ENG220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cuckold, Brabantio, Roderigo
Document Summary
Shakespeare married at 18 to anne hathaway, 26 and pregnant. Ending of all"s well is an exaggeration of shakespeare"s younger self getting married . Bertram is inexperienced, doesn"t want to settle, gets caught by helena (pregnant) anti- fantasy ending. Letter to helena as a set of instructions to win bertram going outside of themselves in the bedroom scene where they are both someone else (no class distinctions) playing out a fantasy/roleplaying as diana and solider. Both characters know each other very well in the end having no surprises once you are married. Married life is a blank just like shakespeare"s. Comedies end with tension gestures to something outside the framework of comedy (tragedy) real life begins once they are married. Works with courtship builds everything up, it is realizes but not fully consummated. Married life occupy the realm of tragedy.