The Big Five (Learning Outcomes...)

1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy: demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy

Breadth (knowledge of a range of Shakespeare’s works)

• In class I read (or listened to) several of Shakespeare’s works and wrote blog posts about each one. These include:
• The Tempest (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-next-episode-of-tempest-chat.html),
• Henry V (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-found-this-article-on-luminarium.html)
• The Merchant of Venice (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/shylock-and-self-fulfilling-prophecy.html)
• Hamlet (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/do-you-hear-what-i-hear.html)
• Love’s Labour’s Lost (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/03/loves-labours-lost-acts-2-and-3.html)
• I also viewed productions of The Merchant of Venice and Love’s Labour’s Lost and wrote reviews about them. Here’s my blog post about The Merchant of Venice production:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/childs-play-review-of-byus-merchant-of.html

Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work)

• I used The Merchant of Venice as the basis of my research paper and my final project. Refer to sections 2–5 in this post, as most of my Shakespeare knowledge was gained by reading and analyzing this play.

Performance (stage and screen)

• I also viewed productions of The Merchant of Venice and Love’s Labour’s Lost and wrote reviews about them. Here’s my blog post about The Merchant of Venice production:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/childs-play-review-of-byus-merchant-of.html
• I also viewed a movie about the scenes in The Merchant of Venice, which I wrote about in my media sources post:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-performance-analysis.html

Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture)

• Again, refer to sections 2–5 in this post for more information about my studies into Shakespeare’s legacy.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically

• I did most of my Shakespeare analyses on The Merchant of Venice. Here are a couple of my posts that discuss my critical research on the play:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-annotated-bibliography.html
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/people-really-do-care.html
• But I also delved a little into Hamlet, for example in this blog post:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-found-this-article-on-luminarium.html
• I also found a site that has a lot of critical essays about all of Shakespeare’s plays:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/greatness-that-is-luminarium.html

Interpret Shakespeare’s works critically in their written form, in performance (stage or screen) and in digitally mediated transformations. This includes:

• Textual analysis (theme, language, formal devices)
• Merchant of Venice: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/shylock-and-self-fulfilling-prophecy.html
• The Tempest: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/all-men-idle-all.html
• Contextual analysis (historical, contemporary, cultural)
• the different essays I read, mostly about historical influences on the text, but also influences of gender, race, and religion: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-annotated-bibliography.html
• Application of literary theories 
• the different essays I read, but here we’ll use the focus on existentialism: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-annotated-bibliography.html
• Analysis of digital mediations 
• video about The Merchant of Venice: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-performance-analysis.html 

3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively

Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video)

• I performed in my first two pre-video videos. In the first one, I monologue about the similarities between Jews’ situation in The Merchant of Venice, and in the second one I held up a quote from Shakespeare and then commented on it as it relates to Mormons today. It was very nerve-racking for me to be in the spotlight. The links to the two videos I starred in:
• Pre-preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afO0Vmquz7M&feature=relmfu
• Prototype: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az9Om7EISto&feature=relmfu

Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music)

• I created a video that compares Mormons and their oppression today to the oppression that Jews (particularly Shylock) endured in the Merchant of Venice.
• The link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-_98RboNAQ&feature=relmfu
• This work is very artistic in that it tells a story using only comments from people I interviewed and quotes from Shakespeare’s plays (mainly the Merchant of Venice). I found music that I thought went perfectly with the different moods in the separate sections of my video. Basically, this is a work of art and very creative.

Collaborative creative project

• We all created 90-second video trailers to present as a group at the final presentation. I don’t know what the link to the page is, but when I find it I will post it. It’s like a web of our ideas, all of them connecting with each other and to the ultimate source: Shakespeare!

4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully

Formal Writing. Develop and communicate your ideas about Shakespeare clearly in formal and researched writing and through a format and medium that puts your ideas into public circulation.

• I put my paper in rough and final form in a very public google.doc and on my blog.
• Rough draft: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/to-be-mormon-or-not-to-be-mormon.html
• Final draft: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/03/final-paper.html

Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing

• I have shared ideas and tweethis statements on Facebook a few times during the semester to see what my friends who aren’t studying Shakespeare think:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/04/shakespeare-on-facebook.html

Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class.

• This is a blog post about my experience sharing my ideas about Shakespeare with other people:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-social-proof.html

5. Gain Digital Literacy:  Students use their study of Shakespeare as a way of understanding and developing fluency in 21st century learning skills and computer-mediated modes of communication. Those skills are grouped under the following categories.

Consume: Effective and independent selecting, searching, researching

• In this blog post, I researched a few videos that were comparable to what I made. I researched other videos about persecution—not only religious, but also prejudice concerning race and sexual preference.
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/04/comparable-media.html
• I also researched a lot of general stuff about Shakespeare, in particular Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

Create - Producing content that demonstrates learning and which can be shared for others to profit from.

• I created four videos total, three in preparation for my final video. The last two videos I made required extensive editing (I won’t tell you how many hours they took to make). I had never had any previous video editing experiences before this, but now I’m pretty much a professional.
• I think that my video is very real because everything that my interviewees said were their own ideas. I gave them prompts, but often they went off-topic, and when that happened I got most of my useful information. These are real people with real problems who want to share their experiences with others struggling with these problems.
• I feel that my final video addresses very pertinent issues about Mormons, the troubles they face, and how to deal with those problems. I think that members of the LDS church as well as those outside of the church can learn a great deal from my video. I learned a lot just making the video. The people I interviewed helped me see many new perspectives on the issue, which I hope I expressed in my video!

Connect - Engage with other learners within and outside of the class to develop thinking and share more formal work.

• I posted all four of my videos online for anyone who wants to watch them. Here are the YouTube links:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-_98RboNAQ (final video)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQbOlF7JuyA (trailer for final video)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az9Om7EISto (prototype for final video)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afO0Vmquz7M (a preview of the preview)
• I also posted the final video on Facebook to see what my friends thought about it. Spoiler: they loved it.
• Several members of the class viewed my video and gave me criticism, which I very much appreciated.
• And I got one comment from a person I don’t know on the post containing my trailer video 
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/03/trailer-like-no-other.html 

Shakespeare on Facebook

A montage of my favorite Facebook responses to my video, tweethis, and random ideas about Shakespeare.

Comparable Media

Here are some videos that I think are comparable to what I made:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZI2K8roLG8
• Pastor Robert Jeffress kindly calls Mormonism a "cult": how do we respond to that?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0jXg-hKCI
• It Gets Better at BYU: not necessarily religious persecution, but persecution nonetheless. 
• http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1016&sid=19414666
• The church has to make a statement about racism after Randy Bott's interview about blacks and the priesthood.

My Final Video. Maybe.

So this is what I've come up with for my final project. I would really like this to be my last edit of the video, but if anyone has any ideas of how I can improve it--the music, the story, the flow, the Shakespeare quotes.
Let me know what you think!

A Trailer Like No Other

Prepare yourselves, because this trailer for my project will blow your mind. It's just a teaser, so of course all of the points I'm trying to make will have a little more substance in the final version. 

I couldn't figure out how to put links and tags and stuff into the actual YouTube video. That would have been helpful, I think, but there's not much I can do about it.

Market Study

I've decided to aim my video at the Young Men and Young Women (teenagers) in the church. With this audience, then, I've decided that it would be useful to send it (or a prototype of it) to the youth leaders in the church and see what they think of it. I also want to show it to the people I hope would actually benefit from it (aka teenagers in the church).
So I've made up a list of some people that I am going to contact about my video. I've divided them into two groups: people who I want to see the video, and people I want to help me make the video.

• People I'll send it to:
• Bobbie Jaspers:  a former Young Women leader. She is still pretty involved with the youth in my home ward, so she would know if they would like or appreciate the video.
• Shirley Powell:  former seminary and Young Women teacher. She knows everything about everything the kids back home do, plus she loves me. She'd be happy to give me some feedback!
• Whoever the current Young Women President in my ward is:  I don't know who it is right now, but I'll get my mom to tell me. Obviously she would know what the Young Women in my home ward like and if my video would be something they'd watch willingly. 
• Joy Anderson:  ward Young Women counselor AND a former stake Young Women leader. AND she's my neighbor and my mom's best friend, so she pretty much can't say no to me. She has connections both in the stake and in my ward. I would like to see if she or someone else can distribute my video around the stake and see what other youth leaders outside of my ward  think of it. Maybe they can even show it to the teenagers in their wards.
• Jim Bell:  bishop of my home ward. Nuff said. He knows everything about the ward and the kids in it. 
• My mom:  she had 6 kids. She knows a little something about what they like.
• Dr. Burton's wife:  apparently he has talked to her and she's interested in it. She's a Young Women leader, so that's helpful. We'll see what happens!
• People in the limelight:
• Me. I hope I can get in contact with her.
• Sadie Klein:  lived in Florida, and went on a fifteen-minute rant when I asked her if she ever had any experiences because she was a Mormon. She's got plenty of stories and said she didn't mind being filmed.
• Travis Moore or Thomas Sheffield:  both of these guys have higher-quality cameras, so I hope I can borrow one so that the movie doesn't look super ghetto. 
• Jeni Perez:  I posted on Facebook about my project and she offered to tell me some stories about her experiences! I'll post about her response later.
• Katherine Morris:  one of Dr. Burton's former students. Apparently she's from California and had to deal with the whole prop 8 thing. I sent her an email so I'll post when and if she responds. 
• James Blackburn:  my roommate's fiancee. He's got a ton of crazy stories, too. I don't know if the youth will be able to relate to him because he has a beard and he's obviously much older than them, but we'll see what he has to say anyway. 
• The Ontiveros family:  my family (in case you couldn't guess). I have brothers and sisters who all, like me, grew up in a town with about twelve Mormons total in the school. We've all had to listen to people asking us ridiculous questions about being Mormon. I'll talk to all of them and see what they have to say.

I don't know how many people can be involved in my video because I don't want it to be too long, but I think everyone I contact will have something to offer that will help my video go in the direction it needs to. 

Updates to come later!

Prototype Video! Topic: Answering People's Ridiculous/Crazy Questions about Our Faith

Now that I have a semi-permanent idea about what my project will be, I'll share it. I want to make a video that shows people what Mormons have to deal with when people criticize the church, and then tell them how to handle these issues using digital media. I want to direct it toward the Young Men and Young Women of the church because I know from experience that they often don't know what to do in these situations. I want to make a video that teaches them positive ways of dealing with negative situations.

I don't know if this is enough of a connection to Shakespeare, but I'm trying to work it in. The basic format of each section of my video will be as follows: (1) a quote from Shakespeare that illustrates the issue I'm discussing; (2) a personal story about a person's experience with that issue; (3) my commentary on that issue; and (4) the solution or resources (with a focus on using digital media) people can use to handle the issue. I'm thinking about including three different issues to focus on. The issue I chose for my prototype video is "the crazy questions people ask us about ourselves, our practices, and out beliefs."

Just so everyone knows, this is a VERY ROUGH idea of what my video is going to look like. I'm going to film it with a higher quality camera and get better lighting, obviously. And it won't just be me talking straight at the camera the whole time, because that would be really boring to just stare at my face for several minutes. I hope to put in other people talking about their own experiences (I have a couple people already who have offered to be on camera!). I'm also going to put in pictures and video clips and maybe just have my voice over it and put in some other cool stuff. And I definitely won't hold up the Shakespeare quotes written on the back of my old homework because that's super ghetto. I'll have transitions and animations and stuff that will make that look better. Basically, this video shows the structure and format of the video so that people will know what the content will be.

Love's Labour's Lost, Acts 2 and 3

      I love Costard.
      He's that guy whose quirkiness and stupidity are so endearing that everyone (well, at least all readers) love him. He takes everything that the lords say so literally that it adds a lot of humor to the play. The language itself is what makes the play a comedy, not necessarily the subject material or the plot.
      The Lords are really pretentious and arrogant, and so they tend to speak with flowery language that uses a lot of metaphors and figurative language. They seem to see themselves as men of the mind, and so they try to talk the way they think educated people should speak. They are so snobbish and high-and-mighty that it only makes it that much funnier when Costard takes their flowery language at face value. It is really hard to take these men seriously when you know that every word they say probably has a double meaning, and if you choose to interpret what they say literally, it will have a completely ridiculous, unintended meaning. Thus Costard, though the fool, brings these men down to his foolish level by bringing to light the ridiculousness of their flowery, metaphorical language.
      Here is an example of Costard's confusion of two words--l'envoy and salve--that Adriano and Moth believe to be synonymous, but in fact have two very different meanings to Costard:
     
      ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy; begin.

      COSTARD

No enigma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the
mail, sir: O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain! no
l'envoy, no l'envoy; no salve, sir, but a plantain!
DON

      ADRIANO DE ARMADO

By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly
thought my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes
me to ridiculous smiling. O, pardon me, my stars!
Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and
the word l'envoy for a salve?

      MOTH

Do the wise think them other? is not l'envoy a salve?
DON

      ADRIANO DE ARMADO

No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain
Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain.

Moth has no clue that a l'envoy is not a salve, but Costard actually has a very good, diverse vocabulary in the sense that he knows what words mean and in which contexts these words can be properly used. However, this also backfires when he confuses a word to mean the same as another word, such as half-farthing and remuneration.
      The language in this play is very funny, and translated into a modern form of speech, I'm sure it would have a great appeal to modern readers.

The Ultimate Video Blog Post Experience

A preview of what's to come...

This is the script I wrote for myself:

       Religion has been a source of conflict since the world began. As soon as a religious group is labeled “outside of the norm,” the members often become targets of oppression from those who hate them for their beliefs.

       One such religion that has received a great deal of negative attention is Judaism. Christians considered Jews lesser beings because of their religion, so Jews were forced to the margins of society. Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice delves deep into this issue, using the Christian character Antonio and the Jewish Shylock to show how each group felt toward the other.

       When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or the Mormon Church), was established, members of the new church endured persecution in many of the same ways that Jews did, and they too were forced away from society. And all this was due to many people’s dislike or distrust of this new religion.

       In the past, both Jews and Mormons had little opportunity to defend themselves against this cruelty. But Mormons today have finally found a way to combat this intolerance. Digital media has given Mormons the opportunity to express their feelings and opinions about the prejudice they face.  Digital media also allows those who are not members to find out exactly who Mormons are, what they believe, and what they stand for. Some of these digital tools of combat include lds.org, mormon.org, online Mormon publications such as Deseret News, “I am a Mormon” videos, and official church statements that anyone can access online.

       Digital technology gives Mormons, and other oppressed peoples, a chance to fight the idea that they are inferior because of their beliefs. Maybe these new tools are just what we need to make the world a better place.

Hope you liked that! Took me about four takes to get it. I didn't know acting could be so stressful. 

Repurposing My Paper

      First off, thank you to Alicia and Kaleigh for your feedback on my paper! I really appreciate your help, You've given me a few ideas for the direction my paper will go.

      Kaleigh suggested that I expand my content to discuss the marginalization of other struggling or minority groups along with the two groups I've already discussed. I really like this idea because then my paper and my research could apply to any person or group who feels like they are being treated unfairly.

      She also suggested that I create some sort of discussion board for these people, to give them a voice so that they can be heard and discuss their problems with people who are going through similar problems. I like the idea of being able to help people, and this seems like a way to do that. The only problem is that I have no clue how to create a discussion board like that, and if I did, how to inform people of its existence and get them to comment on it.

      I think this would be a worthwhile project, but I just don't know how to go about doing it. Any ideas that anyone has would be helpful! :)

      Another idea that Alicia had was to keep the focus on Mormons in the present day. She said that now that I have established that a problem exists, I should discuss how people should and are dealing with the issue. She mentioned the "I am a Mormon" videos, the church's statements to the press about it's doctrine (most notably the Randy Bott and racism blowup), just getting the correct information out these (mormon.org and lds.org). The church has many ways of defending and standing up for itself, and so I could definitely talk about those.

      I'm a little unclear as to whether we are supposed to add to our actual research paper or if we are supposed to put the research that we've done, old and new, into some entirely new format. Anyway, I was thinking that I could make my own "I am a Mormon" video and talk about my research. I could talk about the oppression in Shakespeare, in Mormon history, of Muslims today, of women, of blacks, etc. I could go on to say that all of these groups have fought this hatred and talk about their methods. Then I can bring it back to Mormons today and how we all must stand up for our religion with our testimonies, etc., and bring an awareness of the problem to the public.

      This is just a rough idea, but it is something that I could post on the internet, something done in a digital medium. It is also something that many people are doing, but mine would have a slightly different take. I think it could be interesting. Updates to come.

Love's Labour's Lost: Not Yet, At Least

          In Love’s Labour’s Lost, the male characters are pitted against the female characters in a “civil war of wits,” as the princess says.

          The king and his men claim take their oath very seriously; the king won’t even let the princess into his court so as to not break his vow. However, the men fall hopelessly in love with the princess’s company anyway. Since by oath they are forced not to be in a relationship with these women, they begin looking for any loopholes to the oath or any rationalizations they can think of to get as close to these women as they can without actually courting them. The king dismisses the oath as a simple “formality,” yet by his actions (refusing to let the princess’s company into his home) we can see that he only cares that everyone thinks he is abiding by his vow.  Any public contact he has with these women must be absolutely professional; however, I am curious to see how he will act when he is alone with the princess! Will he and the lords keep their vows outside of the public eye?

          The men are very serious about this battle of wits, determined to use their reason to circumvent the oath they made. The women, on the other hand, treat the whole deal as a joke. They are delighted when they hear that the men have made such a foolish vow, and they decide to play them. It is a game to them—will they be able to make them break their oath? The princess believes that they will “prove perjured”: the ladies’ continued presence will cause the king and his lords to give into their desires and break their vows. Obviously they think it will be an easy win, so they don’t take the battle very seriously, laughing at their game and playing with the men much as a cat plays with a mouse before it eats it.

Mallory's Paper

      You have the groundwork laid out--you inform your audience that Shakespeare is taught all around the world and that all different cultures can bring in a new perspective on these texts. From your paper, we learn that many people believe that all interpretations of Shakespeare's texts have been made, and so many educators only teach these reused ideas, not willing (or not able?) to think outside the box.

      Now that you've built the foundation, I like that you want your next step to be informing teachers how to get teachers out of this rut, using digital mediums. Like you said, teachers would certainly be out of their element if this is the way they have been taught to teach Shakespeare and how they have been practicing teaching it. If you could find some way to (1) persuade teachers that their methods might need to change, and (2) give them some ideas on how to actually make these changes effective.

      I think a good place for you to start is just to research how teachers are already implementing digital strategies so that students can learn about Shakespeare in new ways and from new perspectives. There are quite a few articles and blogs online that describe these different methods.

      Here's a link to an article about a teacher educating his students in a modern way. As one kid says, these new digital and other modern mediums allow students to interpret Shakespeare in a contemporary way. It's kind of cheesy, but it gets the message across.

http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-shakespeare-digital-media

      This article suggests that the old ways of thinking about Shakespeare tend to intimidate students, or else make them treat Shakespeare as just stuffy writing from a stuffy old man that they can't relate to. Short films, podcasts, blog posts, etc. get Shakespeare into their brains in ways that modern students are used to. Putting Shakespeare into new, digital forms also makes it more relevant, as today's world seems to be trending away from dusty old books toward fresh, visual formats we find on the internet.

      YouTube also appears to be a good place to find proof of the success of this new way of teaching. Many students have posted their projects online. Type "Shakespeare English projects" into a YouTube search and look at the variety of videos you find! Another interesting thing to search for is "Shakespeare student study programs." This brings up a lot of videos from people who are talking about rediscovering Shakespeare and why students should study it and so on and so on. "Teachers study Shakespeare" might be especially helpful to you because it talks about teachers themselves learning about how to help students appreciate it more.

      This is all I can think of right now. If I think of anything else to help you expand your process, I'll let you know!

After the Meeting

I think my paper is applicable to a wide audience. All of the hype about Mormons and Mormonism and "that crazy cult" going on in the media lately is proof of that. Everyone wants to hear all about us! It's great. The problem with my paper, I think, is that when I try to move the concept to apply to issues in the digital world, it moves away from Shakespeare completely. So my main problem is how to bring focus my paper on the digital age without straying away from the fact that this is, ultimately, a Shakespeare class.

I think my paper is also more informative that pragmatic. I've noticed that a lot of students in this class are doing a very good job of writing papers about ways of teaching Shakespeare and media adaptations of his plays. The ideas in their papers can be put to practical use. I honestly have no idea what to do with mine. I based my paper on the notion that people have lately wanted to hear all sides of the "Mormon story," and I was just writing my own version. People like to learn about the topic, but what can we actually DO to relate to it?

Professor Burton and I talked a little bit about the idea of "hacking"--the idea that if a certain group is not able to get what they need in a conventional way, they will resort to unconventional means to get the job done. We discussed the new practice of getting loans from other people, rather than from banks, in order to avoid having to pay buckets of money in interest. Mormons "hacked" the system in Kirtland by establishing a bank without a formal charter; the Jews in Merchant of Venice "hacked" in a way by finding a trade in which they could be successful in a way that Christians were forbidden by the rules of their religion to do. 

Obviously this idea of hacking exists and can exist in many ways and places, so I was thinking I could expand on something like that. However, I don't know exactly how to transition to that from where my paper is now. How do I keep this within the bounds of Shakespeare? Please let me know if you have any ideas. 

Tweethis Statement Results

      I put my Tweethis statement on Facebook and got responses from a couple of people who liked my idea. My Austrian friend Mike Wotke was not extremely helpful, but maybe the word "Venice" will attract at least some people to my paper... Anyway, here are the responses I got:

      I didn't really think this was enough social proof, so I did what Dr. Burton suggested and asked my entire FHE group about it on Monday. The guys for the most part were pretty unresponsive, probably because these particular ones have probably never read Shakespeare in their lives. However, one guy suggested that I look at persecution of Mormons throughout their history instead of just modern times. A lot of people agreed and told me to look at things like Haun's Mill, the Extermination order, the polygamy debate, and so on. I didn't end up using all of these events in Mormon history, but I think the ones I did include work pretty well in my paper.
      Thanks, family!

Final Paper

The link to my final paper:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QYw3WtGo_94mMBX2l1SEIA8_RfyS8CUGrWtqLwPkikY/edit

Basically what my paper is about is a comparison of the treatment of Jews historically and in The Merchant of Venice and the treatment of Mormons since the establishment of the church. Both groups have endured similar religious oppression. I compared aspects of Shakespeare's play to events in Mormon history, namely: their marginalization, the Kirtland Safety Society disaster, the Extermination order, and the issues surrounding Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

To Be Mormon or Not To Be Mormon: Shakespearean and Modern-Day Christians

      This is my (very rough) draft of my paper. I still need to write down all of the background and historical information, and cite all of the sources. I figured I would write down the general arguments and points I wanted to make and then flesh it out over the weekend.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O3628GRemNzhsfyL91gs_qY3EewtWX6caBBYMzHVUns/edit

      I know it's very basic right now, but any feedback would be really helpful. I think it's an interesting topic and I like seeing the parallels between Shakespeare's time and now in terms of religion, especially since I get to talk about my own religion in the process!

Phase 2--Progress Report

I'm required to document my research and writing process for the Shakespeare research paper I'm doing this month. According to the assignment instructions, here are the components I must include. If I have met those requirements, I have included a link to a post or posts that document my efforts for that component:

• Digital Media:  http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-digital-media.html
• Social Proof (phase 2):   http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-social-proof.html
• Performance Analysis:   http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-performance-analysis.html
• Annotated Bibliography:   http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-annotated-bibliography.html

I've said before that I wanted to explore Christian oppression in Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and Hamlet, and relate those issues I find to issues in the present day. But, I haven't found much in Othello. Can I just do it for Hamlet and Merchant of Venice? I'm using Hamlet to discuss oppression within the Christian religion (Protestant versus Catholic) and Merchant of Venice to discuss oppression of non-Christians in the legal system and in trade. Would that work? 

Phase 2--Digital Media

A list of some digital media I found concerning my research:

• Shakespeare Explorations with Patrick Stewart: Merchant of Venice
• This is the DVD I used for the Performance Analysis post. Basically it is a video of several scenes acted out from The Merchant of Venice, and then some commentary on the background of those scenes. A little unconventional, but it helped me understand the deeper issues involved with antisemitism. 
• Audio version of Merchant of Venice (and Hamlet, too)
• Inspired by our listening to Hamlet (which was also helpful since I'll probably do a part in my paper about Hamlet as well as MofV), I found an audio version of The Merchant of Venice and listened to that. It was good just to hear the play again, get the plot, characters, important quotes, etc. into my mind again. I picked a lot of the most passionately-read quotes to analyze for my research just because they stuck in my memory better after hearing them. 
• Shakespeare in Shelfari--1996 film version of Hamlet.
• I had never heard of Shelfari before, but apparently you can look up any book you want (I looked up Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, and Othello) and it gives you all kinds of information about it--character list, themes and symbolism, summary, quotes, authors and contributors, even a note to parents about the subject material. This is a good starting point to get first ideas for a paper. The most helpful thing here, though, was the list of media connections for each play I looked up. Hamlet, for example, has several film versions, and I got the 1996 version from Netflix and watched it.
• Merchant of Venice on Slideshare.net
• You can look up anything on Slideshare! I simply searched for "Shakespeare merchant of venice" and there were tons of great results. There was a slideshow giving some background to the play, another giving a short summary, another discussing a few themes of the play and their relevance during the Renaissance. They even had one that was a slideshow of the entire written play, meaning that you can just read it right there instead of trying to find a version somewhere else online or in print. This site is great because I can do pretty much all of my preliminary research on it instead of going to a ton of different places to find basic information about the play.
• Random blogs about Shakespeare and Christianity.
• I wrote about a lot of these in my other posts, so I won't go into too much detail about them. The reason I like to look at other people's blogs all the time is because everyone's opinions are different. I like finding the ones I agree with and arguing with the people who wrote about things I don't agree with. They helped me narrow down my topic a lot because I would see an idea that intrigued me and then I would search to see if there was any more on that particular side.

Phase 2--Social Proof

Here is a list of a few people that I have attempted to contact or have talked to about my project recently:

• The Humanities assistant in the library.
• I figured I would go up and talk to someone who knew a little more about Shakespeare than I did, and the library seemed like a good place to start. I talked to the assistant at the desk, and it turned out that he was a huge Shakespeare enthusiast (I forget what his name was). We talked for a while about Christians in the Renaissance and whether Shakespeare himself was a Christian or not, and if he was, what type of Christian. He referred me to a book called Shakespeare's Christianity: The Protestant and Catholic Poetics of Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet. I'm using this book as one of my scholarly sources. 
• Robert Means in the library.
• I emailed him about my topic and he wrote me back, saying that I had an interesting topic. He suggested that I include Hamlet in my research because the play shows that Christians don't just have conflicts with people of other faiths, but they actually don't even trust other Christians who have only slightly different beliefs (in Hamlet, the younger Hamlet has Protestant-like beliefs while dead Hamlet is a traditional Catholic). 
• Ms. Lipson's class members on "Shakespeak."
• Shakespeak is an educational blog created by a teacher named Ms. Lipson. I looked at a few of the posts some of the students wrote. One of them was really interesting because it had a lot about the history of the Moors.  Apparently the Christians took over the Moors' kingdoms in Africa in the Middle Ages and forced them and the Jews to convert to Christianity. Some of the other posts talked about Christianity and stuff. It was good to see that students somewhere else were looking at the same kinds of ideas in Shakespeare's plays that I was. I posted a few comments, but there was no way to contact any of them by email, so we'll see what happens.
• http://shakespeak.edublogs.org/2009/09/17/moors/
• Emily's "My Very Own Secret Shakespeare."
• This girl named Emily (last name unknown) wrote an interesting post on her blog, comparing Antonio to Christ. She wrote all about how he was so generous, such a loyal friend. He exemplified the selfless, empathetic, and merciful qualities that Christ himself had. I agree that Antonio was those things--to Bassanio, his close Christian friend. However, I found it kind of ridiculous that she only talked about how he treated his friend and other members of his own faith while completely ignoring the fact that Shylock pretty much got the shaft because the Christians in the play could barely tolerate him, simply because he was a Jew. He ends up with basically nothing by the end of the play, not even his religion, because they forced him to convert to Christianity. I wrote Emily a comment on this post, explaining that perhaps she was forgetting the most important side to the story: that Christians back then (and even some today) treat people like scum because they have different beliefs than they do. We'll see if she replies. 
• http://ortonemily232.blogspot.com/2012/01/christianity-in-shakespear.html
• Media Center worker in the library.
• This guy that helped me find the DVD of the performance that I wanted to analyze (I have no clue what his name is) asked me what I wanted it for. I told him that I needed it as part of my research and that I wanted to write about Christian oppression in Shakespeare and how it relates to oppression today. I gave him some examples, and he told me it was a cool idea to see the connections between the past and the future with those issues. So someone thinks my idea is cool.

It was kind of a slow week with social proof. I think I was more concerned with finding reliable scholarly sources than with talking to people about my work. I am still waiting to hear back from a couple people that I emailed last week, but I don't know if anything will come of it.

Phase 2--Performance Analysis

In the BYU library media center, I found this video called "Shakespeare Explorations with Patrick Stewart: Merchant of Venice." Basically this is what they did: Patrick Stewart and other actors discussed and acted out some of the scenes from The Merchant of Venice on a set and then discussed theatrical and literary items in the play. They did a lot of scenes with Shylock, like his monologues and arguments with Antonio and company about the debt, and so they discussed the character of Shylock in quite a bit of detail. This was helpful because I'm focusing a lot on Shylock in my paper.

First, they went into some detail about the history of the Jew-Christian conflict. Ironically, Jesus and his disciples, who started Christianity, were practicing Jews. Judaism and Christianity are both monotheistic religions, yet the two groups became rivals soon after Jesus’s crucifixion (an execution enacted because of Roman law at the time). “Historians agree that the break between Judaism and Christianity followed the Roman destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the year 70 ce. In the aftermath of this devastating defeat, which was interpreted by Jew and Christian alike as a sign of divine punishment, the Gospels diminished Roman responsibility and expressed Jewish culpability in the death of Jesus both explicitly (Matthew 27:25) and implicitly. Jews were depicted as killers of the Son of God.” Even though Jesus was executed according to Roman law, the culpability moved away from the Romans, and the death of the Son of God became the Jews' fault. This thought, though unfair, nevertheless gives at least some reason as to why Christians hated Jews so much.

Fastforward to the late Middle Ages, when Jews became prominent in moneylending and trading. Because they were so good at what they did despite the sins of their fathers (who killed the Son of God), it aroused feelings of jealousy and resentment in Christians. However, they had to tolerate Jews because they had an important role to play in trade. Jews could not own land, but they were allowed to lend money with interest while Christians were not (Jews lived on the "margins of society," so they did many things that the Christian religion prohibited). 

This information brings us to Shakespeare's day, the Renaissance, and sets the stage for the few scenes that Patrick Stewart and co. performed on this DVD. When you have background knowledge of a subject, it has much more meaning, and some things become more significant than they were before. Shylock's monologues lamenting the inequality of his treatment by Christians go from being the complaint of one man about unfair treatment to a plea for the equality of an entire nation. Thus, the actor is speaking for all members of his religion when he says, "Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause. But since I am a dog, beware my fangs." Christians' pre-judgment of an entire nation created the entire problem in The Merchant of Venice in the first place. It felt like a more real and present issue to be able to see the play performed in a more modern setting (I suppose 1991 is "modern") and with such passion. 

Phase 2--Annotated Bibliography

      So far, my research has consisted of looking online and in the library to decide which of Shakespeare’s plays have themes of Christian oppression. So far, I’ve decided to use Hamlet (looking at internal prejudice of different Christian sects in the play and how it relates to Mormon prejudice today) and The Merchant of Venice (looking at how Christians treated non-Christians unfairly in Shakespeare’s day in trade, the legal system, etc. and how we do the same thing today with Muslims). I’ve been thinking about looking at Othello, too, but I haven’t done much research on the topic yet, so I will see if it is relevant to my topic soon.

      My working thesis statement goes something like this:  Christians have oppressed those who have different beliefs than they do for millennia, which is clearly apparent when one analyzes Shakespeare’s Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice; this oppression still continues today in comparable ways. (Obviously, this is very rough, but it’s basically what I’m going for.)

• Adelman, Janet. Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in “The Merchant of Venice.” Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 226-256. Print.
• This section of this book examines the Merchant of Venice. This plat looks at the distinction between Christians as usurers and Jews as merchants, and the roles both of these groups play in larger society. This is relative to my topic because it looks at the deeper reasons for the religious conflict between Jews and Christians. I found this book on Amazon when I did a Google search on my topic, and then I looked it up in the library.
• Agajanian, Shaakeh. "The Problem of Hamlet: A Christian Existential Analysis." Religion in Life 46 (1997): 213-224. Web.
• This article examines Christianity in Hamlet, mainly the fact that Hamlet appears to have Protestant beliefs but his father has Catholic beliefs, which creates a kind of distance and mistrust between them.  This article relates to my topic because it looks at Christians oppressing other Christians, showing that their prejudice affects Christianity within as well as out. I found this article in a search on the BYU library’s Shakespeare database.
• Arbery, Glenn Cannon. "Women, Christianity, and the Stage in Four Shakespearean Comedies." Dissertation Abstracts International 43 (1982-83): 1-157. Web.
• This article examines Christianity in The Merchant of Venice, along with three other plays. It discusses the inequalities in the legal system between Christians and non-Christians. This relates to my topic because I’m looking at three different types of Christian oppression, and this is one of them. I found it in the results of a search I did in the World Shakespeare Bibliography Online.
• Batson, Beatrice. Shakespeare's Christianity: The Protestant and Catholic Poetics of Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006. 1-178. Print.
• This article looks at Hamlet and how the Christian issues in the play may have come from Shakespeare’s own religious beliefs. This relates to my topic because it raises the problems that come from having different religious beliefs, which is something Shakespeare himself may have suffered himself. I found this book when a library assistant in the Humanities Reference section referred it to me.

My Process So Far

      I'm required to document my research and writing process for the Shakespeare research paper I'm doing this month. According to the assignment instructions, here are the components I must include. If I have met those requirements, I have included a link to a post or posts that document my efforts for that component:

http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-1-topic-ideas-and-social-proof.html

      Exploration--Phase 1 and Social Proof--Phase 1

      This post goes through my thought process a little bit when I was choosing a topic for my paper. Then I documented the ways I tried to contact other people about my thoughts.  I don't have much to write down yet because I'm waiting to hear back from all the people I tried contact.

http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

      Textual Analysis--Phase 1
      This post analyzes the Christian elements in The Merchant of Venice. I looked particularly at Shylock because his situation is an example of how non-Christians were treated by Christians in Shakespeare's time.

Phase 1: Topic Ideas and Social Proof:

      So I've been thinking about what to write my research paper on for quite a while now, and I think I'm starting to fine-tune my ideas.  At first, I just wanted to look at Christianity in Shakespeare's plays--what part it plays in relation to the characters, plot, setting, etc.  Of course, that topic is way too broad, and I don't really feel like writing a book on the subject.  I narrowed it down to the conflict between Christians and Jews or other non-believers, which is a subject that drives the plot of The Merchant of Venice.  That idea was also much too general, and so I tried to zoom in on different productions of Shakespeare's plays.  I had this vague idea that I would look at the various ways this touchy subject was handled when performed for different audiences.  Unfortunately that didn't work out too well because I got no leads and no responses when I reached out.
      Then lo and behold, I stumbled (quite by accident) upon a blog written by a student at SUNY New Paltz named Ben Burgholzer.  His post, entitled Christian Oppression: Shakespearean and Contemporary, had a paragraph discussing the problems that existed in the legal system because of this conflict.  From our reading of The Merchant of Venice, we all know that Shylock ultimately got the shaft when it came to the law.  Even though Shylock is somewhat of a despicable character, all he really wanted was to be treated as an equal to Christians.  They were merciful to each other, but chose to forgo the Christians values of charity and forgiveness when dealing with infidels.  This was also the case when Jews and other non-Christians traded with Christians. 
      I thought Ben's blog post brought up some good points, so I thought I would incorporate them into my paper.  So, basically for my topic I think I would like to find instances of Christians oppressing non-believers in trade, in the legal system, in everyday life, etc., and compare those to contemporary racial prejudice and inequality.  Obviously The Merchant of Venice is full of examples, but I am also looking at Othello.  I tried to research what other plays have examples, but perhaps I could focus on using Christian beliefs to oppress others and gain power, like the kings claiming that their wars were in God's name in all of the Henry plays.Then I can look at these things in modern times, for example, people judging Muslims just for who they are after 9/11.
      I posted on Facebook, asking if this topic interested anyone and if anyone had anything to say on the matter.  I got a few responses from people.  Some just said that it was a cool topic, but this one girl referred me to this guy who is a friend of a friend of hers (so she barely even knew him).  He is minoring in history and just took a Shakespeare class at BYU-I.  We're having an ongoing discussion about the subject; he's mostly giving me historical background and his personal views on prejudice.  It's nice to have someone my age to bounce ideas off of.  I've also found several blogs on about this, and I've commented on their posts.  I hope I can get some feedback from them soon.  I'm not sure how to contact any experts.  I've read a few scholarly articles on Shakespeare and Christianity, but that's about it. 
      More to come!  I'll try to find more people interested in my topic.

Child's Play: A Review of BYU's Merchant of Venice

      I finally got to see the play last weekend, a week later than everyone else did.  I felt really behind the times having not seen it, but it sold out so fast and there was nothing I could do about it!  Crazy.  But, one advantage to seeing it later was that I already had an idea in mind for what my research topic should be.  So as I watched the play I was focusing on specific aspects of it, rather than on the play in its entirety. 
      I've already posted a little about my chosen topic:  Christian themes in Shakespeare's plays, and more specifically, the conflict between Christians and non-Christians.  One thing I've been trying to do while looking for social proof on my topic was to see how these themes are handled in different Shakespeare productions.  I would like to look more closely at the differences between productions of just one play (Merchant of Venice), but if I can't get enough feedback on just one, I can look at these themes across a several of Shakespeare's plays.
      It was extremely helpful, then, that we were required to attend BYU's child-focused production of The Merchant of Venice.  What interested me was that the issue of Christians versus non-Christians was replaced with a more general issue of the evils of bullying and judging others simply because they are "different."  It seems to me that the people behind the scenes of this production chose not to include the Christian issue because (a) the issue is really sensitive, especially today; (b) they didn't want Christians to appear "mean" to the children in the audience; and (c) they didn't want to give the children the idea that hating Jews is okay.  Obviously, bullying is a serious problem to children, so maybe that was also a factor; a discussion about bullying would be more relevant to a young child than a discussion about a long-standing racial and religious prejudice.  Children will understand that bullying is no good because they have actually experienced it in some way in their own lives.  But they probably would not be able to fully grasp the concept of hating people purely because of their heritage and beliefs.
      This is all my speculation, of course.  I don't know for sure what reasons they had for modifying the play in that way, so I want to try to contact the director or writer or pretty much anyone involved in the play who can shed some light on this topic.  

Do You Hear What I Hear?

      I should get an audio version of all of the Shakespeare plays we're reading.  It's really convenient for me because it's a twenty-minute walk to school and twenty minutes back, and so I can bust out forty minutes of homework when otherwise I wouldn't be doing anything useful.  It's also helpful when I'm doing the dishes because it makes it more interesting.  My dear roommate Erma caught me making vehement hand gestures during one of Hamlet's big speeches (I can't remember which).  She told me that she was embarrassed to know me.  Personally, I think she's just jealous of my acting talent.  

      I know pretty much everyone has said this, but I think it was important for me to hear the emotion in the narrator's voice as the play was being read.  I prefer viewing Shakespeare's plays to reading them for this exact reason.  I can't make my inner reading voice sound interesting--it just doesn't work. So I was glad that someone was dong it for me.  This made me realize that a small, moving whisper can be just as effective as a loud, powerful, passionate speech; you can't speak very quietly when you're onstage.  The emotion conveyed in the audio version helped me emotionally connect with the characters and the story.  

      The commentary was helpful, but I didn't enjoy it that much.  It broke the flow of the story too much, I thought.  The explanations made the events more clear, but to be honest, they're annoying.  I prefer just the story.  

Comic Books? They're For Nerds...

I'm not a big fan of graphic novels and the like, but the manga version of Hamlet is acceptable.  I'm a visual learner, so I really enjoyed being able to see a depiction of the events as they unfolded.  Simply reading the play as Shakespeare wrote it does not appeal to me because I get all the characters mixed up, and I forget who is who in the story.  Also, because the language is so archaic, it's hard to figure out what they are saying.  This is unhelpful, since the whole play is told through the dialogue--losing track of the dialogue means I lose track of the events in the play.  Clearly, I'm a terrible Shakespeare reader.  However, getting to read this middle-school-reading-level Manga edition of Hamlet allows me to keep better track of the events and the characters.  

      The comic book itself is interesting to me.  The fine detail in the artwork brought the characters alive, at least in my opinion.  The clothes the characters are wearing, for example, are very complete.  Robes, capes, belts, hats, jewelry--you can see it all. The characters' facial expressions are so well done that you don't even need to read the lines to tell what emotions the characters are feeling at any time.  It's almost like you have a miniature performance right there in your hands (I know that's cheesy, but it's true--I've got Shakespeare's whooole world, in my hands!).  The artist is like the director.  The stage is set in the way the artist envisioned it--you can see the streets, the lighting that changes with time, buildings, and so forth.  The artist also drew the costumes, down to the last detail.  He directed what the characters would look like, how they would feel at certain moments, their actions, their words.  It's actually a pretty big job to take on when you think about it, but I think the finished product is unique and captivating. 

      I agree with what Carly said in class--that comic books are for "nerds."  I'm a big fan of The Big Bang Theory myself, so I understand that people might judge me for reading comic books, thinking that I"m some stereotypical, socially awkward geek.  But you know what?  I don't care what people think.  If I had a break between classes, or if I was eating lunch, or brushing my teeth, or whatever, I just pulled out my book.  My roommate Erma, bless her heart, informed me that I was a "dork."  Little does she know, I'm actually a genius.  If it's easier for me to read and understand, I'm going to use it.  There's nothing wrong with nerds, anyway.  REPRESENT!

      One aspect of the comic book that really resonated with me is how the speeches were shortened--they got to the point faster.  This may just be a little bit of my crazy coming out, but I don't think that Shakespeare's long monologues are very effective.  They are beautifully written, but I think that they take so long to get to the point (sometimes going off on random tangents) that we lose the true meaning and purpose of the speech.  I know that some people enjoy flowery, roundabout ways of saying things.  I don't--it drives me crazy!  Probably because I'm too impatient.  It's an ungodly flaw in my character.  But, the comic book version got the point across without losing any of the emotion.  Very effective.  

People Really Do Care!

      Issues of antisemitism and other kinds of national and racial prejudice have plagued the world practically since before the dawn of time, and everyone knows these problems still exist today.  We try to keep an open mind, but once it becomes illegal or not politically correct to dislike a certain group, people tend to simply shift their distaste toward the fashionable prejudice of the day.  The Irish and Chinese were looked down on in the 1800s when the railroads were being built in America.  Hitler killed over six million Jews.  After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Americans distrusted the Japanese.  All white nations believed blacks were inferior people until an embarrassingly recent time.  Now, in the aftermath of 9/11, Muslims and pretty much all Arab peoples are met with disgust and distrust bordering on hatred.  Clearly, prejudice has abounded for millennia and still abounds today.  But don't take my word for it!  I'm going to search for social proof to back up my claims.
      One thing I'm curious to know is how people directing Shakespeare's plays deal with the themes of antisemitism and racial prejudice.  These themes appear in many, if not most, of Shakespeare's plays; however, it is the director's prerogative to decide how those issues will be handled and addressed in a production, and all productions are different.  Take The Merchant of Venice, for example.  Somewhere, a director may be very interested in the conflict between Antonio (representing Christians) and Shylock (representing infidels or non-believers), and so that director may choose to emphasize the interaction between these two characters to really dig deep into the real issue of racial and religious prejudice.  However, the production of The Merchant of Venice that we saw at BYU is aimed toward children.  Thus, the whole Christian versus Jew idea was replaced with the general message that "bullying is bad." 
      I'm not sure whether those involved in the creation of this production believed that children would get the idea that Jews should be hated or not, but the reason why it was left out was very interesting to me.  So, I've decided that I would try to contact people who have directed or are currently directing a Shakespeare play and ask them what they thought of the Christian themes, how they would handle them in their own production, and why they would choose to deal with the issue that way.  Some people I already have in mind are the director of BYU's production of The Merchant of Venice and my old drama teacher back home.  I also want to look at the blogs related to some peoples' productions and ask them, either by commenting or by locating their email addresses somehow. 
      I think this would be a great way to find out what other people think of these issues in Shakespeare's plays.  If anyone has any more ideas of who to contact (and how), or anything you can think of that will help, I would really appreciate it!

Shylock and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Textual Analysis, Phase 1

      I am very interested in the Christian themes in many of Shakespeare's works.  I talked before about themes of Christianity and its relation to war in Henry V.  In The Merchant of Venice, we see Christianity not as it relates to war, but as it relates to people's place in society.  Obviously, there is a huge conflict between Shylock and Antonio that gets blown way out of proportion, so much so that eventually we see Shylock salivating madly over his promised "pound of flesh."
      It was a simple issue, one that could have been worked out easily had the two men decided to just get along. Shylock could have made any number of better choices in this situation:  forgive Antonio, since he lost his ships; pocket Portia's offering of double the amount Antonio owed him; worked out a new time frame in which Antonio could have paid him; and so on.  What he did was exactly the worst possible choice (we know this because he ends up losing pretty much everything and is forced to convert to another faith).  He was so intent on getting his revenge on Antonio (and possibly all Christians indirectly) that he was completely blinded to reason.
      So, what led to Shylock's loss of good judgment?  He blames it all on the way the Christians treat him and his people; I am inclined to agree with him, up to a certain point.  At the time the play was written, Christians were often intolerant of all people of other faiths, not just Jews.  Because of this, we can see that this is not just a problem with a specific group of people; it is an issue of Christians versus everyone else, an intolerance of anyone who is different.
      This intolerance makes Christians appear hypocritical in The Merchant of Venice.  Shylock's argument in his monologue in Act III is that both Christians and Jews are both simply human beings. They are hurt with the same things, are made the same way, die the same ways, bleed, laugh, etc. They are all people, and Shylock does not understand why they are not treated equally. The Christians hold a double standard: if a Jew wrongs a Christian, revenge is just--however, if a Christian wrongs a Jew, the Jew would be considered a vile and evil person if he or she decided to take revenge. Shylock claims that he is merely following the Christian example by insisting on taking the pound of flesh from Antonio. (He lays waste to the pretensions of the Christian characters to value mercy, charity, and love above self-interest.)
      Shylock is the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  He says to Antonio, "Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause. / But since I am a dog, beware my fangs."  Antonio judged him before he even knew him purely based on the fact that he was a Jew, or an infidel.  Thus, Shylock decides that he will act the way he is perceived, since the Christians probably won't change their preconceived notions anyway.

      These are just a few examples of Christian themes I've found in the text.  It kind of makes the Christians look bad, but then again, they weren't members of the true church... They'll see the light eventually!

Antisemitism in The Merchant of Venice

      The Merchant of Venice clearly presents the conflict between believers (the Christians) and the infidels (Jews and other non-believers).  On the surface, Shylock appears as a miserly, bitter, and vengeful Jew who victimizes the Christians, who represent goodness, mercy, and selflessness.  But when we dig deeper, we discover that, at least partially, Shylock has become so bitter when it comes to Christians because of their attitudes towards Jews and members of other religions.
     I am considering researching deeper into this issue for my research paper.  What started this deep, ingrained hatred of those who are not Christians?  Where did this idea originate?  Why are they considered inferior?  These are just a few questions that I think will get my research off the ground.  I'll probably look at the history of antisemitism and other religious prejudices, and then see how those ideas appear in one or more of Shakespeare's texts, including The Merchant of Venice.
     Does anyone have any idea of where I can look to find a good historical source to find reliable background information?  This is a topic that really interests me and I am looking forward to seeing how these prejudices began.

South Africa Loves Shakespeare!

      Just a fun fact I learned from my friend from South Africa:

      The "assegai" is a short javelin or spear originally used by the Zulu and other Nguni tribes.  It is made of wood, tipped with a wide metal point, and is used for close-quarter combat.  Basically, one would stab one's opponent in the abdomen up through the rib cage, and when the spear is pulled out, it would essentially disembowel the person.  (Sorry, that might be too much information...).  Anyway, people used this weapon (or one similar to it) in wars fought in the middle ages, and was apparently also used by soldiers around Shakespeare's time.

      So, when referring to William Shakespeare, people in South Africa have created their own special name for the Bard that is both historically accurate and poetic.  It has three parts:  Willy (William), Wobbly (Shake), and Assegai (Spear).

      Willy Wobbly Assegai.

      I think I've found the perfect name for my firstborn son.

War Is Holy...Or Is It?

      I found this article on the Luminarium website entitled "Holy War in Henry Fifth," which discusses the connection between religion and politics.  This connection between the law of God and the laws of the world has several times led to the start of what we call "holy wars."  What was interesting about this article is how the author compared the holy war narratives contained in the Bible to Shakespeare's descriptions of holy wars (specifically Henry V) in his plays.  He points out that in his prays, Henry refers to the Lord as "God of Battles," suggesting that there is a built-in connection between religion and war.
      Now in my opinion, people today, especially Mormons, do not see the relationship between religion and war in the same way as Christians during Shakespeare's time.  In the past, wars could be and were fought in the name of God and religion.  Think of the Crusades.  One of the reasons that leaders of the cause (including the Pople himself) were able to persuade people to become soldiers and fight to reclaim the Holy Land was because it gave Christians a way to receive a remission of their sins.  The war in Henry V was similarly a kind of holy war because he claimed that his authority came from God, who supported the war.
     Of course, starting a war for religious reasons would never fly today, at least in America.  Our country very clearly separates church from state, and war fits neatly into issues of state, not religion.  If, for example, our very capable and intelligent President Obama (WARNING: sarcasm detected) decided that he wanted to start a war against people belonging to a certain religion, he would get laughed right out of office.  We just don't have that idea of religion being connected to actual, physical war anymore.  Christians tend to think of this connection in a metaphorical sense:  the battle between good and evil.  We don't actually fight people we think are evil with guns and tanks (because we would probably get arrested).  Instead, we try to remove evil from our own and others' lives by replacing it with the goodness of religion.
      It is interesting to think about how differently we view the the world today compared to how people viewed it four hundred years ago.  In modern times, King Henry would not have been able to use God as an excuse to start a war.  This puts this play into a very specific time period.  It would be hard to make a believable modern adaptation of this play if you still wanted to retain all of the religious motivations behind the war.  But, it is still worthwhile to think how much things have changed in the world since Shakespeare's time.