TC
One of today's holidays was Nature Photography Day. After dinner, I just decided to take a walk into town to get out and about. It was a nice walk - I ended up going into town, circling the square, and then coming back. I brought my camera, but nothing really jumped out as "you need to take a picture of this". It was raining for a good chunk of this afternoon, so a lot of the flowers still felt flat, if that makes sense. I could have tried to find an okay sunset photo, but the tree coverage on my route and the cloud coverage tonight didn't give me any clear shots. At least I tried.
TC
Rather than just let the entry kind of fizzle right, I have a new topic to write about. Okay, I already wrote this on put it on Facebook earlier, but it was written today, I don't feel bad about posting it as part of the blog. So, here goes!
Don't be a Claudio... unless your name legally is Claudio. In that case, don't act like the Claudio I'm going to talk about.
Preface:
So, I want to get more experience as a writer and I know that that
comes from putting my writing out there for others to see. Even terribly
written pieces can benefit a writer who is willing to learn. I do blog
but many entries are more like daily updates rather than topic pieces
(that aren't directly related to me). This topic kind of popped to mind
this morning and I thought "okay, let's try it out", so here goes...
When not focusing on my class or random projects this summer, I do find myself aimlessly browsing the Internet. One site that I frequent is 9gag and this post recently popped up: http://9gag.com/gag/aWZQv9K (Feel free to pause here to look at the link.) This is taken from a scene in "The Swan Princess" (if the poster's information serves me correctly) where a prince exclaims his desire for a woman solely based on her looks and becomes speechless when asked to elaborate further on things he likes about the princess.
Recently, I've heard stories from female friends of mine where they were met men, either in real life or on dating websites, who were very immature and only interested in engaging in physical activity. Frankly, the guys my friends have had to deal with sound like, well, dicks. (You and I both know that I don't feel guilty about making that pun.) When you take away the illusion of the fairy tale, people want to feel an emotional connection with someone else because they will ride off into the sunset or become intimate.
The 9gag post and stories will rolling around in my head and I then thought of a literary character - Claudio from Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing". "Much Ado About Nothing" is one of Shakespeare's comedies that involves love, trickery, deception, and a few actions that make me go "Wait a minute..." when thinking about them after the curtain closes.
(If I'm wrong on any of these facts, feel free to correct me because it's been a while since I've worked with the full script.)
The cast can pretty much be categorized into "Citizens of Messina" and "Soldiers". The play opens with the soldiers returning to Messina after a war, where Leonato, the elderly governor of Messina, invites the soldiers to stay in his city for a month. The soldiers are led by Don Pedro, a nobleman and longtime friend of Leonato's, who has taken Claudio, a very young solider, on as a friend and esteemed member of the company. Leonato has a daughter named Hero and in the first scene of the play, Claudio falls in love with Hero and proclaims it to his friends.
Oh boy.
I mean, as far as we know, Claudio just met the woman that day and already expresses love solely from appearances (at most, Hero has like a handful of lines). Claudio tells Don Pedro of his love and Don Pedro is like "Okay, cool. I'll pretend to be you at the party tonight and tell her of your love instead of you. That way, you could be married to a woman you haven't even had a one-on-one conversation with!*"
*Okay, maybe that line wasn't in the script...
At the party, Don Pedro woos Hero with Claudio's love and Hero accepts the proposal. Leonato and Don Pedro are both strangely okay with this all potentially happening in a day. I am definitely oversimplifying things and not going through every detail, but Leonato at least has the sense to tell Claudio "Okay, you wanted to get married tomorrow, but let's wait until next week."
Now, you may be saying "Matt, this is a play. Things have to move quickly because we don't want to watch a couple walk in the same garden for two months talking about hobbies and favorite movies." I do agree with you on that mark, but I feel like I should carry on with the big plot points.
Don John is a character I haven't introduced yet, and in addition to be the brother of Don Pedro, he is the douchenozzle of the play. At the party, he talks to Claudio and tricks Claudio by saying "Dude, Don Pedro is totally out for himself and is going to marry Hero instead. Sucks to be you!" Claudio instantly believes the jerk, but things turn out okay and this is a pretty minor part of the play.
In the week between the party and wedding, Don John really shows his colors by convincing a servant of his to be intimate with one of Hero's waiting women while crying out Hero's name. That way, Don John can find Claudio, tell him, "Dude, you need to see this" and trick Claudio to think that Hero is being unfaithful. Claudio is pissed and you know what, I don't blame him. He believes that his fiance is with another man and that's not cool. So, what does Claudio do about it? Well, thanks to the advice of "Don John the Bastard" (yes, that's a quote from the script), Claudio bottles it all up and doesn't go to Hero personally and say "WTH is going on?" In fact, after the party, I don't recall any scenes where Claudio and Hero are in the same conversation, let alone one-on-one. After the party, a whole bunch of characters switch focus to try to trick Benedick (another soldier and friend of Don Pedro's) and Beatrice (Hero's cousin and closest friend) into falling in love, despite loathing each other previously. Remember her name for a little bit.
Fast forward to the wedding day. Everything is going smoothly until, in the middle of the ceremony, Claudio is like "Nope, I can't do it. She's a liar and I can't merry her!" Outside of Don John, Don Pedro, and Don John's minion, everyone is in an uproar and Hero blacks out. Claudio. You. Are. A. Jerk. After the soldiers leave the wedding, the priest realizes that their play was written by the same playwright that wrote "Romeo & Juliet" and tells Hero "Hey, let's convince Claudio that you actually up and died. I'm sure he won't make rash decisions like those two teens in Verona". Hero doesn't know what to make of that last part, but hides away to show Claudio what a jerk he was.
So, everyone is either pretending Hero is dead or think she sleeps around. It does not seem like Hero is in a good place right now. Anyway, Don John's minions get captured and reveal their part in the plan to sabotage Claudio's marriage. Claudio is overtaken with grief and says that Leonato can give him any punishments that Leonato feels are worthy.
*This is the part that gets me about Claudio.*
Leonato says Claudio can do two things. "One - tell the town my daughter was not a harlot and write an epitaph worthy of my daughter's innocence." Cool, that sounds really reasonable. What else? "Two - I have a niece that is pretty much just like Hero. Marry her instead." What. Now, Leonato definitely knows Hero is alive and is using this to trick Claudio so that he can actually marry Hero this time. Claudio on the other hand is told "marry this other girl who isn't physically here after you grieve for your fiance for one night"... and what does Claudio do? He likes "Yeah, if that's what will give me mercy for killing your daughter". What the heck!
So, I figure that there are two scenarios at this point. The first is that Claudio is getting hitched with Beatrice. The same Beatrice who is not only one of the people closest to the woman you think you killed, but is also the girl you have been trying to convince your best friend (Benedick) to fall in love with! Claudio seems like the kind of guy who would raise his glass to toast at his wedding reception: "To Benedick. The girl who you thought was finally falling in love with you will now be eternally bound to me... but we're still cool, right buddy?"
The second option seems even worse for Claudio. It's never explicitly said that Hero doesn't have any additional cousins besides Beatrice. There could be another part of the family tree, but we never see any characters that even act half-related to Hero, outside of Leonato, Beatrice, and Antonio (Hero's uncle/Leonato's brother). So, this wedding toast would be closer to "To my wife. All I knew before today was that you were like the girl I fell in love with a week ago and then I later adjectived to death... what was your name again?" Claudio clearly wasn't thinking about this unnamed girl whose sole character development in the play is "Solider falls in love with your cousin. Your cousin dies. Surprise! You're getting married!"
I performed as Leonato as a ninth-grader in this play at my high school. I didn't think about it at the time, but if I was a dad saying "you killed my daughter. I want you to marry my niece, who is pretty similar to my dead daughter" and he jumped in and said "yeah, I'll do that in order to make up for your daughter's death at my words", then mayyyyyybe he doesn't have a woman's best intention in mind.
Now, this was a comedy and things turn out happy-go-lucky outside of Don Douchenozzle John and his minions, but if we strip away the "it was all a play" mentality, Claudio wasn't acting too different from the princess in the Swan Princess example at the beginning. In terms of the characters, I think Benedick and Beatrice have a better shot at happily ever after. Yes, in the first scene, characters allude to the bickering going on between them, but that proves that they at least know each other. Plus, they actually interact in scenes after the party and bumble awkwardly compared to the "I see you. I love you" school of thought. It's still quite rushed but they feel more relatable because they seem to act (more) like normal people when it comes to liking someone else complexly.
This does feel like a rant, but that's because it's irritating to hear that friends of mine are still dealing with people as shallow as Claudio. People who don't look for compatibility in hobbies, opinions, or humor -- just body parts.
So men, don't be a Claudio and women, don't settle for a Claudio. If we instill this thought within ourselves, we're one step away from making this character type simply a piece of fiction.
DFTBA.
When not focusing on my class or random projects this summer, I do find myself aimlessly browsing the Internet. One site that I frequent is 9gag and this post recently popped up: http://9gag.com/gag/aWZQv9K (Feel free to pause here to look at the link.) This is taken from a scene in "The Swan Princess" (if the poster's information serves me correctly) where a prince exclaims his desire for a woman solely based on her looks and becomes speechless when asked to elaborate further on things he likes about the princess.
Recently, I've heard stories from female friends of mine where they were met men, either in real life or on dating websites, who were very immature and only interested in engaging in physical activity. Frankly, the guys my friends have had to deal with sound like, well, dicks. (You and I both know that I don't feel guilty about making that pun.) When you take away the illusion of the fairy tale, people want to feel an emotional connection with someone else because they will ride off into the sunset or become intimate.
The 9gag post and stories will rolling around in my head and I then thought of a literary character - Claudio from Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing". "Much Ado About Nothing" is one of Shakespeare's comedies that involves love, trickery, deception, and a few actions that make me go "Wait a minute..." when thinking about them after the curtain closes.
(If I'm wrong on any of these facts, feel free to correct me because it's been a while since I've worked with the full script.)
The cast can pretty much be categorized into "Citizens of Messina" and "Soldiers". The play opens with the soldiers returning to Messina after a war, where Leonato, the elderly governor of Messina, invites the soldiers to stay in his city for a month. The soldiers are led by Don Pedro, a nobleman and longtime friend of Leonato's, who has taken Claudio, a very young solider, on as a friend and esteemed member of the company. Leonato has a daughter named Hero and in the first scene of the play, Claudio falls in love with Hero and proclaims it to his friends.
Oh boy.
I mean, as far as we know, Claudio just met the woman that day and already expresses love solely from appearances (at most, Hero has like a handful of lines). Claudio tells Don Pedro of his love and Don Pedro is like "Okay, cool. I'll pretend to be you at the party tonight and tell her of your love instead of you. That way, you could be married to a woman you haven't even had a one-on-one conversation with!*"
*Okay, maybe that line wasn't in the script...
At the party, Don Pedro woos Hero with Claudio's love and Hero accepts the proposal. Leonato and Don Pedro are both strangely okay with this all potentially happening in a day. I am definitely oversimplifying things and not going through every detail, but Leonato at least has the sense to tell Claudio "Okay, you wanted to get married tomorrow, but let's wait until next week."
Now, you may be saying "Matt, this is a play. Things have to move quickly because we don't want to watch a couple walk in the same garden for two months talking about hobbies and favorite movies." I do agree with you on that mark, but I feel like I should carry on with the big plot points.
Don John is a character I haven't introduced yet, and in addition to be the brother of Don Pedro, he is the douchenozzle of the play. At the party, he talks to Claudio and tricks Claudio by saying "Dude, Don Pedro is totally out for himself and is going to marry Hero instead. Sucks to be you!" Claudio instantly believes the jerk, but things turn out okay and this is a pretty minor part of the play.
In the week between the party and wedding, Don John really shows his colors by convincing a servant of his to be intimate with one of Hero's waiting women while crying out Hero's name. That way, Don John can find Claudio, tell him, "Dude, you need to see this" and trick Claudio to think that Hero is being unfaithful. Claudio is pissed and you know what, I don't blame him. He believes that his fiance is with another man and that's not cool. So, what does Claudio do about it? Well, thanks to the advice of "Don John the Bastard" (yes, that's a quote from the script), Claudio bottles it all up and doesn't go to Hero personally and say "WTH is going on?" In fact, after the party, I don't recall any scenes where Claudio and Hero are in the same conversation, let alone one-on-one. After the party, a whole bunch of characters switch focus to try to trick Benedick (another soldier and friend of Don Pedro's) and Beatrice (Hero's cousin and closest friend) into falling in love, despite loathing each other previously. Remember her name for a little bit.
Fast forward to the wedding day. Everything is going smoothly until, in the middle of the ceremony, Claudio is like "Nope, I can't do it. She's a liar and I can't merry her!" Outside of Don John, Don Pedro, and Don John's minion, everyone is in an uproar and Hero blacks out. Claudio. You. Are. A. Jerk. After the soldiers leave the wedding, the priest realizes that their play was written by the same playwright that wrote "Romeo & Juliet" and tells Hero "Hey, let's convince Claudio that you actually up and died. I'm sure he won't make rash decisions like those two teens in Verona". Hero doesn't know what to make of that last part, but hides away to show Claudio what a jerk he was.
So, everyone is either pretending Hero is dead or think she sleeps around. It does not seem like Hero is in a good place right now. Anyway, Don John's minions get captured and reveal their part in the plan to sabotage Claudio's marriage. Claudio is overtaken with grief and says that Leonato can give him any punishments that Leonato feels are worthy.
*This is the part that gets me about Claudio.*
Leonato says Claudio can do two things. "One - tell the town my daughter was not a harlot and write an epitaph worthy of my daughter's innocence." Cool, that sounds really reasonable. What else? "Two - I have a niece that is pretty much just like Hero. Marry her instead." What. Now, Leonato definitely knows Hero is alive and is using this to trick Claudio so that he can actually marry Hero this time. Claudio on the other hand is told "marry this other girl who isn't physically here after you grieve for your fiance for one night"... and what does Claudio do? He likes "Yeah, if that's what will give me mercy for killing your daughter". What the heck!
So, I figure that there are two scenarios at this point. The first is that Claudio is getting hitched with Beatrice. The same Beatrice who is not only one of the people closest to the woman you think you killed, but is also the girl you have been trying to convince your best friend (Benedick) to fall in love with! Claudio seems like the kind of guy who would raise his glass to toast at his wedding reception: "To Benedick. The girl who you thought was finally falling in love with you will now be eternally bound to me... but we're still cool, right buddy?"
The second option seems even worse for Claudio. It's never explicitly said that Hero doesn't have any additional cousins besides Beatrice. There could be another part of the family tree, but we never see any characters that even act half-related to Hero, outside of Leonato, Beatrice, and Antonio (Hero's uncle/Leonato's brother). So, this wedding toast would be closer to "To my wife. All I knew before today was that you were like the girl I fell in love with a week ago and then I later adjectived to death... what was your name again?" Claudio clearly wasn't thinking about this unnamed girl whose sole character development in the play is "Solider falls in love with your cousin. Your cousin dies. Surprise! You're getting married!"
I performed as Leonato as a ninth-grader in this play at my high school. I didn't think about it at the time, but if I was a dad saying "you killed my daughter. I want you to marry my niece, who is pretty similar to my dead daughter" and he jumped in and said "yeah, I'll do that in order to make up for your daughter's death at my words", then mayyyyyybe he doesn't have a woman's best intention in mind.
Now, this was a comedy and things turn out happy-go-lucky outside of Don Douchenozzle John and his minions, but if we strip away the "it was all a play" mentality, Claudio wasn't acting too different from the princess in the Swan Princess example at the beginning. In terms of the characters, I think Benedick and Beatrice have a better shot at happily ever after. Yes, in the first scene, characters allude to the bickering going on between them, but that proves that they at least know each other. Plus, they actually interact in scenes after the party and bumble awkwardly compared to the "I see you. I love you" school of thought. It's still quite rushed but they feel more relatable because they seem to act (more) like normal people when it comes to liking someone else complexly.
This does feel like a rant, but that's because it's irritating to hear that friends of mine are still dealing with people as shallow as Claudio. People who don't look for compatibility in hobbies, opinions, or humor -- just body parts.
So men, don't be a Claudio and women, don't settle for a Claudio. If we instill this thought within ourselves, we're one step away from making this character type simply a piece of fiction.
DFTBA.
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