Just as the actors in the documentary noticed, Shakespeare's plays are quite relevant to the lives of prison inmates. His plays tend to base themselves around characters who commit regrettable actions that haunt them for a time, generally, until they die. Of course, some sympathetic characters also find some kind of redemption shortly before or during death as well. This type of theme really seemed to resonate for the inmates as they themselves are seeking to atone for the heinous acts that they committed in their respective moments of weakness.
The Tempest is much more lighthearted compared to some of Shakespeare's other plays, and probably really appropriate for the purpose of rehabilitating prisoners. In this play, the need for revenge, a common theme in Shakespeare's previous play, is eventually exchanged for forgiveness. It's the same forgiveness that these men desperately look for in their own lives. They've realized that it's their carnal desires that brought them down to the depths that they've reached, and the only way to pull themselves up is to strengthen themselves to act within their own control.
What's really interesting and probably most important about this very unique prison program is that the prisoners are actually being taught to analyze Shakespeare's texts for themselves in order to fully understand it, portray it, and most importantly learn from it. Shakespeare had the rare ability to see the human condition and masterfully depict it in all of its glorious imperfections. To be honest, I feel like most people, especially most people in prison, don't have the chance or means to really appreciate or understand human nature in general. Perhaps it's the lack of this understanding or appreciation that leads some people to commit horrible crimes and injustices against each other.
This documentary really was a great change of pace that I think establishes a good way to think about most of the fictional works that we've read throughout the semester. It's wise to keep in mind that these expressions of humanity that we've been reading in print are interpretations of the real human struggle. Even though we may not be able to fully relate to the themes of honor, disgrace, love, fear, lust, greed, or salvation, there are many out there who have reached those peaks and plunged into those depths. The human struggle as depicted in literature, whether we see it in our lives or not, is all around us in the lives of others.
"The prisoners are actually being taught to analyze Shakespeare's texts for themselves in order to fully undertand it, portray it, and most importantly learn from it." That line from your rumination really stuck with me as I read through the rest of your ideas. I never really thought about it that way. I just assumed the director was trying to get the inmates to understand Shakespeare, but really he wants them to relate to it. The reason many of the men committed those harsh crimes was because they had no way to handle their emotion - the one man talks about being bullied and then sexually abused by a man in his teen years, but never knew how to handle all the bottled up emotion. Taking part in the play, memorizing those lines, and portraying them truthfully is something much more than any rehabilitation program could give the inmates. By themselves they are sorting through the emotions they have had inside them in a much more constructive way than they ever have in their lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI defiantly agree with you about how interesting it was to see the inmates analyzing the play as they learned it. I also really enjoyed seeing how seriously they all took the production. They viewed it as more than a privilege, it was an honor for them to be performing these works. You are also right in your closing statements about how we relate to the works versus how the men related to them. Those of us in this class have never fallen quite so far as the men in Shakespeare Behind Bars, therefore we cannot relate to their point of view. That alone made the documentary interesting for me.
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