orlando challenging Charles, and that he would like Rosalind and Celia to try and persuade him not to wrestle Charles. The two ladies can not stop him from fighting. No one thinks that Orlando can beat Charles. The begin the fight and Orlando wins. Rosalind and Celia begin to talk to him after the fight, they complement him and Rosalind gave him a chain. He is all tongue tied and doesn’t say a word.

Who did you think was going to win the fight?

In the third scene Rosalind is confessing her love of Orlando to Celia. While they are talking about Orlando Duke Fredrick (Celia’s father) walks in furious. He Banishes Rosalind. Celia fights with her father over why he is banishing her so suddenly. Celia comes up with a plan to go with Rosalind because they are “one.” They will go to The Forest of Arden where Rosalind’s father is staying. Rosalind will dress up as a man named Ganymede and Celia will be a peasant woman named Aliena. They are going to dress up to aviod thieves and thugs. Celia is going to talk to Touchstone about coming with them.

If you where Celia would you go with Rosalind?

Words to know:

• Banishment- To be expelled by authoritative decree: There is a lot of banishing happening
• Grieve- To mourn: Rosalind who is a main woman figure in the story has spent the whole story so far grieving
• Villain- The bad guy: Everyone is the bad guy from someone’s point of view
• Gentleman- A civilized well educated man: This is what Orlando would like to be treated as
• Wrestling- A sport in which two opponents fight: A popular sport in this book

This story takes place in a little town in Italy known as Messina. We start out with Leonato and his family  waiting for a bunch of soldiers to come home from the war. One of the soldiers to come home from the war is Benedick. Now Benedick and Beatrice are at odds, it seems, because they are constantly bickering and insulting one another. Leonato then invites all the men who just came back from the war to stay with him for a month. They are all excited and gladly accept.

Also in this chapter, Claudio falls madly in love with Hero, Leonato’s one daughter. He is scared to tell her how he feels so he shares his feelings with his comrad Benedick. After hearing this Benedick can hardly keep it to himself so he shares it with Don Pedro. These two men then make a plan to hook the two up at a masquarde ball.

A servent overheard these two and he got the wrong idea, so early on in this story there is a conspiracy brewing.

Why do you think Beatrice and Benedick are constantly arguing and bickering? Do you think that they are secret lovers and are just trying to keep up a double life?

Well guys big surprise, I can’t find Henry’s post, and I forgot to blog yesturday.

So here goes… I have two quotes that I  found interesting.

The first quote is:  “Now will I stir this gamester. I hope I shall see an end of
him, for my soul—yet I know not why—hates nothing
more than he. Yet he’s gentle, never schooled and yet
learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchantingly
beloved, and indeed so much in the heart of the world and
especially of my own people, who best know him, that I am
altogether misprized. But it shall not be so long; this
wrestler shall clear all. Nothing remains but that I kindle
the boy thither, which now I’ll go about.”

He is saying that Orlando is a great guy and smart despite never going to school, and that the people that know him love him. Despite all of this, Oliver hates Orlando and he doesn’t know quite why. Seems to me that Oliver is just jealous of Orlando, what do you guys think?

The second quote is: “Tis true, for those that she makes fair she scarce makes
honest, and those that she makes honest she makes very ill-
favoredly.”

This quote was said by Rosalind to Celia during their discussion about nature and fortune. I thought this was pretty interesting. Rosalind is saying that fortune isn’t fair because the girls that are made pretty are also dishonest, and the girls that are honest are ugly. I thought their whole discussion about nature and fortune was interesting, but this quote seems to point out something that I do notice in the world. Some of the people that are very lucky don’t deserve to be lucky while others can be the nicest people around and have the worst luck. What are your thoughts on this?

My quote is said by Hortensio, “Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in rotten
    apples.” This is interesting meaning in this quote. Does a person have a chance wether or not he is born to? Can the shrew help that he was born into a low family? Do you think that if the shrew had been born into a better family he would be the same person? I think that how you are raised affects the type of person you become. If you never need to fight for something then you won’t be able to survive in the world when you grow up. Some times the people that go through terrible life sitations come out as a better person. maybe the shrew will Tun into a better person.

Ok, so far in the play, Helena has proved to be a pretty independent young lady. She knows who she loves and will not let anything get in her way. She is also very cunning, for she barters with the king, knowing that the medicine will work and will give the king good health once again. Now Bertram on the other hand is not so in love with Helena and is forced to marry her anyway or else he would be thrown out of his high social status. He also is very sly and plans to secretly go off to fight in the war and have Helena go home to live with her mom.

1. What is it about Bertram that Helena likes? He doesn’t seem to be the ‘gentleman’ one may expect.

2. What are some similarities and differences between Bertram and Helena?

3. Is there a specific reason Bertram is so hesitant to marry Helena? Family feuds?

4. Do you think Bertram will end up falling for Helena after realizing her true character? Will she realize who he truly is?

5. Lastly, why is it that Shakespeare make the doctor who cures the king a girl, for it was very unlikely in his times for a female to have this type of roll in society? Was he trying to make a point that females are just as capable as males in MANY fields of work? (And yes… we are!)

~Megan Douglas

I’m really enjoying this book, i love the tensions between the lover’s and i can’t wait to see who ends up with who and how!

Ok, now to the blog. Let’s focus on the main characters Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius. These characters have been given very interesting characteristics, Lysander and Demetrius love Hermia and Helena loves Demetrius even though Demetrius doesn’t love her back. And Hermia and Helena are best friends. But i want your opinion on Helena , do you think that she is a good friend to Hermia?

Helena: Hermia tells Helena about her plan to run away with Lysander because she trusts her. But Helena decides to tell Demetrius about Hermia and Lysander running away to win his love. Hermia trusted Helena but Helena was too much in love with Demetrius to betray him, if you were in Helena’s place how would you react, would you rather betray your friend or the person you love? She was envious of Helena’s beauty and the fact that Demetrius loved Helena rather than her and broke promises about being with her.

Demetirus: Do you think that Demtrius was wrong to leave Helena after he betrothed (promised to marry)her for Hermia? Or do you think that he was following his heart and did the right thing by trying to be with Hermia? Did Demetrius want to be with Hermia because of her beauty or because he truly loved her?

-Kianat

Well, in the first two introductions of the play it is kind of hard to follow along due to both the akward wording of some of what the characters say, and also because in the beginning, not all of the characters were introduced at the same time, so forgive me if there are some mistakes, you can just comment on them in your responses to this initial blog.

Well, in the introduction, We see the first glimpse of Sly as the person that he truly was, not the wealthy lord that the lord, the huntsmen, and the player. This is interesting because it shows us that something had gone really sour somwhere along the course of his life. The fact that he had such a bad life before could be one of the reasons why he was so reluctant to accept his new life as a lord. Because, if you were homeless and someone told you that you were a lord, wouldn’t you join them? It makes sense that he wouldn’t really care much for his old life full of liquor and, well, more liquor, and not really fret over the part of his life that he was losing. So my question for you is as follows. If you were in the same position you were now, and then someone came along offering you a “better” life as a royal, would you take it? Please keep in mind that in my question, when you were to start a new life you would have to leave back every last sliver of your old life and be completely enveloped in your new life.

Now, to get to another important character, Tranio. When we first see Tranio walk in on stage with Lucentio he seems to be an extremely loyal and obedient servingman, and he stays that way in the first two scenes. With his master’s orders he even gave into masquerading as him, even though there would be much noise made if their little ruse was found out. So my question for you is as follows. If you were a servingman/woman, do you think that you would be as loyal and faithful as Tranio was with Lucentio? And since there really is nothing else to say about Tranio, I shall move onto Lucentio.

 When we first see Lucentio appear in the play he is telling his man-slave Tranio how he shall continue to study the arts, philosophy, etc. because his father had already made so many advances in those fields he thought that since he was his father’s son he should help to build onto his glory. This shows that Lucentio is not one of the characters that doesn’t follow the social norm. What is meant by this is that in those times heritage was a major role in who you were, even more so than today, so by caring so much about his father’s legacy he was following the social norm and not making a name for himself. So my question for you is as follows. Do you think heritage is really that important, even more so, do you think that you would be the same person if you had been born into a different family?

And due to the fact that both Hortensio and Grumio are similar as we have seen them so far, and also due to the fact that I’m tired of typing, I shall lump these two together in one eloquent paragraph. So when we first meet these to they are being begged by Baptista to marry his older daughter Katharina. Then we find out something really interesting when they refuse to marry Katharina. We find out that both Hortensio and Grumio, so far, seem to not be quite as weighted down by social norms than some other characters like Lucentio and Biondello. What is meant by this is that when Hortensio tells his friend Biondello of his plan to get to Bianca by getting Katharina married, Biondello says that he will marry her because of the state of his monetary conditions. Then we also see that these characters are also cunning and will do what they have to, to get what they want. So my question for you is as follows. If you were in the same situation as Hortensio or Grumio would you react the same way, or do you have a better way that they could have reacted?

I do realize that some of my questions are hidden, but do please try to answer them all. I would like to thank you in advance.