I listened to this play a year ago and forgot to add to my Goodreads list. So the plot isn't fresh in my mind.
I do remember that the plot is quite comI listened to this play a year ago and forgot to add to my Goodreads list. So the plot isn't fresh in my mind.
I do remember that the plot is quite complicated with numerous mistaken identities, disguises and switching of roles. The plot is so convoluted that I recommend drafting a chart to keep track of the characters and their multiple identities.
There is a mean joke played on a Puritan character in the play which was probably funny to 16th Century theater audiences. However, I found it to be cruel and not very funny.
Here's a short review of "Twelfth Night" taken from the 2005(April) PageADay Book Lover's Calendar:
TWELFTH NIGHT, by William Shakespeare (1602; Washington Square Press, 1993). All of Shakespeare’s comedies are love stories, and in Twelfth Night we get two: Duke Orsino is the saddest wretch in the kingdom because the Lady Olivia, in perpetual mourning for her dead brother, will not even consider accepting a suitor; Viola has a crush on Orsino, but he doesn’t look at her twice because she has disguised herself as a boy. To lighten the mood, Shakespeare gives us the drunk and disorderly Sir Toby Belch, the clownish pranks of Feste and Maria, and the comical killjoy Malvolio, a man so uptight, he’s just begging to be the victim of a practical joke. On top of a rollicking story, Shakespeare also includes some lovely poetry, beginning with his opening line: “If music be the food of love, play on.”
I listened to the audio version of this Shakespeare play a year ago and just now noticed that I didn't add it to my Goodreads list of books. So I'm adI listened to the audio version of this Shakespeare play a year ago and just now noticed that I didn't add it to my Goodreads list of books. So I'm adding it belatedly.
Because of the passage of time, it's plot isn't so fresh in my mind. I do recall that it is unique for Shakespeare in that the audience is misled into believing something that is later shown to not be true. The story contains an example of irrational jealousy which is certainly not unique. The story includes an incredible second chance to correct old wrongs. The story even includes a bear (that makes a brief appearance on stage) and a ship wreck (not on stage). The closing act has to be a significant experience to witness in a live production....more
When Aeschylus wrote this play 2500 years ago could he have anticipated that people would still be talking about it this many years later? Goethe, SheWhen Aeschylus wrote this play 2500 years ago could he have anticipated that people would still be talking about it this many years later? Goethe, Shelley and Karl Marx all referenced the story of Prometheus in their writing. Wikipedia's discussion of the Promethean myth in modern culture has many examples where book titles, names used in science, game names, works of art, and numerous other examples where the name Prometheus has been used. With such a famous name, this story deserves to be read. It should be acknowledged that the myth of Prometheus predated the play written by Aeschylus, so perhaps the playwright shouldn't get all the credit for the longevity of the story.
The Great Books KC group selected this book for discussion because we had previously discussed Frankenstein, a Modern Prometheus. Our discussion spent considerable time discussing what Mary Shelly may have been thinking when she placed the name Prometheus into her book's subtitle. The logical conclusion is that Dr. Frankenstein was Prometheus and the Monster was the equivalent of saving humans, giving them fire and teaching them the secrets of divination. Assuming that Shelly intended the monster to be an example of a big mistake leading to unintended consequences, did Shelly think that humans were big mistake? One interpretation of the Prometheus is that he did a bad thing by defying Zeus's wishes and saving humans from being destroyed and giving them fire. Shelly must have been a romantic who thought that nature would be so much better off if humans were not on the scene.
I prefer to believe that Shelly was thinking more about the fire given to humans than about humans themselves. Fire can do many good things, but too much of it can be undesirably destructive. It would follow that humans aren't good or bad, but rather how they use the fire given to them that's good or bad.
The Promethean myth was a well known story to those living in the first century Greco-Roman world. That may explain why the new Christian religion spread as quickly as it did among the Greek culture of the middle east, and why they went on to developed the atonement theory. The image of Prometheus being spiked to a boulder has obvious similarities to the Christian crucifixion story. Both stories involve a god saving humans. Thus when a new religion came along that involved Christ dying for sinners, it made sense to the people at the time. It's interesting to note that Eastern Religions that were not influenced by Greek myths did not develop a religion that involved a god suffering for the benefit of humans.
Perhaps God gave the Promethean myth to the ancient Greeks in order to prepare the mind set of the first Century Greco-Roman world to be open the Christian message. ...more