The Bard's Challenge: Week Eight, Pericles, Prince of Tyre

The Bard’s Challenge: Week Eight

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

In this post:

Pericles

Sonnets 24-29

Thoughts on Pericles

Wow…Can you say fiasco?

You can say fiasco… but wait until you read Titus Andronicus.

So I just have to wonder if anyone else was having the same thoughts as me while they were reading this play. It’s completely outrageous! I’m reading and I’d just go, “Wait, hold on. The riddle just HAPPENS to reveal Antiochus’s incest? And the fishermen just happened to retrieve Pericles’ armor, and Thaisa randomly decides to join a convent instead of meeting up with Pericles in Tyre? And in addition, why the heck does Pericles leaves Marisa in Tharsus for 14 years?!” It makes absolutely no sense. And as if the complete absurdities weren’t enough, the characters seem stiff and stereotypical, and nothing really HAPPENS in the play. I mean, stuff happens, but it’s mostly Gower DESCRIBING what happens, rather than it being played out onstage.

Two explanations:
Okay, so Pericles is definitely not one of Shakespeare’s best plays. In fact, a lot of people think it’s one of his worst. But there are a couple things that must be said of the plays.

First, it’s highly unlikely that Shakespeare wrote Pericles by himself. Most scholars agree that the play was collaborated on, especially in the first two acts. If it’s true, the collaboration explains a good amount of the discrepancies, abrupt shifts, and language faults in the play that are not normal for a more mature Shakespeare. The collaboration made things uneven, stiff, and different from scene to scene. So while some passages and scenes contain beautiful imagery and verse, the play can’t hold its own as a whole.  

Second, the characters and some of the circumstances are stereotypical and unrealistic for a reason. Let’s think about some of the characters, shall we? Antiochus: stereotypical evil villain. Dionyza: stereotypical evil stepmother. Helicanus: stereotypical loyal prince. Marina: stereotypical virtuous princess. If you’re anything like me, these characters were gosh darned frustrating! I’d like to go ahead and quote Charles Boyce here: “The figures are not realistic, but this is part of their point. They are symbols of the human potential for good and evil that is so much more complex and obscure in reality, or even in realistic drama. “

Resurrection

“She sings like one immortal.” (5.Chorus.3)

Shakespeare uses the theme of resurrection quite a bit in his plays, but in Pericles he uses it about three times as much as he normally would. First, Thaisa apparently dies giving birth to Marina, then Marina apparently dies, (Marina vividly reminds me of Snow White. Did anyone else get the same feeling?) and finally, after hearing of both his wife’s and his daughter’s death, Pericles dies on the inside. He can no longer even speak or communicate with the outside world because of his grief. I think it’s a bit ironic, then, that the sight of Marina is what brings him back. To quote Pericles himself, “Thou. . . Beget’st him that did thee beget.” Or, in other words, “You have brought to life the same person that originally brought you to life.”  

Sonnets:

Sonnet 24:

This sonnet was really tough for me, and I went and looked at a couple different explanations, then read the sonnet again. Then I almost cried! Look at these lines:

That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.

Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done:

Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me

Are windows to my breast

It’s very tough to get at first, but what I think Shakespeare is saying here is that when he looks with his “windows” into the youth’s eyes, the youth can see his beauty reflected in them, and Shakespeare can see into his own heart.

Sonnet 25-29:

I don’t have too much to say one these except for one thing: Sonnet 29 is probably my new favorite sonnet ever. J I had this vague memory of having read it before, and then I remembered—it was the first sonnet I ever read! (Other than the “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day.”)

Next Week:

·         Titus Andronicus

      Very bloody, very graphic, one of Shakespeare’s first plays. It’s not going to be inspiring. ;) Have fun.

·         Sonnets 30-33