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For instance, Constance's supervisor, Professor Claude Knight, frequently plagiarizes her carefully researched and written work. Later, after stealing from her, Knight runs off with a more attractive graduate student, very unlike the Shakespearean heroes Constance is so enamored of, such as Romeo. But because of the heightened absurdity of the pun-ridden scholarship of Constance, and the ugly nature of Knight, the audience does not necessarily see these events as tragic, like Romeo and Juliet's separation.
Also, when Ledbelly enters the world of Shakespeare's dramas and makes them 'right,' such as when she exposes Iago's treachery, although she interrupts delicate causal chain of events that make up the plot of the play, she does not create a perfect world. In "Othello," rather than a tragedy of two good spouses subject to misunderstandings, the two characters must now understand one another on a deeper level, after the first flush of first love. Desdemona is angry, and wishes to revenge herself upon Iago, upsetting the audience and Othello's conception of his innocent wife as a pure victim, almost as much as the accusation of Desdemona's adultery. Later, Ledbelly discloses to Tybalt that he and Romeo are now joined as cousins, because of Romeo's marriage to Juliet -- but clearing up consequences...
Mistakes may be tragic, but this sense of tragic inevitability and 'if only' is wrong -- really, the fault lies within the characters and within society, not within the tales' plots. When Ledbelly sees this, she begins to understand her own marginalized place in the academic world and community, and realize that many of her own assumptions about men, such as her supervisor, are misguided. Thus, by taking a comedic rather than a tragic view of mistakes, she realizes that it is mistaken to view the plotline of Shakespeare or one's own life as inevitable. She learns to laugh along with, the audience at her own foibles. MacDonald's play ultimately becomes a life-affirming document, unlike the romantic tragedies of unintended consequence that inspired them.
Works Cited
MacDonald, Ann-Marie. "Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)." 1988.
Shakespeare, William. "Othello."
Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet."
Works Cited
MacDonald, Ann-Marie. "Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)." 1988.
Shakespeare, William. "Othello."
Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet."
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REFERENCES Brown, G. Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywod. New York: McMillan, 1995. Byrge, D. The Screwball Comedy Films. New York: McFarland, 1991. "Censored Films and Television." January 2000. University of Virginia. September 2010 . Dale, A. Comedy is a Man in Trouble. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Ebert, R. "Some Like It Hot." 9 January 2000. Roger Ebert.com. 12 September 2010 . Engleking, A. "A Barbed But Generous Comedy of Manners." 17 June 2010.
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