Shakespeare: Rhetoric and the Mob-Mentality

I've been thinking at length about Shakespeare as a philosopher, or rather, examples in his writing that display his views, which brought to my attention Julius Caesar, my favorite of his plays. This play deals at length with the power of the smooth tongue: rhetoric. And, going hand-in-hand with rhetoric, Shakespeare toys with the concept of the "mob-mentality," something he often dwelt on. For these reasons, Julius Caesar became my favorite play, because it so expertly exemplifies how easily people can be swayed by a skilled speaker, and terrifyingly so. This of course is most potently played out in Marc Anthony's famous speech, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." That line in itself portrays Shakespeare's critical understanding of rhetoric and the public ear. When juxtaposed with Brutus' opening line. "Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my/ cause and be silent that you may hear," it is painfully clear how deeply Shakespeare understands the power of logos, ethos, and pathos. Notice how Marc Antony begins with friends, as opposed to Brutus who began with Romans. In doing this, Marc Anthony is bringing the public to his level and creating an emotional bond with them by calling them his friends. Whereas Brutus gives a much colder and distant plea by simply calling them Romans. Marc Anthony furthers his manipulation through the word, "Honorable." He, quite literally, twists the meaning of the word and uses it against his opponents. Had he outright condemned Caesar's killers, he would have lost his emotional appeal: by calling them honorable and speaking of them as if defending them, Marc Anthony renders himself a wounded victim, as if he were a friend who has been wronged, but still loves those who wronged him. In doing this, the crowd further binds themselves to him, feels sorry for him, and begins to side with him, as seen when one Plebeian shouts, "Poor soul! His eyes are red as fire with weeping," and "There's not a nobler man in Rome than Anthony." Anthony has now established himself with the crowd, and they trust him. From there he begins to stir the crowd to action with emotional appeals over and over again. He brings the crowd over to Caesar's body, to show them the wounds that brought his death. And here, he deals a potent blow; "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now...Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through...Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed,/ and , as he plucked his cursed steel away,/ mark how the blood of Caesar followed it,/ as rushing out of doors to be resolved/if Brutus so unkindly knocked or no." From here, the mob-mentality takes over, as the crowd becomes blind with rage as they scream, "Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay!/ Let not a traitor live!" There is a great deal more in his speech, and in the play itself, that further builds from this, and I highly recommend reading it.

Act III

The idea that we're all left to randomness and chaos is highly evident in Act III, especially when we get to scene two with Oberon. He seems to be very annoyed and angered that Puck messed up on a simple task, but Puck shrugs it off as fate and is instead just having a good time. I like the contrast between these two characters and ideas. I find it especially nice how closely their associated with each other in the play as well.

The story is going wonderful, I really want to read more, but I'm waiting so to not ruin myself and to have a nice discussion in class. I'm not too happy with helena's character development so far. I understand her fear of being suddenly loved and how it can be seen as mockery, but she seems hell bent on not believing that anything good can ever happen to her. She expects misery and sorrow to be her only companions it seems. Again, I sympathize with her, but not even for one second does she seem to entertain the idea that she's loved.


I predict that she will still refuse Demetrius by the end of the play.
I also predict that things will not go swimmingly with Oberon and his plans for kidnapping the Indian boy.

I'm having fun re-reading 'A Midsummer Nights Dream', it's been a few years since I read it last. For me, it helps that I'm familiar with the movie, because it stays true to the script, and sticks in my memory better.
I'm having a lot less luck with my paper. I have such conflicting ideas that I can't decide how to pick a topic, and then decide what my philosophy about it is. I've narrowed it down to either "What can we know?" or, "How should we live?". These are such huge questions that we're supposed to have a definite opinion on, and I don't think my head's that organized.

Things happen for a reason?

The notion of causality is one of the three main philosophical issues Shakespeare tackles in his work. He tends toward a skeptical view -- things happen for no reason. What do you think -- is there any rhyme or reason to what happens in the world, or are we at the mercy of chaos and randomness?

Helpful link

Most people already know about this, but I thought I'd post it anyway just in case someone finds it useful. Sparknotes offers "No fear Shakespeare" for free on their website. They also sell the books in most bookstores, I might have even seen it it the art-supply store, but don't quote me on that. It features Shakespeare's original text, and right next to every line, is an interpreted, modern-English version of it. You can read the original and refer to the translation when you get stuck. It's really easy to get lazy, or find yourself in a time bind, and just read the translated text, but do try to keep in mind that Shakespeares language (at least in my opinion) is most beautiful in its original form so you really shouldn't completely abandon it.

Here is the link to No Fear Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/msnd/

Happy reading! Hope you all had a fun, restful, spring break :)

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I'm really loving this play! Not too surprised though, because I usually enjoy Shakespeare's plays. I'd love to read his sonnets someday; I've heard so much good praise about them. Act 2 ends at great place; I'm so excited to see how it all ends up. The fairies are my favorite characters thus far. I'm simply enchanted by how they sing, frolic, and dance to control the seasons and the animals. It would be so much fun to be one of them. While the fairies touch upon my imagination, the human characters resonate reality for me. Most of Shakespeares characters are always so easy to relate to, which is saying something given that these plays are written for a totally different audience in very different times. Sometimes I get caught up, as I'm sure we all do, in my emotions. I feel singled out and misunderstood; its refreshing to see people feeling, thinking, and going through some of the same things I did or am going through, as far back as the 16th century. Even though I know the stories are made-up, they still, like most made-up things, are inspired by real emotions and situations, which for me is reassuring and quite comical to realize that I'm not the only person in history to ever feel a certain way. It lessens the severity of a situation or emotion and even gives it a bit of perspective. I guess I just feel more human in a way.

Once again I'm really excited to see how this tangled web concludes!

The History of Race/Ethnicity Philosophy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_definitions_of_race#Ancient_Greek_theories


It is interesting to me how what we think of race today was so constructed by so many over the years. You should all read a bit of this if you want your minds to be bent.