Week 4, Entry 1

This week we went to see Shakespeare's Henry IV performed at the globe theater. We had the standing tickets, so we got to be the "groundlings", just like in Shakespeare's time. The production was amazing and entertaining, but that wasn't the best part about the experience for me. I found myself marveling at the fact that in the year 2010, people are still performing in Shakespeare's plays and paying to see them, just as they were in the 16th century.

Could Shakespeare have predicted that he would essentially become immortal? He was successful in his own time, but one always assumes that fame will fade. In this case, however, I was intrigued to see that the show had sold out. This was a show that forced the majority of its viewers to stand for three hours on a Thursday afternoon. And yet Shakespeare's pull is as strong as it ever was. I found it amazing that characters like Falstaff could still provoke uproarious laughter from an audience that exists 5 centuries later than Shakespeare was writing for.

In class, we were told that Henry IV is considered to be a history play, rather than a comedy or a tragedy. In this way it is even more heavily tied to England because it is almost a textbook about the past monarchy. Despite the fact that Henry IV takes place in the 1400s, we could still draw parallels between that monarchy and the monarchy today. I found the parallel between Prince Harry in the play and the current Prince Harry to be quite startling; almost as if there is this immortal princely attitude that someone withstands the test of time.

The fact that these texts have survived all these years and continue to be relevant to our lives today makes me feel optimistic about modern literature. I feel that literature will always matter, because it is constantly trying to pin down what it means to live in this world. By still having access to these plays, we can connect with characters and authors that have long since passed away. Experiencing the palpable excitement in Shakespeare's globe theater this week reinforced my belief that being an English major is important and worthwhile, because literature lasts forever.