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!