Seriously, Helena? All's Not Well That Ends Well
Sunday, August 10th, 2008 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoOK, picture the situation: you're a poor girl who's grown up with a rich guy, and now as an adult you have feelings for him, but you're not sure what to do. Meanwhile, the King is ill, and you're the only one who has a cure that can help him. The King promises you anything in return and you ask to name your husband, and it's your childhood friend. He reacts badly, says that he thinks of you like a sister, but the King threatens him with banishment if he doesn't say yes. Eventually, your guy says yes, but imposes a whole lot of conditions and then runs off to fight a war, leaving you behind.
[Poll #1238251]
Guess which option Shakespeare's heroine choose? The least practical and most roundabout one of those three: she fakes her own death (supposedly death by heartbreak) and chases after the guy, only to catch up with him to find him wooing another woman. Sneakily (or something) she and the woman make a pact to switch places in the fateful "lose-your-virginity" bed (the whole to-lose-your-virginity-or-not problem is a major theme of this work) and get the lamebrained hero's family ring away from him so that when he returns to court, he's disgraced in front of his entire family and peer group, only to see who he's actually slept with and that she's pregnant. So he *has* to fall in love with her!
... to which I must say a resounding O RLY?!
"All's Well That Ends Well" is a weird play, to be completely honest. It wasn't that the Globe's staging was poor (it wasn't), or that the actors were bad (they weren't--in fact, many of them were very talented). It's that the source material itself is just flat out strange. Helena should be a strong heroine--the daughter of a poor doctor, who studies her father's materials and cures the King of a mysterious malady. I should have been on her side the entire time, right? In reality, I couldn't figure out what she saw in Bertram, her childhood friend who she wants to marry. His first objection to the marriage was not "I don't love her" but "she's from a lower social station than I!" (Annoyingly, the next girl he courts is also from a much lower social station than Helena.) We never find out much about him other than he's a bit of an arrogant jerk who wants a life of adventure, not be to married and settled down. Helena pursues him with a dogged stubbornness, and while she wins him in the end, I give that marriage 6 months max, even with the kid in tow. When youmindfuck trick someone into marrying you like that, and humiliate him in front of all the people who matter to him, you haven't exactly laid the foundation for a strong relationship.
The program had a quote from some drama critic who said that this work hints at Ibsen, centuries later. There's a major difference at work, though: Nora has a brain, and uses it to see the reality of her situation. Helena has a brain, but she's blinded by a puppy love so strong that she cannot see the reality of her situation. I know which heroine I prefer.
~~~
This trip to the Globe was preceeded by dinner at the Prado, where I had a chocolate souffle cake so delicious that I actually found myself saying OM NOM NOM NOM aloud. :)
[Poll #1238251]
Guess which option Shakespeare's heroine choose? The least practical and most roundabout one of those three: she fakes her own death (supposedly death by heartbreak) and chases after the guy, only to catch up with him to find him wooing another woman. Sneakily (or something) she and the woman make a pact to switch places in the fateful "lose-your-virginity" bed (the whole to-lose-your-virginity-or-not problem is a major theme of this work) and get the lamebrained hero's family ring away from him so that when he returns to court, he's disgraced in front of his entire family and peer group, only to see who he's actually slept with and that she's pregnant. So he *has* to fall in love with her!
... to which I must say a resounding O RLY?!
"All's Well That Ends Well" is a weird play, to be completely honest. It wasn't that the Globe's staging was poor (it wasn't), or that the actors were bad (they weren't--in fact, many of them were very talented). It's that the source material itself is just flat out strange. Helena should be a strong heroine--the daughter of a poor doctor, who studies her father's materials and cures the King of a mysterious malady. I should have been on her side the entire time, right? In reality, I couldn't figure out what she saw in Bertram, her childhood friend who she wants to marry. His first objection to the marriage was not "I don't love her" but "she's from a lower social station than I!" (Annoyingly, the next girl he courts is also from a much lower social station than Helena.) We never find out much about him other than he's a bit of an arrogant jerk who wants a life of adventure, not be to married and settled down. Helena pursues him with a dogged stubbornness, and while she wins him in the end, I give that marriage 6 months max, even with the kid in tow. When you
The program had a quote from some drama critic who said that this work hints at Ibsen, centuries later. There's a major difference at work, though: Nora has a brain, and uses it to see the reality of her situation. Helena has a brain, but she's blinded by a puppy love so strong that she cannot see the reality of her situation. I know which heroine I prefer.
~~~
This trip to the Globe was preceeded by dinner at the Prado, where I had a chocolate souffle cake so delicious that I actually found myself saying OM NOM NOM NOM aloud. :)
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-10 05:48 pm (UTC)At least the chocolate souffle was good :)
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Date: 2008-08-11 01:39 pm (UTC)