Shakespeare in a Year: May-July

Yeah, yeah, it's almost August. May was a frustrating month, so I decided to take a break for June. I spent July focusing on the sonnets.

In the last three months I have consumed the following Shakespeare works:

• The Taming of the Shrew

• The Two Gentlemen of Verona

• Sonnets 3 – 34

We see one of the more frequently performed plays, but we don’t see the richness of characters that Shakespeare’s later works are known for. Hence, taking a break.

The Taming of the Shrew

I watched the 1967 film version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Why not take an opportunity to watch one of the most fabled acting pairs of all time do their thing? And I have to say even with these amazing actors, it took me a couple of attempts to get through it.

As big a proponent as I am of reading the classics, there are certain things about them that can be frustrating, especially if you belong to any historically marginalized group, including women. There have been debates going on for centuries as to whether this play is misogynistic.

Katharina’s final speech appears to advocate wives’ submission to their husbands. But it’s debatable whether that speech is meant to be interpreted literally, ironically, or in some other way altogether. Perhaps it’s a testament to Shakespeare’s writing skill that multiple readings are plausible. One thing’s for certain: few actresses can smolder on-screen like Elizabeth Taylor.

Another confounding factor in the interpretation of this play is the original framing device. You may not even know about this (I didn’t until I looked at the text of the play), but Shakespeare wrote the story as a play-within-in-a-play. The external framing device, which takes place among drunken revealers at an inn, is rarely included in performances. But its existence hints at a story that is more farcical in nature and maybe not meant to be taken so seriously.

The title pretty much gives away the plot. Is the whole story as depressing for feminists as the title suggests? I'm afraid it is. I found 10 Things I Hate About You much more enjoyable to watch, and that’s coming from someone who isn’t particularly keen on teen comedies in general.

As fun as Elizabeth Taylor’s interpretation of Katharina is to watch, the character doesn’t actually have that much agency. Granted, this was often true of women at that time, but we’ve seen in previous plays that Shakespeare can write more three-dimensional characters, such as Margaret of Anjou and even Joan of Arc.

That said, those were supporting characters and not romantic leads. And we might be getting into my personal preferences here. For instance, in the musical version of Les Miserables, I find Marius and Cosette, the main couple, two of the least interesting characters in the story. Eponine and Enjolras forever.

I don't know what it is, but it feels like that women characters can often be romantic leads, or they can be layered and nuanced, but seldom both. And we know this dichotomy doesn't exist in life. Attractive people have inner lives. Many people outside traditional ideas of attractiveness are in happy relationships. It's probably one of the main reasons I don't read a lot of romance. If anyone has recommendations in the genre that avoid this trap, feel free to drop them in the comments.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Many Shakespeare enthusiasts consider this his weakest play, and I understand why. I couldn't find a single professional performance of the play, and all the amateur productions I found insisted on dressing up the play with song and dance numbers. It's a bit like a dollar-store version of The Comedy of Errors.

I won't get into the plot here because it's incredibly silly, as are all the characters in it. It's not even a fun kind of silly like you might find in Alice in Wonderland or something. I'm talking about watching a friend talk themselves into what everybody seems to realize is a bad decision but them. But instead of a friend, it's some stranger, so you're not invested in the outcome. Maybe this play should have been called Characters Nobody Cares About Making Decisions Nobody Understands. If you think I'm being unnecessarily cranky, I dare you to watch the play for yourself.

Sonnets

Most days in July, I read one sonnet per day. At first I feared this was going to crash and burn with the previous two plays. We get it, dude, you think it would be tragic for this attractive person not to reproduce. But even Shakespeare can only say that so many ways, after which it gets repetitive. Fortunately, around sonnet 18 he starts to diversify a bit. Also I found phrases that were referenced in future works that I didn't know were references. For instance, the phrase "remembrance of things past" appears in Sonnet 30, which is one version of the title of Marcel Proust's magnum opus. So now that every sonnet no longer concerns the same narrow topic, I'm enjoying reading them a lot more.

Going forward

I can't commit to a specific timeframe for reasons that I'll reveal soon, but here are the next plays coming up in the chronology:

• Love's Labour's Lost

• Romeo and Juliet

I'm particularly interested in revisiting Romeo and Juliet, since I had to read it in high school, and I suspect it will hit quite differently for me now.

Have you changed any of your opinions of a Shakespeare play after rereading it? Let's talk about it in the comments!