4-17-07

I really enjoyed this play by Oscar Wilde. I thought it was extremely humorous with all the little comments by the characters. The really liked how Wilde intertwines all of the characters at the end. I did not see all of that unfolding in the conclusion of the play. He touches on reality. I feel that at least one point in every ones life they pretend to be someone they are not to one extent or another. Sometimes, when my friend and I go out, we introduce ourselves with alternate fun names and just make up our lives as the person we are talking to engages in conversation with us. We just do it to have some fun, and we never know if the guy we are talking to is really being himself either. This past weekend, at the bar, my friend and I got trapped, literally trapped in a booth on the inside of the booth, with a guy who was name dropping every celebrity in the tabloids and showing us pictures of his cat on his cell phone. We were totally put off and kept kicking each other underneath the table while waiting for an opportunity to escape. We are still talking about it and hope that he was Bunburrying himself, for his own sake.

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest discusses many issues of identity. I feel that Wild’s discussion of identity should be taken humorously on the surface, but seriously underneath. Wilde pokes fun at the idea of people being self shallow and only concerned with what is visible to others. The way the characters flit around with each other, trying to impress the higher members of society so they too can rise up in society is what goes occurs on the surface. We can laugh at the way the characters interact with each other, only because we are different from them and seem to have more depth. I feel that Wilde discusses the importance of identity by using the characters as an example of how society should not conduct themselves. At the end of the play, the characters are exposed for all coming from the bottom of society and being relate to each other. Through out the play, all the characters conducted themselves as if they were elite members of society with credible backgrounds. Wilde just shows that everyone comes from the same place no matter where they lift themselves in society.

4-9-07

It is so hard trying to get into Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.” I had to read slowly at first in order to comprehend each character’s situation. There are so many characters and so many relationships with connects the characters it is hard to keep it all straight. The one relationship I think is humorous is the relationship between Katharina and Bianca. Katharina is abusive both verbally and physically to her younger sister. This parallels many sibling relationships still today. My brother and I fought frequently when we were younger. If he would not give me something I wanted or a toy, or if he ate the last of the ice cream, I would call him names. If he did not respond to the verbal, I took it to the physical level of kicking. Usually that did the trick, he would cave and I would end up getting what I wanted as long as my parents did not interrupt the intervention. I really like Katharina, she says and does what she wants. So when Pertruchio comes into the mix with comments that compete with hers, it makes me want to read on to see which one comes out victorious in the verbal bashing, Katharina or Pertruchio.

The humor generated through Katharina and Pertruchio’s relationship is purely romantic on Pertruchio’s end. Their first interactive verbal bashing of each other at the end of Act 2 scene I reveals how Pertruchio plans to get inside Katharina’s head. As he “flirts” with her, she tries to shut him down at every chance she gets. The thing is Katharina has finally found her match. Pertruchio can come right back at her with comments that are cruder than she can imagine. As he makes his boastful comments, he alludes to sexual innuendos. He tries to get under her skin by saying that he is too young for her. He tells her that he is going to marry her no matter what she says. He explains he is going to tame her and compliment her saying she is beautiful. When Baptista and Gremio and Tranio enter, and Pertruchio tells them he is going to marry Katharina, she does not say anything in her defense. I feel that she this is the point in the play where she first falls for Pertruchio during this conversation of wit battling. However, she is not about to let Pertruchio know that she has fallen in love with him anytime soon. She will keep backing away from him as he gets closer.