Is Summer Camp a Shakespeare Adaption?
Introduction
When back in early Summer 2005 — before Paul and Gina split — I examined the origin of names in Summer Camp, especially Book 3, I had no idea, that this examination would lead me on very thin ice, on a theme I knew almost nothing about: William Shakespeare.
Jessica and Regan, about whose names I looked at www.behindthename.com, were the main reasons, why I searched the web for more informations. In case you didn't read my analyse "Shakespeare as a name source?", in that document I figured out, that Nick introduced names, which had been used by William Shakespeare in his plays, for several supporting characters. Prominent are "The Merchant from Venice", "Hamlet", and "King Lear". When I prepared a HTML-version of that analyse in late October 2005, the thought occurred to me, that also motives from major Shakespeare works influenced Nick Scipio when writing "Kendall", maybe more than was believed.
It's not in my intention to show, that Nick has taken a complete plot from Shakespeare and adapted it at The Pines, but to show the possible use of several motives, e.g. Jessica's converting from The Merchant from Venice, the love triangle Goneril, Regan, and Edmund from King Lear, and finally the good old Polonius from Hamlet.
It is widely agreed, that "Summer Camp" is full of deja-vu situations and mirrored scenes. In case, that you're not aware of this theory, you'll have difficulties to understand this analyse.
Please bear in mind, that the author of this analyse hasn't read any of Shakespeare's works in total and has not the intention to do so. As this analyse shows, "Summer Camp" contains some interesting twists. Especially this paper won't be a discussion about nihilistic or anti-semitic thoughts or the latent existence of homosexuality in Shakespeare's works.
Converting Jessica.
The name Jessica was used for the first time in this form by Shakespeare in his play "The Merchant from Venice". Jessica is the daughter of a Jewish merchant and parts of the plot are similar to the plot in Romeo and Juliet. Interesting for us is, that Jessica is converting from a Jew to a Catholic. Aside from perhaps being a synonym for the growing-up, for the conversion from a child to an adult, it's interesting for three different reasons.
The first of all is — Occam's razor — a religious conversion. In SC 3 are hints, that (Catholic) Christy has tendencies or, maybe should we better say, sympathies towards Buddhism. This, for what we know from the discussions she had with Paul in later Book 3 chapters, results from her stay in Japan, when the Admiral was stationed there.
The second idea is about converting from a bad man to a good man, from Saul to Paul (sic!). That would suggest, that Paul will convert from living in sin with two girlfriends into a good man, with only one wife. He will marry at the end of Book 4, rise children with her, and not divorce until death. With this idea, we have two issues to resolve: first, Summer Camp is a stroke story, not the speech of a prayer, and second, in this case, Jessica indeed is used in book 3 as a metaphor for Paul. I don't see the possibility, to resolve any of these issues satisfactorily.
Finally, the third possibility is, that it's simply about Jessica converting. She converts from a Greek to a Non-Greek or from a occasionally cocaine-using girl to a non-coke-snoring woman. But why would this be important? At this point it must be mentioned, that Jessica Roedeffer is the second person with this name in the saga. That can be coincidence or a simply mistake, similar to the beginning, when Nick named both Paul's and Gina's mother Elizabeth. Or, there is method in it
.
The hint on "converting" is relatively strong; the first Jessica from the Jordan family converted from a model to a married mother with five children, what is a rather not typical career development. The reference to the Jordan family is promoting another aspect: it was Jenny Jordan, who converted from Manfred's girlfriend to a Zacharias' girlfriend. I have an interesting sidenote concerning the relationship Manfred — Jenny here: Jenny was angry about Manfred paying too much attention to Kendall, the same issue, which caused (among other reasons) Paul's and Gina's break-up!
But now, there is also a chain of "Give-me-a-call-girls", beginning with Jenny Jordan (who Paul never called), continuing with Felicia (who Paul called and fucked) until Jessica Roedeffer (who Paul didn't call so far). The latter more or less obviously suggested in the Night in the Hilton, that she's horny. There was a certain amount of sympathy between Paul and Jessica through their common appearances in SC 3 (Regan's party, the arrival at the airport, and The Night in the Hilton). Nick's "franchising" of Jessica and her POV to Ed for the "Vermont" story acknowledged that she isn't the "typical" Chi-O bitch. — Will she play a role in SC 4?
The "Give-me-a-call-girl" chain could be a mystified characterization of Paul's and Gina's relationship and its evolution, hinting, if (when?) Paul gives Jessica Roedeffer a pass, his relationship with Gina can be restored. Paul didn't express in SC 3 any further interest for Jessica, so this thought might be obsolete. It also could be a hint, that Jessica Roedeffer is helping Paul to gain Gina back in his life.
Diagram of Character Relationships in "King Lear"
Source: http://www.wxs.ca/lear/
Regan and the Love triangle.
Regan Thomas seems to be taken directly from Shakespeare and her name suggests her role in SC will be very similar to the Regan in King Lear. I tried to get some more information about Regan's (submissive?) character and her relationship with asshole-Rod, when I prepared this document, but both Nick and Ed weren't communicative (what is understandable, since the latter is preparing the Vermont story. I don't believe, that Regan is a simple character. Nick has drawn her in black-white manner, because he needed a special reaction amongst his reader's, but Regan is much more complex. When life got so complicated? The truth is more complicated.
Regan is a full spectrum of grey. (In the concluding part of this analyse we'll see, that that "colour" has some significance!) If Summer Camp was an adaption from any Shakespeare tragedy, most Pikes, all Chi O's, and Paul's friends would have died or banned from UT at the end of SC 3. (Actually, this objection was made by the author himself, though he spoke about "Hamlet" only). Well, Nick Scipio is writing "Summer Camp" in modern times, so if it was an adaption of a Shakespeare tragedy, all 'killed people' might be converted in 'died relationships', eh?
Because we learned from Laszlo Joska, that we have to do better, I'm going to have a look more into the details. King Lear has three daughters (!), Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. [It might be significant or not, both Paul and the Coulter's have three daughters.] Goneril is the big sister of Regan. Is Goneril a symbol for Hayley, Regan's Big Sister at Chi Omega? In that case the adapted love triangle would be composed by Regan, Hayley-slut, and Rod (as Edmund). But who was King Lear? Paul? Let us assume that, then Kendall might be Kent (the name Kendall means 'valley of the Kent', a river in England!), making Oswald — a servant to Goneril = Hayley — the guy who was involved in Kendall's Big Mistake Night, Wes. Indeed, like Lear betrays Cordelia and Kent, Paul betrayed Gina and Kendall (with Felicia, but also the G-P-K relationship was given away too light-hearted) — so Gina is the Cordelia of SC. (Cordelia = lionheart and who would doubt that Gina has a temperament like a real lioness?). Christy might be The Fool in this construction, in which most of the main characters from King Lear have their correspondending figures in SC. The construction has, though, a major failure: Wren and Trip don't fit in to the cast.
Could the love triangle Regan-Edmund-Goneril symbolize the G-P-K relationship? This seems to be an minimalist adaption of King Lear — because only these three persons can be identified. In this case Regan is a metaphor for Gina and Goneril symbolizes Kendall. After Kendall "killed" Gina's love to Paul she is killing her own love to him for herself and leaves. In this modell King Lear stands for the G-P-K relationship as it was built at The Pines. This modell doesn't contain The Wife.
There is yet a more essential variation of this last construction, which doesn't lets a place for Kendall either. Regan might be a metaphor for Gina. Both names origin in different languages, but have a similar meaning. Regan origins from Raigan, what means "little king" in Gaelic, while Gina is also a short for Regina, a late Latin name with the meaning "queen". An valid interpretation is that Regan takes the male part in the relationship Gina and Regan maintain. An other interpetation would be that both Regan and Gina are a symbol for the reign, ruling Paul's heart — true love.
King Lear finally could also stand as metaphor for the Coulter parents, with Cordelia (Kara), Goneril (Gina), and Regan (Leah) as the daughters. In this scenario Edmund would be a substitute for Paul. Leah showed a strong interest to have sex with Paul — Gina's reluctance to let her younger sister have fun with Paul could mirror the falling out of each other over their attraction with Paul. In that case, SC 4 could bring very soon a conflict between Gina and Leah. Remind here: once Nick said, that the R/L sisters he once knew weren't able to deal with both of them having sex with him!
Polonius.
Polonius is an unseen character in Summer Camp, similar to Mrs. Columbo, who never appeared in the whole TV series. Unseen character means, that such a person appears only by hearsay, but never on stage. SC 3 knows some more unseen characters: Paul's first roomie (the guy who dropped out), Karl Younkin (the guy who stole Gina's watch), Jamie (the friend of Paul's roomie), Reynaldo (Felicia's lover), and Simon (Christy's fiancé) (sic!).
"Polonius was a pompeouse windbag", this quote made Polonius prominent in SC 3. Was Paul's wish to keep a relationship with two girls nothing else than a windbag and nothing behind? In the beginning of SC 3 we even got a real quote from Hamlet, Act I, Scene III: "This above all: to thine ownself be true." This quote of Polonius in SC makes his role almost canonical. Which is the motive from Hamlet and who is the adapted character translated into SC 3?
Could Polonius symbolize Paul's true and only love, the love to Gina? Polonius got stabbed, by a jealous Hamlet, who thought it was Claudius. Can it be interpreted into Summer Camp, that Paul "stabbed" the G-P relationship, because he believed the rumours about Vermont, which Rod and Neil were spreading?
Polonius died and therefore could be predicted that the relationship between Paul and Gina is over, lethally destroyed.
Before making a conclusion to this statement, one should consider another of Shakespeare's plays, Othello.
Three daughters or some words about Anne Hathaway.
At the time of the prologues, Paul has three daughters, Laurie, Emily, and Susie. We don't know more about there age, though it is believed, that they were born in this order. The middle name of Emily is Anne. Anne could be the name of the mother or one grand-mother. Or, since also Lear had three children, as had Mr. Shakespeare: is Anne a reference to Shakespeare's wife? Then we may discover, that two of Paul's children are twins. I won't wonder.
It also could be a clue about the dissipating of hate. We know, that the opposite of love isn't hate, but indifference. Were Paul's and Gina's feelings for each other at UT the expression of indifference or, rather, the expression of hate against each other's inability to work out things and fix the issues? Does Emilie's middle name Anne suggest, that Paul and Gina will, after some time went by, at the end of book 4, put their "hate away" and their love returns? — To turn down objections on this: one of Shakespeare's sonnets, number 145, has been claimed to make reference to Anne Hathaway; the words 'hate away' may be a pun (in Elizabethan pronunciation) on 'Hathaway'.
Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful stat
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away;
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you.'
To be concluded in "Summer Camp is an adaption of Shakespeare".
For further reading see wikipedia articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare's_plays
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shakespearean_characters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hathaway_(Shakespeare's_wife)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Lear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(1985_movie)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unseen character
See also:
King Lear, by William Shakespeare, at Project Gutenberg
Diagram of character relationships in King Lear, as well as short explanations.
Shakespearian Characters Alphabetically, at www.behindthename.com
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, at Project Gutenberg.
The Summer Camp Universe and its characters are © 2002-2006 Nick Scipio
This text © 2005-2006 FranzKafka79
"Lear" graphic provided under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Canada rules.