The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0640  Sunday, 9 November 2008

[1] From:   David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
     Date:   Wednesday, 05 Nov 2008 17:33:16 -0500
     Subt:   Re: SHK 19.0633 Heroes

[2] From:   Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
     Date:   Thursday, 6 Nov 2008 13:14:30 -0800 (PST)
     Subt:   Re: SHK 19.0633 Heroes

[3] From:   Julia Griffin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
     Date:   Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:35:54 -0500
     Subt:   Re: SHK 19.0633 Heroes


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:       David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:       Wednesday, 05 Nov 2008 17:33:16 -0500
Subject: 19.0633 Heroes
Comment:    Re: SHK 19.0633 Heroes

"As for Evett's question, Horatio gives nothing? Really? How isn't he the most 
virtuous and stalwart wingman in the Canon? He endures Osric and doesn't kill 
anyone. Unlike some members of the blood royal I might mention."

I'm not sure Jason Rhode has understood my point. The play presents Horatio as 
in many ways a kind of social cipher - no stated antecedents beyond his time at 
Wittenberg, no apparent affiliations except for his friendship with Hamlet, no 
responsibilities except to hang around Elsinore. He carries out no risky or 
difficult tasks - doesn't offer to kill Claudius or accompany Hamlet to England, 
or grab a rapier from the rack when the killing starts. Being quietly amused by 
a few minutes of Osric's foppery hardly qualifies as hazardous duty. The active 
antagonists - Claudius, Polonius, Laertes - never mention him when they are 
hatching their attacks on the prince. At the end, we can speculate that he will 
have to give up his board and room in the castle, but it is not as though he 
were formally Hamlet's servitor and thus about to be thrust into the unwelcome 
status of vagrant on the death of his master. Indeed, Hamlet has assigned him a 
job that the prince seems to think he has resources to handle: to be Homer, not 
Achilles, not the hero, but the bard: "absent thee from felicity awhile" etc.

Heroically,
Dave Evett

[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:       Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:       Thursday, 6 Nov 2008 13:14:30 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 19.0633 Heroes
Comment:    Re: SHK 19.0633 Heroes

Alan Pierpoint writes:

 >Have we ruled out poor Brutus, then? Honest self-sacrifice? Brutus puts
 >everything he has including his life on the line. Do we discount Anthony's
 >judgment as only magnanimity in victory: "Only he, in a general honest thought /
 >And common good to all, made one of them . . ."??-Alan Pierpoint<

For other views of 'honest' Brutus, check out the "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" 
and "Julius Caesar's Protagonist" threads:

http://www.shaksper.net/archives/2005/1702.html

Regards,
Joe Egert

[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:       Julia Griffin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:       Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:35:54 -0500
Subject: 19.0633 Heroes
Comment:    Re: SHK 19.0633 Heroes

The Bishop of Carlisle in Richard II is a hero.  He stays loyal to Richard till 
the end, involves himself in no treacherous plots, and speaks truth to 
Bolingbroke in power.

Julia Griffin


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