Ask the Author: Michelle Butler Hallett
Answered Questions (1)
Michelle Butler Hallett
Right now, I can’t choose just one couple.
My first couple is Edward Plantagenet and Piers Gaveston from Christopher Marlowe’s play Edward II. Theirs is not a relationship of equals – Edward is a king, and “base-born” Gaveston gets called ‘minion” by other courtiers. And as much as I wish these guys could just be left alone and given a chance, I find Gaveston is manipulative and often cold. In a monologue, he calls Edward ‘pliant’ and brags about how he can control the king. In another scene, Gaveston insults and dismisses three knights needing help, help he could give. Edward ... ai yi yi, Edward. There’s a reason Marlowe’s full title for the play includes the phrase “the troublesome reign of Edward the Second.” Edward is unprepared to be a medieval king, and he’s got no interest in the expected values of conquest and war. His pissing around annoys everyone and soon leads to unrest, uprising, war, and death. The story gets brutal. Hey, it’s a Christopher Marlowe play.
Why would I name Edward II and Gaveston a favourite couple? Not because I think their relationship is an example of how to love and cherish one’s partner, but because the dynamics of their relationship inform and drive the play. Young Mortimer uses his distaste for the king’s sexuality, and his being not the least bit discreet about it which also humiliates Queen Isabella, as an excuse to act on his own ambitions. As characters lie to one another, and lie to themselves, brutality and tragedy ensue.
My second couple is Georgina “George” Harcourt and Brian Marley in James Hawes’s novel Speak for England. George sparks Brian’s transformation from a depressed and desperate bumbler to another idea of Englishman (ra-THER), though she has her own ideas and needs. Their dialogue together, especially as Brian takes on more and more of George’s idiolect, is both funny and revealing, not that Brian clues in on what’s being revealed.
My first couple is Edward Plantagenet and Piers Gaveston from Christopher Marlowe’s play Edward II. Theirs is not a relationship of equals – Edward is a king, and “base-born” Gaveston gets called ‘minion” by other courtiers. And as much as I wish these guys could just be left alone and given a chance, I find Gaveston is manipulative and often cold. In a monologue, he calls Edward ‘pliant’ and brags about how he can control the king. In another scene, Gaveston insults and dismisses three knights needing help, help he could give. Edward ... ai yi yi, Edward. There’s a reason Marlowe’s full title for the play includes the phrase “the troublesome reign of Edward the Second.” Edward is unprepared to be a medieval king, and he’s got no interest in the expected values of conquest and war. His pissing around annoys everyone and soon leads to unrest, uprising, war, and death. The story gets brutal. Hey, it’s a Christopher Marlowe play.
Why would I name Edward II and Gaveston a favourite couple? Not because I think their relationship is an example of how to love and cherish one’s partner, but because the dynamics of their relationship inform and drive the play. Young Mortimer uses his distaste for the king’s sexuality, and his being not the least bit discreet about it which also humiliates Queen Isabella, as an excuse to act on his own ambitions. As characters lie to one another, and lie to themselves, brutality and tragedy ensue.
My second couple is Georgina “George” Harcourt and Brian Marley in James Hawes’s novel Speak for England. George sparks Brian’s transformation from a depressed and desperate bumbler to another idea of Englishman (ra-THER), though she has her own ideas and needs. Their dialogue together, especially as Brian takes on more and more of George’s idiolect, is both funny and revealing, not that Brian clues in on what’s being revealed.
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