Hi! I’m new-ish to your blog but loving it already, thanks for being so informative and thorough in your answers! I’m really curious, who are your favourite Shakespeare characters and why? Sorry if you’ve answered to this already.
Hi there! I’m very glad to hear you find my blog useful. Who I am and what I like is probably less interesting than what I know about Shakespeare, but it’s flattering that you want to know my favourites.
And yet... I just don’t know! I tend not to engage with the plays in terms of who I like and favourites. But I guess I do have characters I like in most of the plays, and some I’m attracted to more than others. Off the top of my head, I do have a soft spot for Cleopatra, Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Viola, Hermione, Richard II and Innogen. Even a quick glance over the list suggests I’m not drawn to characters for their moral integrity. I like the ones that are interesting, poetic, powerful, torn, who experience and express something beyond what they can account for in their experience of the world, and yet are tied to the contingent circumstances they are depicted in.