Shakespeare in Jail
From LiteracyTentWiki
The two-part article below, Shakespeare in Jail, by Martina Jackson, appeared in the All Write News, a publication of the Adult Literacy Resource Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, in September and November, 1999.
Shakespeare in Jail;Part I
by Martina Jackson
Eight years ago, I began a Creative Writing odyssey at the Suffolk County House of Correction: odyssean because over the years the course has wandered in many directions, searching for the best way to present language arts frameworks in an interesting, engaging format. My students and I have experimented with a variety of novels, plays and poetry, as well as films, seeking to unplug their torrent of suppressed feelings in written and spoken words. Over this time, we have enlarged the curriculum considerably, from twelve to twenty-two weeks, from three to six Shakespeare plays, from four to twelve videos. We've also added another novel.
While the course has grown in many ways, I have always begun in the same way. Believing that people generally write best when writing about themselves, I always start by assigning an autobiographical sketch, poem or short story. This first work serves as both a diagnostic tool for assessing my students' writing ability as well as an artistic icebreaker. Most importantly, it tells me how they see themselves. Thereafter, we engage in regularly scheduled skill-building sessions, emphasizing simple and complex sentences, paragraphs, outlines and organization of ideas, thesis sentences, and concluding paragraphs. These classes are surprisingly popular, relying on students' individual and collective creativity in producing grammatically correct, entertaining sentences and paragraphs.
At times I begin the assigned readings with the works of Maya Angelou, especially her autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, using the "cage" imagery as a metaphor for the imprisonment of addiction, since virtually all my students are addicts. Her poetic prose is rich in music and imagery, luring readers into her books, and my students, with scant exposure to the pleasures of the written word, are intrigued by Maya Angelou, who writes so beautifully about the trauma they know.
The Students
Over time the class size has increased to twenty or twenty-five women between the ages of eighteen and sixty, although the majority are in their late twenties to early forties. Some have graduated from high school and had some college, but most left school in the tenth grade. Most attended Boston public schools and became truant, regardless of race, because of court-ordered busing and its attendant violence. Because they live on the meanest emotional and geographical streets, they adopt a heavy overlay of "attitude" to mask the intolerable emptiness which drives them to drugs. Still, a number of students write poetry or keep journals as a means of expressing their pain and vulnerability. Many are gifted artists as well. One young woman, whose anti-social behavior began in elementary school, wrote brilliant, searingly graphic autobiographical short stories in between harrowing self-destructive drug and prostitution trips. Another was an inspiringly gifted actress, who played Romeo, Hamlet and Othello in one performance.
In eight years at the House of Correction, I have had only two students who were not physically or sexually abused in childhood or adolescence. Equally, nearly all my students are serious, chronic drug-users, having been introduced to narcotics somewhere between ten and sixteen. (One of my students was prostituted at ten by her older, drug-addicted sister.) Generally, emotional development ceases at whatever age addiction begins. The great majority come from families with high rates of drug and alcohol abuse and have been in abusive relationships with addicted people.
Sadly, most students have at least one, and usually, several children, who are in the care of a relative or foster parent. Many have infants and toddlers whom they rarely see. Most students are deeply attached to their children and are eager to participate in parenting courses.
Despite often cripplingly painful childhoods (one student was fathered by her grandfather and left in a trash-barrel when she was three days old), many students revere their mothers. While describing indifference or neglect, they create relationships with mothers that may not have existed in fact. A current student, writing an assigned one-page short story about some real or fictional family event, described her graduation from Suffolk Law School, detailing her mother's great support, pride and happiness. When I asked her what was fiction and what was fact, she explained that her mother had died when she, the student, was eleven.
It is hardly surprising, then, that these students are not trusting. They have had few, if any, sustaining relationships and are often harsh and negative with one another. At the same time, they may engage in romantic relationships with other female inmates, which usually end badly. There are many triangles as well, which tend to be the major cause of friction. Many of these relationships are complicated and abusive.
Poor self-image and lack of esteem are common denominators in prison populations. Women inmates are often addicted to clothing and jewelry, as well as drugs and alcohol, to assuage their inner emptiness and cover their imagined physical imperfections. They often demonstrate an almost frenzied need to acquire personal material symbols, resulting in the illicit behavior which leads them to prison.
Therefore, in addition to the underlying course theme that we all make choices in our lives and students have the right to choose better lives for themselves, we work on raising the level of sensitivity and civility in peer interactions. If people share deeply personal and emotional experiences, other class members are honor-bound to hold them in strictest, respectful confidence. It is essential to conduct the class as if it were any adult education program outside the walls of the Suffolk County House of Correction. In fact, my students say they like the class because they feel connected to the "outside world."
Since most students have not been in school for many years, and their academic and adolescent experiences were often hostile, we need to dispel these negative associations by revisiting them, discussing them and moving on. Hence the use of videos and written material based on autobiographical sources, which strike the familiar chords in my class. Opening the classroom door with the use of familiar themes helps to overcome the resistance and fear of failure which mark the students' approach to scholastic undertakings. I have chosen material that moves from the most accessible to pieces with more complex language and concepts, thereby building a "language arts frameworks framework." What follows is a brief discussion of the purpose in selecting each of the videos, poetry, novels and plays in our Creative Writing curriculum.
Prelude
We begin with four popular recent videos. I start with Dangerous Minds because most students have heard of or seen the film or the television series and are familiar with the themes of adolescent alienation, violence, and truancy. Students are encouraged to discuss and write about their own painful experiences in school. Because my students readily identify with the students in Dangerous Minds they easily draw comparisons between their own lives and those of the characters. It is their introduction to critical thinking and the development of verbal and written expression, as well as the "compare and contrast" method of analyzing material. They learn to share ideas, to listen and respond. In writing about Dangerous Minds and their own high school experiences, students demonstrate their ability to: understand an assignment based on specific material; organize and express ideas; formulate sentences and paragraphs; use words, including a demonstration of vocabulary; demonstrate critical thinking and analytical techniques; and draw parallels between written and visual materials and their own lives. Throughout our five-month program, our regular language arts workshops stress the "1) tell them what you're going to tell them, 2) tell them, 3) tell them what you told them" method, which applies to Shakespeare's plays as well, since the Bard relies on prologues and epilogues for the same purpose.
In the film, teacher Luanne Johnson assigns the poetry of Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas, asking the class to read and discuss Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Let Me Die in My Footsteps" to show that there are layers of meaning. She prods and challenges her students to understand that literature, particularly poetry, is not passive; readers are required to contribute analytical and interpretive skills to the process of reading. Her underlying theme in discussing "Let Me Die In My Footsteps" and Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is that even in death one may make choices.
When I ask students what they know about Bob Dylan, they generally discuss his use of drugs and have some notion of his music. A few may know about his opposition to the Vietnam War. I supply a short history of his music to set the scene for 'Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Let Me Die in My Footsteps." "Mr. Tambourine Man" is Luanne Johnson's poetic launching pad and ours because students can easily identify its drug-related imagery. As the class discussion proceeds, students realize that they can readily understand the poem's underlying themes.
Since almost all students in the SCHOC Creative Writing program are addicts, we encourage them to relate "Mr. Tambourine Man" to their own experiences. Class discussion becomes more personal and more heartfelt, and students develop verbal as well as written expository skills. They learn to analyze poetry for meaning and imagery. At the same time, they are acquiring the ability to participate in class discussions.
In Dangerous Minds Luanne Johnson invites her students to search the library for the poetry of Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan to find similar themes. Since our library does not have such resources, we supply copies of all the poetry we read. (My recent class raised questions about the existence of an after-life, so I brought copies of William Butler Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium," and "Byzantium," which led us to a discussion about the Collective Unconscious.)
Basketball Diaries is a grimmer view of adolescence, but, like Dangerous Minds, is based on a true story and thereby is more interesting to our students. Many are familiar with James Carroll and have heard of the film. As with Dangerous Minds almost all the adults in Basketball Diaries are hostile, inadequate or both. Students clearly identify their own descent into the drug cycle with Jim Carroll's free-fall into drug hell. As in everything we teach, we build on foundations of student knowledge, drawing on familiar situations and settings. In addition, we move from more readily accessible ideas and concepts in Dangerous Minds to more complicated themes in Basketball Diaries.
In The Shawshank Redemption Andy Dufresne, an innocent man serving life for the murder of his wife and her lover, teaches hopeless men to strive for something better. He and a fellow prisoner, Red, form a lasting relationship based on trust and loyalty, which eluded them in their lives as free men. Andy proves that prison bars cannot fetter a free spirit and that hope endures even in the most desolate places.
We read the book How Stella Got Her Groove Back and see the film, allowing students to compare them, with some conjecture about the reason the two are so different. We explore the profit motive in film-making, with its heavy emphasis on fantasy rather than reality. Students often note that the Whoopi Goldberg character is absent from the book but appears in the film to increase viewer attendance. Most students prefer the book to the film because the book seems more possible and believable. Since the author, Terri MacMillan, is married to a much younger man, students learn how to adapt reality to fiction. Both the novel and film serve as excellent essay and short story material, providing a sound segue to Romeo and Juliet, another story about socially unacceptable love.
Shakespeare Comes to the Slammer
Many feel intimidated by the plays, novels and poetry we consider a part of a standard high school education. Since most of my students haven't completed more than ten years of school and weren't in constant attendance even before dropping out, they are unfamiliar with the mechanics of written and verbal discussion. Writing and talking about their personal experiences reveals their universal lack of esteem. I cast about for ways to challenge and fortify them, at the same time teaching them something, the master of which would lead to a sense of pride. They need a stake in their linguistic and cultural heritage. They also need a sustaining passion, within the bounds of law, to fill their souls and replace their reliance on drugs and alcohol. For people embarrassed by their gap-riddled education, it's essential to breach the barriers which separate them from "well-educated" America-- thus, "Shakespeare Comes to the Slammer," so called to deflect students' profound belief that Shakespeare is insurmountable and incomprehensible. When I assure students that Shakespeare's audiences were equally divided between the indifferently educated middle-class, the better-educated nobility, and illiterate folks out for a good time, they seem genuinely surprised. Shakespeare, they think, wrote solely for scholars and rich people. Regrettably, some scholars share that belief as well.
William Shakespeare wrote plays to be performed, not read. Therefore, we study only those plays which have a good film version, which we view before we read the play. The intensity with which students are engaged by the videos speaks to the degree to which they comprehend and are beguiled by the material. After we see, read and write about each play, students perform selected scenes, immeasurably increasing their understanding and appreciation of the Bard and their own abilities. As with all actors, my students must consider motivation, not only of the characters they play, but also of the other characters in the scene. Acting vastly increases students' understanding of the plays, as well as their fluency and self-esteem. One student, summoned by a guard to return to her unit after class, responded, "I come anon, good officer!"
The 1968 Franco Zefferelli production of Romeo and Juliet, with which we begin the Shakespearean portion of our odyssey, is probably the most accessible of the Bard's film adaptations, intensely romantic, with appealingly vulnerable young leads. Once convinced they can both understand and respond to the language, my students are eager to explore other plays. They recognize, as have four hundred years of audiences, the relevance of his themes to their own lives and enthusiastically engage in discussion comparing characters and plots with their own experience. In his recent definitive work, Shakespeare: Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom suggests that the Bard influenced Sigmund Freud, who quoted and analyzed Shakespeare's characters. As I frequently assure my students, Shakespeare was a first-rate psychologist. We respond to his characters because they are us. The overwhelming majority of my class are impulse-driven and desperately craving affection; therefore, we read plays dealing with impulsive behavior and its consequences, as well as plays about betrayal. In each case we explore the character's choices and offer alternative suggestions. In fact, when we study Romeo and Juliet, I ask students to write a "Dear Abby" response to the young couple suggesting ways to deal with their "star-crossed" love.
For many students, "Shakespeare Comes to the Slammer" is their first exposure to the stimulation of intellectual discourse--of supporting an argument with specific textual and experiential references. Because the concept of discussion and debate is foreign, it is necessary to establish ground rules in courteous communication.
Romeo and Juliet
We begin studying the works of William Shakespeare with Romeo and Juliet because it is the play with which everyone is familiar. Even if students don't know the plot they are aware that Romeo and Juliet are lovers and represent the ideal of romantic love. Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet is easy to follow and it offers an excellent vehicle for detailed character analysis and development of critical thinking skills. There are several important themes in the play which are relevant to our students, including the cataclysmic adolescent "love at first sight"; adolescent gang rivalries over turf; impulsive behavior; irresponsible and/or unsympathetic adults; betrayal and despair. As students discuss and write about these themes, they begin to understand the genius and universality of Shakespeare, whose works transcend cultures and centuries to reach us. We also see three film versions of Romeo and Juliet, to underscore Shakespeare's adaptability to every age: the 1968 Franco Zefferelli version, which is the best and with which we begin; the 1936 version with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer; and the 1997 Leonardo DiCaprio/Claire Danes edition. (We also see West Side Story.)
On the other hand, most students have no idea of historical timelines. That Shakespeare wrote four hundred years ago and that his plays are often set in earlier periods has relatively little meaning to students who haven't really studied history or literature. Therefore, we view two short videos, Shakespeare in Stratford and Shakespeare in London, to set the physical and historical scene for the plays and their author.
It is important to set the social scene as well. We explain that in Shakespeare's time women had few protections. Wealthy women were their father's property until they became their husband's property. Adolescent girls were married as early as thirteen--in fact titled girls might have marriages arranged for them at birth--and romantic love was not usually a criterion for such unions. Elopement was unthinkable. Marriage was a contract uniting two families for their mutual strength and benefit. Absolutely essential to such unions were the bride's large dowry (which might include gold, silver, jewels, property, fine linens and cloths, china, crystal, and servants) and her virginity (another reason to marry off one's daughters at the earliest possible moment). To protect her virginity, a girl was under the constant surveillance and supervision of her nurse (usually a woman who had literally nursed her in infancy and remained to care for her until her marriage) or other older female companion. By contrast, males were encouraged and expected to have sexual liaisons throughout their lives.
Wealthy girls were taught to read, possibly write poetry and learn a foreign language, sing, dance, play an instrument, embroider, run a large household, and be decorative. They never attended school or university, and never had professions. In the unlikely circumstance that they remained unmarried, they languished at home doing their parents' bidding. If they were lucky, ordinary women--and men--might have had the scantiest local school education, where they learned to read, write and do some basic arithmetic. Men of Shakespeare's middle-class background had a better education, including Latin and possibly a foreign language, as well as history, geography and mathematics.
Since most people could barely read--if they read at all--and there were no movies, radio or television, the theater and the local drinking place were at the center of their entertainment universe. (Bear-baiting, cock-fighting and executions were popular, too.) Shakespeare wrote for a mass audience. He borrowed from existing stories, legends, and history to create his plays. Women were forbidden to act on stage, so men played female roles as well. In Shakespeare's plays, we note that heroes and heroines, as well as villains, have fatal flaws. As we watch and read the plays, we discuss the defects in reason or character which led to these characters' downfall.
A note on texts: We use The New Folger Library edition of Shakespeare's plays because they have the clearest notes and provide explanations and definitions on the left-hand page, opposite the text, minimizing frustration for students unfamiliar with Shakespeare's vocabulary. Students should be reassured that William Shakespeare wrote in modern English and that his work is perfectly comprehensible with a little help from the line notes. We also explain that Shakespeare uses verse whenever an important character makes an important speech. Servants and lesser characters do not speak in verse. Moreover, since there are no copyright laws governing the performance of the plays, there is great latitude taken in adapting them, which will be obvious to students as they view the three versions we have chosen as well as the West Side Story derivative.
Although Franco Zefferelli took a number of liberties with the text (most significantly, excluding some of Juliet's soliloquy as she takes Friar Laurence's potion and Romeo's stabbing of Paris in the last act), he produced a visually and emotionally faithful version of Romeo and Juliet. It has a freshness and beauty which captures the fifteenth-century mores as well as the sympathies of the modern viewer. The youth, fragility, and appeal of the two leads underscore their impetuous, impossible love. Olivia Hussey is believable as the radiant thirteen-year-old child on the brink of womanhood. Leonard Whiting is every girl's dream of fifteen-year-old boyish perfection. We understand the web of social forces which entangled and doomed them. In Zefferelli's version, we move from the luminous joy of the young lovers to the inevitability of their death. Often, when Romeo's servant, believing Juliet to be dead, overtakes the Friar's messenger bearing the truth, someone in class will suddenly announce the imminent death of the young couple. At the same time, when asked why Shakespeare omitted the scene in which Romeo kills Paris, students conclude that it interrupts the tragic flow of the story. Usually, students express dismay that Romeo and Juliet die at the end, which invites a discussion about the dramatic conventions of comedies, tragedies and histories. This is an opportunity to contrast today's popular drama with the formalities of the late fifteenth-century drama. The women are shocked to discover that in much of Shakespeare's repertoire, hero and heroine are likely to die.
When the 1936 Romeo and Juliet was filmed, Norma Shearer's husband, Irving Thalberg, was head of MGM studios and decided to give her an "important" role. Norma Shearer and her co-star, Leslie Howard, were far too old for their parts, which might not have mattered so much on stage, but was quite obvious to the cruel eye of the camera. In addition, Norma Shearer was hardly a Shakespearean actress. Moreover, because Romeo and Juliet were portrayed by older actors, Mercutio, Tybalt, and Benvolio all had to be much older as well. Thalberg's version of Romeo and Juliet relied on costumes and sets that never saw the light of day or night in the fifteenth century. Norma Shearer wore 1930s Hollywood-style dresses with sequins and tulle. Leslie Howard was too old to climb the balcony and had to use a step stool. On the other hand, the Thalberg version adhered more closely to Shakespeare's script than the Zefferelli production.
In the third film, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes are the late-1990's star-crossed pair, living in a world of drugs, punks, gangs, transvestites, porn, AK-47s, chaos and destruction. After the poetry of Franco Zefferelli and the 1936 "Busby Berkeley meets the Bard" version, this last offering is a jolt to the senses, producing laughter and shock where there should be foreboding and sadness. On the other hand, it certainly proves my oft-repeated point that Shakespeare survives in every time and adaptation.
West Side Story, the 1961 Leonard Bernstein musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, is problematic for some students who cannot accept the convention in which characters burst into song and dance to express feelings. Taken together with the 1997 Romeo and Juliet, however, students recognize the universality of the story. I ask students to consider the following: In comparing Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story, what difference does it make that Tony and Maria are members of warring ethnic groups rather than warring Verona families? Does this version seem more believable than the others? If you did not know the story of Romeo and Juliet, how would you feel about this film? How do you feel about the fact that Maria survives in this version? Which ending do you prefer, the ending in Romeo and Juliet or the one in West Side Story?
With this we move on from Romeo and Juliet to other plays. [Part II of "Shakespeare in Jail" will appear in the next issue of this newsletter.]
- * * * * *
Martina Jackson has been a volunteer teacher at the Suffolk County House of Correction for the past eight years. Before that she was a reading teacher in the K-12 system.
Shakespeare in Jail; Part II
by Martina Jackson
(from the November 1999 issue)
[In the September issue of this newsletter, Martina Jackson began her description of the literature course she has been teaching to women at the Suffolk County House of Correction for the past eight years, emphasizing in particular the way she uses videos as a means of introducing students to Shakespeare's plays, such as Romeo and Juliet. In this, the conclusion to her article, she discusses the other plays that her students watch and read, discuss and write about in hercourse.-Ed.]
Othello
We show the 1995 film version of Othello, starring Laurence Fishburne as the Moor. Most students know Laurence Fishburne from his many box office successes and are quite receptive to his performance (which is superb). Kenneth Branagh is suitably sociopathic as the wily, evil Iago, and Irene Jacobs is appealing as the innocent, naive Desdemona. Othello has special meaning to this audience because a majority of the women have either been witnesses to spousal abuse or have been its victims. Interestingly, students often express anger with Desdemona for her willingness to suffer Othello's growing hostility. We set the scene, explaining that, as with Juliet, it was unthinkable for a daughter of a prominent Venetian household to elope with anyone, particularly a former Moorish slave. We reiterate that women were property, first belonging to their fathers, then to their husbands. Sheltered Desdemona is enchanted by Othello's exotic life since her own is so proscribed by her social position and degree of protection. It is hardly surprising that she falls under his spell or that he succumbs to her beauty, gentleness and kindness. His harsh life as a slave as well as his success as a general ignites her compassion and imagination. Othello has broken some of the constricting social bonds. In eloping, Desdemona attempts to free herself. Here, as in Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Desdemona fall in love with idealized versions of themselves; they really don't know one another terribly well when they elope.
Iago's jealousy and disappointment serve as an excellent weapon against Othello's feelings of vulnerability and inadequacy as a former slave in a white world. Othello falls easy prey to Iago's insinuations about Desdemona and Michael Cassio because he has had no experience of women and he has very little self-esteem. Since my students are often victims and perpetrators of malicious rumors and gossip, they readily understand Iago's motivation and Othello's vulnerability. At the same time, in class after class, I am fascinated by the resentment--sometimes even anger--that my students have for Desdemona's apparent acquiescence in her own death.
Taming of the Shrew
Taming of the Shrew is a comic look at spousal abuse. We read it after Othello to demonstrate that in Tudor times marital discord could be the subject of tragedy or comedy. An angry, dissatisfied scolding wife was an object of derision. The womanly ideal was meek, beautiful, and decorative. Women, even wealthy and well-bred, had few outlets for their talents. Katherine and Bianca live in Padua with their elderly, wealthy, widowed father, Baptista. Although the younger daughter, Bianca, has many suitors, her father insists that Katherine, the older of the two, must marry first. Regretably, Katherine, who is extremely intelligent and does not suffer fools or anyone else lightly, berates, humiliates, and abuses those around her. Few have the courage to tackle her as a marriage prospect. Bianca, who seems demure and compliant, is actually flirtatious and manipulative, delighting in her popularity. The comparison between the two sisters usually elicits commentary about students' families in which one sibling dominated the home. Bianca's suitors proffer Petruchio, a "gentleman" whose profligacy has left him financially embarrassed and who has come to Padua to seek a rich bride. Baptista is only too willing to pay handsomely to have Katherine off his hands, but he insists that Petruchio win her fancy. (Students are reminded that Lord Capulet was also prepared to pay a large dowry for Count Paris.) Petruchio and Katherine joust verbally and physically, and their meeting in Act II, scene 1, is a good opportunity for students to try their comic skills. Although Shakespeare's verbal surgical strikes challenge them, students enjoy the fun of the words and they throw themselves into the lead roles. Taming of the Shrew is typical of the farce genre, with mistaken identities galore. In the end, all is resolved happily.
In class discussion following Othello and Taming of the Shrew, I ask students to discuss and write about the types of men they prefer. Generally, although many of our students have been in abusive relationships, they prefer men who "challenge" them. They tend to ridicule men who are kind to them. Through discussion and writing, we explore their low self-esteem. Because abuse is familiar to many, it seems acceptable. Moreover, some women feel that their ability to withstand abuse gives them a sense of control. Following essays and discussions about the kind of men students look for, we address their concerns about the kind of men their daughters will choose. Interestingly, whomever they choose for themselves, my students want their daughters to find kind, considerate, non-abusive men.
The film War of the Roses is a comic derivative of Taming of the Shrew. (The English War of the Roses takes its name from the bitter fifteenth-century struggle between the noble houses of York and Lancaster for the British throne. The Yorkist emblem contained a white rose, whereas the house of Lancaster was represented by a red rose.) Although its "heroine," Barbara, is not tricked into her marriage to Oliver Rose, she gradually becomes disenchanted and realizes that, as has been the case since time-out-of-mind, he sees her as one of his priceless possessions; she is like one of his precious Staffordshire figurines. While Oliver has been a rising, arrogant star in a high-powered Washington law firm, Barbara has been his handmaiden, raising their twins, negotiating for and decorating the magnificent home that Oliver requires, and becoming his hostess. He is an upwardly mobile, materialistic, image-conscious boor with utter disdain for any of Barbara's independent longings for a career and income. Their lives become increasingly competitive and hostile. Oliver's determination to keep Barbara and his house--at all costs--leads to wild scenes of physical and verbal confrontation not unlike the feistiest scenes of Katherine and Petruchio.
War of the Roses prompts discussion about the range of relationships between the sexes as an ideal and in reality. In War of the Roses, neither Barbara nor Oliver surrenders or adjusts their tactics. Hostilities escalate until the horrific climax. Although War of the Roses is a comedy, both Oliver and Barbara die. The unexpected ending is a conceit permissible in today's artistic climate, but would not have been tolerated in Shakespeare's day. The Roses' war is as funny to us as Katherine's and Petruchio's was to a Shakespearean audience--although the comedy is admittedly many shades darker today. Just as divorce was not legally possible for Katherine and Petruchio, it was not psychologically possible for Oliver. At the end of the film, students write an essay comparing and contrasting Taming of the Shrew with War of the Roses, including personal references, either their own or those of someone they know, to sour relationships and possessiveness.
Hamlet
First we watch the Mel Gibson Hamlet, since most students are familiar with Mr. Gibson's work and find him quite appealing. Although he is not a brilliant Hamlet, and the production is somewhat abbreviated, Mr. Gibson and the film manage to convey the overall themes, while capturing the students' attention. Occasionally, we also view the four-hour-long Kenneth Branagh Hamlet, which generally follows Shakespeare's script and omits nothing. With Hamlet, we move into more complex Shakespearean work, dealing with multiple layers of betrayal. The student prince, Hamlet, is transformed by successive tragedies from melancholy student to decisive man of action. As his predictable, secure world disintegrates, he relinquishes the pleasures of his youth to assume the grave responsibilities of manhood and defender of his father's crown. Prince Hamlet is betrayed by his uncle, who kills his father; by his mother, who leaps into marriage with her brother-in-law six weeks into her widowhood; by his friends, Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern, who conspire with the new king against Hamlet; by Ophelia, who allows herself to be used to divine Hamlet's purpose; and, for all he knows, by the ghost of his father, who may be luring him to hell. (Hamlet's consternation at his mother's hasty marriage to her brother-in-law raises a familiar issue to an Elizabethan audience and its queen. Her father, Henry VIII, married his brother's young widow, Katherine of Aragon, and later appealed to the Pope to invalidate that marriage because under Canon law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law are considered siblings and their marriage would be incestuous. If Henry VIII had not been legally married to Katherine of Aragon, Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, would be considered the king's first wife and there would have been no question of Elizabeth's own legitimacy.)
To protect himself from his uncle, Hamlet feigns insanity, while Ophelia, who has suffered the loss of her lover, Hamlet, and the death of her father at Hamlet's unwitting hands, becomes literally unbalanced, serving as a foil for the prince. Shakespeare commonly underscores a theme by presenting it in two strands within the play. At the end, Hamlet's play-within-a-play unleashes the tragic course of events in which he kills Polonius; Ophelia becomes deranged and commits suicide; Claudius attempts to have Rosenkrantz and Guilderstern deliver Hamlet to his death, but he has them killed instead. In the last act, everyone is betrayed as Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet die. As the bodies mounted on stage, one of my students inquired, "Would you consider Hamlet a serial killer?"
We ask students to write about the many levels of betrayal in Hamlet, drawing upon personal reflections. Since many come from fragmented families and have suffered multiple betrayals, Hamlet speaks to them in a familiar idiom.
Richard III
At the end of the period of great civil unrest which gave rise to Richard III, Henry Tudor became Henry VII, founding the Royal House of Tudor, and a period of great economic, political and artistic achievement began. As the Tudor era was waning because its last monarch, Queen Elizabeth, never married, William Shakespeare was flourishing as one of the Queen's favorites. We learn from Richard III that artists were hardly immune from the politics of the day. Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, is one of the most shocking sociopaths in Shakespeare's army of miscreants. He joins Iago, Edmund, Goneril and Regan in unfettered villainy. Shakespeare's portrayal of the dark, malformed, evil Richard is so potent that it has become history's dominant portrait of this son of York. The Bard's portrayal owes something to Sir Thomas Moore's biography, based on the earlier work by Holinshead, both of which were drawn to find favor with Henry VIII, the son of Richard's vanquisher, Henry Tudor. Shakespeare's Richard commits crimes never attributed to the real king, although his actual offenses were hardly insignificant, particularly as regards his nephews. By the time Shakespeare wrote Richard III, he was an accomplished dramatist who understood how very much the public loved a thorough-going rogue, and he pulled out all the dramatic stops to give them one. It was Shakespeare who created Richard's hunchback. Whatever the truth about Richard's character, he was by no means the only ruthless royal and he lived on an island of intrigue. Since our students are unfamiliar with the intricacies of the War of the Roses (1455-1487) and the complexities of royal succession, we prefer to use the 1995 film version of Richard III, starring Ian McKellen, Annette Benning and Robert Downey, Jr., among others. Although this version is set in a 1930s pro-fascist-era Britain, and the production takes a number of liberties with the original text, it absolutely captures the essence of Shakespeare's perspective. Surprisingly, our students, mostly women under forty, find the material accessible and have no trouble understanding the plot and the language. By way of relating the concept of royal succession to the present, we explain that the current House of Windsor is not directly descended from any of Tudor English monarchs. The present Queen Elizabeth is a direct descendent of several German royal families because, over time, the direct British royal line died out. (Princess Diana was, in fact, more English than her in-laws.) It is their German heritage which likely inspired the 1930s pro-fascist setting for this Richard III. In this version Ian McKellen portrays the Yorkist king as a Hitler clone--ruthless, diabolical, destroying everything and everyone in his way, particularly his nearest relations. Richard's eldest brother, Edward, succeeded to the throne as the result of one of the battles in the War of the Roses. Edward and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, have three sons, all of whom take precedence over Richard in the event of Edward's death; they also have a daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who would become Queen if her brothers die. In addition, Richard's other older brother, George, Duke of Clarence, would become king if anything happened to King Edward's children. Clearly, Richard-the-would-be-king has his work cut out for him. The film begins by showing Richard leading the Battle of Towton, killing Lady's Anne's husband and father-in-law, King Henry VI (which actually did not happen). Thereafter, Shakespeare's Richard plots to discredit his brother, the Duke of Clarence, reminding us and presumably the king that there is a prophecy that the king will die through the actions of someone whose name begins with "G;" the Duke of Clarence's given name is "George." (Of course, Richard is the Duke of Gloucester, which also begins with the letter "G.") As the plot unfolds, we watch in shocked fascination as Richard lures people into helping him to commit unspeakable crimes. At the same time, we are incredulous at the people who trust Richard; in this way he is very like Iago.
Early on, we have a chance to appreciate Richard's apparently irresistible charm, when he woos Lady Anne, whose father-in-law and husband he has just killed. Unbelievably , he tells her that he killed them because he loves her, and although she knows him to be a monster, she falls under his spell. Luring potential supporters by promises of property and power when he becomes king, Richard manipulates Edward's council into backing his claim to the throne and killing those who oppose him. We hear the townspeople speak of him in dread. Richard himself is beset by horrible dreams in which he appears as a boar. Shakespeare's plays are full of omens and dreams foretelling disaster. Ultimately, as in all good morality plays, Richard's evil deeds catch up with him. Richmond kills Richard and marries Princess Elizabeth, for whom Richard has killed his wife, so that he may marry his niece and have a stronger claim to the throne. Richmond replaces Richard on the English throne, becoming the first Tudor king, Henry VII.
We ask students to write an essay analyzing Richard's character, including whether they agree with Shakespeare that his physical disabilities were a manifestation of his psychological predilections. Students are asked to comment on his approach to women and whether they know people like Richard and Iago.
King Lear
We complete the course with the most complex work, King Lear, which is to this course what the last set of fireworks is to the Fourth of July--it's got everything! King Lear tells multiple parallel stories. The king's wish to abdicate all responsibility as a monarch and parent, while retaining the trappings of the throne, gives us some idea of his narcissism and hints at his growing mental deterioration. In Shakespeare's day, it would have been unimaginable for Queen Elizabeth I to ever willingly relinquish any morsel of her hard-won power. At the same time, Shakespeare includes the Earl of Gloucester's fall from grace at the hands of his illegitimate son, Edmund. Edmund, Richard III and Iago have many similarities, and throughout the King Lear section we refer to them. We also explore Shakespeare's reasons for including the Gloucester plotline in the play. From the first, the king is "blinded" by the belief that all his daughters hold him in the high regard to which they attest and to which he believes he is entitled. Rather daringly, Shakespeare makes the point that monarchs are surrounded by sycophants who will tell them what they want to hear and will literally "bow and scrape" because monarchs expect that. King Lear offers an opportunity to explore the reality behind the "show." We look at Lear and at situations today and discuss hype--what is the difference between seeming to be loyal and being loyal, and how does power corrupt people? As with Richard, we realize that royal and noble families don't have the same family relationships as the rest of us, but as we discover in Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres, which we see and read after King Lear, on some level property and personal gain taint every family.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses physical blindness and mental illness as foils. As in Hamlet, he compares those who use mental illness as protection and those who are genuinely ill. However, in King Lear, Gloucester sees the truth about Edgar's loyalty and Edmund's evil only after Cornwall blinds him; and Lear learns the true meaning of love and loyalty only after he loses his mind. Edgar protects himself from Edmund and the death sentence by pretending to be a mad beggar, and the Fool is the wise man in the play. Lear's older daughters, Goneril and Regan, who swear they love him above all else when he is about to apportion his kingdom among them, become the embodiment of everything evil when trying to jettison him, and they turn on one another because of Edmund.
Another aspect of King Lear is that the plain-speaking characters--Cordelia, Edgar, Kent, the Fool, as well as the King of France--are honest and loyal. Shakespeare, the master of the verbal flourish, here equates honesty with simplicity. With a raging storm as a favorite Shakespearean backdrop, Goneril and Regan turn out their father. When Gloucester expresses pity for him, they blind him. The mad king and the blind nobleman discover their true friends while their enemies fall on one another for even greater gain. Edgar rescues Gloucester; Kent, the Fool and Cordelia attempt to rescue King Lear. Fortunately, in King Lear, Cordelia and her father are reunited before they die--she by hanging and he by the stress of his torments. Regan poisons Goneril. Gloucester dies reconciled with Edgar. Cornwall is killed by a servant after he blinds Gloucester, and Edgar avenges his father and himself by killing Edmund in a joust.
Having watched the film, we assign an essay dealing with the nature of the parent-child relationship and what parents owe their children. We also ask students to discuss and write about relationships with parents and siblings, with special emphasis on who is the favorite and how everyone reacts to the favorite. Why do parents favor one child over another? Students are asked to consider the nature of power and write about it from the perspective of the plays they have read and seen and their observations of their own world. In addition, students are asked to consider the importance of saving face and self-esteem.
Jane Smiley based her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, A Thousand Acres, on King Lear, but included several significant twists. Bland, compliant, uncomplaining Ginny, the eldest daughter, is the story-teller and has two younger sisters Rose (Regan) and Caroline (Cordelia). Their father, Larry Cook, a tyrant, is also the most successful farmer in his region of Iowa. He suddenly decides to relinquish his farm to his daughters and their husbands, two of whom already live there. Caroline, a lawyer in Des Moines and not yet married, worries that there might be some legal problems. Her hesitation so enrages her father that he immediately shuts her out. Once the farm is in their hands, Larry loses his focus. Rose and Ginny take turns caring for their father, while their husbands run the farm. Ginny is childless, having had a number of miscarriages, while Rose has had two girls but recently underwent a mastectomy. Their mother died many years before, leaving them to raise Caroline. Into this complex mix a neighbor's son returns from many years of living away. The neighbor, Harold, is the Gloucester figure, and his sons Loren, who lives with him, and Jess, the returnee, are like Edgar and Edmund.
Larry Cook's attitude towards his family changes as soon as the land is theirs--he drinks heavily, behaves irrationally and becomes more demanding. Ginny has a brief affair with Jess, who leaves her for Rose; Rose's husband, Pete, who has beaten her on occasion, dies in a truck accident; and Caroline marries in Des Moines without telling the family. In the course of their new dealings with one another, Rose reminds Ginny that their father repeatedly committed incest with them, a fact which Ginny, who is always resolutely cheerful, has "forgotten." Although they don't wage a literal war for the land, Larry joins forces with Caroline, who initiates a lawsuit charging Ginny and Rose with mismanagement of the farm. At the end of the day, Ginny and Rose retain the farm but their lives are altered forever. At the peak of her rage against Rose, Ginny makes jars of poisoned pork sausage hoping Rose will come upon them in the basement some day. She needn't have worried because Rose dies of a recurrence of breast cancer, leaving the girls to her.
With the viewing and reading of A Thousand Acres, I ask students to write a short story about a family situation which shows the relationship between parents and siblings. They also write an essay about King Lear's destructive demands on his daughters and Larry Cook's demand on his children, considering how each father saw his daughters, how fathers treat daughters, and the reasons fathers commit incest. I also ask students to write about ways to turn negative into positive, including changes they can make in the course of their lives and what they would be if they could be anything.
Conclusion
The "Shakespeare Comes to the Slammer" curriculum relies on the English/Language Arts Curriculum Framework as an organizing tool to develop spoken and written language. Analysis and expression are at the very heart of the program. Combining the exploration of drama, poetry and fiction with creative writing and skill-building, we expand a student's ability to think and communicate. Studying plays invites students to consider character motivation, collaborate with other students, and stretch their linguistic abilities. Acting allows even very quiet students a chance to shine as they attempt to master long, brilliant lines. Regretably, we do not have access to a good library, nor do the women have computers at their disposal. Word-processors would lubricate the creative muscles and stimulate interest, as would a traditional library. Would that my students might discover the wonders contained in well-stocked, well-catalogued shelves inviting the reader to roam at will in search of a deeply satisfying book. At a minimum, I hope that, once back in the community, they will seek the solace and enchantment awaiting them at their public libraries. Beyond discovering the balm of reading beautiful words, I urge students to explore post-prison educational opportunities at local community colleges or continuing education programs. I want them to know that caged birds can break free and soar to unimagined heights. That is what I wish for each of them.
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Martina Jackson has been a volunteer teacher at the Suffolk County House of Correction for the past eight years. Before that, she worked as a public school reading teacher.
