One problem I have with some of Shakespeare's work is lack of development. I understand that he wants to write what he wants to write, and the parts he chooses to flush out are amazing, but I'm left with several questions that I would really need answered if I were to understand this play.
I think my main problem is that this play is rather flat. I was turned off by the fact that deception is the pervasive theme here. There is a presented and acknowledged problem, and all the characters are woven into this web of lies in order to solve it. In the end, Claudio is spared, but what is actually accomplished? The Duke reveals his disguised self, proposes to Isabella, and sentenced Lucio to marry the woman who comes forth with claims of his child. Angelo is pardoned, and Isabella doesn't have a chance to respond. The play just ends. It reads like a deus ex machina style play, with the last-minute interference of the Duke, but it has all the closure of a kid who closes his/her toybox when they get bored of playing. The good aren't really rewarded, the evil don't get their comeuppance, and no characters really learn any lessons.
I felt as though I was watching from outside a house here, not knowing the full story or who each character is.
How did y'all feel about this? Did the story seem to fall flat? Why? Why not? Is the ending too thrown together?
YES! I thought I was the only one!
ReplyDeleteI felt like the ending was so rushed and very, just, blah. I almost wish someone would write a re-telling of this play in a novel format so we can get some good old character and plot development.
I think I'm also having a hard time "hearing" and "seeing" the characters. I can't tell if someone is angry or joking throughout the whole thing! In a novel, we at least get some descriptions and can use some deductive reasoning to figure stuff out, but this one was a nightmare.
I would have loved to see the ending drawn out so we can get a sense of how everyone is dealing with all of the plot twists and surprises being thrown at them in the last act.
Alas, we have to work with what we've got, I guess. But I'm totally with you. Flat all the way around.
I agree the ending is super quick and uneventful. The whole story is kind of flat. There is no major climax, and the resolution, to me, is a rather blah one. My high school English teacher always told us that a comedy by Shakespeare didn't mean funny, but it ended in life and that a tragedy ended in death. Right now the death one is way more exciting. Like the end of Hamlet was this huge important completion of all the events that led up to it. Whether a reader really liked it or not they had to admit that it was exciting. This just lacks that excitement. It's a "Happily Ever After" story (except Mariana), which can be exciting if done the right way, but this just ends. It's like one of those movies that resolves the problem and that's it. There is nothing that comes after to tell a viewer how things worked out and there's no sequel, but the viewer still has questions about the outcome. So now that I think of it, it really reminds me of a movie that hated for that reason and I dislike it more. (oops)
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