University Essay: Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) Analysis

This essay analyzes Ann-Marie MacDonald's play, 'Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet),' focusing on its postmodernist elements and its engagement with Shakespearean tragedies. The essay explores the character of Constance, the play's protagonist, highlighting her role as a 'wise fool' and t...Read More

0GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA
Goodnight Desdemona
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:
Table of Contents

1GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA
Part A.........................................................................................................................................2
Response to Question 4..........................................................................................................2
Part B..........................................................................................................................................3
Response to Question 2..........................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................5

2GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA
Part A
Response to Question 4
Goodnight Desdemona is the post-modernist satyr which combines the tragedies of
Shakespeare with the satirical understanding of the existential subject of contemporary
literature. Constance, as the protagonist of the play, demonstrate the character of the wise
fool shown in the Shakespearean literature, which happens to be an academic person in her
real life. Her image in the play consists of one of that character who could have been ignored
in any other play (Djordjevic, 2003). However, her dormant features are reflected with the
physical entity of her bright red toque, which is present in all the scenes where there is a
presence of a dramatic change of plot. In the first Act of the play, we see her in dual dilemma,
one academic and the other being her love life which remains with her as a representation of
the passion she possesses for her academic research as well as the passionate emotion of
which she kept hidden inside of her.
Her headgear remains the physical entity which denotes her concealed characteristic
even when she falls into the illusionist world of Shakespearean tragedy. It becomes more
apparent to the audience when the ghost-like one in Hamlet appears in front of her wearing
the same bright red toque with the pompom hanging from it. The pompom signifies to the
audience of significant role and the overreaching research proposed by Constance when she
claims that Romeo and Juliet as well Othello was first written as comedies rather than tragedy
(Djordjevic, 2003). McDonald, with the use of the same toque in the warped world of
Shakespeare as well as the real-life tragic life Constance shows the possibility of the presence
of comedy in tragedies.

3GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA
Part B
Response to Question 2
Goodnight Desdemona reveals the genius of McDonald where the merging of one of
the best tragedy of Shakespeare is used to bring about the changes which have come in the
literary genre and demonstrate the character of the villain which remains the same throughout
due to the stagnant thought process. In the play, Constance is shown to be preparing for her
dissertation where she was going to propose that two of the biggest tragedies of Shakespeare
be based on comedies by another author by the name of Gustav (Gale, 2016). It shows the
existential dilemma prevalent in the contemporary literary genre. Her use of animal imagery
which is one of the characteristic features of Shakespearean tragedies is brought back to life
with the most despicable character of the play, Iago who invokes in the readers the
understanding of the shallowness of his thought process. In the same way, McDonald uses
animal imagery but alters the way the image of the specific animal is interpreted.
Iago, when he enters with two buckets of filth one, can compare his role in both the
plays as that of throwing his rotten thinking on others. When Constance meets Othello and
saves him from killing his wife, he grows fond of her and introduces her to Desdemona, who
shows her affinity towards her as well. In the case of McDonald, the use of the animalistic
image which is given to Constance is that of a timid mouse which signifies the understanding
and the acknowledgement of her character. However, it also signifies her size and image in
society by giving her the image of an animal which is small enough to be crushed under the
weight of a physically superior animal (Ayed, 2016). In the case of Constance, the superior
animals under whose weight her identity was shadowed and ruined was also her love interest,
Professor Claude night. Unlike, Othello’s case where the characters are compared to animals
or their plight is reflected through the life of the animals, Constance is termed as a mouse on

4GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA
the face which is concealed in the loving term of ‘titmouse’ signifying that she was not just a
mouse but was even smaller for a mouse.
However, the mouse imagery inside the illusioned world where Constance is shown to
be in a Constance turmoil where she is being warped from one tragedy to another comes clear
with the agility and speed of mouse where she can stop all the tragedies which were supposed
to happen according to the natural order of the play. The imagery of the mouse used by Iago
to instigate Desdemona against her of being mouse eating cheese sitting on the lion’s lap
shows how McDonald has reversed the traditional story of the lion and the mouse enmity
(Paul, 2018). In Othello, Iago’s use of imagery was also a reflection of his racist nature and
the class culture, which he looked down upon the union of Othello and Desdemona.

5GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA
References
Ayed, W. (2016). Unbinding Genre (Bending Gender) in Goodnight Desdemona (Good
Morning Juliet). Proceedings of Celebration.
Djordjevic, I. (2003). Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet): From Shakespearean
Tragedy to Postmodern Satyr Play. Comparative Drama, 37(1), 89-115.
Gale, C. L. (2016). A Study Guide for Ann-Marie MacDonald's" Goodnight Desdemona
(Good Morning Juliet)". Gale, Cengage Learning.
Paul, J. (2018). The Comedy of Tragedy in Goodnight Desdemona and Cloud Nine.