I
know there are many many people who would disagree, but I think there
is such thing as too much Shakespeare.
Currently, we are reading A Midsummer Night's Dream in my 5th grade
class. Previously never a huge Shakespeare fan, I was a little
worried about teaching it. How would my students be able to make
sense of his language? Would they pick up on the sexual innuendos?
Racist comments? How am I going to handle the word ass being
on every page of Act III?
I'm
honestly so impressed with how they are progressing, and am really
enjoying Shakespeare myself. The play is about love and it's
complications—how “the course of true love never did run smooth.”
This topic obviously makes the 10 and 11 year olds red-faced and
giggly. The boy cast as Lysander for the day inevitably is wondering
what girl (or guy—we embrace the Shakespearean model of having men
play woman in high falsetto voices) will play his
Hermia, and vice versa. I try my best to ask for serious acting so
they feel less embarrassed talking about romance and love. I
emphatically proclaim, “You are not Brooke declaring your love to
Bottom who magically has the head of an ass, today you are Titania!”
Recently
we discussed the concept of a “fool” and what behaviors and
characters in the play we would deem foolish. I asked them to pick a
character and write a paragraph supporting their argument. The
standard answers went something like this:
“Helena,
because she compares herself to a dog and follows around Demetrius
even though he tells her that looking at her makes him sick and
leaves her to be eaten by wild animals in the forrest.”
Valid
answer. Oh Helena.
Or,
“Hermia
because she is disobedient to her father and could be put to death or
thrown in a convent for running away with Lysander.”
Yes,
it pays to be obedient, class.
A
couple, however, under what I believe to be the influence of
excessive amounts of Shakespearean no-other-option-ism, aka The
Shakes, answered thusly:
“I
think Hippolyta is a fool because she is willing to marry Theseus
even though he destroyed her town and people and family. She
should've gone down with her town. But she decided to just go with
him instead of dying. Even if she did have to go with him, she
could've killed herself.”
And,
“I
think Helena is foolish because it seems like the more she follows
Demetrius the more he hates her. And she is foolish because she just
should love Lysander because he now loves her and Demetrius doesn't.
Why can't she just have a conversation with Demetrius and have Hermia
in it and she could say, 'love me Demetrius or elts (else) I will
kill Hermia!'”
*Above
is verbatim from their adorable cursive-written papers.
As
I mentioned earlier, I believe this is a manifestation of a oft
o'erlooked malady referred to in the medical community as The
Shakes. That is, the reaction when one is digesting more than the
recommended dose of William Shakespeare's works within a certain time
period. Akin to imbibing too much whiskey or a Celine Dion music
marathon, the body has no other choice but to react in mysterious
ways as it seeks homeostasis. The Shakes take many different
forms, usually falling into the predictable yet appropriate
categories of Comedy and Tragedy (including but not limited to fifth
grade children flippantly entertaining murderous acts).
Other
symptoms include:
Speaking
in iambic pentameter.
Speaking in a manner that is unintelligible for the first two or three times heard.
Speaking in a manner that is unintelligible for the first two or three times heard.
Tacit
compliance to extreme and ill conceived plans.
Attraction
to humans with one or more appendage belonging to an animal.
Thinking that humans with one or more appendage belonging to an animal exist.
Thinking that humans with one or more appendage belonging to an animal exist.
Markèd
absence of marital trust.
Tough
parental love, with manifestations such as death threats.
Inexplicable
possessiveness over Indian boys.
Proclivity
to enter into duels and then more duels.
Belief
in fairies.
An ability to plop down and sleep anywhere at any time (not to be confused with narcolepsy).
An ability to plop down and sleep anywhere at any time (not to be confused with narcolepsy).
Dry
mouth, blindness, and sometimes, yes, death.
By my troth, I do urge thee--Shakespeare in moderation.