#anyways this concludes my sleep deprived rant | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

randomshakespeare-blog1 · 6 years

Text

The Great and Totally Wonderful Adults of Romeo and Juliet (Complete with a Dose of A+ Parenting)

As one might have already noticed, the adults in Romeo and Juliet are either noticeably absent or make morally questionable decisions. We have Apothecary, who sells teenaged Romeo a bottle of deadly poison, a Friar helping a thirteen-year-old fake her death, and parents threatening their daughter with eviction because she made them mad. Then there are the Montagues, who are suspiciously absent for most of the play, only to show up and complain about their dead child. Evidently, Romeo and Juliet is not only a love story, but also a showcase of irresponsible adults.

Let us begin with Apothecary. Apothecary is the one who sells Romeo the vial of poison he then uses to kill himself. When Romeo first asks Apothecary for poison, he refuses, telling Romeo that “Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law is death to any he that utters them” (5.1.68-69). Evidently, Apothecary does have some morals. At the very least, he knows what the law is and tries to follow it, even if only due to fear of death. Well, he tries before Romeo talks to him. Upon being refused poison, Romeo says to Apothecary, “Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, and fear’st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks. Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes. Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back. The world is not thy friend nor the world’s law. The world affords no law to make thee rich” (5.1.70-75). In other words, Romeo basically called Apothecary out on his very apparent poverty and essentially tells him that the law isn’t his friend and won’t make him rich. This being the case, Apothecary sells Romeo the poison. Logically, Apothecary’s decision makes sense. He needs money to survive, Romeo is offering him money, and if no one finds out about the illegal poison selling he won’t be punished. However, this is a morally questionable decision. Not only is selling Romeo the poison illegal, Romeo is also a teenaged boy. Teenaged boys tend to make rash, irresponsible decisions. Even knowing all this, Apothecary gives Romeo the poison anyway. In this situation, Apothecary’s choices are to either turn Romeo away and most likely starve to death, or to give Romeo the poison and most likely end up dead due to either the government finding out or the family of whoever was killed by the poison finding out. Both of these options lead to the same ending more or less, yet the most immoral option is taken. As such, I would like to applaud the adult in this situation for assisting in the suicide of a child.

While Apothecary’s actions are appalling, those of Friar Lawrence are even more so. Before continuing, please keep in mind that a Friar is a male member of a religious order. In this case, that is most likely the Roman Catholic Church. Let us also remember that Juliet is thirteen years old. Friar Lawrence is the one who married Romeo and Juliet, and is also the person they constantly go to for advice. He is also the one who proposed the idea of Juliet faking her death. Usually, his advice is (somewhat) sound, but not in this case. After Juliet monologues about how she’s willing to kill herself, the Friar tells her that “If, rather than to marry County Paris, thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, then is it likely thou wilt undertake a thing like death to chide away this shame, that copest with death himself to ’scape from it. An if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy” (4.1.73-78). The Friar basically told Juliet that if she’s willing to kill herself, then he has a different solution that is very similar to death. Let’s back up a bit. Juliet, a thirteen-year-old hormonal teenager, has just finished talking about how she’ll kill herself, and the first thing this man of God does is offer her another solution very similar to death, which also has the added implication that whatever it is might also result in death. Ignoring the fact that Friar Lawrence makes absolutely no effort to help Juliet with her suicidal tendencies, he just offered a hysterical thirteen-year-old assistance in faking her death. Of course, Juliet, in typical overdramatic fashion, accepts the offer. This prompts the Friar to explain just what he has planned, telling Juliet that “A cold and drowsy humor, for no pulse shall keep his native progress, but surcease. No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest. The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade to paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall like death when he shuts up the day of life. Each part, deprived of supple government, shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death. And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death thou shalt continue two and forty hours, and then awake as from a pleasant sleep. Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes to rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead. Then, as the manner of our country is, in thy best robes uncovered on the bier thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault where all the kindred of the Capulets lie” (4.1.99-115). First, any drug capable of putting a person into a death-like state also has a chance of killing the person. Our good Friar may want to tell Juliet that. Second, the Friar states that Juliet will be in this state of near death for forty-two hours, during which she won’t be breathing. Unfortunately, it is not possible for a human being to survive one hour without breathing, much less forty-two. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), Shakespeare has gleefully ignored that little tidbit of information, so let’s pretend that fact doesn’t exist. But even if we ignore that, oxygen deprivation also causes permanent brain damage. Of course, we can’t forget the bit about Juliet’s pulse stopping. A stopped pulse means your heart isn’t beating. If your heart isn’t beating, you are dead. But, Shakespeare has also conveniently ignored that bit of information, so let’s pretend it’s not a thing. To top it all off, the Friar’s plan involves Juliet waking up in her own coffin while surrounded by her dead ancestors. Disturbing. In other words, the resident follower of God is going to help a thirteen-year-old fake her death, give her permanent brain damage, and have her wake up in her own coffin surrounded by dead people. In a realistic situation, Juliet would be dead, killed by the drug the Friar gave her. Meaning that realistically, the Friar, who is most likely under some sort of vow to not kill or harm others, has just killed Juliet under the pretense of helping her.

While the actions of the Friar are very disturbing and warrant further analysis, one can’t possibly forget about the not-so-wonderful parents of our main protagonists. Let us start with Lord and Lady Capulet, the parents of Juliet. Over the course of the play, they have mainly been trying to get Juliet to marry Paris. Obviously, Juliet doesn’t want to marry Paris. But when she tells her parents this, they end up getting mad. Very, very, mad. Upon hearing Juliet’s declarations, Capulet yells, “Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday, or never after look me in the face. Speak not. Reply not. Do not answer me. My fingers itch.—Wife, we scarce thought us blest that God had lent us but this only child, but now I see this one is one too much and that we have a curse in having her. Out on her, hilding!” (3.5.160-168). Capulet, Juliet’s father, just told her that she is a worthless wretch who he wants to slap and is a curse. Now children, especially young children, usually aren’t sure of their place in the world and typically find someone they respect and want to be acknowledged by. More often than not, that person(s) tend to be their parent(s). For an impressionable child to have their opinion completely ignored and be told they are worthless and disgusting by the person they want to be acknowledged by is a very large blow to the mental state of said child. Juliet is thirteen, probably going through puberty, and currently at a point in her life where she is prone to rash decisions and jumping to conclusions. Congratulations Capulet, you probably just gave your daughter depression and ruined her sense of self-worth. However, it doesn’t end there. Capulet continues his anger-induced rant, saying to Juliet that “But, an you will not wed, I’ll pardon you. Graze where you will, you shall not house with me. Look to ’t, think on ’t, I do not use to jest. Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart, advise. An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend. An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, for, by my soul, I’ll ne'er acknowledge thee, nor what is mine shall never do thee good. Trust to ’t, bethink you. I’ll not be forsworn” (3.5.188-196). To add further injury to things, Capulet basically tells Juliet that he’ll evict her if she doesn’t marry Paris. He literally says to her face that she can “beg, starve, and die on the streets.” Capulet went and told his daughter to go die, right to her face. That right there, is the epitome of non-violent bad parenting. Telling your own child to go die. Good job Capulet, good job.

As much as I would like to keep criticizing the Capulets, we must move on to the Montagues. The Montagues are on the other side of the bad parenting spectrum. Where the Capulets verbally heap things on to Juliet, the Montagues are just not there. It must be noted that in this play of approximately 3,200 lines, Lord and Lady Montague only have forty-four lines combined. That’s about 1.38% of the total lines. For the parents of a child going through an important part of his life, that’s very noticeably absent. For being the parents of a child who constantly gets into trouble, the Montagues don’t seem very invested in Romeo’s life, as is seen after Romeo kills Tybalt. The Capulets want Romeo dead, the Prince is trying to figure out how to punish Romeo, and all Montague says is “Not Romeo, Prince. He was Mercutio’s friend. His fault concludes but what the law should end, the life of Tybalt” (3.1.146-148). That’s it. Nothing else. All Montague says is three lines. His son is potentially going to be killed, and all he says is twenty words. Montague acts very removed from a situation in which his only son might die. It’s as if he doesn’t even care about Romeo. Even when Romeo dies, Montague doesn’t say much. All he says is “O thou untaught! What manners is in this, to press before thy father to a grave?” (5.3.229-231). His son is dead, Montague is looking at the dead body, and all he has to say is that Romeo is an undisciplined boy without manners. That is terribly uncaring for someone who just lost his wife and son. While the fact that his wife died could play a role in Montague’s seemingly uncaring demeanor, he should at least have something other than “where are your manners” to say to his dead child.

If even after all that you still believe the adults in Romeo and Juliet aren’t messed up in some way, I have nothing to say. I can only hope that you, the reader, take this essay as an example of what not to do. Please, do not illegally sell deadly poisons, assist in faking deaths, or tell your children to go die. Being present in your children’s lives is also a good idea. They’ll thank you for it. Eventually.

Notes: An essay detailing just how bad the adult figures in Romeo and Juliet are.

#romeo and juliet #mgp #School Project #essay #this is 6 pages whoops #paragraphs 4-5 were hard to write #i accidentally wrote this partially in 1st person #oh well #this project is now done #FREEDOM #not really

0 notes

bromadblog-blog · 6 years

Text

AUS 230 POST MORTEM BLOG

“Anyways lads that’s me. I’m off for the summer and I’m going to use my time effectively by doing literally nothing for the next 8 weeks. *finger guns* adios amigos” – Stefan McRoberts 2017

This is how I ended my last post mortem, and I would like to profusely apologize. As I lied. I did not do nothing those following 8 weeks. I chose to make my life more difficult by making more music because I’m self destructive and don’t have an off button. That being said, let’s dive in to this sleep deprived, caffeine fuelled, still mourning from the end of Avengers: Infinity War fuelled rant of nonsensical horse crap of what went right and what went wrong in my major project this trimester.

What went right

NIGHTMARE

Now obviously I finished the rough mix of Nightmare last trimester, however I decided it was too good to not have in this EP. That being said however, it didn’t really fit aesthetically with the rest of the EP. How did I fix this? By adding stems, more stems and more stems after that. The result was adding lo fi baseballesque (?) organs to the third verse and the outro. This subtle yet major change truly helped the track blend a lot better aesthetically in to the rest of the EP.

BROTOWN

Out of everything that went right with this track, what went MOST right was the mix and the master. It was mixed so well that it made the difficulty of mastering it almost non existent. I do consider it to be one of the best mixes I have ever done. I also think that recording my best friends baby brothers adlib at the very end of the track was a great way to transition this song into the next on the EP.

MEMENTOS

The decision to add a Rhodes organ/piano over the Psytrance drop was a good example of a VERY bold move but one with a large payout aesthetically. I haven’t ever heard a psytrance drop with a jazz chord progression over the top of it EVER. At first I was like “Can I do this? Is it even legal? Will Vini Vici or Infected Mushroom hire a hit on me if I commit to this?”. Then I grew so attached to it because it was so different I decided to commit. Not only does it blend the song into the rest of the EP PERFECTLY, it also celebrates what the EP is fundamentally about. Sticking the middle finger to genre’s and combining EDM with heavy influences and aesthetics from Urban, Jazz, Soul and R&B.

LAZERBEAM

Lazerbeam was a track that actually started out as an official remix for “Drunk Arcade” by “Bombs Away”. I sent it to them however and they did not think the demo slapped as hard as I did and it ended up getting turned down. Which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I deleted literally everything except for the drops. I decided to throw down some chords on my organ and write some lyrics for it. After recording, the end result was a heavy electro/dubstep that combines not one, not two, not three, but FOUR genre’s in one track. The tempo change from 128 to 150 BPM was always intended from the start. The Four genre’s being, Urban, into Electro, into Trap, into Dubstep. Once again truly celebrating what the whole EP is about.

THE PHANTOM THIEF

The Phantom Thief is to date on of the most ambitious tracks I have ever had both the pleasure and displeasure of producing. The pleasure lies within how flawlessly Jade’s vocals fit with the track and I’m also very proud of the lyrics as well. It’s no mystery that this entire EP is HEAVILY influenced by the game Persona 5 on PS4. This song is perhaps the most celebratory of it’s source material in this entire EP. Almost (if not) every lyric in this song references the game in one way or another. Not only that, but how unbelievably well the track came together with my friend Nathan (AKA Dexx) who co produced it with me. Also without any iota of exaggeration… Jade. Friggin. KILLED IT. 17 year old with a voice that trumps that of angels. I heard her singing on a youtube video she uploaded and I knew she was the only one that was gunna do this track any justice. All recording was done in a single day, which obviously made this run A LOT smoother as well. The orchestral outro was a last minute decision on the track as well, I was persuaded to add it in by my good friend Chloe. She couldn’t have been more right about it. It was a great idea and considering this is the final song on the EP, it really became a beautiful way to conclude the EP and the final “cherry on top” to make the whole EP feel less like a small collection of songs and more of a single giant movement or composition. Also it once again celebrates sticking the middle finger to genres, merging that which really “shouldn’t go together” but ends up blending beautifully showing that when it comes to art and creativity, the sky is the limit. So when you’re enjoying the orchestral outro in this track, thank Chloe.

What went wrong

I’m gunna be cocky here and say that every problem that rose up, I managed to overcome and solve. You know the drill. You’ve read my post mortems before. Let’s do this.

NIGHTMARE

Once again, the only real “problem” here was that it had a little bit of trouble fitting in to the rest of the EP aesthetically. This was fixed by adding the little “Dracula” organ riff at the start and adding church organs to the third verse and the outro.

BROTOWN

Believe it or not the biggest problem I had with Brotown was that I had no idea what to make for the drop. I made the first minute of the song well before the rest of the song. Then I was listening to one of my previous tracks titled “Hooked” and I was kind of just like… “What if I made the drop a harder more “4 to the floor” style version of Hooked”. The end result was the most “Bromad” sounding track on the entire EP and perhaps I have ever made. Everything about this track celebrates my sound and my sound design.

MEMENTOS

Admittedly the biggest problem I had with this track was the exact opposite I had with Brotown. I had that many versions of this song ALL with different sounding drops, I didn’t know which one to go with. In the end I decided to go with the drop that felt the most true to my sound and go a TOTALLY different direction with the second drop.

LAZERBEAM

Obviously the biggest problem with this one was finding the willpower to essentially start this one from scratch. Also dealing with the rejection of Bombs Away was initially difficult as it was a big opportunity and very disappointing. However I persevered and the pay off was definitely worth it, as I know have a powerhouse in my set list and a mammoth of a track on the EP

THE PHANTOM THIEF

When I said earlier “The Phantom Thief is to date on of the most ambitious tracks I have ever had both the pleasure and displeasure of producing,”. The displeasure came from the difficulty level of mixing a track with 80+ stems and also the mastering. Firstly, the vocals were drenched in WAY too much reverb. And because the track had 80+ stems (ALL BOUNCED TO AUDIO) I had to go repeatedly back and forth into the original project file which had A LOT of VST’s and thus used A LOT of CPU. Rendering the stems again… and again… and again was very VERY time consuming. Eventually once I got it right, the next problem was the mastering (which was mastered using iZotope Ozone 7). The mastering of the track itself sounded great, however a track with an EQ, harmonic excitement, multiband compression and brickwall limiting optimized for dance music, introduces a myriad of problems if in that same track you have say, oh I dunno AN ORCHESTRAL OUTRO. It introduced all sorts of grain, crackling and artifacts into the outro that honestly just sounded god awful. So I had to think outside the box a little bit and came up with an idea. 2 instances of iZotope oZone 7 and split the audio into 2 separate tracks. One with the “actual” track and split the track where the orchestral outro begins and drag it on to a separate bus/channel. I THEN used the second instance of iZotope to master it tailored to how (I imagine) one would master an orchestral/classical piece. The end result was gorgeous.

That concludes this post mortem and now I’m going to go and write a BS post mortem for my CIU class because apparently they want to know everything about the fruits of your labour and hard work instead of actually looking at and/or listening to it. So away I go to write yet another (SUICIDE JOKE FREE) post mortem. Ciao.

#post mortem

0 notes