Dumbest Literature Mistakes You've Made

Until just now, I thought that "I, Claudius" was a play by Shakespeare that was a Perspective Flip of Hamlet. I feel dumb now. :(

I told an English professor that The Charge of the Light Brigade was a satire meant to illustrate the pointlessness of war.

I wrote an essay defending the position that Romeo And Juliet is a comedy.

In your defense, you weren't the only one who found it hilarious.

Evelyn Waugh is apparently a man.

^^^That's a reasonably common viewpoint.

^On that note, George Eliot is a woman. And I can't pronounce J.M. Coetzee's name, no matter how I try.

Romeo and Juliet was definitely a tragedy◊. It was tragic because the two kids made devastating mistakes that could have easily been avoided if they acted on reason rather than emotion, not because they were idealistic figures in any way, shape or form.

Don't they teach you that in literature class? What defines a tragic hero is his tragic flaw which eventually leads to his downfall, in Hamlet's case, his lack of willingness to go through with something he thinks he should do.

• Take Fight Club seriously. I still like the book and all, but there was a point in time when I foolishly idolized Tyler Durden and hung onto his every word. -_- I mean, sure, the guy has some good ideas regarding being more proactive about your life and focusing more on the things that matter, but there is a point where he goes too far with carrying out his philosophy, which is completely intentional—you're supposed to agree with the guy, then realize, what the fuck, he's cutting people's balls and bombing buildings.
• Confuse romance with romanticism, making completely irrelevant an incredibly long-winded post I made in defense of Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Scarlet Letter. Oh, silly me.
• Dismiss the Scarlet Letter initially. I came to love it in the end.
• Think that Humbert Humbert is telling the truth about his "remorse" in any way shape or form. He claims he feels sorry about what he did to Dolores, but then he goes right around and makes up every excuse imaginable for his behavior and talks about little girls like they're various delicacies at a buffet, and even claims it was her fault. This is a book you really need to read twice. Unreliable narrators are the best narrators, they make you think.

edited 28th Oct '11 6:26:19 PM by annebeeche

My last essay in high school contended essentially this, with a corollary discussion on Seinfeld, the show about nothing. I got an A.

edited 28th Oct '11 6:49:41 PM by Hatshepsut

Eh, my teacher didn't appreciate my "excessive amounts of stupidity are indistinguishable from hilarity" thesis either.

Not saying that your interpretation is wrong (albeit somewhat unsympathetic) , just that it is a tragedy because Romeo and Juliet was sold as a tragedy.

^^^^The argument is not so much "Romeo and Juliet is a comedy" as "Romeo and Juliet has many of the elements of a Shakespearean comedy". The degree to which this is so, the contrast between the tragic and comedic parts, and whether this conflict is detrimental or beneficial to the play does constitute an argument which has been made many times before.

By the way, Cymbeline's title says it's a tragedy◊ in the First Folio, but it's seldom thought of as one now. If it is thought of at all.

Slightly off-topic, but I disagree that Hamlet's flaw is procrastination/inability to go through with something. A tragic flaw ought to also be an inherent part of their virtuous character as well, and I think a stronger argument can be made for loyalty. Of course, that's my personal interpretation, and I'm sure most people would disagree.

edited 28th Oct '11 7:19:51 PM by Yuanchosaan

Since I have never actually read Romeo and Juliet in its entirety (I am only familiar with the plot and characterization) I can't make an argument for or against the details.

I have read seven of the plays, but never Romeo & Juliet. Fancy that!

God, I love Shakespeare. I shake my head with sorrow at those who so compulsively loathe Shakespeare as to voice their hate at each and every turn.

As for that, I don't think it's actually procrastination (what I was trying to say was more of he knows he has an obligation to do it but in his heart he really doesn't want to), but I'm not sure if it's loyalty either. If he was really loyal to his dad, he probably would have done it already, and he's certainly not loyal to his uncle.

Haven't read Hamlet in a while, though. I could be wrong about all this.

edited 28th Oct '11 7:34:28 PM by annebeeche

Where's out Literature/Shakespeare thread gone? I thought there was one here, and another in Live Performance. Let us clutter the sub-forum with Shakespeare debates!

I dunno—maybe somebody got it locked and deleted.

No matter—we shall start another one!

edited 28th Oct '11 8:25:40 PM by annebeeche

Y'know who's also a woman? Enid Blyton. (I'd never heard the name Enid before her, and it sounded masculine to me. It took the Barenaked Ladies to reeducate me.)

And speaking of silly name mistakes, for the longest time, I though Andre was a unisex name because of Andre Norton. I didn't realize it had been intended as a Moustache de Plume. To be fair, I think it could still be a decent female name.

I though Eoin Colfer was a woman because I did not know that Eoin was an Irish form of John/Yochannan and thought it sounded feminine.

I misunderstood a Neville Chamberlain reference, and thought Tomorrow When The War Began was an alternate history taking place during WWII. (I had no idea what to make of the "Tomorrow" in the title, and I was quite surprised when the main character suddenly referenced The Simpsons.)

edited 29th Oct '11 12:57:59 AM by feotakahari

We have Andrea.

Also, technically, originally a male name. As I learned when I first read The Count Of Monte Cristo.

Confusing C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll. And Ernest Hemingway and Herman Melville.

Trying to read an annotated copy of Ulysses. I'm a compulsive footnote reader, and when the footnotes occupy a few hundred pages...progress was slow.

Getting upset that Macbeth ruined the real Macbeth's reputation.

Yep, totally done that. I mean, I know they're different people, but I often have to stop to myself and think, "OK, C.S. Lewis is... Narnia! Right!"

I though Eoin Colfer was a woman because I did not know that Eoin was an Irish form of John/Yochannan and thought it sounded feminine.

You mean she's actualy male ?!

edited 30th Oct '11 10:09:10 AM by storyyeller

I may have been influenced by the name Eowyn.

Same here. I initially assumed the writer was female and/or that it was a pseudonym.

It's pronounced "Owen", which I didn't learn for some time. I thought it was something like "Ee - oh - in".