Journal 1 -Shakespeare and Ghosts

 

8/11/2000

Stratford-Upon-Avon Studies: Shakespearean Comedy ed David Palmer and Malcolm Bradley

 

“The Presentation of Comedy: The First Ten Plays” by John Russell Brown

                He does not exactly describe what he means by a disinterested viewer of the paper.  Also he sees Claudio’s emotions for Hero as pure and shy.  I don’t think he is correct about the disinterested viewer.  Also his reading of Twelfth Night seems not to be well done.

 

“Were man but constant, he wee perfect: Constancy and Consistency in The Two Gentleman of Verona” by Inga-Stina Eubank

               Interesting read of Verona, comparing to the sonnets but it still offers no solution to the play.

 

“Shakespeare without Sources” by Stanley Wells

               Why don’t Titania and Bottom count as lovers? Because of the love flower with Titania is subjected to?

               Good point in comparing The Tempest to romance but condensed in space and tone.

               Interesting comparison of watching of plays in both Love Labors Lost and A Midsummer’s Night Dream is trying to show the correct way to behave at the play.

 

“Grace, Art, and the Neglect of Time in Love Labor’s Lost” by John Dixon Hert

               Didn’t read it because I really dislike the play.

 

“The Merchant of Venice  or the Importance of Being Earnest” By D J Palmer

                Don’t exactly buy his theory that Portia is not marrying a stranger while Jessica does.  Portia is in fact marrying a stranger who seeks her funds.  The use of the caskets seems to be the only way to insure that Portia marries a stranger, Jessica at least knows Antonio.  Portia desires (sexually) Bassano.

               Portia trying to save her husband’s friend is not acting out of self interest?

               Seems to disregard Jessica as the “bad” way to marriage.  But Jessica rebels against unjust/uncaring father, Portia follows the strange marriage rules.

               Do not agree with is reading of Bassano, makes him too innocent.  Bassano to me has always seemed lacking.  Not truly heroic, but a user.

 

“The Owl and the Cuckoo: Voices of Maturity in Shakespeare’s Comedies” by R. A Toakes

               On Jacques in As You Like It, “He can equally be seen as a “comic pointer’ exposing the folly of others, of courtiers living in the woods” (122).

               Always wonder about that detail myself.

               Good observation on Much Ado About Nothing.  Never saw Hero and Claudio’s love as a social declaration.  Plays makes more sense that way.

               On Beatrice and Benedick, “The point is that the witty poise they begin from, and only lose in flashes that revel the strength of their feelings, includes and transcends such a relationship as Claudio and Hero can hope for” (132).

               Not sure that I agree with reading of Theseus.  Thesis always seemed to want to hurry the marriage along.

 

“Shakespeare’s Fools: The Shadow and the Substance of Dreams” by Gareth Llyod Evans

               Interesting concept of fool and influence of the part upon the actor.

 

“As You Like It and Twelfth Nigh: Shakespeare’s Sense of Ending” by Anne Burton

She does not seem to get to her point and there does not seem to be too well supported.

 

“Theatrical Trompe l’oeil in Measure for Measure”  by Joselyn Powell

               Makes the play somewhat clearer.

 

“Two Unassailable Men” by A D Nutall

               Don’t know if I would classify The Tempest as a comedy.

 

8/12/2000

Victorian Ghost Stories  ed Michael Cox and R A Gilbert

“The Nurse’s Story”  by Elizabeth Gaskell

               Would it be possible for a woman go hide  her pregnancy in such a house with such a spy? {Note: women could hid pregnancies at this time period and some women did not even realize they were pregnant.]  I wish Gaskell had told what ha happened to the mothers.  Scary part of the of the story is the fact that you can have seen it happening.  Could Gaskell have come upon some story in the news or a rumor?

 

“An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street” by J S LeFanu

               How come it is always two bachelor men who explain such horrors?  Yet at the same time seem afraid to admit it to each other?  Women seem to discuss things more, to find things out (see examples like “The Nurse’s Story” and “At Creighton Abbey”).  Men seem to lack this curiosity  in such similar circumstances.  Yet men will volunteer to stay in such haunted rooms.  Seems like it is contradictory roles.

 

“The Miniature” by J Y Akerman

I like this one because the reader is left to determine whether or not the man is driven mad by the his guilt or whether he was driven mad by a ghost.  Without a doubt,, the man is insane not only because of his placement in the insane asylum but because of the closing that starts with “Here follows a few incoherent sentences”  Without a doubt the gentleman does belong in insane asylum.  But it is unclear whether or not when his insanity took hold.  He describes his reaction to his friend’s death  as “this delirium”.  You can sense his disconnection with reality.

 

“The Last House in C Street” by Dianh Mulock

               Closing sentence in this one is so perfect – “Ay I was [crying] -  but scarcely at the ghost story” (54).  Touching story of love.  Perhaps if she had stayed in London things would’ve been different.  Could it have been the journey that caused  the delivery.  But how do you know when you’re being paranoid or silly and when something is wrong.

 

“To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt” by Charles Dickens

Okay, in all fairness would you in all honesty serve family on a jury in such a situation.   Narrator and murderer both knew each other in a way.  Yet one thinks that the foreman could have been removed with some excuse.

               I never understand my relationship with Dickens.  I read something I love by him and then something I hate.  “Salt” is definitely one of his better stories.  A more convincing ghost story than A Christmas Carol which has lost its horror because it is so well known as well as the fact that one knows the ending will be happy.   Because after all it is a Christmas story.

 

“The Botathan Ghost” by R S Hawker

               Very mysterious tale.  Derived from folklore and actually “true” ghost stories.  Perhaps why this story seems more chillingly real.  Echoes of many stories of ghosts predicting disaster or foreshadowing/forewarning of such disasters.  Different from “Creighton Abbey” because it seems less contrived.

 

“The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth” by Rhonda Broughton

               Typical male disregard prudent advice, common motif of the bell.  But different because reader is not told of the reason/source of the hauntings.  The use of the epistolary form draws the reader into the story, makes the reader part of the story.  The reader hears about it as it happens and is told no more than that brief sequence of events.  Story shows a small span of time.  It’s more realistic because not everything ins life is so readily explained as it is in ghost stories.  Not everything in life is so readily explained and with an answer o t he cause that happens in ghost stories.   This story does not give us a reason so therefore is more realistic.

 

“The Romance of Certain Old Clothes”  buy Henry James

               Strange how ghost stories involving two women always  start with their relationship being disturbed by the arrival of a man.  Always two women who keep themselves somewhat aloof.  So it seems like a serpent (male) crawls into the Garden of Eden.  Shows woman as emotional.  But with two men quarreling over a woman it always seems that some of the blame is out on the woman.  Yet in the reverse situation, one of the blame is put upon the men except in Gaskill’s story.

               Husband remarries quickly and yet one wonders at how the neighborhood would see him after the tragic death of his second wife and whether he married again.

 

“Pichon and Sons of the Croix Rousse” By Anon

               Sad that men make these promises and then fulfill them.  The promises do not strike one as loving because of the shock that it gives the lady, and the fact that the women never marries afterwards.  Seems a degree cruelty exists these promises of returning even if dead.  As if man wishes to keep his possession of the woman.

 

“Reality or Delusion” by Mrs. Henry Wood

               Why does Maria receive so much of his anger when he was the one at fault?  Maria seems to much of a caricature of a wrong woman.  Doesn’t seem like Daniel has much to recommend him besides his looks.

 

“Uncle Cornelius: His Story” by George MacDonald

               Couldn’t finish it.

 

“The Shadow of a Shade” by Tom Hood

               Ghosts does show itself to the fiancée but does protect her from the murder.  Much better than the standard visitation from the dead lover, even though Lethe doesn’t marry.

              

“At Creighton Abbey” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

               Seems too cliché.  Why is it always the oldest son?  And notice that the sister weren’t consider important.

 

“No Living Voice” by Thomas Street Millington

               not exactly a gripping story.  Prose seems boggy.

 

“Miss Jeanette and the Clergyman” by Willkie Collins

               Unclear why narrator has to stop association with Miss Jeromette.  He seems false in so quickly shredding of this acquittance, it is a serious fault as a friend.

               Again it seems that some of the blame is transferred to the woman by making her a shrew.  AKA her sharp tongue caused him to do it.

               Class conflict in the “necessary” shrugging off of the friendships

 

The Story Clifford House” by Anon

               Interesting in the point of view and lack of detail in regards to the children.  Again the motif of the man keeping quiet without a good reason for the wife is already worried.  He gives her the impression of being a worry wart- she seems like a worry wart.

 

“Was It an Illusion: A Parson’s Story” by Amelia B. Edwards

               Impossible to read because of the dislike for the narrator.

 

“The Captain of the Pole-Star” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

               Not exciting, seems dull and uninteresting.

 

“The Body Snatcher” by Robert Louis Stevenson

               Why do these tales always take place in Scotland? [Note: Answer – high rate of body stealing there]

               Interesting how the true Scot had more of a conscience.

 

“The Story of the Rippling Train” by Mary Louise Molesworth

               Tragic like “The last House in C Street”.  Not scary, just sad because of the lost love.  The beginning of the story does not hint at the tragedy to come, and seems everyday.  This makes it realistic and yet at the same time the shocking ending.  The story is tragic because narrator and the lady never speak of their love.  The ghost motif is only a backdrop to the tragedy of lost love.  And they did love each other for why else would she appear to him?

 

“At the End of the Passage” by Rudyard Kipling

               Couldn’t get though it.

 

“To Let” by B M Croker

                Like this because it is similar to “The Truth . . . “ it presents a glimpse of life and hint at other.  The hinted at romance between the narrator and Charlie Chalmers. Like how the ghost romance did not intrude upon the present romance, something the author could have easily done.  Like the fact that not everything is tied up.

 

“John Carrington’s Wedding” by E. Nesbit

               More selfish men.  He had to take her with him.

 

“The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly” by Rosa Mulholland

               At least the man here makes no pretense of honor.  The problem is that the story is too predictable.  But the characters are wonderfully drawn.

 

“The Man of Science” by Jerome K  Jerome

               Love the ending of this one.

               “Brown was the first to break the silence that followed.  He asked me if I had any brandy on board.  He said he felt he should like just a nip of brandy before going to bed.  That is one of the chief charms of Jephson’s stories, they always make you feel you want a little brandy” (384).

“Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook” by M R James

               Did not feel like reading it.

 

“Jerry Bundler” by W W Jacobs

               See above

 

“An Eddy on the Floor” by Bernard Capes

               Could not get though it.

 

“The Tomb of Sarah” by FG  Loring

               Like scary movies where the lack the sense to leave well enough alone.

 

“The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit” by Boerz Pin

                Again blaming the woman, but nice and dark.

 

“The Shadows on the Wall” by Mary E Williams

               Good characterization, bad story

 

“Father Macclifeild’s Tale” by R H Benson

               Couldn’t though it, same with “Thornley Abbey” by Perceval London

 

“The Kit-Bag” by Algernon Blackwood

               Seems like a stupid mix up and lack of observation.  Why did the man commit suicide?  Story is not clear on that point.