From Anne Boleyn to a 20th Century murderer from Oklahoma, it seems that last dying speeches are all the fashion...
Category: Essays
“I never got that letter”: writing “Curley’s wife”
That lower-case "w" in "Curley's wife" stands for some terrible, terrible things. It would be nice to capitalise it, to give it the appearance of a name, to treat it as a title rather than as an insult. But we can't...
‘Fake news!’: Julius Caesar and the “alternative facts” of Shakespeare’s Rome
Friends, readers, countrymen - lend me your ears! In what follows I will attempt to link the tragedy of Julius Caesar to: a grammar school education and rhetorical devices, the death of Queen Elizabeth, the lives of a penniless troupe of actors, early modern medical theory, and tenuous references to Donald Trump’s “alternative facts”. Let’s see how this goes.
(A Couple of Reasons Why) The “Hamlet” Bad Quarto is Fantastic and Deserves More Love
Critics are starting to come around to the idea that the "Bad Quarto" of "Hamlet" may have something worthwhile to offer after all - and it's a good thing too!
Power, Privilege, and Toxic Masculinity in Naomi Alderman’s “The Power” (2016)
“Something’s happening. The blood is pounding in her ears. A prickling feeling is spreading along her back, over her shoulders, along her collarbone. It’s saying: you can do it. It’s saying: you’re strong.”
A Post About That One Time the Country was Ruled by a Zombie Queen, or, Elizabeth’s BDE (Big Dead Energy)
How powerful a ruler was Queen Elizabeth I? Not even the inconvenience of being dead could prevent her from ordering people around. Or from exploding. In the month between her death and her funeral, the late Queen flaunted Big Dead Energy like no one else...
Teaching Shakespeare at Key Stage 4: Language, Structure, and Form
I didn't know it at the time, but this essay marked a beginning for me: it was the first stage of a process of reflection, trial-and-error, mistakes and successes - a process that continues to this day.
