Give hamlet a death note
This is so random but I’m gonna do it
(Forgive my poor art skills)
Sorry but Hamlet only speaks danish (and probably a few other languages).
He doesn’t know modern English
Ok then give hamlet a danish death note
Sure why not
Hola! Merchant of Venice hits harder in the melancholy state of the world and generally what's going on around. Thoughts?
True. Any book about racism or any other form of discrimination just feels different now. Maybe because a year ago we thought “hey it’s not like people will revert back to their extremely discriminatory ways, right?”
But now we know that people can and will.
HOLD ON I JUST REALIZED
SO we all know Dumas likes to put some Shakespeare parodies in his books, right??
So Maximilien and Valentine are definitely supposed to be Romeo and Juliet with the whole “oh no she’s dead I’m gonna kill myself” and “oh no a Morrel can never be with a Villefort and vice versa” and “but wait! She isn’t actually dead! She just drank the thing that makes it LOOK like she’s dead!”
And Franz is probably supposed to be Paris then
And we all know that Caderousse’s wife is probably supposed to be Lady Macbeth with the whole “Don’t be a coward, you coward! Just murder the guy already!”
So I guess it’s not that far off to compare Benedetto to Edmund of Gloucester? I mean it works out well, with the whole “and I’m not really responsible for anything I do, it’s not my fault I was born lol sorry dad but maybe take better care of your illegitimate kids next time”
I think Dumas probably put a lot more parallels in there that I just didn’t notice?
Maybe Edouard is that kid from Coriolanus? Idk I never read Coriolanus.
Maybe Fernand is Macbeth?
Maybe Albert is Hamlet? ( “I’m gonna avenge my dad/ my dad’s honor! Yeah!” )
Maybe Heloise is both Goneril and Regan? ( “oh boy if only I’d get that neat inheritance money! Also I’m gonna poison people. And poison myself. )
Maybe Edmond is Macduff? ( “my family/ father was killed/ died because of you , and now I’m gonna return to my homeland and get some revenge.” )
Idk can anyone come up with more parallels? I’m sure there are more
I bet every character is a parody of some Shakespearean character
making a separate post of this so people can find it
All those cool Shakespeare parallels in TCOMC
Maximilien- Romeo
Valentine- Juliet
Franz- Paris (?)
Caderousse’s wife- Lady Macbeth
Benedetto- Edmund of Gloucester
Edouard- that one kid from Coriolanus (?)
Fernand- Othello
Danglars- Iago
Albert- Hamlet
Heloise- Goneril/Regan (?)
Edmond- Macduff
(Go check out my last post for the reasons why)
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THIS LIST- I’M SURE EVERY CHARACTER HAS A PRETTY DIRECT SHAKESPEARE PARALLEL
(Credit to @team-mom-wannabe for Fernand= othello and Danglars= iago)
Merchant of Venice: Is it a comedy? What do you think? In my opinion, it leans more on the side of a tragedy.
Yup. The whole play is pretty anti-Semitic and racist, so that’s a bit of an issue. It’s pretty sad how the whole story is “hey I’m gonna borrow some money from this one guy, and for some reason agree to let him take a pound of my flesh if I can’t repay him— oh look, I can’t repay him. Huh. Wow he’s so evil for trying to take a pound of my flesh (after I’ve attacked him over his religion multiple times) - but it’s ok because my best friend’s wife will save me and make him lose all his possessions. Also force him to convert. Nice!”
I mean, if someone would repeatedly attack another person over their religion or race, would you really blame the person who was attacked for maybe wanting to stab the guy who won’t stop attacking them?
We know that there have been multiple incidents of Antonio physically and verbally attacking Shylock, and Antonio outright says he won’t stop. I was partially hoping that Shylock would get to do some stabbing, but nah. The audience at that time wouldn’t be ready for something like that. If he had stabbed him though, it would have been labeled at a tragedy. It would also significantly improve the play.
Also, Bassanio is an idiot, who asked him to go to that one moneylender in town who hates Antonio from his core of his heart? What do you think?
I agree completely- Bassanio’s an idiot. But he must be a very likable idiot if Antonio’s willing to go to Shylock for him and Portia actually wants to marry him.
Jessica is sorta dumb. What is your opinion of her character?
Yeah I didn’t really think her side plot was so great. I don’t really have much of an opinion on her because she’s not a main character and doesn’t have a strong personality
I remember doing a skit in English Class (I wrote the script), where Julius Caesar and team go to the Taj Mahal😂😂😂. We put Cassius's wife, Junia, who we only knew about from the notes and who never appears in the play either. Cassius: I shouldn't have brought you along, women— Junia: Yes, my dear? Cassius: *gulping* Make EXCELLENT companions I played Cassius. We basically had him be scared of his wife as a repayment for dissing women throughout the play. I shall see thee at Philippi.
Nice! I like that! Cassius is definitely the type to be secretly terrified of his wife
Ok hi I wanna take a poll of my followers, who are probably mostly following me for Shakespeare content but keep getting TCOMC content instead-
Have you
A) Read TCOMC and followed me for it
B) never read TCOMC and you’re like “but wait where’s the Shakespeare content???”
C) read TCOMC and absolutely hated it- you think it’s the worst book ever
D) never read TCOMC but you’re sorta intrigued by it at this point after everything I’ve posted
If ya fall into the last category I’m gonna tell you what it’s about because I definitely want to recommend it to you and I don’t think you’ve gotten the right idea about what it’s about from my posts. So here’s a quick summary:
There’s this dude named Edmond. Not to be confused with Edmund, the guy from King Lear. Edmond is a sailor and living a pretty great life, but these other guys are jealous of his success and frame him for some treason. And although it’s pretty obvious he’s innocent, a pretty corrupt government official who would benefit from getting rid of Edmond gets assigned to the case and Edmond ends up in prison. BUT WAIT. He escapes from prison! And years later he’s back for revenge!
The story also includes a lady who likes poisoning people, lesbians, blackmail, doing drugs in a cave, a Romeo and Juliet style love story, a really cool grandpa, affairs, an awesome trio of friends, stabbing legal officers who aren’t doing their jobs properly, and a cool criminal power couple.
GO READ IT
How would you rank the Shakespeare plays that you have read?
I’m gonna go in the order I read them-
The Tempest: 5/10. Not so into the storyline. There where some good parts but not enough of them for me to rank it higher than that
The Merchant of Venice: 6/10. Also good but the antisemitism kinda ruined it for me (I know other plays are also racist and discriminatory but the racism is either a) clearly a bad thing- you’re not supposed to root for the racist character, or b) a passing comment made by a side character that’s pretty much never brought up again.)
Macbeth: 7/10 Very good story, not funny enough. You maybe be wondering “but edette, it’s a tragedy! It’s not supposed to be funny!” To which I will respond with “oh yeah? Then what’s Hamlet doing here, being hilarious, with jokes on every other line until the last few pages where everyone dies?”
Julius Caesar: 7.5/10. Mark Antony’s parts are fantastic. He’s all like “oh yeah I’m totally on your side- I totally support you killing MY BEST FRIEND, THIS NOBLE ROMAN WHO DIDN’T DESERVE TO DIE, HOW DARE ANYONE KILL HIM” and everyone’s like “hey Antony? You still with us?” And he’s like “Oh yeah totally, what makes you think I’m not?”
King Lear: 8/10. It’s so good. Edmund’s plan isn’t even good, but it works so incredibly perfectly because everyone is very stupid.
Hamlet: 9/10 It’s hilarious. I don’t care what you say about it being deep and meaningful. Yeah it has some soliloquies, but most of it is just a huge pile of jokes. Literally the funniest thing I’ve ever read. The only people who think Hamlet isn’t hilarious are the people who’ve watched some film version of it before reading the play.
I know I haven’t read that many Shakespeare plays yet, but my local bookstore is reopening tomorrow, so I’m gonna go and see if I could find a copy of Othello and Twelfth Night
Also I just noticed that the ratings go in order of worst to best- that was unintentional but also kinda interesting
Would you rather be stuck on a deserted island with Antony or Horatio? Give reasons. (10 marks)
Horatio- because he’s a very logical guy who either would get us off the island, or at least wouldn’t let any drama or arguments happen while we were there because he doesn’t seem to like drama and arguments
Antony, however, might start drama and possibly not be very helpful for getting off the island
Imagine...you have been granted access to the play of Hamlet. You are however, allowed to save only one from the last scene. Who do you choose and why? [10 marks]
Ok lets go through the characters who die and who should be saved-
Hamlet- Look he’s been waiting to die this whole time. He’s not all that upset about it. And would I really wanna be like “hey you’re alive now, also Fortunbras (idk how to spell that and the play isn’t here with me) is here so you’ll have to deal with him maybe taking over your kingdom haha” I’ll give him a 6/10 points for how revivable he is.
Claudius- 0/10 points. The whole point of the play was to watch him die
Gertrude- She didn’t have to die, but then again, she didn’t have to marry her brother-in-law, so ehhh. I’ll give her a 4/10
Laertes- I kinda feel bad for him, because yes, Hamlet killed his father, and he should have the same rights of revenge as Hamlet had. So although I don’t really like him, I think he should be the one who gets to revive. 9/10 revive points.
I have an idea. We don't really get to see what happens after Antonio and all go to dinner. I wonder if SHYLOCK had a trick up his sleeve, which he used to get revenge and the last laugh. Thoughts? [10 marks]
I’m sure you wanted a cooler answer than this, but no- Shylock is all out of tricks.
Okay, so I went searching for Merchant of Venice Fanfiction—, I found a Shylock X Antonio. I wheezed— (Tbh, I ain't surprised—)
I have no idea why anyone would ship them, but whatever. People seem to really like shipping the protagonist with the antagonist. But Antonio and Shylock just doesn’t work? I genuinely don’t get why anyone in the world would want to ship them.
I’m reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time after watching ATLA, and let me tell you my one and only observation at the moment- Tybalt sounds exactly like season 1 Zuko.
No joke, he’s there at a chill party and he sees Romeo, and he’s like “Uncle. I must fight him. He’ll bring shame to our family if I don’t”
And Capulet’s like “ok, how about we don’t fight people right now. He’s not bothering anyone. Just enjoy the party.”
