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More Meme...
Jul. 28th, 2010 11:00 pmDay 5: Favorite Villain
So, I was fully intending to write about Richard III, but he’s been getting a lot of love from this meme, so I thought I’d write about Duke Angelo from Measure for Measure instead. I don’t feel I fully get Angelo, but he strikes me as one of Shakespeare’s most nuanced and "realistic" villains. He’s obsessed with justice and morality, and his obsession makes him a difficult man to like. Ultimately, though, it’s not his rigid morality that undoes him, but rather his morality coupled with a powerful desire to taste forbidden fruit. Both his attraction to morality and his attraction to sin seem to me to be wholly genuine. He’s a hypocrite, but a very self aware, self-loathing hypocrite, who seems to me to feel an obligation to enforce the law even if it means condemning himself.
Day 6: Favorite Villainess
Margaret of Anjou! This is not even a question for me. In parts two and three of Henry VI, she could not be more badass. In my mind, she steals the show because of her passionate commitment to her loves and her causes. She acts as king when she perceives that Henry has fallen down on the job, and she shows unflinching devotion to her son. Of course, along the way, there's some torture. Yeah...she's not good to York. Okay, now I'm getting chills of horror thinking about a certain blood-soaked handkerchief, so we'd better move on. ANYWAY. In Richard III, she takes on the role of prophetess. She curses and rails, she foretells the ruin of her enemies. She doesn’t let us forget the Wars of the Roses, even though a temporary peace reigns. Yeah. Made of awesome.
So, I was fully intending to write about Richard III, but he’s been getting a lot of love from this meme, so I thought I’d write about Duke Angelo from Measure for Measure instead. I don’t feel I fully get Angelo, but he strikes me as one of Shakespeare’s most nuanced and "realistic" villains. He’s obsessed with justice and morality, and his obsession makes him a difficult man to like. Ultimately, though, it’s not his rigid morality that undoes him, but rather his morality coupled with a powerful desire to taste forbidden fruit. Both his attraction to morality and his attraction to sin seem to me to be wholly genuine. He’s a hypocrite, but a very self aware, self-loathing hypocrite, who seems to me to feel an obligation to enforce the law even if it means condemning himself.
Day 6: Favorite Villainess
Margaret of Anjou! This is not even a question for me. In parts two and three of Henry VI, she could not be more badass. In my mind, she steals the show because of her passionate commitment to her loves and her causes. She acts as king when she perceives that Henry has fallen down on the job, and she shows unflinching devotion to her son. Of course, along the way, there's some torture. Yeah...she's not good to York. Okay, now I'm getting chills of horror thinking about a certain blood-soaked handkerchief, so we'd better move on. ANYWAY. In Richard III, she takes on the role of prophetess. She curses and rails, she foretells the ruin of her enemies. She doesn’t let us forget the Wars of the Roses, even though a temporary peace reigns. Yeah. Made of awesome.
