A Voice for Those Unheard

1. How is the meaning of Shakespeare’s sonnet transformed or enhanced by Catherine Tate’s classroom performance?

In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, the speaker does not include his lady’s thoughts, and yet claims to “love to hear her speak” (line 9). This “mistress” plays a passive role because she cannot speak to us in a poem that is entirely from his perspective. The speaker also does not address the subject of this sonnet directly. He writes about his love, but his audience is a third party (and not her). Despite this, the speaker found a love that is incomparable to anything. He explains that his love is human yet beyond the sun, coral, snow, roses, perfumes, music, or goddesses. He ends the sonnet by saying that his “love as rare / As any she belied with false compare” (lines 13-14). Cheap clichés would not suit this lady. She cannot be compared to anything because that comparison would result in a false simile. 

In comparison, Tate’s performance of the sonnet is vocal, angry, and defiant. Tennant’s character claims that Tate’s character is “not even worthy to mention [Shakespeare’s] name”. The student proves her knowledge of Shakespeare by defying her teacher’s order to be quiet and reciting “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”. Her voice is firm and even forceful at moments. Tate speaks rapidly, takes quick breaths, and adds hand gestures throughout the poem. (Seen at “I have seen roses damasked, red and white”, “Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks”, and “I grant I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress” (lines 5, 8, 11-12)). Her performance is not just through her voice. She embodies the sonnet through her hands, head movements, eye contact, and raised eyebrows. She puts her whole body into a passionate performance. Towards the end of the sonnet, she disregards the punctuation and recites the lines without pauses, “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. / And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare” (lines 12-13). The student wastes no time on the last lines of the poem because she is only reciting it to prove her teacher wrong. Although Tate’s character knows the sonnet by heart, she makes pacing modifications to suit her point. If we assume the volta is between lines 12 and 13, then Tate has sped through it. Since this student dislikes Shakespeare, she does not care about this element of his sonnet. Her performance adds a layer of aggression and anger that is not present in the words alone. The student employs Shakespeare’s sonnet as a vessel for her anger towards her teacher. She uses her voice and body to transform this one-sided love confession into a bold act of defiance. In the end, Tate gives voice to an objectified woman only for Tennant’s character to objectify her. When he turns her into a doll, it is his attempt to silence her and render her powerless.

~Miki Chroust

The Shakespearean Sonnet in Comic Relief

For this Thursday (4/4), students will use the BBC Comic Relief video below as a lens for interpreting these two sonnets: William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” or Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I Will Put Chaos into fourteen lines.”  In this comedy skit, the actress Catherine Tate plays the role of a insolent, working-class English student and the actor David Tennant plays the role of her irritated Scottish teacher, set in a school classroom in Britain (the United Kingdom).

Students will write an answer to ONE of these two questions:

1. How is the meaning of Shakespeare’s sonnet transformed or enhanced by Catherine Tate’s classroom performance?

2. How does the speaker in Millay’s sonnet perform the kind of insolence expressed by Catherine Tate’s student character?

In answering these questions, please take the time to analyze the formal features and themes that define a sonnet (included in Catcourses “files” named “ENG 57 the sonnet”). Please categorize under “Sonnets” and don’t forget to create specific and relevant tags. And please include your full name!  The blog post is due by this Thursday (4/4) 11:00am.

In Your Face

As we all know, reading Shakespeare’s content is all about the all dying exaggeration for love. How the structure of the sonnet’s strictly follow the guidelines of the quatrains and the couplet. Catherine Tate’s classroom performance perfectly executes the qualities of the sonnet in acting form. The meaning of Shakespeare’s sonnet is overly enhanced by Catherine
Tate’s classroom performance through the visual acting aspect to prove that the sonnets are strict and exaggerated.

What I like to think about Shakespeare’s sonnets is that it is all quite in your face such as ‘My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the Sun‘ where it states, “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; / If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” (lines 3-4). Where in these stanzas, the words are so powerful it feels like the words are quite literally hitting your face. These stanza’s are rally in your face since the tone is and intense love for one. I can see this through the repetition of the word “If”, this beginner for each sentence sets the tone of the poem form a moving and intense feeling. The main girl who argues with the English teacher performs perfectly, showing this feeling by asking the English teacher “Do you see my face?”, where she uses this question as a replica of how the sonnets are such an exaggeration to the original sayings of the poems. Also proving how strict the poems are by Tate’s performance of asking her English teacher spoke English. This shows how if the teacher doesn’t speak English he isn’t a qualified teacher, where this symbolizes over in the Shakespeare’s aspect that there are certain guidelines to be followed upon on.

I really enjoyed Catherine Tate’s take on the exaggeration and strictness on Shakespeare. The performance is overly off the top from the tones, expressions and word choice, such as the sonnets of Shakespeare. Where her facial expressions and acting were honestly a form of Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

~ Roma Ventura

Shakespearean Sonnets Taught By Dr Who, Interpreted By An Annoying English Student

Shakespearean sonnets are taught to many different students around the world, I from first hand experience know that they have been teaching us about Shakespeare’s work since middle school. Many students are not the biggest fans of Shakespeare’s work, but we all know it and I can confidently say that even if you are not a fan of literature you would be able to recognize what a Shakespearean sonnet looks like in the Elizabethan teaching of English Literature.

The poem “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” sonnet 130 written by Shakespeare, we are introduced to a mistress which Shakespeare describe in an unorthodox fashion, he explains that “if snow bobwhite, why then her breast are dun,” “And in some perfumes is more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” Instead of painting his mistress in a light that depicts her beauty and that make the reader think about her in an angelic way, he does the complete opposite and writes al about her flaws. And although Shakespeare decides to do the unconventional and write about his mistress’ flaws, we interpret it as a way to say that her mistress is REAL, that she is human and not perfect like a doll or in this case the sun.

In the poem Shakespeare chooses unconventional, he chooses not to write a poem that us received as your “normal” poem talking about the beauty of a woman. We also find unconventionality in the Catherine Tates’s classroom performance. In the video, Catherine Tete plays a student who is not well behaved, and does not depict the characteristics of a model student. Catherine has her character mock the teacher and say he reminds her of “Dr Who” or saying “I don’t think you’re qualified to teach is english” because the teacher is Scottish. However when the teacher has finally had enough of Catherine he threatens to fail he, she then surprises everyone by reciting “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” a sonnet by William Shakespeare, as mentioned previously. She surprises even the teacher as nobody would expect this from a baldly behaved student with such a reputation, however is happened and she did it correctly, she know what a Shakespearean sonnet is by heart.

This is unconventional and I think in a way helps emphasize the unconventionality that Shakespeare goes for in his poem. Just like how it doesn’t seem normal for Shakespeare to write about loving a mistress who, according to the sonnet, is imperfect is so many harsh ways, writing about her in a way that makes her seem so awful, it doesn’t seem normal for such an awful and uncumbersome student would have the ability to recite a poem by Shakespeare. I also think that there is a better emphasis created on the sonnet by the fact that such an unorthodox student would recite such an unorthodox sonnet by heart, in my eyes this enhances the horribleness of the mistress and brings a stronger pull on the words that are written by Shakespeare.

Another thing that what was worth mentioning when comparing the video and Shakespeare’s sonnet would be the turning point, the volta, that is present in both the poem and the video. Because the poem is a Shakespearean sonnet then it is structure with 12 lines that allow for a narrative build ups and two final couplets that are a turning point in the poem. And just like in the poem, the video is structured in a very similar format with the most of the initial part of the video building a narrative of the dislike that the Catherine’s character has for reading and for Shakespeare, however in the last few lines of the videos she recite the poem and surprises everyone, bring a turning point to the video, a last clap-back and her professor is you will. The video is essentially structured as a sonnet.

Guadalupe Lemus

Sit Still, Look Pretty.

I was truly surprised with how much I enjoyed William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Catherine Tate’s comic relief classroom performance. This skit is now definitely one of my favorite videos that I’ve seen. With my first read of “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” I was shocked due to the contrasting William Shakespeare sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, where Shakspeare questions whether to even compare his lover to a summer’s day. In the “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, the overall comparison is between the body of the speaker’s lover and beautiful things. These beautiful things include the sun, snow, roses, and even a goddess! With this in mind, it is my opinion that in Catherine Tate’s comic relief classroom performance, Tate quite actually references the sonnet but also expresses some of the same irony on women’s standards. I think that Tate’s use of the sonnet in her comic relief classroom performance is mostly used as humor. When watching the YouTube video you can tell that the teacher (David Tennant) is annoyed with the female student (Catherine Tate) because Tate asks too many questions, is very loud and annoying, and unfocused during the class. I think that the persona of Tate’s character is a critique of the role of women. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, we see that his lover is not beautiful, not the typical type of woman that is considered ideal. Likewise, Catherine Tate’s character doesn’t act like the ideal student, let alone female student. This comic relief video enhances Shakespeare’s sonnet, because it shows how standards for women are still the same as they were in Shakespeare’s time: sit still, look pretty. 

When looking at the File on Catcourses named, “ENG 57 the sonnet.docx” we can learn about the turn and the rhyming couplets. Ironically, the definition stated from the sonnet.docx says, “couplets are sharp, witty, and self-reflective sayings that conclude the sonnet” and the last two minutes of the comic relief classroom performance are Catherine Tate reciting from memory the entire “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” sonnet. William Shakespeare’s sonnet is then transformed and enhanced by Tate’s classroom performance, because they both end with the same rhyming couplet. Of course, Tate is then shrunk down to a tiny version, which definitely doesn’t happen in the sonnet, but hey! It’s a comic relief video for a reason. s

Lastly, for watchers that didn’t catch the joke in the comic relief YouTube video, when Tate asks Tennant, “Are you the doctor?” and Tennant replies, “Doctor Who?” it is in reference to the television show “Doctor Who”, that Tennant and Tate both star in. THere are other jokes made as well, such as “Suck it alien boy!” This joke really doesn’t have anything to do with Shakespeare’s sonnets, but it’s a good joke. A great one even.

Anne K. Anderson

The Effects of Shakespearean Sonnets Even After his Death

William Shakspere even after his death with his work still has an effect on society today. In his poem, “ My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” we can see the theme of love and passion that the author has for his unidentified beloved. It also describes the different traits the lover has that the author is attracted towards. In the comedy skit we see Catherine Tate’s character as an annoying student that doesn’t like the fact that her new English teacher isn’t actually English, he’s actually Scottish. Catherine Tate’s character is of English descent and doesn’t think her new English teacher is qualified to teach her class English just because he is of Scottish descent instead. This brings up the topic of class and ethnic background. Which relates to the way Shakespeare wrote his own pieces he would not only write for the high class members he would also write for the middle class members and when she mocked the fact that “No, reading’s for losers”like saying that those who don’t understand poems and can only read are losers unlike her. With both Shakespeare’s sonnet and Catherine Tate’s comedy skit we can see a similarity. The structure of a sonnet is based on a 14 line poem that follows the iambic rhythm as well as an organized rhyme scheme. The similarity between both pieces is that the first couple of lines in Shakespere’s sonnet were utilized to set the theme/mood and then in the last two lines we were able to witness a twist. For example, “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground./ And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.”(lines 12,13, and 14) within these lines we can see that the shift happened when he stopped describing his lover’s beauty and instead focused on declaring his love as something unique and rare.  In the comedy skit we can see something similar taking place. The skit begins with the introduction of the class’s new English teacher to which one specific student, Catherine Tate’s character, doesn’t agree with because he has a Scottish accent. Like in the sonnet the first couple of minutes are used to set the tone and mood which towards the end will change and in this case the teacher had enough of her attitude and turned her into a doll. 

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

Shakespearian Sonnets, Smartass Students, and Other Things That Are in This Essay

Sonnets. Described by dictionary definitions as “a poem of fourteen lines using any of several formal rhyme schemes. In English, Sonnets typically have an ABABCDCDEFEFGG scheme, with every line skipping to rhyme until the final composition couplet.”  Specifically Elizabethan poetry, the most common type of which would be that of the ol’boy himself, William Shakespeare.  You’ll watch the teacher turn to some random page on a too-big-to-carry English Literature book and start with one of his classic sonnets.  But, “What is a sonnet?” (you undoubtedly wonder).  Well, to put it simply, a Sonnet is If that sounds overly specific and oddly stringent, well you’d be damned right.  Every English student who’s had to drag their brain across such a concept has likely had to hear this at some point and forced to listen or read a sonnet. In order to avoid boring the audience to death, a performance is introduced by Catherine Tate involving the sonnet “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun”. It follows the antics of a lower-class student engage in a conflict with their teacher and add to the meaning of Shakespeare’s poem.

Meet Lauren Cooper, a student of English descent going out of her way (as all troublemakers do) to start trouble.  From mocking her new Scottish teacher’s heritage to randomly disrupting the topic and cutting him off mid-sentence, it’s a familiar sight to behold gor any viewer.  Really adds to the feeling of English class, don’t it?  After all, there’s nothing quite like a disruptive student attempting to upstart their new teacher to drive in the charm and meaning of Shakespeare’s poems, aye?  After setting the scene, she ups the anty through a full performance of the poem “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun,” to the bewilderment of her exasperated target.  Now that we’ve established the context, why does it matter?  What does this performance add to the piece?  Simple, it transforms the meaning of the sonnet through the inclusion of class issues and varied interpretations of Shakespeare’s work to be more relatable to the average person outside academia. “Elaborate please.” Why sure, I’d love to!  

First of all, “Lauren Cooper” over here is portrayed as the run-of-the-mill working-class student.  Her opinion of poetry is reflected in the way she converses with her friend in the back of class calling English “well-dry” and saying “readings for losers!” This likely isn’t from a place of true hatred or distaste for the subject, but a reflection on the fact that the working classes have often been more busy trying to survive and not fall into poverty to care about such topics.  Her parents likely only sent her to school so she could get a job that will provide for her in the future, something tangible and secure (think nurse, engineer, lawyer, etc.), instilling in her the idea that poetry and the arts were (at best) a hobby or (at worst) a waste of time.  This adds meaning to Shakespeare’s sonnet as it enhances it through familiarity.  The poem, itself, portrays the beauty in the ordinary of Shakespeare’s beloved Mistress through going against Aristocratic and frivolous comparisons that were common in love poems at that time.  It told the tale of an ordinary, if not an unattractive looking woman, who despite not being as beautiful or lovely or otherworldly as songs, goddesses, or the sun still had a love so strong it pushed the poet to immortalize her in writing.  Having a lower class member of society, people who Shakespeare would often write for (not just the rich!), helps add familiarity.  It makes the audience feel more included than if an educated English professor or an upper-class student would have read it.  It shows that anyone can relate to this poem and take joy in it.  

Next, this performance adds a new interpretation to the poem that makes it more relatable to readers.  Typically poems of this type are read like passionate love notes.  Often they have gentle pauses, consistent tempo, or follow a particular rhythm that is slow and easy to follow.  This is an academic interpretation, not something everyone understands. Not Miss Cooper’s.  Her performance is more like someone singing rap/hip-hop lyrics from a song or a phrase they heard in a previous conversation.  It is casual and already known, spoken with deliberate speed and expecting the audience to be able to follow.  It takes the context outside of the distant and unfamiliar, but makes it tangible to all other forms. She does what many fail to do: she brings out the relatability of Shakespeare.  Miss Cooper revitalizes the original purpose of Sonnets like this, the type that needed to be easy to memorize and applied to many circumstances.   Now, the reader can see it in either a working class setting, as a student proving a teacher wrong, or a fun memory from class. This enhances the meaning of “My Mistress’s Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” by making it memorable to the audience.  By putting it like this, Cooper provides the poem a way to stick to the viewer’s mind and helps dismantle the intimidating, complex nature of a sonnet for viewers. Now whenever the sonnet comes to mind and they must think of this poem, they will remember her performance.  This relatability helps make everything make so much more sense to those outside of academia and makes it more available to everyone. Something many writers can afford to do. Heck yeah for disruptive students!

Jojo C. Chukwueloka

What a Twist!

When one thinks of Shakespeare, they think of the absolutely perfect author of many plays and stories we heard about from our AP English teachers in school. The one our teachers made seem like the god of all literature. Yet he was actually just a normal man who wrote for the working class and gave them a voice by using English which was the common language of the people at that time. In his sonnet “My Mistresses Eyes are nothing like the sun” Shakespeare goes against the normal idea of a sonnet and even the idea of a poem about a lover. Instead of describing this ‘mistress’ in a loving and beautiful way, he criticizes her looks and even makes her seem ugly. He claims things like, “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/ That music hath a far more pleasing sound”, her hair is “black wires”, and claiming her breath ‘reeks’. This creates the idea that he has no attraction to her and shows that there is no reason that he should. Yet after these lines, there is a twist which shows his true feelings towards her. This is shown in the vulta of the sonnet in the lines “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.” This ending couplet of the poem shows the opposite and projects his true feelings towards the mistress in the poem, that his love is so immense for her and so real that it the typical similes and overused lines for flattery cannot begin to describe her.

In the comedy sketch it displays a seemingly annoying student continues to pester a new English teacher by questioning his ability to teach based on his Scottish accent. I feel that it honestly emphasizes Shakespeare’s sonnet due to the fact that both Shakespeare and the character, played by Catherine Tate, project a dislike on the subject in front of them whether it be a mistress or learning about Shakespeare, yet later there is a twist to display the complete opposite. The way he describes her in the beginning contrasts so much with the two last lines which provides the surprising twist that he actually has genuine strong feelings for this person. This also shows in the comedy sketch when Catherine Tate’s character mocks old English and seems to make fun of her teacher and English as well. It creates the idea that she believes learning this subject is pointless or even a waste of her time by the fact that rather than listening she continues to mock it and disrupt the class as a whole. Yet, at the end of the sketch, she perfect quotes Shakespeare’s sonnet “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and shocks the teacher, showing that she actually has a great understanding and even possibly appreciation for old English and Shakespeare. These two seemed to mirror each other and through having the same sort of twist in a comedic sense in a situation many people can relate to, like a classroom, it clarifies the meaning and impact of the sonnet itself.

Emily Mayo

Realness

Throughout many different time periods, we as a society have constantly argued about beauty standards and what we deem as ‘perfection’. William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 talks about a mistress in an almost downgrading manner, but ironically uses such descriptions to convey how real and beautiful his beloved really is. One of the themes regarding this poem included spiritual love. This idea goes along the lines of how love is beyond the physical features we see on someone. In the second to last line, Shakespeare concludes “I think my love as rare” (Line 13). I feel like this really suits the deeper message behind the sonnet because while he says the mistress doesn’t have the ideal features of ‘beauty standards’, he still considered him/her beautiful in their own way.

Catherine Tate’s skit was a very interesting one to watch because of how she portrayed her ill mannered student role. She constantly made fun of and interrupted the teacher when wanting to talk about Shakespeare. I found this skit a bit interesting and interpreted in a different way because I saw her as a representation of how most people see Shakespeare: misunderstood. The constant back and forth altercation between the teacher and student to me represents the massive language barrier between Shakespeare and those who read his work. I feel like this definitely has to do with the obvious different level of English that was once spoken in ancient times. In other words, language and culture barriers could play a huge role behind the obvious miscommunication. Therefore, it is hard for our generation to really understand what he means without having to search for a translated version or proper analysis. Taking this thought back to Sonnet 130, it’s easy for readers to immediately misinterpret and look down upon the poem until they read the last two lines because we assume he is criticizing his mistress. We take these words in a wrong way and automatically assume why Shakespeare is known as a controversial writer. Especially in todays generation, we are very outspoken about body shaming and loving everyone for however they look.

At the end of the day, not everyone will thoroughly understand William Shakespeare. Language barriers is something I feel Catherine Tate portrayed very well, when seen in the perspective of two people bickering at each other without listening to what one has to say.

Simranpreet Kaur

A Bit Like Shakespeare

William Shakespeare while quite a controversial character in history, without a doubt, has obtained such an influential effect on today’s society. His published works are seen everywhere, referenced in many movies and TV shows, and read in school classrooms. But yet, even so, the interpretations of the meanings of his works remain varied tremendously. People can’t seem to come to an agreement on what certain pieces, and plays of his represent.

This is primarily demonstrated in the BBC Comic Relief skit with Catherine Tate and David Tennant. Where Tate plays an ill-mannered English student and Tennant her new English teacher attempts to introduce the class to Shakespeare. Tate’s continuous lack of being able to voluntarily cooperate during the lesson and puns promptly made toward Tennant represents to us her refusal to absorb the material. She repeats, “I be not bothered” to play on the Shakespearean rhyme scheme and phrasing in order to bother Tennant’s character even further. On the other hand, though, the meaning of Shakespeare’s sonnet is transformed by this comedy skit right when she begins reciting, “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” perfectly from beginning to end. It shows that despite her seemingly uncooperative behavior, the irony is that the sonnet can still be followed and represented. Similar to how, despite all of the strict rules placed upon Shakespeare’s sonnet, it is often through breaking these rules that a true piece of art and poetry can be made. Just like how it was appointed within the classroom.

Patricia Brewer