Reviews for Harold

The average rating for Harold based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-05-12 00:00:00 David Sevshek I just can't bring myself to love this play, although I believe I understand what Shakespeare is doing here. He takes a fairy tale plot, adds a fiercely realistic setting (complete with a pointless war and friendly fire), adds a desperately mismatched romantic couple (Helena, a commoner and a control-freak, a woman of great passion and intelligence, obsessively smitten with the noble Bertram, a proud, shallow boy), tops it off by giving the comedy a mindlessly optimistic title and then spending most of his effort not just making the title come true, but making it come true in such a formulaic, makeshift fashion that the reader must mentally modify that jaunty title by the addition of a dozen cautionary interrogation points. The comic fop and braggart Parolles--sort of a cross between Pistol and Malvolio--helps out some, both thematically and as comic relief, but the whole thing still leaves me feeling a little creepy, with a bad taste in my mouth. But then . . . maybe that's the way Shakespeare wanted me to feel? I don't think so, though. I believe his intention is a little more ambitious than that. He is certainly criticizing the forms and conventions of comedy, but I believe he also wishes to transcend them by producing a kind of meta-comedy--the sort of thing he would soon accomplish in Measure for Measure. In Measure for Measure, he succeeds by 1) distancing the reader by making the entire universe of the play slightly surreal, and 2) using the Duke as a God-like figure, thus inviting the reader to adopt an Olympian perspective for him or herself. Shakespeare tries something similar in All's Well That Ends Well, using 1) the radical disconnect between fairy tale and harsh realism in the plot, and 2)providing us with three ancient characters of good will--the King of France, the Countess and Lord Lafeu--who speak much about the nature of Time, suggesting the widened perspective and wisdom which may accompany Time's contemplation. As I said, he "tries" something similar, but I don't think he quite brings it off.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-08-08 00:00:00 Paul Hinenburg [The percentages shown for Boccaccio's story are based on word counts in the PDF. (hide spoiler)]