Caliban isn't seen as a man. Because of his different race native language, Miranda and Propero view him as an animal and that justifies their control over him as they lock him away in the cave because he doesn't even deserve a prison cell. It's really interesting how similar but different certain characters are veiwed as throughout Shakespeare's plays. For instance, Caliban reminds me of Othello not only because they're both colored and used for others' advantages, but because of how differentyl they're veiwed. Othello is seen as a noble man in a power position thst he has earned and is disliked by other characters becaue of that. While Caliban is viewed as an ungrateful orphaned slave who is essetially useless becaue of his back-talk to the people who "taught him eveyrthing." This doesn't necissarily mean the audience sees them as this but that's how they're supposed to be portrayed.

One of the binaries of men over woman. In this case it seems like father over daughter? Prospero has admitted that he taught her more than she would have learned while they've been on the island, but he still controls her because she's his daughter. Aside from Midsummer, all of the plays so far have shown the women or daughters to have some power, but not nearly enough to stand up for themselves against any man.

So similar to the comedy happy endings things turn out okay. However, instead of marriage it ends in retirement. This ending made me think about Prospero being the "bad guy"- he was pretty terrible to people, but since everything turned out alright were his actions justified since he was wrongly done twelve years ago? I think his action are a little bit of both- playing the bad guy and being justified. Yeah he was screwed over twelve years ago, but he didn't have to be such a dick to Caliban and Ariel when they had nothing to do with what happened to him.

The Binary between Prospero and Caliban is kind of an eye opener to the idea of "classes." The binary I link to them is power over slave and their race white over colored. When you look at it though, when Prospero came to the island he wasn't known to have a rank because they ran from that life- yet because he has his magical abilties he's seen as a higher rank above Caliban even though Caliban had claim to the island (kind of like the "New World's" migration west).

A sense of where the plot of a comedy comes in- a father getting in the way of love. Even if he does want them to end up together he still causes trouble.

As Prospero refers to Caliban as his slave, when you think of slaves you generally beleive them to act more like Ariel does towards Prospero- yet Caliban talks resistantly and rudely towards Propero. Could this possibly be because he saw them as family when he was younger? Or he doesn't believe Propero has much hold over him? However, then you have to ask why he would contnue to work for him after all these years? He does state that Prospero's magic i stronger than his mother's, so he hasn't been able to escape, bu thas he tried?

Side note: They're talking like Benedict isn't in the room and Benedict, one of the most mouthy characters, isn't saying a word about it. What is happening?

This is a nice lead into how Benedict is convinced that Beatrice loves him. He's so insulted by how she spoke poorly of him so when she "agrees" to keep her mouth shut if he were to love her he's easily taken by it since he was so hurt by her words here.

Ursula is the only one who isnt fooled by a simple mask. Smart girl.

Anddd here's Beatrice's swearing to never marry.

There's so much foreshadowing with Benedict and Beatrice talking so much and swearing that they will remain single the rest of their lives, while all of the characters are trying to trick them into falling in love with each other.

This is just insane. He's such a dick and yet she still marries him in the end! And to think that in modern day society people are still as naive as Helena- men and women. The similarities between the Shakespearan period and modern day that is brought out in this play show that although it seems like a lot of time has passed since this play was written, not a lot has changed. Similar to what we talked about in class today with how recently women have been able to perform on stage in theater.

Where Satire comes into the comedy genre where they're making fun of powerful figures- in front of the Dutch and Dutchess.

I'm tring to understand the relationship between Hermia and Helen and why Hermia and Lysander even trusted Helena with their secret. Here we get the first glimps that Helena might not necissarily be a villain, but possibly just act in jealousywhen it comes to Demetrius.

Reference to Romeo and Juliet..? I looked up when both were written and they were right arounf the same time so possibly?

giggle I can tell I'm going to enjoy the sarcam in this play.

So this line stopped me in my tracks... Didn't Theseus just offer Hermia a life as a nun if she didn't choose Demetrius, but now he's saying if she doesn't choose him she dies? That just seemed really quick to discard an obviously, empty promise.

I found myself rolling my eyes at this line (really the whole paragraph) becuase as a modern reader I obviously find it completey ridiculous that daughters had to see their father's as these unbelievable figures and obey every order. Don't get me wrong, I have a great relationship with my dad, but he is a human being not a god. I know this will be a reacurring thing throughout the play, but I hope Hermia does something about it.

A metaphor saying that Scotland is trying to take advantage of England attacking France, so then Scotland can sneak in and invade England while the majority of their troops are away- making them weaker.

I see this line not entirely as a metaphor but instead as a title since England royalty had a lion on their crescent, so instead he's referring directly to his ancestors.

Here is when we truly start to see King Henry's eagerness to go into battle, like we learned in the background information about Henry V and his father.

Ely answers the King's question by pretty bluntly saying that he doesn't have a choice to question his right to make the claim because he has the royal blood running through his veins, so to "buck up bud" and do his job.

I see this as Canterbury telling King Henry to embrace his past for he was born into the royalty and therefore does deserve is title as king just as his ancestors before him had.

Henry questions why he deserves this title- a young king who wasn't meant to take the crown.