Love Hate

As I read the play, Much Ado About Nothing, I finally found the character that if Shakespeare had known me would have written for me. Beatrice seemed to me like the kind of person I am. She is strong-willed, “one of the boys”, too quick to open her mouth, and caring toward the people she loves. Beatrice is a trusting person when you first meet her, but if you lose her favor, it is almost impossible to regain her trust. She is a woman of strength in these times, and someone that I greatly admire.

My favorite scene in the play is that between Beatrice and Benedick at the party. I love how we can never truly know if Beatrice knows that it is Benedick under the mask, or if she is just sending a message to him through his friends. I love how she is able to anger him so easily, and that he is just steaming over it even after she has left his side. This

Page d'écriture: Jacques Prévert

Deux et deux quatre
quatre et quatre huit
huit et huit font seize…
Répétez! dit le maître
Deux et deux quatre
quatre et quatre huit
huit et huit font seize.
Mais voilà l’oiseau-lyre
qui passe dans le ciel
l’enfant le voit
L’enfant l’entend
l’enfant l’appelle:
Sauve-moi
joue avec moi
oiseau!
Alors l’oiseau descend
et joue avec l’enfant
Deux et deux quatre…
Répétez! dit le maître
et l’enfant joue
l’oiseau joue avec lui…
Quatre et quatre huit
huit et huit font seize
et seize et seize qu’est-ce qu’ils font?
Ils ne font rien seize et seize
et surtout pas trente-deux
de toute façon
et ils s’en vont.
Et l’enfant a caché l’oiseau
dans son pupitre
et tous les enfants entendent sa chanson
et tous les enfants
entendent la musique
et huit et huit à leur tour s’en vont
et quatre et quatre et deux et deux
à leur tour fichent le camp
et un et un ne font ni une ni deux
et un à un s’en vont également.
Et l’oiseau-lyre joue
et l’enfant chante
et le professeur crie:
Quand vous aurez fini de faire le pitre!
Mais tous les autres enfants
écoutent la musique
et les murs de la classe
s’écroulent tranquillement
Et les vitres redeviennent sable
l’encre redevient eau
les pupitres redeviennent abres
la craie redevient falaise
le porte-plume redevient oiseau.

Two and two four
Four and four eight
Eight and eight makes sixteen…
Repeat! says the teacher
Two and two four
Four and four eight
Eight and eight makes sixteen.
But there is a lyrebird
Who flies through the sky
The child sees it
The child hears it
And the child calls to it
Save me
Play with me
Bird!
So the bird descends
And plays with the child
Two and two four…
Repeat! says the teacher
And the child plays
And the bird plays with him…
Four and four eight
Eight and eight makes sixteen
And what’s sixteen and sixteen?
It makes nothing, 16 and 16
Especially not thirty-two
In any case
And it leaves
And the child hides the bird
In his des
And the children hear his song
And all the children
Hear the music
And 8 and 8 leave in their turn
And 4 and 4 and 2 and 2
And in their turn clear out
And one and one don’t make 1 or 2
And 1 to 1 leave equally
And the lyrebird plays
And the child sings
And the teacher cries:
When you are done acting like clowns!
But the other children
Listen to the music
And the walls of the class
Crumble gently
And the glass panes become sand again
And the ink becomes water again
And the desks become trees again
And the chalk becomes cliffs again
And the quill becomes the bird again.

Lifelong Love Affair

I had a very difficult time beginning this week’s blog. Not because I don’t have any experience with Shakespeare literary genius, far from it in fact. I simply could not sit down and describe how much Shakespeare has been a part of my life even before I began reading his plays, poems, and sonnets. My first introduction to Shakespeare was completely unknown; I went to see the new Disney film, The Lion King. The basic plot of The Lion King is that of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet. It tells the tale of a prince to be, whose father is killed by an evil uncle: Scar. Like Claudius, Scar assumes Mufasa’s (King Hamlet’s) throne, and Simba (Hamlet) must reclaim the kingdom that is rightfully his. Though I did not know that the story unfolding before my eyes was based off of the marvelous work of Shakespeare, my love for his slightly twisted plots began to grow.

As I grew older, I realized that many of my favorite films centered around Shakespeare’s works. The Renaissance Man, for example, takes place on an army base. Danny DeVito, an unemployed business man in advertising, goes to the base to teach English to some select students who will not pass out of boot camp without some knowledge of the English language. One thing leads to another, and DeVito is teaching a group of soldiers Hamlet. Their comprehension of the play, and Shakespeare’s prose, in such a short period of time is incredible. Some of my other favorite films include West Side Story and Shakespeare in Love.

My experience reading Shakespeare dates back to summer reading the year I moved from Colorado. Having never read Shakespeare, I was expected to comprehend The Tempest. Unfortunately, I really struggled being able to fit my head around this play, and scored miserably on the test. It was not until later that year when my love affair with Shakespeare’s writing began. My eighth grade class read Macbeth. Though people in the class did not enjoy the play as much as I did, I was suddenly able to understand what was being said throughout the play–an incredible improvement from my attempt with The Tempest.

In the ninth grade I made my move to Phoenix Country Day, and I read Macbeth again in my freshman year. The Christmas of 2005, I received a gift that I still hold very close to my heart. My grandparents English presented me with a full collection of Shakespeare’s works that my grandfather used in college. This slightly tattered schoolbook has become my bedside companion for months. Due to my busy schedule, I have only had time to read one or two of the plays, but I love when I have the chance to pick it up and read the same pages my grandfather did over sixty years ago.

Though I did not begin reading Shakespeare until the very last year of middle school, his stories have been a large part of my life for years. The beauty of his words has lasted for centuries, and I am not the first to be completely spellbound. I hope that my love of Shakespeare will continue throughout my life, and I believe that my education at PCDS has paved the way for this lifelong affair. (545)