Madison's Commonplace Blog

This quotation is one that I had heard before, but I didn't realize it was written by Shakespeare. Amid all of the confusion that occurs during A Midsummer's Night Dream , the conversation (and insults) turns to pointing out Hermia's shortness, and Helena makes the cautionary statement: "And though she be but little, she is fierce" ( A Midsummer's Night Dream , 3.2.342). I find it significant that I had heard this line numerous times without ever having read or seen this play, because that means that enough people have related to this line to popularize it. Hermia takes offense at the references to her short stature, and yet Helena tells us that there is more to Hermia than meets the eye. I think that so many people want to be viewed as fierce and strong, but perhaps people also wanted to be seen as vulnerable. It is hard  to open up and allow others to see who we are on the inside, and yet this is something that all human beings crave. Another meaning that I ...

While reading Hamlet , I came across these peculiar lines: "As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,/Disasters in the sun" (Hamlet, 1.1.129-30). Of course, I immediately turned to the footnotes of my book to understand what was meant by this phrase, and I was met with this note: "these lines are awkward; probably some text has been lost." Call me crazy for crying over the footnotes of a book, but something about this just struck me. These words penned by Shakespeare about stars with trains of fire absolutely captivated me; I found them very beautiful. But we do not understand their meaning and they have been given the label "awkward." I think this is a suitable way to look at people. We are often very quick to judge others, to classify them based on what we see, but we forget that we do not have the whole story. People often carry so much more than what we see. I often forget everyone else's lives are just as complicated as mine, that others hid...

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...

 In the middle of all of the chaos of the final scene of Othello , Othello says something that I found quite profound: "But why should honor outlive honesty?" (5.2.293). Despite the fact that Othello has just killed his wife, despite all of the disorder that is surrounding him at this very moment, Othello makes this interesting observation that people are often known for being honorable for much longer than they are actually honorable. Once again, this ties into the theme of outward appearances, though in a different way. I think that I often do good things to impress people or make a nice show of being a good person, rather than out of a desire to actually love those around me. This is a good thing for me to consider when I go about trying to serve: am I doing this for their sake, or for mine? Am I doing this to be an honorable person, or to have the reputation of being honorable? It's interesting that Othello makes this observation when it is too late; after he has kill...

Before doubt creeps in. Before tragedy strikes. Before love is lost. Before any of the wreckage begins in Othello , we get one of the most beautiful lines from Othello about Desdemona: "For she had eyes, and chose me." I think this is what all of us want. We want to be seen , and not for our outward appearance, not for what makes us better or worse than other people, not for our accomplishments, but for what makes them human. We all yearn for somebody who will see us as we are and embrace and love all of it, and that's exactly what Desdemona did for Othello. She heard his tragic backstory, saw the scars on his skin, recognized the years of good and bad in his eyes, and fell in love with it all. I honestly like to picture Othello as somewhat unattractive. Not horribly ugly or repulsive, but also not somebody who would ever be expected to catch the eye of somebody as high-ranking as Desdemona. And yet, she looked past what she saw on the outside, and she chose him for what ...

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...