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Venturous wrote:

Dear Shakespeare Aficionados:

It strikes me that Prothero is a WS character -- in The Tempest, maybe?

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Anyone have any deep thoughts about this?
(heh heh dangling bait infront of easy prey )

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That said, I think there's a very easy case to be made that Forbidden Planet is a retelling of THE TEMPEST in a SF setting. (And, cheesy Hollywood tacked-on-crap aside, it still offers a fairly profound and fascinating bit of world building that frames the basic premise that no amount of knowledge and civilization can completely remove the animal that hides in the collective subconscious.) In that case, Dr. Morbius takes Prospero's place as the nearly omniscient defender of a dangerous "island" in space.

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MACBETH
Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

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Essentially, he’s saying, “Shut up. I’m plenty courageous enough without needing to murder those around me to get what I want. Only a coward would do as you suggest.”

It's odd that V uses this line, though the words by themselves are apropos. I'm not sure what he's suggesting.

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Valkyrie2 wrote:

You see, it's generally accepted by historians that Will had his protagonists/antagonists bass-ackwards. He makes Macbeth the villain and Duncan innocent, when in reality King Duncan was not a particularly good, or nice, ruler. Macbeth did Scotland a favor in taking him out, but was in turn taken out. Sound familiar?

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ButMad said:
Most of the play, I believe he is walking a very dangerous line and can't always control when he slips over the edge...

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ButMadNNW wrote:

Hamlet, Act III, Scene I
Polonius (King's advisor & Ophelia's father):
Ophelia, walk you here.- Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves.- [To Ophelia] Read on this book,
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness.- We are oft to blame in this,
'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The Devil himself.

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ButMadNNW wrote (in the MP3 request thread):

Basically, my reading of it is something along the lines of "It is seen too often that we commit horrors, but make them okay because they were performed in the name of our religion (or by upstanding, religious people)." In the original context of Hamlet, Polonius has just asked his daughter, Ophelia, to "walk [here in the hall]... [and] read on this book, that show of such an exercise may color your loneliness." It's pretty likely that the book he gave her was some religious text, and he asks her to make a show of reading it, to indicate to Hamlet when he arrives that she is alone in the room. Meanwhile, Polonius and Claudius hide themselves to spy on the young couple. So, the line that V quotes is Polonius acknowledging that he is asking Ophelia to hide the spying by acting pious.

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The V context is also interesting: V quotes the line after Willy cries out, "Christ, have mercy!" Considering what he'd just been up to, Willy using a religious exclamation makes V's Hamlet quote very appropriate. Which is just one more thing to love about him - quoting Shakespeare is one thing, but coming up with a line on the spot that's apropos to the real world situation? That takes talent.

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V quoting that line is also what really grabbed my attention the first time I saw the movie. "Hey, he quoted Hamlet! And not some easily recognized, overused line, but something kind of obscure! This is an awesome character!"

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Venturous wrote:

I just finished Twelfth Night, and enjoyed the hell out of it. The gender confusion was delightful, and The Fool was a trip, as he was known to use words as his magic and his craft. At one point he impersonates a priest, those scenes are hilarious.

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Trying to work now but I will post a few favorite lines later.

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I am on to The Tempest next.

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Thanks, V, for the Shakespeare revival!

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The recent film version is quite good. Especially considering Ben Kingsley's surprising turn as Feste (the fool).

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