Quizlet: Measure4Measure Characters and Archetypes

Crime and Punishment

    We've just witnessed Angelo's conflict of interests: he wants to (strictly) enforce his law on lechery while desiring to have relations with Isabella. Shakespeare represents him as a contradiction. However, Duke Vincentio comforts Isabella by saying that Angelo is testing her virtue and was pleased by it. It is interesting to see how Shakespeare demonstrates a belief that there are certain acts/sins worse than others, and possibly deserve reasonable punishment. For example, Duke's conversation with Juliet compares her pre-marital actions with Claudio's, debating which is more punishable. One of Shakespeare's themes is this moral dilemma of determining sinfulness of sin, while saying that death isn't as bad as it seems.

Editing M4M Act 1:Scenes 1-3

     Mr. Wolfe's placement of the monastery scene (1.3) as the prologue sets the play in immediate motion. First it reveals the layout for the events and happenings that will follow. Secondly, it quickly reveals the "hero" of the story. In addition to the second point, the good vs. evil antithesis is heightened in Mr. Wolfe's edited version by placing this scene right before the scene where Angelo is first introduced (1.1). This scene placement reiterates the hero and villain while emphasizing the "white hat sheriff" as being the first character introduced. Rather than having the audience gain contempt for Angelo, this placement allows the audience to befriend Vincentio and then use the Duke as a bar for comparison when evaluating Angelo. Mr. Wolfe's Act 1, Scene 2 version cuts out the intro dialogue between Lucio and the gentlemen. Firstly, the gentlemen reference Hungary, which is basically irrelevant to HTC's rendition. Also, this opening dialogue doesn't have the same effect to today's audience, as compared to Shakespeare's.

Fixing the Gap

    My partner, Tyler, and I are concluding Perciles' fourteen year separation from Marina to be full of political struggle, rebellion, famine, and plagues in Tyre. We plan on portraying Helicanus as a good person with good intentions, but a bad leader/ruler when Pericles returns. The first and only scene we are adding to fix the gap begins with Gower and Diane (the goddess) entering the stage from a place of higher ground. Both would be discussing their observations on Tyre as they look down from their standing place. As they speak and look below, a dumb show could be playing to demonstrate protest and starvation (similar to Tarsus' famine earlier in the play). Gower could explain how Helicanus wasn't able to successfully keep Tyre stable during Pericles' leave. While Diane could mention how her fellow gods were ruthless in allowing a series of misfortune occur to Pericles and his land. Without giving too much away, those would be the focus of the narration part of bridging the gap. We also plan to add some lines to Marina in the point of the play when she is explaining her to family history to Pericles trying to convince him that she is Marina. We want to exaggerate her virtuous character by having her mention that her father's absence probably had meaningful and valid reasons for not being able to come back. This would allow Marina to display her forgiveness to her father for being gone for fourteen years. Most people would react with anger or hatred, but since Marina is the most virtuous of them, she responds with care and concern for others.

Intention and Objective in Original Cutting

    
      I chose to edit scenes 17 and 18 I chose two since scene 17 was a little short. In scene 17, Cleon and Dionyza are conversing after what they believe as Marina's death. After reading through once, I arrived to two goals in cutting: to heighten the evil in Dionyza and to portray Cleon more subserviently and inferior. Scene 18 consists of Gower's narration. There I wanted to avoid redundancy and highlight Marina's virtue.
     The first lines to get cut were, "O lady,

Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess

To equal any single crown o' the earth

I' the justice of compare!" 

In cutting this, I remove Cleon's opinion of Marina, mentioning her great virture. I intended that this would portray Cleon more subservient and inferior to Dionyza by not even allowing Cleon to not say his opinion on the matter. Since Cleon is considered evil by standing passively while evil Dionyza stomps around, this would remove the audience's ability to have sympathy for him, and therefore, both are equally as guilty and heinous. I didn't cut any of Dionyza's lines because there weren't too many, and each one of her lines reveals a lot about her evil nature. Also, it is in this scene when she explains how everyone stole the spotlight from her own daughter, displaying her reasons for hating Marina. 

     In scene 18, I cut, "From bourn to bourn, region to region.

By you being pardon'd, we commit no crime

To use one language in each several clime

Where our scenes seem to live. " I felt that explaining the role of a narrator was unnecessary. By scene 18, I know the audience would already discovered Gower's role as the narrator. 

Next I cut, Thetis, being proud, swallow'd some part o' the earth:

Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,

Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens bestow'd:

Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never stint,

Make raging battery upon shores of flint.' 

I cut this because I wanted to keep Diana consistent throughout the play. Introducing another mythical being into the play would break Diana's consistent flow. Since Shakespeare heavily focused on Diana in Pericles, I wanted to honor that and keep it constant. 

Characters and Locations Quizlet

Explaining the 14 Year Gap

    
     I would explain the fourteen year gap in Shakespeare's Pericles in a way that emphasizes Dionyza's envious and evil nature while highlighting Pericles' noble and caring personality.

    First, Pericles would return to Tyre after leaving Marina in Tarsus with Cleon and Dionyza. I would have him state that he wishes to reunite with his daughter, but he gets caught up in Tyre's politics and social problems and whatnot. Since he has been gone for a while, he must regain the trust of his people again after his relatively long period of absence. After around a year of gaining his people's trust, he sends a letter to Tarsus regarding whether he can get his daughter. However, the letter never reaches Tarsus because of a tempest on the delivery's way to Tarsus on the Mediterranean Sea. This would keep Shakespeare's focus on the water very consistent throughout the play. By the time his second letter, sent by land, reaches Tarsus, a considerable amount of time has passed. Back in Tarsus, Dionyza resembles a different person from the first half of the play. She begins to madly covet Marina, maybe even love her more than her own daughter, which would cause conflict within herself later on. She replies to Pericles convincing him to leave Marina there, where she can live with a mother-like person (Dionyza) around, since Dionyza knows of Thaisa's unfortunate event. Then Pericles, the good father that he is, is persuaded that life would be better in Tarsus for Marina since he, a single-parent and ruling king, wouldn't be able to provide what he believes Dionyza can provide. Pericles agrees to do so with the condition that Marina knows of his existence and can get her back when the time is right for both Pericles and Marina. Then, as time passes (around ten years), maybe a dumb show could show Dionyza's transformation into Cinderella's evil stepmother due to jealousy. Pericles occasionally receives updates on Marina and even letters from here (written by someone else, explaining her "lovely" life), thinking that everything is perfect, when it isn't. This would conclude my explanation for the fourteen year gap.