Thesis

Brian Quattrocchi

Literature 473

Dr. Sexson

26 April 2011

Mything the Point

            All the works of Shakespeare show this. Every work that features any type of standard plot be it comedy, drama, or tragedy. They all seems to share the very same mythical phenomenon (for lack of a better term), and that is that all of his plays, characters especially, share striking similarities. The plot is the most obvious to spot in its similarities, but what is most interesting is how, in all of this, Shakespeare still manages to excel in his writing without evening making it seem like he is attempting to cover it up.

            The first and most obvious comparison came with the play Hamlet and Henry IV. The plot is almost identical in the fact that the protagonist is struggling with the dilemma of figuring out what his birth role is and if he is living up it or not. Both of the protagonists are also faced with other very similar issues like military threats to their kingdom as well as “daddy issues.” Most importantly and most obvious is the famous line that comes from Hamlet “To be or not to be,” This quote is mirrored in Henry IV with Henry quote of “To be or not to be king” (Shakespeare Hamlet, Henry IV Pt I). It almost seems like Shakespeare made two versions of the exact same play. To break away from any type of formality in this essay, I would like to mention some personal issues with this. I have never understood why many, mostly Harold Bloom, have placed Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon. Bloom states that Shakespeare and Dante are the center of the Western Canon because “they excel all other Western writers in cognitive acuity, linguistic energy, and power of invention (Bloom Western Canon 43). It is in this that I completely disagree. If Shakespeare virtually makes all of his plays as a version of one another then how is he able to acclaim so much of this success. Also, if Shakespeare is so influenced by Dante, like Bloom says he is, then why is he the center of the Canon for excelling over all other writers (Bloom)? I back to the personal side; I have never understood the success of Shakespeare’s works, aside from the writing style. I was also never able to understand how no one else has seen that.

            Most importantly of all the similarities are those of the characters from the plays Othello, the Tempest, and Much Ado about Nothing. The characters that draw the similarities are Iago, Caliban, and Don John (the bastard). All three of these characters are the villains of their respected plays. Iago is Othello’s senior officer that feels betrayed by Othello when he is not given the promotion he feels he disserves. Caliban draw the closest to Iago in that he is the first of Prospero’s servants who believes that Prospero stole the island from him and that it rightfully belongs to him. But what draws these two characters together are their infamous speeches and asides that they give. The passionate and dark speech by Caliban in scene 2, Act I of The Tempest compare greatly to the haunting asides given by Iago throughout the play Othello. Don John still holds similarities to the other characters however his are more specific. In Much Ado about Nothing many of the characters play tricks on one another with the end result usually being good. But when Don John shows up, he makes a completely unprecedented decision to play games on people just to mess everything up. Although John the bastard did this for no reason, Iago still played a trick on Desdemona by using Roderigo as his pawn. This eventually leads to the tragic end of Desdemona and Othello (Shakespeare The Tempest, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing).

            For the last page, as well as for my presentation I chose to write a version of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” called “Shakespeare’s Mythical Restaurant.” The lyrics are kind of tongue-in-cheek and it involves a lot of the characters from multiple plays and how they all interact with each other.

You can get anything you want, at the mythical restaurant (2x) walk right in it’s around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track. You can get anything you want at the mythical restaurant.                                                                               

This song is called Shakespeare’s mythical restaurant it’s about Shakespeare and myth

And it really has nothing to do about restaurant, that’s just the name of the song.

Now this all started with a rather large assembly of sorts… a gathering as you might say. Now this is not the typical type of gathering that friends have because well, they’re not really friends.

First to arrive were Hamlet and Henry then Lysander and then Othello Romeo Juliet and Desdemona came all resurrected from the grave, then after that they all just seemed to file in.

Things were a mess as personalities crashed Iago and Caliban collided and after a lot of word words and more words, they realized they had a lot in common and a lot to enjoy when wishing for destruction.

Hero came with a fantastic potato salad which pretty much made this the closest to an actual restaurant that it could be and everyone was so happy we singing and cheering just glad to have company then Don John threw the utensils on the ground and stuck his hands in the potato salad…bastard.

So with tears in our eyes we parted ways and that was the closes we were able to get to having all of us characters there together.

You can get anything you want and the mythical restaurant, before the bastard, you can get anything you want at the mythical restaurant. Just walk right in it’s around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track. You can get anything you want at the mythical restaurant (Arlo Guthrie).

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon. New York: Riverhead Books, 1994.

Guthrie, Arlo. Alice’s Restaurant.

Orgel, Stephen. Shakespeare: The Complete Pelican. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.