Episode 24 - Romeo and Juliet

Explicit content warning

03/24/20 • 71 min

Romeo and Juliet. Sex and love. Family and religion. It's a story made up of pairings, from the two houses at war to the two lovers who bring the feud to an end. Your two hosts dive into this immortal classic this week to talk the different kinds of love present in the play, the language and poetry Shakespeare was bringing to full use by this time, and the generational gaps presented in the play. Not to mention the objectification of women, the role of fate or destiny, and some of the criticism the play faces (in our view most unjustly) from critics today.

Notes:

A few thoughts about prologues:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/shakespeare/comments/3r9176/why_do_some_plays_have_prologues_but_others_dont/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPjygcUnMgc
We'd love to hear how others came to first see R&J as well, feel free to get in touch and share with us.

Ancient Bickerings:

This week we answer the only question that really matters in this play: who is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet?

Notes:

A few thoughts about prologues:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/shakespeare/comments/3r9176/why_do_some_plays_have_prologues_but_others_dont/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPjygcUnMgc
We'd love to hear how others came to first see R&J as well, feel free to get in touch and share with us.

Ancient Bickerings:

This week we answer the only question that really matters in this play: who is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet?

Previous Episode

Episode 23 - Shakespeare and the Supernatural

This episode is all about the spooky, the spectral, and the supernatural. Join us for a discussion on ghosts, visions, and outright magic. We talk about the various works of Shakespeare and how the supernatural manifests itself in each, playing with both the characters' and the audience's emotions and expectations. We also touch on the context in which these plays and poems were written, where fate and the supernatural were simply accepted parts of the world - a world in which we as a Western audience are easily able to imagine ourselves as well.

From the witch appearance in Henry VI through to Shakespeare's final swan-song in The Tempest, we've got you covered with an analysis of all the major uses and themes of the supernatural.

Ancient Bickerings

This week's debate is less of a debate and more of a reflection on what supernatural forces we're still willing to admit some sort of belief in.

Next Episode

Episode 25 - Sex and Shakespeare

Looking at sex in Shakespeare’s time and works reveals a similar world stuck between two truths: the first that sex was always a many-splendoured, or at least multifaceted, thing; and the second that despite the crushing weight of legal, cultural, and religious dictates, in trying to police sex, Elizabethans wound up having a fairly free discourse on the subject.

Unfortunately for modern readers, that discourse is still much more obscure than our modern, ultra-liberal discussion of everything from kinks to polyamory; such talk, while still there in Elizabethan works, is far more layered and lacks a lot of the diction we take for granted...

Join The Bicks for a randy discussion about Shakespeare between the sheets!

Notes:

Stanley Wells' Shakespeare, Sex & Love
Hays Code
Nunnery = whorehouse?
- Some people insist this is not the case -- we'll let you be the judge!
- Ophelia pregnant?!
Two bros...chillin in a hot tub... because Vine will never die.
Monty Python - The Meaning of Life condom skit
Philip Larkin, "Annus Mirabilis"
- "Sex began 50 years ago, Larkin said. How has the Earth moved since 1963?"

Ancient Bickerings:

In lieu of a proper bickering sesh, Aidan asks Lindsay if the discussion today has changed the way she looks at Shakespeare's writing about sex, and whether she views him as more liberal now or not. What do you think?