Revelation

So for my Directing Shakespeare class, we have to choose a key phrase from the act that moves us or tugs at our emotional side and I kind of lost it when I was writing out my explanation for my key phrase so I'm going to post it here because I never have anything to say but this says something so why not read it.

I love run on sentences.

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“Words, words, words.”


These are just words, words, words.
Words you know, that you have spoken and come across everyday arranged in a different way. How can one be so ignorant. It is the mysteries that Shakespeare whispers that haunt us, even to this very day, that we may not escape!

Those lines are from a play I wrote called The Old Man in the Woods in which a hermit and a papergirl befriend one another and bond over the acting out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this monologue, I explored the idea of how Shakespeare is so intimidating to so many, yet he is just words. Words, words. And at the same time, he is so much more.

And that is the paradox of life. We are only an adaptation of emotion, yet words are the easiest, most natural way to try to connect. And the faultiest because they mean nothing yet hold everything.

It’s one of the simplest lines ever constructed and one of the most complex ever written.

He’s expressing how words have no meaning, how they are meaningless to him in this moment of utter frustration and confusion as he sinks deeper and deeper into madness. How he would live without words yet the play could not exist without words.
It’s the struggle of life both narrowed down and complicated into three wordswordswords.

Later on in the scene, he also says “Except my life, except my life, except my life.” Are you kidding me?! Do you see how brilliant that is, how utterly BRILLIANT? He’s saying three words three times. They are a reflection of the original, of words, words, words. And that is the essence of life. We start out with words, words, words and then add a word, add a word, add a word and then those words mean something more and then those words mean something more and then those words mean something more but at the same time, they are belittled when they are repeated.

The importance of language is choosing your words words words carefully, by hand picking them and placing them in a sequence that will bring you closest to what you truly wish to say, to breaking down the barrier.
It’s my heart beating that makes me know I’m not just analyzing the crap out of a phrase in the scene. It’s my heart pounding and my shallow breathing and my eyes tearing that make me realize it’s something more.