First Shakespeare - Character Log Questions

Author& Title of the play

William Shakespeare never published any of his plays and therefore none of the original manuscripts have survived. Eighteen unauthorised versions of his plays were, however, published during his lifetime in quarto editions by unscrupulous publishers (there were no copyright laws protecting Shakespeare and his works during the Elizabethan era). A collection of his works did not appear until 1623 (a full seven years after Shakespeare's death on April 23, 1616) when two of his fellow actors, John Humming’s and Henry Condell, posthumously recorded his work and published 36 of William’s plays in the First Folio. Some dates are therefore approximate other dates are substantiated by history. There is no doubt that Shakespeare is the greatest writer of modern English to date – his plays have been made into movies, his sonnets have appeared in books and music, and his works translated in to hundreds of different languages. His contribution to the English language is probably larger than that of anyone else. The title of the play I chose my monologue from is called Love’s Labours lost.  Shakespeare is also the author of the most best selling plays. Listed below:
 

Hamlet

Written between 1599 and 1601, this play is set in Denmark and recounts how Prince Hamlet vengeance on his uncle Claudius, who murdered the King, takes the throne and marries Hamlet’s mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness from overwhelming grief to seething rage and explores themes of revenge, incest and moral corruption. “Hamlet” is Shakespeare’s longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language. During his lifetime the play was one of Shakespeare’s most popular works and it still ranks high among his most-performed, topping, for example, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s list since 1879. It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch and has been described as “the world’s most filmed story after ‘Cinderella.’” The title role was almost certainly created for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare’s time. It is arguably the greatest drama ever written and in the four hundred years since, it has been played by the greatest actors and sometimes actresses, of each successive age.

2) Romeo and Juliet

This play is an early tragedy (and likely Shakespeare’s first) about two teenage “star-crossed lovers” whose “untimely deaths” ultimately unite their feuding households. The play has been highly praised by literary critics for its language and dramatic effect. It was among Shakespeare’s most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with “Hamlet” is one of his most frequently performed plays. Its influence is still seen today, with the two main characters being widely represented as archetypal young lovers. This is the singularly greatest romance ever written and has been continuously adapted to each generation in musicals, cinema and the theatre.

  Henry V

 

Believed to be written in 1599, it’s based on the life of King Henry V of England and focuses on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Year’s War. The play is the final part of a tetralogy, preceded by “Richard II,” “Henry IV, Part 1″ and “Henry IV, Part 2.” The original audiences would thus have already been familiar with the title character, which was depicted in the “Henry IV” plays as a wild, undisciplined lad known as “Prince Hal.” In “Henry V,” the young prince has become a mature man and embarks on an attempted conquest of France.

Midsummer Night’s Dream

This romantic comedy was written sometime in the 1590′s and portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers; a group of amateur actors; their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta; and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare’s most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

Macebth: This is among the best-known of Shakespeare’s plays and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels and has been adapted for opera, film, books, stage and screen. Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends. For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account of “King Macbeth of Scotland” by Raphael Holinshed and that by the Scottish philosopher Hector Boece. There are many superstitions centered on the belief the play is somehow cursed” and many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as “The Scottish Play.”
 

Richard III

 

The play is an unflattering depiction of the short reign of Richard III of England and is believed to have been written in approximately 1591. The play is sometimes classified as a tragedy (as in the earliest quarto); but it more correctly belongs to the histories, as classified in the First Folio. It picks up the story from Henry VI, Part III and concludes the historical series that stretches back to Richard II. After Hamlet it is Shakespeare’s second longest play and is the longest of the First Folio, whose version of Hamlet is shorter than the Quarto version. The length is generally seen as a drawback, for which reason it is rarely performed unabridged. It is often shortened by cutting peripheral character.

Julius Caesar This tragedy is believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the conspiracy against the Roman dictator of the same name, his assassination and its aftermath. It is one of several Roman plays that Shakespeare wrote, based on true events from Roman history, which also include “Coriolanus” and “Anthony and Cleopatra.” Although the title of the play is “Julius Caesar,” Caesar is not the central character in its action; he appears in only three scenes and is killed at the beginning of the third act. The protagonist of the play is Marcus Brutus and the central psychological drama is his struggle between the conflicting demands of honor, patriotism and friendship. The play reflected the general anxiety of England over succession of leadership. At the time of its creation and first performance, Queen Elizabeth, a strong ruler, was elderly and had refused to name a successor, leading to worries that a civil war similar to that of Rome might break out after her death.

                                                                                      Twelfth Night

This play is named after the Twelfth Night holiday of the Christmas season. It was written around 1601 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. Like many of Shakespeare’s comedies, this one centre's on mistaken identity. The leading character, Viola, is shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria during the opening scenes. She loses contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, whom she believes dead. Posing as a man and masquerading as a young page under the name Cesario, she enters the service of Duke Orsino. Orsino is in love with the bereaved Lady Olivia, whose brother has recently died and decides to use “Cesario” as an intermediary. Olivia, believing Viola to be a man, falls in love with this handsome and eloquent messenger. Viola, in turn, has fallen in love with the Duke, who also believes Viola is a man and who regards her as his confident.

The Taming of the Shrew

 

This comedy is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1594. The play begins with a framing device in which a drunkard is deceived into thinking he is a nobleman who then watches the “play” itself, which depicts a nobleman, Petruchio, who marries an outspoken, intelligent and bad-tempered shrew named Katherine. Petruchio manipulates and “tames” her until she is obedient to his will. The main subplot features the courting of Katherine’s more conventional sister Bianca by numerous suitors. The content has become the subject of considerable controversy. The play has been adapted numerous times for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre.

Othello the Moor of Venice

This tragedy is believed to have been written in approximately 1603. The work revolves around four central characters: Othello, his wife Desdemona, his lieutenant Cassio and his trusted advisor Iago. Attesting to its enduring popularity, the play appeared in seven editions between 1622 and 1705. Because of its varied themes - racism, love, jealousy and betrayal- it remains relevant to the present day and is often performed in professional and community theatres alike. The play has also been the basis for numerous operatic, film and literary adaptations.

Brief Synopsis

Love's Labour's Lost the play by William Shakespeare

Love’s labour’s lost believed to have been written in the mid-1590s. However Love’s Labour’s lost was believed to have been first printed and published in 1598. Shakespeare clearly did not want his work published; details of the play would have therefore been noted, and often pirated without his consent, following a performance. The setting for Love's Labour's Lost is Navarre, a province in northern Spain bordered by France. Originally, a region in northern Spain and southern France (department of Basses-Pyrénées) at one time, Navarre was a kingdom. In 1515, Spain annexed most of Navarre; in 1589, France annexed the rest of the kingdom. The capital of present-day Navarre is Pamplona, on the Arga River, founded by the ancient Roman general Pompey the Great. The area was later occupied by Visigoths and Moors. Pamplona is famous for the Festival of St. Fermin (July 6-14), in which a chief attraction is running of bulls each morning through the streets of the city.

The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of Love's Labour's Lost occurs, according to both definitions, in Act V, Scene II, when the four women reject the love suits of the four men. Up to this moment, the women have regarded the antics of the king and his comrades as amusing flirtations and the king's realm as almost a chimerical world, although the men may have thought otherwise. Then Mercadé's announcement that the father of the princess has died jolt's everyone back to reality. When the princess decides to leave immediately for France and the men importune her and the other ladies to remain, pledging their love, the princess recites the climactic passage:

We have received your letters full of love;
Your favours, the ambassadors of love;
And, in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest and courtesy,
As bombast and as lining to the time:
But more devout2than this in our respects
Have we not been; and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment. (5. 2. 761-794)
That she would call their letters and their favours "bombast" and their wooing mere "merriment" sobers the men, who have been acting with the immaturity of college students on a spring break, and prepares them for the year-long test they must do.  Love of learning cannot vie with love of a man for a woman. King Ferdinand and his compatriots decide to isolate themselves for three years to study great books and great ideas, vowing that they will keep no company with women during this period. However, when beautiful women arrive on a diplomatic mission, the men immediately forswear their oaths. True love must be tested in the crucible of time

The princess and her company of ladies find their wooers entertaining, but they do not commit to a relationship with them immediately. Wisely, they realize that true love does not strike like lightning but instead develops over time, like a rose growing from seed to full bloom. At the end of the play, they tell the men that they must wait and undergo tests to prove that their love is not mere infatuation. In this respect, these ladies contrast with other Shakespeare heroines, such as Rosalind (As You like It), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) and Hero (Much Ado about Nothing), who all fall in love at first sight and never doubt their feelings or the intentions of their lovers.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

 This paraphrase from the Bible (Matthew 26: 40-41) aptly sums up the state of mind of the king and his three compatriots. For a moment, they become idealistic scholars who renounce the world and its pleasures. But the princess and her companions bring them down from the rarefied clime of academe to the sensual world of perfume and feminine beauty. William Shakespeare's main source of Inspiration was probably taken from renaissance literature.

Genre, themes and writing style of the play

The play is categorised as a Comedy playful, Poetic, Language-obsessed.

Language is almost like another character in this play. Seriously, the plot just seems like an excuse for Shakespeare to indulge his taste and talent for putting words together. Have you ever seen so many letters read aloud in a play?
Language in Shakespeare can be difficult and the language of Love's Labour's Lost is certainly no exception. Here are some conventions to watch for:

The Pun or Quibble: These are the kind of groan-worthy jokes that might seem a little cheesy. A pun plays on the word: either two different meanings of the same word, or on the sound or meaning of two different words. When Rosaline finds out Berowne has written her a love letter, Boyet asks, "Who is the shooter?" (4.1.37). He's referring to the hunt they're involved in, but also making a joke about Rosaline's suitor.

Rhyme: You are probably already familiar with this one. Love's Labour's Lost is full of rhymes – like the scene with the boys in trees. Rhyme is playful, melodious and funny, as in this except (the puns and sexual innuendo as well)

MARIA: Come, come, you talk greasily; your lips grow foul.
COSTARD: She's too hard for you at pricks, sir; challenge her to bowl.
BOYET: I fear too much rubbing; good-night, my good owl. (4.2.58-60)
Take a look at "Character Clues" for more about when Shakespeare uses verse and when he uses prose.

Sonnets: This play has five of them. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines that rhyme according to particular rules, and often taking up the subject of love and romance. Shakespeare is the most famous English sonnet-writer – he wrote about 150 around the same time as he was composing Love's Labour's lost. Here is one by Longaville:

Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,
persuade my heart to this false perjury?
Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.
A woman I forswore; but I will prove,
Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me.
Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is;
Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine,
Exhal'st this vapour-vow; in thee it is.
If broken, then it is no fault of mine;
If by me broke, what fool is not so wise
to lose an oath to win a paradise? (4.13.14)

The sonnets aren't just an actor's chance to show off in Love's Labour's lost. They are also important to the plot. It's Costard's mix-up in delivering the sonnets that causes Berowne to be outed as a lover, moving the story forward. If you are interested in Sonnets be sure to check out Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Stichomythia: It's a long word for the one-liner. Think of a television comedy – the characters banter, the pace is fast, the energy is high. Long sections of stichomythia make up the "sets of wit" that are all over the play. Like this one in which Boyet tortures Longaville:

LONGAVILLE: I beseech you a word: what is she in the white?
BOYET: A woman sometimes, a you saw her in the light.
LONGAVILLE: Perchance light in the light. I desire her name.
BOYET: She hath but one for herself; to desire that was a shame.
LONGAVILLE: Pray you, sir, whose daughter?
BOYET: Her mother's, I have heard.
LONGAVILLE: God's blessing on your beard! (2.1.76)

The character I have chosen

Rosaline is a variant of Rosalind, a name from Old French. Its origin: (Lin = "soft, tender"). When it was imported into English it was thought to be from the Latin name Rosalinda ("lovely rose"). The character I have chosen is Rosaline.

 

Monologue Analysis

Character Analysis

Rosaline is the Princess's wingman (just like Berowne is the King's wingman). Rosaline is one of the play's protagonists. Like Berowne, she is sort of a truth-teller, and she is also smart, funny, and has a dark side.
In fact many scholars believe Rosaline is to be a reflection of the "dark lady" addressed by the speaker of Shakespeare's Sonnets 127 to 152, and this "dark lady" is thought to have been Shakespeare's mistress (check out the "In a Nutshell" section of Sonnet 18 for more information on the Sonnets). If we think of Berowne as a reflection of Shakespeare himself, and if we think of Rosaline as a version of Shakespeare's mistress, then we have an interesting relationship on our hands. Even though the King of Navarre and the Princess of France are the rulers and tone-setters, we can't help but focus more of our attention on the romance that develops between Berowne and Rosaline. In an attempt to get to know Rosaline as a character, I’ll consider several key aspects of her personality.

In the first place, Rosaline has the rare linguistic ability to give Berowne a run for his money in the arena of witty banter. In fact, she is as enthusiastic and talented at wordplay as any of the men. Take a look at this interaction between Berowne and Rosaline as the ladies tell the gentlemen about a band of "Muscovites" who have just passed through.

BEROWNE: I am a fool, and full of poverty.
ROSALINE: But that you take what doth to you belong,
it were a fault to snatch words from my tongue.
BEROWNE: O, I am yours, and all that I possess.
ROSALINE: All the fool mine?
(5.2.397-401)

Notice how she drives home the point that Berowne is a fool, even after he affectionately professes his love for her. Words and wordplay are important to Rosaline and Berowne's relationship, and she can bend his words and expose his weaknesses with a great deal of skill. We feel she's distrustful of Berowne and of love, and we also know that the two have a somewhat mysterious past together. Take a look at this revealing banter between the two lovers:

BEROWNE: Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
ROSALINE: Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
BEROWNE: I know you did.
ROSALINE: How needless was it then to ask the question!
(2.1.603-606)

Wow, Rosaline really makes a fool out of Berowne. Attempting to flirt with this pretty girl only reminds Berowne of how smart and saucy she is – she's not willing to play the role of a demure, flirtatious girl. She's ready to use her intelligence and her wit. What do you make of her demand that Berowne spend a year playing clown for sick people at the end of the play? Do you see Rosaline and Berowne living happily ever after?

Appeals about my character and the play

Love’s Labour’s Lost remains something of an anomaly among Shakespeare’s plays. Of all his comedies, this one is still often perceived as narrowly aristocratic; an obscure piece of coterie drama never truly intended to appeal to a general audience. This view has been formed by the massive commentary on the play’s references to the Harvey–Nashe controversy; Raleigh’s supposed ‘School of Night’, and other ‘topical puzzles’ still referred to, often in passing or in footnotes, by even the best and most recent scholarship. A re-examination of existing evidence about the probable original audience for Love’s Labour’s Lost casts grave suspicions on the kind of topicality understood only by Renaissance courtiers. Yet topicality itself cannot be altogether dismissed in a play for which the major male characters – the King of Navarre, Boyet, Marcadé, Armado, Moth, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine – were all named after military leaders then waging a civil war in France. Love’s Labour’s Lost was no more or less’ aristocratic’ in appeal than Shakespeare’s other earlier plays, that what topicality it possesses was available to a wide audience, and that, finally, we need to revise our way of looking at topicality at least in Love’s Labour’s Lost and perhaps in other plays, as well. The most appealing thing about my character Rosaline is her rare linguistic ability to give Berowne a run for his money in the arena of witty banter. What also appeals me about my character is that she is enthusiastic and talented at wordplay as any of the men in Love Labour’s Lost. This intrigues me more and makes me want to play the role of Rosaline because I love playing the role of characters that know how to use their rare linguistic ability.

Similarities &Differences

Rosaline and I have no similarities because I’m not always happy or in love. Rosaline and I have differences, for instance; she has this rare linguistic ability that she uses to her advantage. Especially, when she is speaking to Berowne in Love’s Labour’s lost that I in particular do not have so as a result to this her linguistic ability could actually be one of two challenges I should really face when I am playing the role of Rosaline in Love Labour’s lost to the panel (drama school). I have never fallen in love before. I’m not always happy either. 

Biggest challenge in playing the role:  Truthfully my biggest challenge in playing the role is in actual fact the emotional connection; I need to create some sort of connection with Rosaline to be able to portray her character’s nature and that is when the truth will be seen in my performance. I’m actually not in love or always happy. The other thing I have to do is to rehearse any way in which I rehearse the monologue with a rare linguistic ability.

 

Physically

To be quite frank; I have the impression that I should work on my gestures (movements).  I had done further research because the play did not tell me how exactly my character is like and since my character is mostly full of life always happy then suddenly she is in love. I need to show how she often feels (happy emotions) and how the author felt when he was writing the play. If I did not research much further; then my role would look fake and made up sort of like a cartoon even though my main aim is for the audience to see truth in my two min performance. If I was just saying the lines and doing no actions it would not make my performance affective at all it. Instead it makes me look as if I am rehearsing my lines in front of an audience and when I’m actually meant to be performing.

Vocally

I believe I should do more and more vocal warm ups that I have been taught and will be taught by Sean Pol and Jackie because the voice warm ups will enable me to: project my voice when I’m performing to the drama school panel and be much more clearer then I already am when I perform my monologue as my character as Rosaline. I should also work on how to change the tone of my voice because when I was watching the play the character that was playing the role of Rosaline used different tones in her voice for certain words. I know if I do that for my piece it will make my performance much more interesting to watch and it will intrigue the panel even more despite it being in Shakespearean Language.

Emotionally

Different people define emotions in different ways. Some make a distinction between emotions and feelings saying that a feeling is the response part of the emotion and that an emotion includes the situation or experience, the interpretation, the perception, and the response or feeling related to the experience of a particular situation.

Dr. Maurice Elias says, “Emotions are human beings’ warning systems as to what is really going on around them. Emotions are our most reliable indicators of how things are going on in our lives. Emotions help keep us on the right track by making sure that we are led by more than the mental/ intellectual faculties of thought, perception, reason, and memory.”

Emotions control your thinking, behaviour and actions. Emotions affect your physical bodies as much as your body affects your feelings and thinking. People, who ignore, dismiss, repress or just ventilate their emotions, are setting themselves up for physical illness. Emotions that are not felt and released but buried within the body or in the aura can cause serious illness, including cancer, arthritis, and many types of chronic illnesses. Negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, negativity, frustration and depression cause chemical reactions in your body that are very different from the chemicals released when you feel positive emotions such as happy, content, loved, accepted.

I personally think I should work on why my character is full of life of course looking at her background but not going into her home life, I’m going to deeply research about her social life. For instance I need to have a feel of the sort of guys she dated or if she has any emotional blocks from being rejected or cheated on within a relationship she has had with any man. For this particular monologue I need to know why she is in love with Berowne and why he seems to stand out from the rest of the guys she has dated because she’s really drawn to Berowne’s sense of humour. I need to get an emotional connection and in order for me to do that I need to research in detail about the role of Rosaline and the role of Berowne. I will watch more Shakespearean plays in order for me to get connections that will enable me to perform this piece in a unique stylistic way.

Background research

The background information that I thought I needed to know and research about is the character. Where she was from? Where she lived? As in was she poor, middle class or very wealthy. How old she was? If she had family who were they? Why did she act the way she did in the play? Her love life as in who she fell in love with. I also thought I needed to find out more about the play and why it was written. Most importantly the Historical Context. Love’s Labour’s lost appears to have been written for private performance in court circles perhaps at a private house at Christmas time in 1593, when the regular theatres were closed because of the plague. The evidence suggests that the play was originally a battle in a private war between different aristocratic Factions. Sir Walter Raleigh had gathered an “academy” of scholars, nobles, and poets (including the dramatists Chapman and Marlowe) to study philosophy and the stars. The group was branded by a pamphleteer in 1592 as “Sir Walter Raleigh’s School of Atheism” and in 1594, after Raleigh’s disgrace, was investigated for heresy. This group seems to have been the model for Navarre’s “little academy” and Shakespeare, in mocking the futility of the experiment, appears to be taking the part of his patron the Earl of Southampton (Raleigh’s chief rival at the Court). Uniquely in the Shakespeare canon, the plot of Love’s Labour’s Lost has no known antecedents. But scholars have for two hundred years enjoyed the game of tracing the topical allusions in which the play abounds. As for the setting in Navarre, there was of course a real King of Navarre, who as a protestant was a valuable ally of Queen Elizabeth against Catholic Spain until he himself became a Catholic in 1593. Navarre was a tiny mountain state set between France and Spain, and was described apologetically by its King Henry II who had lost his kingdom to King Ferdinand of Spain and spent his life vainly negotiating with France and Spain to regain it as ‘a flea between two monkeys’.

It has been noted that Berowne and Longaville were members of Navarre’s actual court, and that the name of the Mayenne was constantly linked with that of the King. Shakespeare seems to have made use of these names for Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine; and the names Boyet, Marcadé, and de la Mothe all appear in contemporary court records. There is no known story, from which Shakespeare took his theme, love’s Labour’s lost it shows better than almost any of Shakespeare’s plays his capacity for taking material and shaping it to his needs.

Impact

My character should make the audience first understand the relationship between Berowne (the king’s wingman) and Rosaline (the princess’s wingman). After that the impact my character should make on the audience is to make them feel like she loves him but first she must find out whether he is in love with her or whether it is nothing but lust or a fluke because knowing her past relationships that is the sort of situations she gets stuck in and she wants to know if his love is genuine or not.

 

Character Exercises/ Observations

 

 * Go to the theatre and have a good look at the physicality trait of Rosaline then develop m own using the actors interpretation and mine combined into one.

 How I am going to go about playing the role of Rosaline

 

*First I will find out Rosaline's importance in the play. As in why did Shakespeare write the play with her as the princess's best friend.  

 * Learn the meaning behind some of he Shakespearean phrases and words.
*Find out how Rosaline feels about the other characters.
*Historical Context- How she dressed, so I can get an idea on how her physicality is; also how she spoke, was her gestures really graceful and was she soft-spoken.
*Watched the play three times o get around the Shakespearean poetic language that is used.

Evaluation & Feedback

Merit A really strong audition! You gave an accurate and thoroughly prepared performance. Good energy at times but you must maintain it throughout the performance. Some good use of voice and physical work that was appropriate to the character with some emotional connection. I enjoyed your performance. Keep this up. One thing is that you must always strive to develop high levels of energy and commitment and above all finally conquer the Leyton weakness, clarity of speech. At times you swallowed phrases. But well done!. We will talk in detail at the feedback session.