I have started work mapping Shakespeare’s earliest play, Henry VI, pt 1. This is the next step in my work on proving Shakespeare did not write Cymbeline. The framing of Cymbeline is such a hodge-podge. The most egregious problem is that there are more plot points in the 5th act than in all the other four acts put together. (That’s a guess. When I map it, I’ll know exactly).
I plan to map a number of Shakespeare’s plays, early, middle, late, and on either side of Cymbeline’s date of 1610. My hypothesis is that the shape of the play, in the form of graphing the plot points by distance from each other, and by intensity, will get more regular from early plays to late plays, and that the structure of Cymbeline will be wildly different from the rest of the work.
In the beginning of Henry VI pt 1, Henry V, the hero king, winner of the legendary battle of Agincourt, conqueror of and new king of France, has died. His brothers are mourning him. Messengers come in over the course of scene 1; part of France lost, famous general Talbot taken, the Dauphin Crowned, all of France lost! and the scene concludes with the Royal Dukes off to deal with these problems, while the Bishop of Winchester tells the audience that he’s going to go and steal the boy king.
Voom! Strong tension level! Massive consequences!
And then it occurred to me, these stakes, the tension level in this scene, are not just personal to these characters. The consequences of these events are not only national, but international, which puts them at a higher degree of power than just the number on the scale indicating the strength of the tension level (from 1 to 10). So, the measure of tension isn’t just from 1 – 10 (1 is, I’ve dropped my pencil and 10 is, everyone is dead.) There is also a qualification to tension, based on how great an effect the consequences will have in the world.
If you want to write a great play, a great book, you choose the greatest consequences. And this is why women’s literature, women’s stories, are seen as being smaller than men’s. Men occupy the world stage. Occupy, in every sense. It is a hostile and armed occupation, as well as a cultural one. Women’s stories, and stories about women, tend to be domestic. Local. Personal. With smaller consequences, and therefore are perceived as being less consequential.
This is going to change as more women reach the higher ground, and as more women’s stories are told, as more women tell more stories, to the point that women’s stories, women’s voices, receive the value they deserve. This has already begun. What a gift to be here when this has started to happen. (My grandmother was born before women had the vote).
It does my heart good to see stories of women of power, acting upon the world. It’s food for the soul, that I have been starved for a long time. I have a better understanding now, of how this happened.