justinw48

[justinw48]

Blog Post 10: Exploring the National Gallery

English 350 @shakespearesengland

Visiting the National Gallery in London was like walking through almost a living timeline of different Western art packed into one large building. All of it was arranged by century, allowing you to watch as painting styles, themes, and the ideas sort of shift with each era. It had almost a fantasy vibe to it. I myself not just admiring the art, but being pulled into it in some instances.

The 13th-16th century section was filled with divine paintings that often focused on Christian imagery. One that really stood out to me was Saint Michael Triumphs over the Devil by Bartolomé Bermejo. The fighting of good versus evil is amusing to me but also very forward here, with Saint Michael standing calm while the devil writhes beneath him. It’s not just a religious image though, it is about victory, justice, and order overcoming chaos. The sharp details and glowing armor make it feel like a scene from a dream or a myth.

In the Renaissance section, things took a shift toward fantasy, mythology, and the human form. Nudity was much more common (mostly with women) not just for shock though, but more as a way to depict beauty and divine energy. I noticed it in The Death of Actaeon, a painting that shows a mythological hunter being torn apart by a huntress and hounds. The motion and violence caught in mid action gave almost like a cinematic feeling. A big favorite of mine was Saint George and the Dragon by Jacopo Tintoretto, which blends heroism and the supernatural in a storm of movement and gladiator type power.

The Baroque period (1600s–1700s) focused heavily on power and what that intales, sometimes divine, sometimes more human. The Sacrifice of Isaac by Juan de Valdés Leal was deeply emotional. Abraham, moments away from killing his son, is interrupted by an angel. It’s a scene of tension and devotion, full of movement and dramatic lighting. What I liked most about this era was how it captured a lot about strength not just in different action but in emotion and belief, a more silent strength.

From Rococo to Romanticism (1700s–1800s), the paintings started telling more personal and emotional stories. One I especially loved was A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas by Claude-Joseph Vernet. The contrast between the raging sea and the fragile boats made me feel like sense of dread had come to me and a weird helpless awe. It stood out to me because it didn’t rely on figures or myths, it practically just used the raw power of nature to evoke emotion. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once.

The final section, heading into Modernism (1800s onwards), focused less on myth or religion and more on capturing the world in a raw, honest way. Many of the works were large landscapes, attempting to show “the truth of nature.” One that stayed with me was Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds by John Constable. It felt quiet and mournful, but also full of life in a weird package deal. with every tree and cloud carefully observed just broken. It wasn’t just a tribute to an artist or anything like that, instead it was a tribute to observation itself.

Each of these paintings captured me in similar ways. They all had a major theme in common, unnerving, emotional edge that made them stand out from everything around them. Whether it was divine justice, mythological horror, emotional storms, or quiet reflection, the works I loved most didn’t just show a random scene but instead they made me feel something. That’s what made my visit to the National Gallery a really great experience.

[justinw48]

Blog Post 9: Reliving a Childhood Fantasy at Warwick Castle 🏰⚔️🦚

Warwick Castle English 350 @shakespearesengland

Visiting Warwick Castle🏰 was like stepping straight into a storybook. 📕From the moment I crossed that path into the towering stone gates, I felt like I had been transported back to medieval England. ⚔️🗡️The highlight of my day? The incredible live jousting event! 🤺🤺🤺🐎🏇Watching knights in full armor clash on horseback was so fucking cool!! 🐎🗡️ like the scenes I used to dream about as a kid. The loud clash of lances, the roars from the crowd, and the dramatic falls and the shields breaking all made it feel like an awesome real life tournament. It wasn’t just entertainment, it was fucking history in motion.

I also wandered through the castle’s immersive maze (and yes, I definitely got lost quite quickly and cheated my way out) ♾️, but that only added to the adventure. Then came a peaceful stroll through the elegant Peacock Garden, 🦚🦚where the real peacocks roam freely like they own the place, (honestly, they kind of do.) 🤣The garden was quiet and lush, a perfect break from the excitement of the jousting arena.

Inside the castle, each room was filled with vivid displays of amazing weapons and wax figures that brought the stories of earls, battles, and royal visitors to life. I especially enjoyed walking up the narrow stone steps of the towers, getting a awesome picture view of the grounds from the top. 🧗🧗It was easy to imagine lookouts from centuries ago standing there, scanning the horizon for incoming threats. The castle's architecture alone is almost breathtaking, with its high battlements, thick stone walls, and medieval charm still intact.

Warwick Castle 🏰🏰🏰truly was one of my favorite spots of the trip, and I hope to one day come back because god it was so cool!😎😎😎🤯

[justinw48]

Blog Post 8: Folios of Shakespeare

Lambeth Archives English 350 @shakespearesengland

On the recent visit to the Lambeth Archives, we had the amazing chance to see the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th folios of Shakespeare’s plays, amazing, practically treasures of literacy. Each of these historic books tells part of the story of how Shakespeare’s works have survived and been shared for centuries. With the help of a very passionate guide, I learned how each folio was made and preserved. I actually found out they are called folios because of the way they were printed, each sheet folded once to create two pages per side, making for large, durable books that were considered pretty much prestigious at the time.

What really struck me though was how each folio is just a minor bit different from one another. While most of the plays are the same from edition to edition, changes in wording or spelling can be found throughout. Some changes were intentional most likely refinements or corrections that were made. These variations show that even texts like Shakespeare’s are living documents, shaped by time, editors, and readers.

There’s also a fascinating history behind how the folios ended up at Lambeth. They were originally held at the British library, but as it turns out, they were never actually owned by the library, really just on a long loan. Our tour guide, full of wild stories and amazing and funny tangents, told us about the 18 month long journey it took to bring them “home.” One frustrating detail: during their time at the library, ownership wasn’t questioned, and so stamps were put on the books, small marks that can never really be removed. A small but permanent reminder of their complicated custody battle.

The Lambeth Archives don’t just house the folios, but they even hold what may be the first review of a Shakespeare play, written in the 1600s. Seeing that document gave me chills I tell you! It was a reminder that even in his own time, Shakespeare’s works stirred quite a bit of conversation and debate. To be in a place preserving not just the texts but the reactions to them was a humbling and awesome experience.

[justinw48]

Blog Post 7: Titus Andronicus: An Incredible Live Action

@shakespearesengland

Seeing Titus Andronicus at the Royal Shakespeare Company( With the incredible Sir Simon Russell Beale!) was fucking amazing. Sitting front row, I was completely immersed throughout practically the entire thing. It’s one thing to read Shakespeare’s most brutal play, and another to witness it from so close, where no drop of horror is spared.

At first, I was thrown off by the use of microphones but once I adjusted, I came to love how the microphones enhanced certain moments. It made it feel like we the audience was involved. It even allowed the amazing actors to play with tone and volume in a way that felt modern in my opinion.

I thought it was awesome that we the audience got to be the Roman crowd. Whether it was a cruel act of revenge or a moment of public humiliation, the characters addressed us directly, making us complicit. It was almost unsettling in some points. Especially as the violence escalated. It made me reflect on how easily spectacle and suffering can blur in entertainment, something this play definitely does not shy away from.

What surprised me most was how much I laughed. The play had quite a bit of crazy over the top stuff that’s baked into the horror. Whether it was the over the top violence, or a character’s ironic detachment, the humor kept me a bit on edge if I’m honestly (but in a good way). I never felt totally safe to relax. And maybe that’s the point. In a world where violence is constant, laughter can be a desperate gasp for air at times.

The staging of the aftermaths was unforgettable. Seeing Lavinia, staggering after post r, or even Titus presented with his severed hand and his sons’ heads was pure visual horror. These are images I won’t be forgetting any time soon. (They were kinda gross). Reading or hearing about them is one thing but actually watching it unfold right in front of you forces an almost reckoning type with the play’s relentless brutality.

Even costume design played a quiet role in the play. Most of the Goths wore variations of blue, even starting off with blue jumpsuits while the Romans were in muted greys, a big visual contrast between each other. But it was easy to notice something curious happening, during the scene where Titus loses his hand, he himself wore dark blue. Meanwhile, Saturninus, the emperor, gradually adopted blue and even danced with the empress in blue and had blue face paint on as the play progressed. The colors in my opinion, seem to be suggesting a change in sides or even in power dynamic. perhaps, a visual representation of who is truly in control.

Between scenes, booming, almost primal music shook the room every time. It marked transitions not only in story but in mood, plunging us deeper into like a chaos state. The stagehands and actors moved like beasts during these transitions, snarling and crawling, reinforcing the idea that civilization was breaking apart slowly but surely which was really cool. The line between Roman and Goth, man and monster, became harder and harder to see.

And then comes the infamous and great final dinner! When Titus reveals to Saturninus and Tamora that her sons are in the pie she’s been eating, she doesn’t even recoil she eats more. I freaked out at that. Some I heard laughed. (I nearly gagged.) It was a perfect final punch in a show that never pulled any. It seemed to show that Titus at the end really didn’t get the revenge he wanted, or at least, she refused to fall for it. Seeing it live, there was no looking away. No skipping ahead. Just the slow, horrible realization of what people in this play are capable of when revenge becomes religion.

Seeing Titus Andronicus live made me feel things I really didn’t expect. It wasn’t just gory but incredible and theatrical. I loved it in the best way. It was terrifying, and surprisingly funny. And Sir Simon Russell Beale? Utterly amazing and what an honor to see it. Overall for my first live performance I truly don’t think it could have been any better! Titus Andronicus really is my favorite play!

[justinw48]

Blog Post 6: Grabbing Tea and Meeting Freddie

@shakespearesengland English 350

During the visit to Warwick Castle, I had set my sights on a goal after watching the jousting, afternoon tea. I really wanted to try all the sandwiches and scones and all of that, and a teapot so elegant it probably went to Oxford. I walked into the tea house, ordering green tea and a sandwich instead and while walking out, looking at my map that is when he got my attention. Freddie.

Freddie, as it turned out, was very English. An older gentlemen in his sixties looking at the garden and enjoying a drink.

He practically beckoned me over so I sat down near him with my tea. and he turned to me, and the first thing he asked was where I was from.

I told him Rhode island. He didn’t know where it was so I just said in New England. That sent him onto a rant

That sent Freddie on a whole speech about how he visited New England (New Hampshire specifically) and was upset when going out for breakfast and the diner they went to didn’t have jam. He then proceeded to warn me to never trust any form of establishment that didn’t have jam.

Honestly what started out at me just going somewhere and wandering, turned into such a funny conversation with an old man who clearly enjoyed his time. Warwick castle is incredible, but that made the day so much funnier

[justinw48]

Blog Post 5: The Guild Chapel

English 350 @shakespearesengland

Near the new home of Shakespeare, the Guild Chapel is easy to see, especially with the land of what was once the new homes next to it, but stepping inside feels like time itself has paused to whisper stories in its walls. It is incredible

What caught me most wasn’t just the beauty though or the silence from the outside world, but the contrast. On one side, light streams through these amazing rich stained glass, almost glowing and beautiful with figures frozen in time. These windows are polished, and proud, like history itself wanting to be remembered.

But you turn around, and on the walls are medieval paintings in faded black and red and tons of shades of grey, rough and raw. It's almost like a memento mori. (a reminder of death) Showing skeletons in a tomb and flesh being stripped away. It’s not pretty. It’s almost unsettling. And yet that’s what makes it so powerful to me. Unlike the windows, these murals weren’t really meant to glorify but instead inform and show history.

Seeing all of those images, how they were preserved, side by side, really shows me that faith and art have a real dual purpose, especially here in Stratford, It is to celebrate life and to face death. The Guild Chapel doesn’t just tell one story, it is an experience, it holds fricken centuries of them, layered like paint on stone and sunlight through glass. Such a beautiful place, whether you are religious or not, it is history worth remembering, and an experience worth going. At least for me.

(I recommend seeing it if you haven’t. I loved it)

[justinw48]

Blog Post 4: Titus Andronicus: A Violent Gimmick?

English 350 @shakespearesengland

Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus is very VERY over the top when it comes to violence. (Part of why I love it) limbs being hacked off, tongues torn out, rape, cannibalism. I think for a long time critics pretty much dismissed it as just a simple blood soaked mess, more grindhouse than anything else. But that dismissal in my opinion really missed the point! The violence isn’t just there for shock value. It’s part parody, part social commentary, special almost artistic device all at once!

In Titus, Shakespeare exaggerates all the classic tropes of revenge tragedy to grotesque extremes. The readers and audience is CONSTANTLY forced to confront escalating brutality not really to revel in it, but to question it. The cycle of vengeance between Rome and the Goths becomes practically absurd in every way.

It’s also a parody of classical tragedy. Shakespeare turns everything up to eleven, daring the audience to look away. By pushing violence beyond realism, he exposes but even shows how desensitized audiences (and people in general) can be to truly cruel and awful things when it’s cloaked in honor, justice, or nationalism.

So no, the violence in Titus Andronicus isn't truly just a gimmick. It's a twisted lens to look through which Shakespeare shows to the fullest, the cost of revenge, and the dark hunger for spectacle. It's brutal, yes but brutally intentional

[justinw48]

Blog Post 3: Oberon Desire!

(From Act 2, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

This scene Oberon instructs Puck to get him a magic flower, the juice in said flower is supposed to cause someone to fall in love with the first thing they see once they are awake.

Oberon wants to use this on the Queen, Titania, to pretty much punish her for refusing to give up a child. Oberon himself says,

“Thou rememb’rest Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath That the rude sea grew civil at her song” (Lines 153-157)

This moment practically screams of an erotic vision, Oberon, a supposed powerful male figure, enchanted by a mermaid singing upon a dolphin. It is an image of fluidity and almost otherworldly type of lure. Oberon’s attraction really holds no bounds by normal norms or even human ones. His attention isn’t really to gender but to almost aesthetic beauty and a transportation like experience.

Oberon’s desire to manipulate Titania’s love is an act of gendered dominance for the most part but by using the juice from the flower, which is a symbol of nature, fluidity, and transformation, he participates in the same instability he seeks to control. Once Titania awakens and falls for Bottom (transformed with a donkey’s head), desire becomes hilariously and unsettlingly displaced. Love is no longer heterosexual, nor even strictly anthropomorphic, it becomes something difference, it becomes about sensation, timing, accident, and enchantment. identity and desire become something else, no longer is it fixed. It is mutable, poetic, and spectral.

[justinw48]

Blog Post 2: West Side Story!

I like a lot of adaptations of Shakespeare plays, a lot of times they do really good jobs in turning plays into modern settings. It is even funnier that one of my favorites West Side Story, is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, a Shakespeare play I have mixed feelings about about.

Rather than have a Renaissance Verona like story, West Side Story is a musical movie that unfolds in the 1950s in New York, a total change and cultural difference. Instead of royal families, it’s street gangs (The Jets and The Sharks). This keeps the emotion and tragic love arc from the original but puts it in a twist of having it happen closer to our own time period.

This isn’t the first adaptation and obviously won’t be the last, but it is good to note that even Shakespeare himself was known for adapting history. With Richard the 3 he turned him into far more dramatic symbols for the stage, blending fact and fiction together. This is a similar case to West Side Story, it dramatizes a lot of social tensions like racism and immigration. It uses a lot of heightened language through music and character archetypes to tell its love story but also take a glance into American society!

Shakespeare uses his plays to connect to his audience in some way and in a way, West Side Story does the same thing by reviving Romeo and Juliet into a closer period with more themes that make it just a bit more relevant to know. Overall I love it and it is a very popular adaptation of Shakespeare with new twists yet keeping the same arching story

[justinw48]

Blog 1: A Tough Start

“He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company…” Nicholas Rowe 1709

Before Shakespeare was this incredible writer and actor, he was a small town boy. Shakespeare’s early life revolved around the wrong crowd, stealing and scandals that followed him.

This was a turning point though. A tale of mischief leading to greatness. This misadventure of Shakespeare’s “happily proved the occasion of exerting one of the greatest geniuses that ever was known in dramatic poetry.” (Rowe Lines 7-8, paragraph 2)

It was not a fall from grace but instead it felt more like a cannon launching him. Everyone loves a redemption story and Shakespeare’s story is no exception. With limited formal education and natural talent he became a self made success!

Shakespeare’s legend isn’t about just brilliance though, it is about resilience, his story is as important as his plays themselves and proof that anyone can make it, no matter how they start!