First shakespeare monologue

                                                   Cymbeline by William Shakespeare

The name of the play in which my monologue was chosen is called Cymbeline,

which was written by William Shakespeare. The play is tragedy and romance
and it deals with jealousy and innocence. The date it was written cannot be
precisely stated, but it was first produced in April 1611.

A Brief Synopsis

A brief synopsis of the play gives the reader a clear understanding of what is
going on. In Cymbeline, Imogen, the daughter of the king Cymbeline, is in love
with a man who was raised in her father’s court called Posthumus Leonatus.
He is described by the people in the court as a man who possess exceeding
merit and martial skill. They secretly gets married exchanging jewellery as
tokens of love. Cymbeline discovered the affair and banished Posthumus
Leonatus because Imogen is his only daughter and her husband must be the
heir to the British throne and the king detest the idea for Leonatus to be the
heir. Cymbeline had two sons before Imogen, but they were stolen away by a
courtier banished for consipiring with the Romans. His name is Belarius.
Cymbeline’s wife, the queen, wants her arrogant son by an earlier marriage,
Cloten, to marry Imogen to get the throne when the King dies. She also plots to
kill Imogen and the king, Cymbeline, to secure his right to the throne. She tried
to make the court doctor, Cornelius to poison them, but instead, gave them a
drug which would make the person fake death before they awake.
Now, Posthumus Leonatus leaves England and travels to Italy to live with his
friend called Philario, where he meets Lachimo. Leonatus talks about Imogen’s
beauty nonstop which allowed Lachimo to challenge Leonatus to a bet, saying
that he can make her commit adultery with him and bring proof. If Lachimo
wins, he would get Leonatus’ ring and if leontus wins, he gets money and
consent for a sword duel in order to get his and Imogen’s honour back.
Lachimo goes to Britain and aggressively tries to seduce faithful Imogen, who
sends him packing. Lachimo hides away in a chest in her bedroom and when
Imogen goes to bed, he tries to steal Leonatus’ bracelet she got when they
were getting married. He also looked around the room and examines her
naked body. He returns to Italy convinces Leonatus that he seduced her.
Angrily, he sends two letters to Britain, one to Imogen telling her to meet him
at Milford Haven and the other to his servant he left behind, called Pisanio,
telling him to kill her when she gets there. He is distraught with the letter he
receives and showed her his letter revealing Leonatus’ plot. He gets Imogen to
disguise herself as a boy and went to Milford Haven to look for a job. She
changed her name to Fidele. He gives her the queens poison thinking it can
stop nausea.
Cloten finds out about the meeting and dressed himself in Leonatus’ clothes he
left behind to Imogen. He decides to go there and kill Leonatus while Imogen
watched, after he would rape Imogen on Leonatus’ dead body and drag her
back to the courts for marriage. Imogen’s Long journey to Milford Haven takes
her into the Welsh mountains, where she gets weak of hunger. Luckily, she find
herself at a cave in which he finds food to eat. The cave is home to Belarius
and his sons (Cymbeline’s kidnapped sons). They enter the cave and found
‘Fidele’. Leaving ‘him’ to eat, they are met by Cloten outside who insults them.
They duel and cut off Cloten’s head.
Imogen takes the poison and falls asleep. They think she his dead and places
Cloten’s headless body beside ‘his’. She wakes up and find Cloten’s body and
thinks it is Leonatus because of the clothes he was wearing.
They are determined to fight for Britain in the war against the Romans forces.
The queen dies.
Leonatus arrives with the Roman army and dresses himself as a poor soldier so
he can die. He gets imprisoned with Belarius’ sons (Cymbeline kidnapped sons)
and ‘Fidele’. Lachimo reveals his plot to‘fidele’ and how he tricked Leonatus.
Leonatus comes forward and agrees with Lachimo’s story and reveals himself.
‘Fidele’, seeing is Leonatus jumps on him, but gets pushed off because he
thinks it’s a boy. Pisanio comes and reveals ‘Fidele identity as Imogen. Belarius
reveals his sons’ identities as Cymbeline’s sons and they are placed in their line
of inheritance, while Imogen is allowed to marry Posthumus Leonatus. He
releases all the prisoners and made peace with the Romans and he organises a
great feast.
This play is a very well written play. It is classed in the comedies style and
genre. I have chosen to play Pisanio. He is a very good and innocent character
who helps the princess and he always have good intentions and it appeals to
me. He is a kind, loving character that would do anything to assist people in
need, because what he did for the princess was a big deal. The play,
Cymbeline, really appeals to me, reason being, it is full of confusions. A lot of
people were disguised consciously and not to their will. They were then
revealed which changed the climax of the piece and everyone gets what they
wanted. I love a happy ending. It shows that throughout the hardships of your
life, it can get better. This is the motive I get from this play.
Well, between the character and I, the similarities we have is that we are both
kind hearted people who loves to help other people when we can or when we
have the capability to do so. We think hard about situations when they arise
and we both get emotional if we need to be. Differences between the
character and I, I find none. We are a pretty similar people. I love this character
and I am really anticipating performing it. While performing this character, I
think the greatest challenge is that I have to be really emotional and try to get
the audience to connect with me. I feel like it is going to be hard to pace my
speech while getting my thought process flowing, but I think it will be really
enjoyable playing this character.

WHAT WILL I NEED TO WORK ON WHILE PLAYING MY CHARACTER

While playing his character, I think I need to physically work on not moving

about on while performing, but to ground myself and move with purpose. Also,
while speaking, I need to work fully on clarity and diction. I really have to
enunciate my words much better than I do and also to use different tones of
voice to portray my feelings confidently. Emotionally, while playing this
character, I must show I distraught I am and how I feel knowing i have to kill a
princess. I have to show how really distraught I am feeling.
This piece needs background research on where he lives, what he does, why he
feels upset, when does he feels upset, how he shows what he is feeling and
what will he do to stop feeling that way. This piece should impact the audience
and show them that not everyone got the heart to take lives. Some people got
a conscience and would rather help the person they are meant to kill. It should
connect to the audience and should allow them to feel sympathy for the
character. The audience should be able to connect to what the character is saying.