Friday, April 22, 2011

Food (and Drink) for Thought

In many of Shakespeare's plays, there lies a heavy emphasis on eating and drinking.  It is evident that in contemporary, as well as Elizabethan, society that people find eating delicious food and drinking alcohol are both very pleasurable experiences.  However, Shakespeare doesn't just use food and drink to show his characters enjoying themselves; he uses them as metaphors to paint a picture of what was going on during this time period and how the characters relate to each other.  Food and drink was also used to show the social status of each character.  It seems that Shakespeare uses them to portray the sweetness that is visible on the outside, but also the selfishness, position, or sour nature of what is going on below the surface level of the characters' problems.  Below are some of quotations from various Shakespeare plays that show food and wine as metaphors.

In Othello, Act 2, scene 3 has many references to alcohol, specifically wine.  Iago is speaking to Cassio, and he is drinking to encourage Cassio to drink with him, after trying to invite him into a conversation regarding Desdemona.  Although Iago seems to Cassio like he just wants a drinking buddy, we know that is not the case.  Alcohol greatly impairs one's judgment, and Iago is trying to get Cassio drunk and make him believe that he could have a relationship with Desdemona.  He is manipulating Cassio and the situation, using wine as the instigator:

ACT 2, Scene 3, lines 20-28
IAGO
And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?
CASSIO
She is indeed perfection.

IAGO
Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I have a stoup of wine, and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to the health of black Othello.
CASSIO
Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.
IAGO
Oh, they are our friends. But one cup. I’ll drink for you.
CASSIO
I have drunk but one cup tonight, and that was craftily qualified too, and behold what innovation it makes here. I am unfortunate in the infirmity, and dare not task my weakness with any more.


In Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew greatly embarrasses himself in front of Maria.  Sir Toby, always drunk, offers him a drink, to which Sir Andrew says that drinking a lot only gets him into more embarrassing situations.  Sir Andrew exposes how he is taken advantage of which reference to how much red meat he eats.  Foolishness and self importance are two themes that exhibited through references to food, especially in Twelfth Night.

Act 1, scene 3, lines 83-86
SIR TOBY BELCH
O knight, thou lackest a cup of canary. When did I see thee so put down?
SIR ANDREW
Never in your life, I think, unless you see canary put me down. Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has. But I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.
Lastly, there are many references to food and drink in Hamlet, but lines 19-25 in Act 4, scene 3 are particularly important to focus on.  In these lines, he is basically mocking the King and saying that Polonius is dead.  He explains how humans domesticate animals that we use to feed ourselves, but in the end we are really just feeding the worms.  A fat king and a skinny beggar are then put on the same playing field because they will both end up in the dirt providing the worms with bodies to feed on.
HAMLET:
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your 

worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end.

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