When I read Polixenes’ account of his childhood friendship with Leontes in Act 2 of The Winter’s Tale, I immediately thought of Helena’s speech about her childhood friendship with Hermia in Act 3 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and noted it on my question sheet. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one to draw this connection, as we briefly mentioned it in class. This led me to think about the similarities and differences between Helena and Hermia’s friendship and Leontes and Polixenes’ friendship, and why Shakespeare chose to depict this issue of childhood friendships gone wrong in multiple plays. Both friendships drift apart because external romantic interests get in the way of bonding time, and cause the pairs to be more competitive with each other. Polixenes says that “temptations have since then been born to’s” (1.2.77), apparently suggesting that their desire to sleep with women caused them to stop hanging out with each other. Helena accuses Hermia of renting their “ancient love asunder, / To join with men in scorning [her] poor friend” (3.2.215-216). Both pairs face troubles with their romantic lives that threaten their friendships, which is where, I believe, there might be an underlying message. Perhaps Shakespeare felt that friendships are too often destroyed by competing romantic relationships. He might even be suggesting that friendships cannot succeed alongside romantic relationships. Or perhaps he feels the opposite—that if two people work hard enough, their friendship can be preserved alongside romantic relationships without issues.
At the end of Midsummer, Helena and Hermia appear to be back to normal and have forgotten their conflict, after the four lovers wake up at the end of Act 4 Scene 1. This seems to support the idea that friendships can exist alongside romantic relationships, but at the same time, their friendship was only fixed due to Puck’s magical intervention. Even with the magic, Helena and Hermia agree that “everything seems double” (4.1.189) as if the events of earlier were merely a dream. Perhaps Shakespeare is suggesting that the only way a friendship can exist alongside a romantic relationship is with the use of magic.
Now, since I have only read the first act of The Winter’s Tale, it is not easy to draw conclusions from it. From what we have read so far, it seems that Polixenes and Leontes’ friendship is not going to even come close to surviving the impact of romantic interests. Leontes already wishes to poison Polixenes for just talking nicely with Hermione. While they once “knew not / The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed / That any did” (1.2.69-71), it is clear that the childhood innocence that encompassed their friendship is completely destroyed. Not only did they drift apart because women got in the way, but they are now threatening to kill each other over interactions with a woman. It also makes me wonder what must have happened to Leontes for this to be such a huge deal, but that is off-topic and something I’m sure we will discuss further in class.
Obviously Polixenes and Leontes’ friendship is much more distant than Helena and Hermia’s, but the issues are extremely similar. I am curious though—what do you guys think about these pairs? Are their experiences similar? Do you think Shakespeare actually gave thought to the ideas I mentioned? Could we interpret it differently?
Shakespeare
Richard III: Aggressive Avenger, Supervillain, and More Disability Tropes
In Richard III, Shakespeare weaves in nearly every disability trope known to literature. From the start of the play, Richard describes himself as “deformed” and “unfinished” (1.1.20) and believes he “cannot prove a lover / to entertain these fair well-spoken days” (1.1.28-29). His self-pity over his disability (or deformity, as some would say) represents the “pitiable and pathetic” stereotype that we see in so many books and films. Richard’s self-loathing is a prominent aspect of this play, as it is essentially what drives him to crave power so much and to kill everyone in his family. Other characters add to this stereotype, such as the Duchess, Richard’s mother, who says she “might have intercepted thee / by strangling thee in her accursed womb” (4.4.137-138).
This opening monologue also touches on the “incapable of fully participating in everyday life” trope. Richard clearly states that because he looks different from everyone else, he cannot celebrate the end of the war with everyone else. This does not even make sense, because nothing at all is stopping him besides his attitude. Obviously this is the point of the play, but it still seems so ridiculous to me that this is not questioned more often.
Immediately after Richard decides he is too ugly to participate in any festivities, he states that he is “determined to prove a villain” (1.1.30), which leads into the “sinister or evil” trope. This is obviously perpetuated throughout the play, as Richard is a character we would likely consider evil. Anyone who orders that many deaths is bound to be considered evil (Queen of Hearts, anyone?). Richard is the source of chaos throughout the play, and it is incredibly troublesome to think that this is all because of his disability.
The last trope that is incredibly prominent in this play is that of the “aggressive avenger.” Richard heavily embodies that trope, as, again, the entire play revolves around his plot to steal the throne from his brother and all of his descendants, and he will stop at nothing to do so. When I chose this topic for my blog post, I immediately went and found a slideshow that my Differentiating Instruction professor from last semester made for us about disability stereotypes in the media. Interestingly enough, in the examples underneath “aggressive avenger,” Richard III was listed.
I actually did a small bit of research and found that the real King Richard III did indeed have scoliosis, but this would not have been a huge problem at all, and apparently could have been easily disguised with armor if he was so incredibly ashamed of it (Source: https://www.livescience.com/45974-model-twisted-richard-iii-spine.html). This means that Shakespeare either heard from someone who twisted the story quite a bit, or he himself decided that Richard’s disability would make a great motive for murdering a bunch of people. This is obviously problematic, but back in Shakespeare’s time, many people did view disability as something evil and terrifying. Some people still think that today! (I was watching The Big Bang Theory last night and Sheldon’s mom even says that she has a friend who heals “crutch and wheelchair people” of the demons running around inside of them.)
There are definitely more tropes represented in this play, but these were the extremely prominent ones. I am not sure exactly why Shakespeare chose to make disability a major motive in this play, but it really shows how prejudiced a lot of people were and still are about it. It is entirely possible that Shakespeare was trying to show that a physical disability should not actually be a cause for anger (and the murdering of several family members), but Richard is still portrayed as a villain, so it is not clear.