Madison's Commonplace Blog

As the chaos of  A Midsummer's Night Dream draws to a close, Theseus and Hippolyta reflect on the absurdity of the lovers' story of what happened that night in the woods. Although Theseus is in a state of disbelief and is remarking on the madness that love drives people to, he makes a statement that I found to be extremely relatable: "How easy is a bush supposed a bear!" ( A Midsummer's Night Dream, 5.1.23). My mind first turned to when I was a little kid (and still sometimes as an adult) and my imagination would make monsters out of clothing hanging in my closet or terrifying creatures out of shadows on the wall. Without even trying or wanting to, my mind would transform my safe environment into a fear-filled space that felt anything but secure. Although I can look back on these childhood experiences and recognize the silliness in my believing these imaginations, I realized when I read this line that this is still something I do all. the. time. Particularly in so...

At a moment when he believes he has been betrayed, Antonio makes a profound statement: "In nature there's no blemish but the unkind; None can be called deformed but the unkind" (Twelfth Night, 3.4.386-87). I've been thinking about beauty a lot lately. Last night, me and my roommates watched the movie Wonder, and I was reminded how much I love the message of that story. Even though the other children are somewhat scared of August's face when they first see him, those that give him a chance and actually talk to him find that August Pullman is a funny, nice person, completely normal and the same as everyone else on the inside. By the end of the story, Jack Will, Summer, nor any of the other kids who got to know Auggie would call him "deformed," because they have gotten to see who he really is. I frequently become way too concerned with how I look. I get annoyed at my nose for being unattractive or my hips for being too wide, and I fall into this trap of thi...

I guess outward appearances have been on my mind a lot lately, because that's a theme I've been noticing throughout Shakespeare recently. One such example comes from Othello , when a gentleman is reporting on Cassio's arrival to Cyprus and the hope that Othello will similarly arrive safely. He says, "But this same Cassio, though he speaks of comfort/Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly/And prays the Moor be safe, for they were parted/With foul and violent tempest" (2.1.34-37). The military has just received the wonderful news that the Turkish fleet has been sunk by the storm, and yet despite this great cause for celebration, what is on Cassio's mind? The fear that his friend might be lost to the same storm. I think that this is part of the reason why Othello's eventual distrust of Cassio is so painful; they are such good friends at the beginning of the story, friends who care about the safety and wellbeing of one another, and all of that gets comp...

By act 1, scene 3 of Othello , Brabantio's life is quite different than he probably imagined it would be when he had gone to bed that night. After waking up and finding out that his daughter had married without his knowledge, and now standing in front of the duke, trying to prove that his daughter must not have truly deserted him, Brabantio has many reasons to be pessimistic. And yet, when the duke brings up the idea of smiling in the face of something hard or tragic, Brabantio can't help but agree with him, saying, "We lose it not so long as we can smile" (1.3.242). This small exchange between the duke and Brabantio fascinates me, because both men are on the verge of losing something they value very much - the duke worries about losing to the Turks, and Brabantio worries about losing to Othello. However, despite their worry, both the duke and Brabantio agree that one who doesn't stop smiling is one who is not truly defeated. This is a lesson we hear over and over...

A quote that stuck out to me as we were discussing Much Ado About Nothing in class this week is when Dogberry, in describing himself, says, "and a fellow that hath had losses." This phrase is easily missed, as it is accompanied by a jumble of other things Dogberry says about himself, such as the fact that he is wise and "as pretty a piece of flesh as any in Messina." The first time I read through this part of the play, I completely missed Dogberry mentioning that he has also had his losses, because I was so focused on the endearing descriptions Dogberry gives himself, in his comical way of talking that makes him such a lovable character. However, as we discussed Dogberry in class, my teacher brought up the fact that Dogberry points out that he "hath had losses." Once again, I was blown away by the genius of Shakespeare as I recognized that Dogberry was a mirror reflection of so many of the seemingly happy people we encounter every day in today's world...