The Many Faces of Pericles

Jimmy

April 13, 2004

English 103

The Many Faces of Pericles

Interpreting William Shakespeare is quite a task, but when one reads hi work for them self and then they see a live play bases on the way another person interprets the play, they can form an entirely different vision of how the characters look and act. Then, when watching a movie of the same play produced by yet again another person, all together one can receive again another way of taking in the play written by Shakespeare. So, it just goes to show that every time a producer produces another one of Shakespeare’s plays it can be interpreted and reinterpreted in may different ways. When a reader reads the story Pericles and compares it to the play performed by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival (CSF), they obtain this mental image of what the characters will look like and act like.

When reading the text version of the play and King Antiochus is the first character that gives the reader a chance to form their own mental images of how he looks and acts. Look at the first line of the play for instance. Antiochus says, “Young Prince of Tyre, you have at large received the danger of the task you undertake.” Just from that line alone the reader would not of thought of the king as a father who was in love with his daughter. But, I believe that the readers would receive a vast mental image of what the great King Antiochus looks and acts like (I.1.1). From a line like that one, I assumed that the great King Antiochus was a superior king, intelligent with all of the manors of an honorable nobel man, but stern in his beliefs. When reading about King Antiochus the image of a tall, strong king much like the image of a king that a reader would get from a watching the movie Lord of the Rings comes to my mind. He or she would perceive King Antiochus to be sitting upon a pedestal when compared to young, Prince Pericles Bowing before the great king.

When I contrast the reading from the text to the actual play put on by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival (CSF), I notice that my mental image I ha formed of the great King Antiochus was not even close to what I thought he would be. In fact, I was quite appalled by the actions of the king. While having the mental images in my head of a great king, I was quite surprised when I found myself looking at this skinny king that is all over his own daughter form the beginning. When reading the textual version of the play the reader does not get the idea of incest until the king reads the riddle, but when watching CSF’s version of the play, he or she can see the odd attraction to his very own daughter form the moment they both come out on stage. Even though the King attempts to still portray the image of a powerful ruler, that actions of incest and the weak skinny build of the actor gave me a different view of the so called “powerful” king.

Again, when referring back to the text version of Pericles, the readers for the second time are introduced to Queen Dionyza. Pericles is in distress over the loss of his queen and does not want to try to raise his child himself, so he travel to see Queen Dionyza and asks her to raise his daughter. He will leave nurse Lychorida to assist her with his daughter. When reading the text, it helped me to believe Queen Dionyza was sweet and caring when she said, “Who shall