#list. i love the play julius caesar. but uh. it is.... not very historical | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

quetzalpapalotl · 1 year

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Shakespeare according to me

I'm not anglo, I learned about plays in Spanish in Spanish class. I've never seen a Shakespeare play. However due to the worldwide prevalence of anglo culture, I think I have a good grasp on what his plays are about. So I pulled a list and this is what I know of each for @aturinfortheworse

All's Well That Ends Well: Well, okay, I thought this was like a phrase said in a play, not the title of a play, I have no idea what happens in this one.

Antony and Cleopatra: Uh, this is about the romance of the title characters until Cleopatra's suicide. I don't think it's very historicaly accurate. As an aside, Cleopatra's death is a hot debated but afaik there's good reason to believe she was killed, rather than having commited suicide.

Comedy of Erros: I thought this was the name of a genre.

Hamlet: Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark who is back from college. His dad is dead and his uncle married his mom so now uncle is king. The ghost of his dad appears to Hamlet and tells him uncle killed him and Hamlet must avenge him. Hamlet struggles with what to do for too long, I think he kills a guy by accident, he could have killed his uncle at some point but didn't because he had just confessed and wouldn't go to hell. Ophelia is Hamlet's love interest and everyone treats her so poorly she goes mad (I think the guy Hamlet killed was her dad) and drowns herself either deliberately or passively. Alas, poor Yorick. To be or not to be. I now realize I have no idea how this ends, but it's a tragedy so maybe Hamlet dies???

Henry ???: This lists 7 plays named Henry, besides obviously being about kings all I know is that one of them references Pontious Pilate washing his hands because I talked with Ruin about that expression.

Julius Caesar: The Senate plots to kill Caesar, Brutus joins because he fears he may become a despot. Caesars ignores his wife's worries and other bad omens and goes out and gets stabbed. Et tu, Brute? Marcus Antonius gives a cool speech after and justice is served. I don't think this is very historically accurate and I'm sure this play is the only reason people on this site care about Caesar's death so much.

King Lear: A king distributes his kingdom between his dauthers and gives the best parts to the ungrateful, mean ones that suck up to him instead of the actually good daughter. Then the mean daughters treat him badly in his old age. Good daughter tries to help him. I think Lear dies???

Macbeth: I actually read a translation of this one, this one doesn't count.

Merchant of Venice: This one is where "Do we not bleed?" comes from, said by a Jewish merchant in reference to Jewish people being, well, people. You'd think this means the play is sympathetic to Jews, but the plot is actually about that merchant being The Worst, so uh, it's pretty anti-semitic.

Midsummer Night's Dream: Woman A and man B are in love, but A's dad wants her to marry man C, woman D is in love with C, but C loves A. Meanwhile the fairy King (Oberon) and Queen (Titania) are having marriage problems and the King decided to prank her by using a love potion to have her her fall in love with a dude whose head was turned into a donkey's (for some reason). While avoiding going to couple's councel he decides he might as well help A, B, C and D sort themselves, but there's a confusion and the love potions creates a perfect love square. Hilarity ensues until everything is sorted out and everyone is freed from the love spell, except C who is made to love D and uh... I think D should have the name of Twelfth's Night's protagonist. This all happens during midsummer.

Much Ado About Nothing: A man and a woman are forced to spend time together because their besties are in love. They claim to hate each other but are just really tsundere. There's a prince.

Othello: Othello is an affluent black man whom everyone loves, except this one guy who hates him because he's racist. He tricks Othello into killing his own wife (Desdemona).

Romeo and Juliet: Okay, I know the plot of this one. Everyone does. Yes, I know it in detail. Just trust me.

Taming of the Shrew: There's a woman no one likes because she has an attitude, a guys take one for the team and marries her so her younger sister that everyone loves will be available for marriage. The husband spends the entire play abusing his wife until she becomes perfectly obedient. I hope there's something I'm missing because what the actual fuck.

Tempest: A dude named Prospero (I think he used to be a king) was exiled with his daughter to an island for some reason. He learns to do magic. Prospero invokes a storm that makes the dude that exiled him (his brother? cousin?) who was passing by take refuge on his island. He has a plan to take revenge, but he also wants his daughter to marry the son of the guy who betrayed him?, so he pretends like he dissaproves of their romance because reverse psychology???? He has a fairy servant that he loves dearly named Ariel. There's also a guy named Caliban who was the original inhabitant of the island who is portrayed as a vicious svage and represents anti-colonialists natives, which is... yeah...

Titus Andronicus: They're romans. Idk what this is about but everyone dies horribly.

Twelfth Night: This is where the Anne Hathaway picture that all the bisexuals love comes from. A woman named Viola (me, a Spanish speaker: ಠಿ_ಠ) disguises herself as her twin brother for reasons (I think she thinks her brother is dead) and gets work under some rich dude and falls in love with him. Said dude is trying to court some rich lady and sends Viola to help him, rich lady falls in love with Viola instead, since she's pretending to be a man. Hilarity ensues. Then Viola's not-dead twin brother shows up and there's much confussion and more hilarity. Everything is sorted in the end and Viola gets to marry her boss and the rich lady settles for Viola's brother, because I guess she was into the pretty face and not the personality. This is where Optimus Prime gets the journey's end in lover's meeting quote I think. I guess it happens across 12 days???

As You Like It, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, King John, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, Merry Wives of Windsor, Pericles, Richard II, Richard III, Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Winter's Tale: I have never heard of this in my life.

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