Skip to main content

Shakespeare ' s Use of Pastorals

William Shakespeare made frequent use of the Pastoral, both through brief examples within works such as "Love's Labor's Lost" ("When icicles hang by the wall") or sustained examples like the play "As You Like It". Other plays by Shakespeare contain individual pastoral scenes, such as the bandits in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona". Each of these cases speak to the "deep European unease about power, urbanization, and the demands made for a new centralization" mentioned by Strand and Boland in "The Making of a Poem" (207).

While many of Shakespeare's more popular plays contain readily apparent themes which an audience can easily relate to, the pastorals seem more elusive, are less popular, and are produced less often. It is difficult to feel sympathy for a group of characters who find refuge in nature, such as in "As You Like It". "When icicles hang by the wall" at first glance seems similarly quaint, reminding me more of a fairy tale or fable than a piece of great literature. But there is the secret, rarely are these quaint fables actually what they seem.

In today's world, at least in America, we live in little or no fear when we ridicule the government or speak out against "progress". But the pastoral gave those less fortunate a venue to play with questions "which verged on a philosophical subversion of traditional religious themes in poetry" (Strand and Boland, 208).

With that in mind, possible interpretations for these plays and smaller pastorals like "When icicles hang by the wall" begin to open up. In this piece the country folk go about their daily work, subjected to the harsh and cold winter. They carry firewood into the hall, watch the sheep, milk the cows, all the while dealing with the bitter cold. But at the same time the owl watches them, singing his "merry note". A question comes to mind, who or what does the owl represent?

The owl appears frequently in Shakespeare. A blog post entitled "The Birds of Shakespeare" points makes several observations about the bard's use of the owl (http://birdsofbard.blogspot.com/2005/11/owl.html).

For example, as Lady Macbeth prepares to murder the king she is startled by the shriek of an owl:
"Hark! - Peace!
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman
Which gives the stern'st good-night." [Macbeth - II, 2]
Also, prior to the assassination of Julius Caesar is was reported:
"The bird of night did sit,
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place
Hooting and shrieking." [Julius Caesar - I, 3]
Further, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Puck says:
"Now the wasted brands do glow,
Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
Puts the wretch that lies in woe
In remembrance of a shroud." [A Midsummer Night's Dream - V, 1]
Since Shakespeare often associated the owl with death, its use in "When icicles hang . . . " may very likely represent the pending death of such rustics as listed in the piece. Also apparent is the owl's disregard for their situations, singing his merry song in spite of their toils.

Given the double-meaning of early pastorals, since Strand and Boland cite the pastoral as "one of the true intellectual engines of poetry" (207), the owl could easily represent the wealthy, the officials who go about their merry way oblivious of the common man's trials. Whatever the meaning, the use of such imagery within the seemingly-innocent pastoral is often overlooked and this misunderstanding of the form has contributed to the way many of us fail to take it too seriously.

Popular posts from this blog

Geoffrey Chaucer's Moral Tales "Wife of Bath" and "Pardoner"

P.T. Barnum may not actually have said, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but it nevertheless seems to have become the creed of snake charmers and snake oil salesmen through the ages. But prior to Barnum, Geoffrey Chaucer gave us both a snake oil salesman and a snake charmer in the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath in his The Canterbury Tales . The Wife of Bath may not be a snake charmer in the traditional sense, but she might try to charm a snake out of its skin, or at least his clothing. The Pardoner may not charm the snake at all, but he’ll sell you both its oil and its skin, and make you believe you’ll go to heaven in the bargain.  Betwixt the two, we find two exemplas , the moral tales which were popular in Medieval times. Ladies first, if Alisoun may be called a lady. In this Wife of Bath’s quite lengthy prologue we learn of her five husbands as well as her Biblical justification for having had so many. We also hear of her poweress both in marriage and in the marriage bed. For

12" x 12" Acrylic Flow Painting, DA-2

12" x 12" Acrylic Flow Painting, by Terry Heath, DA-2. Craft acrylic and Elmer's Glue on canvas.

Pathos, Ethos, and Logos in Hinton's "The Outsiders"

When Aristotle wrote his treatise on the art of persuasion 2400 years ago, he identified its three main elements: audience (pathos), purpose (logos), and tone (ethos). Today, practice still honors Aristotle’s insight as a touchstone for any persuasive document. One reason S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders retains its persuasive appeal to young readers is the way it addresses these three classic elements of persuasion. Obviously, Hinton considered her audience, whether consciously or not, while writing her novel. Will Rogers High School English teacher Kim Piper noted that “kids here can especially identify with Ponyboy and his group” because they share a similar level of poverty. Will Rogers 9th grader Esteban Rivero said that he relates to the book because “It talks about how youngsters live and how they can get all caught up in their friends and cliques.” Specifically, Hinton establishes the age and socioeconomic classification of the narrator in the first line: “When I stepped out