What Shakespeare Leading Lady am I?

[fajrdrako]

I got this from kikibug13: What Shakespeare Leading Lady am I?

Which Shakespearian Leading Lady are You? Beatrice: Much Ado About Nothing You, while in reality an honest woman, seem to enjoy taunting men about their inability to control women’s sexuality. You are in control, a true heroine yet not quite a feminist. Your intelligence and wit makes you a noble match for anyone who can appreciate your superior combination of strength and poise. Keep kicking @$$ and looking beautiful doing it! Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

How nice to get my favourite woman in Shakespeare - the one I would most aspire to be!

Comments

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I found too many questions in the quiz unanswerable - None of the adjectives accurately describes me, I don't know those songs, can't identify which designers have what style, etc.
Maybe that makes me the female equivalent of a spear-carrier. I'm OK with that.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I agree about the songs - I picked at random! And no, there wasn't much of an accurate description of me either, but I just pick what appealed.

So I'm glad to be Beatrice, and wouldn't want to be Lady Macbeth. Cleopatra might be all right. Not Titania - preferably not Kate or Ophelia. Maybe Katherine of France. Viola or Portia, definitely.

[msilverstar]

Not just Beatrice, but Emma Thompson's Beatrice!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

All the better.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

I did twice, first lady Macbeth and second Ophelia.

not quite, not quite

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I always find Lady Macbeth scary. I can't quite understand her, and people I can't understand frighten me.

Ophelia is a different case - I like her, I can relate. She seems sweetly fragile, lost in a plot too big for her.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

oh, I think I do understand lady Macbeth. I just don't want to be her. I don't want the tiny splinter of me that is like her give room to expand.

I can actually relate less to Ophelia. Keep wanting to kick her.

(eh, have I now revealed that I am not a nice person?)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, it would be great to see Ophelia figure out what was going on and do something about it. But no.... not Ophelia.

What's not nice about wanting to kick Ophelia? She's the side of myself I would like to kick.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

re: not being a nice person

I meant the combination of recognizing lady Macbeth and wanting to kick Ophelia.

BTW Think what would happen if we put the two of them in one play together. Is there a way to give Ophelia a sporting chance against lady Macbeth?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's got promise, as an idea. One could get a really zany surrealistic black comedy out of the mad Ophelia conversing with the mad Lady Macbeth. They could argue over methods of suicide (drowning vs. cliffs) and then take over the kingdom.

Scots/Dane alliance, anyone?

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

do you think we need to show how these to ladies got mad, or would introducing them as known characters in a different setting be enough? Do you see them in the waiting room of a psychiatric hospital, all white everywhere and once in a while an alarm bell and all the nurses running somewhere to restrain someone. Or do you want something closer to the original?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Maybe a combination of the medieval/gothic (just to take advantage of the wonderful moodiness of their respective settings) and a modern hospital thing? Knights and servitors could trade places with doctors and nurses.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

I am not sure, this gives me a bit of a monthy python feel. I'd like it a little bit more tragic.

I am thinking about it... , maybe one day

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Addition to our list of 'things to write... someday'.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

this reminds me, I was talking with one of my studygroup members (=group for people who have trouble finishing their studies for one reason or other). She asked what I would want to do after I finished and I mentioned that I still have a book lying half finished and that I thought it worth my while to give that ago (I told you about it, with space ships who develop their religion plus sense of self conscious in reaction to a myth of a soul eating ship). She was astounded, a book? you were writing for fun? and you would try to have it published? Yes, I answered easily, doesn't everyone? (Smiling, knowing not everyone does, of course). She would never ever try to write something longer than a text message. Well maybe an email, but nothing spanning several pages. I thought it quite funny.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It is funny - some of us just never stop writing, other people have difficulty whacking out a few words. I hope you do go back to your novel, since it sounds interesting. (and me to mine, ditto.)

I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, you have Oberon - always one of my preferred Shakespeare characters! Bottom - not so much, but I loved the Kevin Kline version, and he has some utterly funny scenes.

I've seen some spectacular Titanias in productions. Designers and costumers love her.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

The live version I saw in 1996 or 1997 had the delightful Leigh Lawson as Oberon, so… yes!

But I'm more Puck. What I went for was Puck's line, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!", which I tend to think (if not say out loud) over people making idiots of themselves with relationships. I don't feel part of the same species.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Is this the person you mean? http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/images/space/omoh/spomoh037.jpg

I love Puck too. And I love the productions where Oberon and Puck make a good team, either through working together well, or being a total contrast.

I love that play when it's done really well. Sadly, I've seen a few terrible productions of it.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I've never seen him like that before! Good heavens!

As Theseus/Oberon, he was 50-ish, bearded, and wearing the most fantastic, floor-sweeping, royal blue, spangled frock-coat.

I took to him as Alec in Tess, a long-term favourite tragic literary character:

You know my weakness for attractive young men on the wrong end of sharp, pointy objects…

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I noted he'd been in Tess - I don't think I've ever seen him in anything. I thought he looked nicely Oberonish in that picture, but I've no idea what it was from.

Your Theseus/Oberon sounds terrific! I loved David Strathairn in the move in which he was Theseus. Same as the Kevin Kline one, I htink. Very... stylish.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes, I noted he'd been in Tess - I don't think I've ever seen him in anything.

He's more of a stage actor than a film actor. In real life, he's married to Twiggy.

I thought he looked nicely Oberonish in that picture, but I've no idea what it was from.

Space 1999, judging by the URL: a mid-70s sf series.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I remember Space 1999 - not that I ever saw it, but I knew it existed. And that it had some rather interesting actors in it. (Though why they struck me as interesting, I'm not sure.)

Married to Twiggy - that explains why, when I Googled for him, I kept getting her name.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes. He's also an ex of Hayley Mills.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How do you know all these things? I'm impressed! It's one thing to know who's who in the 12th or 18th centuries, but this is - different.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I read an interview with him once. I just have an unusually retentive memory.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Uh, sorry, that was me that posted to say how useful. Sign-in issues. I wonder why.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

(Shrugs).
But yes, it is. I can often remember, re: things in books, which side of a page a piece of information is on, position of illustrations, & c. I'm pretty well photographic on a lot of things.

Re: I'm the Queen of the Fairies!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can sometimes remember things like that; sometimes not. It's hit and miss. When I was ill and depressed I lost my memory entirely. It's coming back, but isn't as efficient as it used to be.

I got Katherine!

[idiotgrrl.livejournal.com]

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Re: I got Katherine!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

One of the good ones!

[kimsrants.livejournal.com]

Katherine
vs
Lady Mackers
vs.
Ophelia

three parts crazy, two parts angry, two parts dead.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, I think in the intervening years since the Hundred Years' War, Katherine has died. She just doesn't get to do it on stage, and doesn't kill herself.

She does get to learn to speak English, so that's a bonus.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

I'm Juliet, apparently. Which is okay; I've always liked her. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I like Juliet very much. And Romeo, and most of the cast of R&J.

Nice icon!

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, very nice! Well, except for that business about drinking poison. But the rest is terrific.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Yes, and perpetually being on the cusp of sexual maturity, haha.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That would be okay if you take out the word 'perpetually'.

She got good clothes, too, in any production I've ever seen.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

True. I guess I say perpetually since she's sort of frozen into that age, dying and all, and of course the play being put on so damn much at every high school.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

True. You really can't age Juliet without being untrue to the concept. Romeo either. They have to be perpetually young & cut off just before their prime.

If Juliet had lived to adulthood and beyond, I wonder what other Shakespeare character she would have resembled?

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I don't know, I'll have to think about that while in Stratford next week.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Pause for a deep sigh of envy.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Haha, not making it this year?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

No. No money. And I hear the plays are good, too. Yesterday Tom (whom I work with) was telling me how good "Of Mice and Men" is. And "To Kill a Mockingbird". And the Albee play, "A Delicate Balance". He went last week. I don't think he saw any Shakespeare, he saw everything else.