Flawed character

Recently, on a weekend while my wife and her friend were visiting the historic and cultural sites of New England, I was home binge-watching a batch of Shakespeare plays on loan from the Moscow Public Library.

As an undergraduate at the University of Vermont in the late 1960s, I took two semesters of Shakespeare from professor Betty Bandel. I was missing what the Bard on Avon had to say and how he had to say it. So I watched “Julius Caesar,” “Othello,” “MacBeth,” “Richard II,” “Henry IV” part 1 and part 2, “Henry V” and rewatched the first third of “Julius Caesar.” I overdosed on Shakespeare.

But all that drama got me to thinkin’. What if Shakespeare had combined the character flaws of Iago from “Othello,” with those of Richard II and Falstaff from “Henry IV” parts 1 and 2? What kind of Shakespearian character would that be? So I asked Claude.ai at Perplexity.ai this question. Here is what Claude.ai “said.”

Answer:

“If the key weaknesses of Shakespeare’s characters Iago, Richard II and Falstaff were combined into one character, it would create a deeply flawed and dangerous individual.”

Gee, Claude.ai — take it easy.

And yet, I wonder what Shakespeare would have called a play with this contagious hybrid character at the center? A comedy? A tragedy? A history?

Note to self: Why did I — a good Catholic farm boy from Bridport — waste my time on a liberal arts degree at UVM, anyway?

Stephen Cooke

Moscow

A lot happened June 6

In response to the myopic view of Mike McCrery (letter, June 20), June 6 is an important day.

Who could forget the sacrifices of the soldiers in the Battle of Stoney Creek (War of 1812)? Or the essential victory in the First Battle of Memphis (Civil War)? Or the deadliest single day in Marine Corps history, the Battle Of Belleau Wood (World War I)?

Just talking about June 6 during World War II, what about the Battle of Midway? Is that worth remembering or can we only remember a single military event per day? I wonder if the veterans of Midway or Belleau Wood felt cheated by the newspaper?

No one owes you or your dad an apology. Study more history and you might appreciate the events that took place outside your personal perspective. Every calendar date is an anniversary of a dead soldier. That’s why Memorial Day is a holiday.

Ben Emerson

Pullman