Romeo and Juliet Prologue - Act 1

In Act 1 scene 4 Romeo and Mercutio are speaking about dreams because Romeo has had a dream. Mercutio says that Queen Mab has been with Romeo. He then asks who Queen Mab is and Mercutio goes into a lengthy discussion on describing Queen Mab, what her chariot looks like and how she's the one who encourages people to do things that they dream about. Mercutio talks for about forty lines on Queen Mab and I don't really understand why that whole description is in the play at all. I know Mercutio was trying to tell Romeo that dreams are just dreams and they don't mean anything, but I feel like there was another way Mercutio would have been able to get that message across without forty lines on a Queen that we, as the audience, don't really care about.

To me Romeo and Juliet has always had some of the best poetic format of the Shakespeare plays that I have read. From the onset of the play we get the Prologue which is a Shakespearean sonnet, also known as an Elizabethan sonnet. It has fourteen lines and is in iambic pentameter. There are several of these throughout the play and I find it interesting that Shakespeare uses sonnets in certain parts of the play. He may be indicating something important is happening and the audience needs to be aware of it because it is in the form of a sonnet. I am not actually sure, but I do enjoy seeing them. More along the lines of paying attention to important things, the first time that Romeo and Juliet speak to each other it is in the form of a sonnet. Shakespeare obviously is pointing out that these two are special and therefore their interaction is going to be in a different form than the rest of the play, which to me is very intriguing.

The first time I read Romeo and Juliet was in 9th grade. Honestly I didn't read much of the play because I found the language to be very hard to understand and I would just show up to class and let my teacher tell me everything about the play and I would take notes on it. This time however has been different than the first time because I am actually reading the play, but not only that I understand the language a lot better this time around. I also decided to read the play from the same book from high school with all my notes in them and I can actually understand what my teacher was talking about now. I see the puns, sonnets, couplets, and alliterations that I didn't fully understand in 9th grade. I am glad to be reading the play again when I can actually appreciate what I am reading and understand it fully.

Sonnet 116 and Sonnet 18

Sonnet 116 and 18 are common sonnets in what the topic is, which is love, however 116 is describing love in a more general sense whereas 18 is describing a beloved.

Sonnet 116 is saying that the speaker sees no reason why two minds of reason join together. Love is not true love if it goes through a change or changes when the lover sees their beloved (I think). Love is also not true love if the lover abandons the relationship when the loved one is unfaithful or has died or departed. Which basically means that true love is the marriage vows - for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. Love is something that is fixed and is never moving. It is like a star which no one knows the worth of but the height can be measured (this line of the sonnet confuses me a little). Love is not a plaything of time even though rosy lips and cheeks do fade with time. Love does not alter in brief hours or weeks but it will last until the eve of doomsday. If I am (speaker) wrong and it can be proven then I never wrote, and no man ever loved.

Sonnet 18 is a sonnet where the speaker is comparing his beloved to a summer day. The beloved is more "lovely and more temperate". The rough winds of summer shake the "darling buds of May". However, summer has a fixed time period and isn't long enough. Sometimes the sun shines too hot in the summer and the summer is covered by clouds. And everything that is beautiful stops being beautiful eventually. This happens either naturally or by accident. However, the speaker's beloved summer will never fade nor lose possession of their beauty. Death wont brag about the beloved wandering in the underworld, once they are captured in the speaker's eternal verses. As long as men are alive and can see, this poem will live and keep the beloved alive as well.

Both sonnets are speaking on the topic of love however sonnet 116 is talking about the characteristics of love and what makes love true love. How someone could know that they were really in love. Whereas sonnet 18 is talking about how beautiful a beloved is and how this poem will keep that beloved eternal and beautiful forever. Sonnet 116 has a more sincere tone than sonnet 18 because 116 is speaking about how to understand love whereas 18 is trying to preserve the beauty of his beloved as they are at that moment in time and in doing this the speak is also making himself eternal. Being eternal seems like the important thing on the mind of the speaker of sonnet 18 in contrast to the speaker of sonnet 116 which the important thing for them is love.

Both of these sonnets seem to fit with what Pinksy says about sonnets because the receiver of these two sonnets would be flattered. Especially the receiver of sonnet 18 because the speaker is calling her beautiful and wanting to keep her eternal. Sonnet 116 is more characteristics of love and I don't think the reader would be flattered unless there was a side note saying the the speaker loved the reader and this is what love meant or something. Sonnet 116 isn't really "courting" anyone but more telling others what love means in contrast to sonnet 18 that is trying to court someone and make them eternal in a poem.

Much Ado About Sonnets

Benedick as a sonneteer is a hard label to give him. Benedick is a character who wished to be a bachelor for his entire life and so he would not be caught writing poetry to his beloved. Sonnet 116 is a much too romantic sonnet for Benedick to have written for Beatrice. I believe Benedick would write something witty for Beatrice and not a sonnet about how love stands the test of time. This is a couple who broke up minutes before getting married. This is also a couple who had to have their friends trick them into love in the first place. Sonnet 116 is about love being constant "it is an ever fixed mark" which in all honesty is not Benedick and Beatrice's relationship. I am not doubting they love each other, but their love changed so quickly where as the sonnet says "love is not love which alters".

If I did have to pick a sonnet for Benedick I would give him sonnet number 23. This sonnet talks about how expressing their love out loud is much too hard and they would rather write it out in the hopes that their beloved could figure out what they were saying through the sonnet. I see Benedick as a man who doesn't want to express his feelings because A. he would be contradicting everything he has ever said about marriage and B. because he is a man. I could see him writing this clever sonnet in order to express his love for Beatrice in the hopes that she's smart enough to figure it out. Because these two have been known to love playing witty games with each other.

Beatrice on the other hand would be someone who would write romantic sonnets because I believe she has had feelings for Benedick for a long time. She is much more expressive about her feelings towards everything so I don't see why her feelings on love would be any different. I could see Beatrice writing sonnet 116 though because it seems like she has liked Benedick for sometime now and continues to bring him up any chance she gets. So like a "fixed mark" Beatrice's love for Benedick isn't going anywhere.

Much Ado About Nothing Acts 3-4

What surprised me in acts 3-4 was a couple of things. For one in act 3 Hero spoke more in that one act than she has the entire play. It was surprising to see her speaking for herself and not having someone answer for her. However, when things became serious in act 4 when Claudio was accusing Hero she went back to speaking very little and her father answered Claudio's question that were direct to Hero. It was also surprising that we did not see Don Pedro, Claudio, and Don John witnessing the encounter between Margaret and Borachio but instead heard it from Borachio. It would have been better to heard it from their point of view because we could have judged character's better and it would've been nice to see how Claudio reacted.

When comparing Beatrice's and Benedick's speeches concerning one another it is interesting that Benedick doubted a little more than Beatrice. Benedick relied on who the information was coming from such as Leonato who is old and wouldn't lie about this. Whereas Beatrice based hers off the fact that people don't compliment you behind your back like Ursula was doing. It took Beatrice ten lines to believe Hero and Ursula. It took Benedick about eighteen lines to think it over. This shows that Beatrice already had previous feelings for Benedick and didn't need all that much convincing to love him.

The exchange between Beatrice and Benedick at the end of act 4 seemed a little off because they both professed their love for each other which seems a little out of their character. It would've made sense to have them dance around the issue a little bit more instead of them coming right out and saying it. And typical Beatrice to go off the deep end when Benedick refuses to kill his best friend. Beatrice has to get her way and she won't be with Benedick unless he does this, which is a little strange that he caves and decides to fight Claudio. I would've expected Benedick to put up a little more of a fight.  

Much Ado About Nothing Act 2

In act 2 scene 2 my characters are Don Pedro and Antonio. Antonio enters the scene with Leonato, Hero, Beatrice, Margaret, and Ursula. Leonato asks Antonio if he say Count John at supper which he had not. Then Antonio tells Beatrice that she is too curst or shrewish. There is awhile before he speaks to Hero and hopes that she will be ruled by her father unlike Beatrice who is ruled by no one. Antonio speaks with Ursula one of Hero's hand maidens about who he is. Which is the last time he is in the scene. Don Pedro speaks much more than Antonio does. Don Pedro enters with scene with Claudio, Benedick, Balthasar, Don John, and Borachio all of which are in masks. Don Pedro speaks with Hero. He also speaks with Benedick about Beatrice. He tells Claudio that he has wood Hero for him and that Leonato is okay with the marriage. Benedick then asks for Claudio, Hero, and Leonato's help in order to get Benedick and Beatrice to fall in love.

Antonio speaks less than Don Pedro because Antonio is the brother of Leonato which doesn't give him much rank or say in the matters that are happening in Leonato's household. Don Pedro is also the Prince so everyone wants to talk with him because he is of the highest rank in the company. He's also the one arranging marriages so that means he must communicate with others to make these arrangements.

Don Pedro thinks that Beatrice deserves a husband and wishes to try and get her one (l.281). Don Pedro also thinks that Benedick is of good descent, has proven valour, and honor (l.330). He also thinks that Claudio is a worthy match for Hero because he has arranged for them to get married.

Don Pedro wants to have Benedick and Beatrice fall in love by Monday so that they may get married. He has asked for the help of Claudio, Leonato, and Hero to help him in his task. He has not gotten what he wants so far, but it will most likely come to be.

By following these characters, more specifically Don Pedro, I find out that he does want to see his friend Benedick happy and that he cares for his hosts niece which he doesn't have to. It is also intriging to see his interaction with Beatrice when she's talking about husbands. It was also intriguing to see the interaction between Beatrice and Antonio where again Beatrice holds certain stage.

Why is Antonio even in the play? It doesn't seem like his character is really relevant. That might change, but as of now it seems pointless to have him in the play.

Much Ado About Nothing Act 1

In act one scene one Beatrice says that if Benedick was in her books she would burn her study. This shows how witty Beatrice is and her intelligence. This also adds some humor to the scene and also shows her dislike for Benedick and not just Benedick but men in general. 

Benedick talks in lines 195 about his mistrust of the female sex. He gives thanks for the woman that conceived him and the woman that raised him. However, he feels that women will cheat on him and he doesn't want to blame all women so he just avoids all women. He wishes to be a bachelor for the rest of his life. This shows that both Benedick and Beatrice are wary of the opposite sex which is comedic to me. 

Benedick mentions in lines 160 that you never see sixty year old bachelors anymore and that men are always getting roped into marriage. This shows that Benedick has a sense of humor and like Beatrice adds laughs to the play. This also shows his distrust of marriage. 

Scene 2 Leonato and his brother Antonio are talking about the upcoming party. Antonio has heard from one of his acquaintances that Don Pedro plans to profess his love for Leonato's daughter Hero and that he also plans to talk to Leonato for Hero's hand in marriage. Leonato plans to tell his daughter of this so that she might have time to come up with an answer. 

Scene 3 Don John is speaking to his Conrad and Borachio. Borachio has overheard Don Pedro and Claudio speaking about their plan to get Hero and Claudio together and they plan to disrupt it because Don John has an extreme hatred of Don Pedro. This coupled with what Leonato and Antonio plan to do will make for an interesting play.