Portia

By teacherayala · Apr 29, 2011 · ·
  1. Today we were reading the part of Julius Caesar (Act 2 Scene 1) when Portia has a conversation with Brutus. It was fine reading it with the previous class; they are very mature kids and they get it. They get the unfairness of a woman's life being completely turned upside down beyond their control, and that Portia's fate lies entirely in Brutus' hands. They understand the ideas behind Roman culture, wrong or right. They respected Shakespeare's portrayal of Portia--her demand that Brutus respect her as his "other half," and her insistence that she share with him.

    I love Portia in this scene. She confronts him in his mood, and Brutus tries to give excuses for his inner turmoil. Portia doesn't buy it. She insists, and she's smart enough to know that hooded men coming to her house at night mean something, and maybe she even gets what it means but is waiting for him to say the words. "Dwell I but in the suburbs of thy good pleasure?" she asks. "If it be not more, Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife." (Forgive my lack of quote formatting to reflect the poetry.)

    My second class was a bit more difficult. They tend to dislike reading and get a bit antsy. They play around with pens, tape, whatever they can get their hands on. They will look for excuses to get up out of their seats--use bathroom passes, walk to the trash can, look for hand sanitizer, get a tissue...

    I walk around the room staring kids down, shoving aside the pens they're trying to play with, closing books or notebooks with math and history homework, stopping frivolous conversation at the grassroots. And midway through Portia's scene a kid gets up to throw something in the trash can. Except he doesn't. He begins to pace around on the way to the trash can. I steer him outside the door.

    I tell my students:
    "In Rome, Portia has no voice. Plutarch barely mentions her. She's not important. Shakespeare greatly expands her role as a woman, but even so she is only afforded this one scene. Are you seriously going to interrupt her one opportunity to be heard so that you can play with pens, do other homework, or involve yourself with all of these other distractions? Listen to what she's saying!"

    They quieted down somewhat and focused. They began to get into the passage. They got a little more involved when I explain how Portia is proving her worth, her intelligence, and her right as a married woman to be heard by her husband. The girls start to pay attention when Brutus basically calls Portia his lifeblood and prays to the gods to be worthy of such a noble wife. How romantic, they think.

    How tragic, I think. The entire carpet is ripped out from under Portia. Why doesn't anyone ever want to listen to her? Why can't we listen to her even now? There are so many women in this world who are powerless to change their situations, and we allow it to happen. We just don't listen. Culture just runs roughshod over us as our women eat coal.

Comments

  1. mugen shiyo
    ah pooh, lol. isn't it usually the woman turning the guys life upside down beyond control? it sounds like woman talk the same way back then as they do now. is there any parts where she says "showeth me the money" or "where is thy wallet?" :p

    on the other hand, i get where your coming from. seeing a strong woman not afraid to be forceful and unyielding must be as powerful for you as me watching Jason Borne open the whoop-ass on international assassins.

    i think i know what you feel like with the second class because i would likely belong to that second class :p i think you have to be a lot more interactive with them. you know...action-based. get people to play parts- have them stand up and face each other. let them boo or cheer and tell you why. in other words, i guess i would give the book to them to do as they wished with it. let them own it, and they'll become more involved

    i would also go so far as to say shakespeare did not greatly expand her role, but rather, he saw the true role and the strength of a woman's position in the scheme of things and gave it center stage. no more different than times today, except women are overtly strong and in positions of power.

    culture might be lost on all of us :) that's the way the times roll. i wouldn't consider it a loss. kids will likely brush of anything learned in class, but it will stick in their heads and they will likely remember it offhand when the situation comes around

    but hey, i never read the book and i am interested in this small part you have here :) or rather, your discussion of it

    Portia and Brutus...i'll keep that in mind ;)
  2. teacherayala
    Thanks for your input, Mugen. I start out each act with a drama sequence, but lately I have been feeling pressed for time, and maybe I do need to pay more attention to active learning in the 2nd class. They're definitely very kinesthetic learners!
  3. mugen shiyo
    wow. i can imagine going to a car dealership and handing my wife over as down payment.

    reading this makes me feel lazier than i actually thought i was if that scores any points. it would kind of balance out if she didn't have a job, but since you have a job and have to come home to do all that, that's. yikes. if we switched places, i'd jump through the window and run off into the woods. but i hear of the rewarding parts and looking at little kids play does look pretty cool so all the best to ya :)
  4. JimFlagg
    I think you are onto something when you say culture. Don't get me wrong. I work for the state of Arizona and our last two governors were women and my direct boss is a woman so I understand that women can be powerful and make good decisions that affect our society. When it comes to choice however most will defer to cultural roles. I work in the IT field and when I was going to school I notice very little women signed up for IT classes. It defiantly wasn't that they could not do it because the few that did sign up where at the top of the class. They just chose not too. When I asked others why they would defer back to upbringing. I really never took it further but it would be interesting to do a research paper on this and to see why there are large gaps in fields like Nursing (where few men sign up) and IT (where few women sign up). There is a good book out there "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus" that hints on this.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Are_from_Mars,_Women_Are_from_Venus

    As for the children, yes it is unfortunate that the younger they are the shorter their attention span is. They also have to have things explained to them because they are still learning how the world works. Take teenagers. A large majority of them can't read facial expressions or even body language. (Wish I could find that study you could try this...)

    http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_brain_0502.pdf

    I found that shocking but as I think back I remember my Mom constantly making faces at and asking if I under stood here.

    My point is there are some basic skills that we take for granted that kids lack. Unfortunately you will have to explain what is going on even give them a program guide if needed.

    Take it all with a grain of salt. I am no psychologists but we do sometimes have to understand how people think in order to write. I can still hear my Written Analysis teach saying, "Remember your Audience."
  5. teacherayala
    @Mugen: Yeah, my daughter is pretty cool. Def. makes it worthwhile in the end.

    @JimFlagg: Actually, I'm usually surprised at how bright my students are. They have such active minds. It's true that certain learning disabilities give them trouble with body language and such, but some of my students are actually excellent actors/actresses. I recently had them do a mock conversation in their own words based on a conversation from Julius Caesar, and some of them really showed their own interpretation of how the people would feel in the conversation.

    I do teach them what is "the teacher look" and what it means. I do a little demonstration at the beginning of the year of the looks/gestures I will make so that I don't have to interrupt class to tell them to stop doing something that is disruptive or off-task. :) I think the demonstrations definitely help.
  6. JimFlagg
    I would guess that watching someone grow and learn under your tutelage must be the greatest thing in the world. I would give any thing to experience that sence of pride once in my life. You are lucky.
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