[Hardy-l] Shakespearean rustics vs. Greek choruses

[Kevin Taylor]

I've often felt that the comparison between Shakespeare's rustics and 
the Greek chorus was more hopeful than realistic. The rustics in 
Shakespeare are often, um, rustic, and not of the similar class that 
the chorus and protagonists were (as the town elders, etc.). 
Shakespeare's folks are also often bawdy and comic relief, and they 
aren't always present and watching as the chorus is. Hardy's rustics 
are more like Shakespeare than Greece, on many levels.

I know those are gross generalizations. It's interesting that Hardy 
specifically saw the Queen of Cornwall's chanters as a chorus; that's a 
more convincing parallel on all fronts, to me.

All that's to say, Jackie, that I think you're on the right track with 
the Bakhtin analysis over a Shakespearean parallel.

Kevin T.
-- 
Kevin Taylor
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