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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
this one has dRaMa
pericles prince of tyre is visiting a nearby kingdom but discovers a plot to murder him so he flees the kingdom and leaves a trusted man on his throne. he voyages across the sea and brings grains to a starving kingdom. then he departs again but is caught in a storm which wrecks his ship. he is picked up by fisherman and brought to another kingdom where a tournament for the princess’s hand is occurring. he wins and they marry and they become pregnant. they decide to voyage back to Tyre but on the voyage the wife has the baby, Marina, and then dies. they have a funeral at sea and the body turns up at a temple of diana where they somehow nurse her back to health and she’s no longer dead and lives out her life in the temple. then pericles leaves his new baby with the grain kingdom and asks them to raise her and he heads back to Tyre. 14 years pass, don’t really know why he left her that long, but Marina is now being targeted by the grain kingdom that she is living in but while the murder is about to happen she is kidnapped by pirates and taken to an island and sold to a brothel. In this brothel she somehow talks every suitor out of it and eventually meets the governor. Pericles hears of his daughters supposed murder and goes into mourning but visits this island by chance and happens to meet her and realize it’s his daughter he hasn’t seen in years. He then gets a vision from Diana to go get his wife from the temple (which is honestly unrealistic Diana behavior) and he does and the whole family is reunited huzzah
honestly what a trip
also each big section had a man explaining the year gaps via rhyming couplets which was just awful
pericles prince of tyre is visiting a nearby kingdom but discovers a plot to murder him so he flees the kingdom and leaves a trusted man on his throne. he voyages across the sea and brings grains to a starving kingdom. then he departs again but is caught in a storm which wrecks his ship. he is picked up by fisherman and brought to another kingdom where a tournament for the princess’s hand is occurring. he wins and they marry and they become pregnant. they decide to voyage back to Tyre but on the voyage the wife has the baby, Marina, and then dies. they have a funeral at sea and the body turns up at a temple of diana where they somehow nurse her back to health and she’s no longer dead and lives out her life in the temple. then pericles leaves his new baby with the grain kingdom and asks them to raise her and he heads back to Tyre. 14 years pass, don’t really know why he left her that long, but Marina is now being targeted by the grain kingdom that she is living in but while the murder is about to happen she is kidnapped by pirates and taken to an island and sold to a brothel. In this brothel she somehow talks every suitor out of it and eventually meets the governor. Pericles hears of his daughters supposed murder and goes into mourning but visits this island by chance and happens to meet her and realize it’s his daughter he hasn’t seen in years. He then gets a vision from Diana to go get his wife from the temple (which is honestly unrealistic Diana behavior) and he does and the whole family is reunited huzzah
honestly what a trip
also each big section had a man explaining the year gaps via rhyming couplets which was just awful
Honestly, this one might be a bit too much for me? The story is so erratic it needs a narrator summarizing what's going on who appears every 10min or so. I appreciate some of the themes, but that's about it.
A true 2.5. It’s one of the weirder Shakespeare plays as he almost certainly didn’t write all of it. Whether he collaborated with another author or updated an existing manuscript, there’s a clear distinction between the first half and Chorus parts with Shakespeare’s contributions toward the end.
The plot is very silly and the reader would be excused for ignoring the details (gladiatorial combat resulting in a wedding, off-stage deaths by lightning, main characters just disappearing for decades at a time without little attempt at explanation). The highlights occur mainly in the resolutions of Act 5, moments of greatness that belie the stupidity of the conflicts that they resolve.
It also must be said that the play doesn’t drag. Though the action can be abrupt and unclear, it is propulsive, so the reader won’t feel lost or bored. There isn’t a ton of characterization; everyone just sort of does things. But ultimately I can’t count it among the lower tiers of his work, even if he only wrote half of it.
The plot is very silly and the reader would be excused for ignoring the details (gladiatorial combat resulting in a wedding, off-stage deaths by lightning, main characters just disappearing for decades at a time without little attempt at explanation). The highlights occur mainly in the resolutions of Act 5, moments of greatness that belie the stupidity of the conflicts that they resolve.
It also must be said that the play doesn’t drag. Though the action can be abrupt and unclear, it is propulsive, so the reader won’t feel lost or bored. There isn’t a ton of characterization; everyone just sort of does things. But ultimately I can’t count it among the lower tiers of his work, even if he only wrote half of it.
I hope the actual play is better than the reading of the play. This was just weird. It started out with incest and ended with a princess who was stolen by pirates to be sold into prostitution becoming engaged to a man she met who was willing to pay to deflower her, but found her too full of virtue. Not exactly a meet cute.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Honestly, the first half of Pericles is hot garbage. But the first half of Pericles probably wasn't written by Shakespeare himself, so that kind of makes sense. Things start out following Pericles around on some inconsequential journeys, at the end of which everyone he loves dies and he goes crazy with grief.
Things get good when it turns out everyone's still alive and struggling to survive in their own ways. The purity of Marina comes through so strongly that you can't help but worry about her being in a brothel, yet she continually convinces her clients to reform their ways, which is just great to see. The scene where Marina and Pericles finally reunite is the most emotional reunion I've ever seen, with Marina trying to show Pericles that she's really his daughter and she's really alive. It's so lovely to see a Shakespeare play with a happy ending.
But other than that the play is seriously garbage. The writing is bad, the plot is bad, it's just bad.
Things get good when it turns out everyone's still alive and struggling to survive in their own ways. The purity of Marina comes through so strongly that you can't help but worry about her being in a brothel, yet she continually convinces her clients to reform their ways, which is just great to see. The scene where Marina and Pericles finally reunite is the most emotional reunion I've ever seen, with Marina trying to show Pericles that she's really his daughter and she's really alive. It's so lovely to see a Shakespeare play with a happy ending.
But other than that the play is seriously garbage. The writing is bad, the plot is bad, it's just bad.
adventurous
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
I had a difficult time getting into the first half of this play, and then it was fantastic. I could see this one being far better on the stage than on paper. To my untrained self, the characters (Pericles, Marina) seemed more flat than the characters in his other plays that I've read.
dark
funny
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes