Nick Scipio's Summer Camp: Summer Camp is an adaption of Shakespeare

Summer Camp is an adaption of Shakespeare

Introduction

I suggest to read also my former analyses "Missy's name — only coincidences?", "Shakespeare as a name source", and "Is Summer Camp an adaption of Shakespeare?", since it will make the read of this post more enjoyable, but technically it's not needed.

In "Is Summer Camp an adaption of Shakespeare?" we had a detailed look for some characters, which were prominent in book 3 "Kendall" — Regan, Jessica, and Polonius (who, though not a real character, was cited in relation to key events of SC 3).

The paper you're going to read today has it's focus on six other names, which appear in the cast of both Summer Camp and Shakespeare's works.

In this concluding part of my 'Shakespeare Papers' we'll see, that characters in Summer Camp might have more than one 'role-model' in Shakespeare's œuvre.

Yet should be said, that if Nick included motives from Shakespeare's plays, they're not necessarily adapted literally, i.e. the killing of a person in a Shakespeare drama might be transformed into Summer Camp as an ending (dying) relationship.

Reynaldo

Reynaldo in Summer Camp didn't appear on stage, he was only mentioned. This unseen character is the mysterious lover of Felicia, the coke snorting salesgirl from Atlanta, who played a certain role in the break up of Paul and Gina.

The name Reynaldo was used by Shakespeare in two plays. He appears in Hamlet, as does Polonius — maybe it should suggest, that Paul wasn't true to himself, when he went for his — second — adventure with Felicia. The other reference is much stronger. Considering, that the name Felicia means luck and the name of the second play, in which the name Reynaldo appears, All's Well That Ends Well, two conclusions are elligible. First, the break-up of Paul and Gina (as one result of Paul's involvement with Felicia, which (IMO) changed Gina's POV on the 'ultimate boyfriend card'), was a luck, and at the end we will see that. Second, at the end, all will be good, Gina and Paul get back together.

Phoebe

Phoebe is a suitemate of Kendall. Kendall can be seen as a Shakespeare character, if we take it through the character Kent, who appears in King Lear. It was already shown in the preceeding analyse, that Kendall as a name means "Valley of the Kent". Again, Phoebe is a strong clue, though not easy to recognize. In Shakespeare's work, it's Phoebe, a shepherdess in As You Like It — another character from this play is Adam. Now Adam in Summer Camp is Kendall's father. Commonly Adam was played by Shakespeare, the writer, himself. (That might also evoke an interpretation, that Adam is symbolizing at least in parts of the story its writer!) It seems that Kendall is acting sheepishly from time to time. As a naïve sheep, she needs a sheperdess, Phoebe.

Rod

It was suggested, that Rod is like the evilish Iago from Othello, who through his lies causes Othello's (Paul's) jealousy against Desdmona (Gina) and the murder in this tragedy. I already expressed the opinion, that all killing in Shakespeare's work might be "converted" into Summer Camp as the "breaking up". We never learned Rod's full given name, but a more or less certain possibility is Roderick. The Italian (Latin) form of Roderick would be Roderigo, who is also a character from Othello, who is in love with Desdmona. In this version Neil would be Iago, while Rod was (secretly) in love with Gina.

Emilia

Emilia is the Italian form of Emily, one of Paul's daughters and again it's a character from Othello, Iago's wife. This emphasizes the strength of the jealousy clue we discussed above (Rod) and we will yet have a closer look on Othello below. Emilia appeared also in other works of Shakespeare, in The Comedy of Errors and The Winter's Tale. Emily is a special case, because also her second name Anne is involved with Shakespeare. Anne is not really a character in Shakespeare's œuvre, but the name of his wife. Emily's middle name can be a reference to the writer's wife or it could point to The Wife or the Wife's mother. (Or, maybe Laurence's girlfriend/spouse if any?)

Laurence

From some conversations in SC 3 we know, that Laurence was the most important brother to Christy, being very near with her. Laurence in Shakespeare's work is a character from Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence it is. See, I never learned Latin in school, thanks to my father, but in French they use frère for both friar and — brother. So in this case, the name and the word "brother", it is again a double occurrence. Laurence definitely is a very strong clue — Romeo and Juliet play(s) a big role in Summer Camp, that's clear. It's worth to consider, if Laurie, Paul's daughter (obviously named after Christy's brother), has the age of 13 at the time of the prologues, or born about 1989. Anyway, Laurence might be the strongest clue we discussed.

Nathan Wei

Nathan Wei is the attorney, who is calling Paul in the prologue to SC 3. Nathaniel is the name of two characters at Shakespeare; in Taming of the Shrew and in Love's Labour's Lost. We had discussed, if Susan has already met the person who is introducing her to Nathan Wei and this question was not answered affirmative. But could Paul's wife have been a shrew (again a reference to Anne Hathaway), which thanks to Nathan Wei got tamed? Or is it rather the second play, Love's Labour's Lost, hinting the loss of a big love? Or is the emphasis on labour? (Remind the clue The Job. )

Now I have presented six (seven) characters which are suspicious to have been adapted from Shakespeare's plays. Below, we will have a closer look to Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet.

"Othello and
Desdemona
in Venice"
by Théodore Chassériau
(1819-1856)

Othello

Othello, a Moor who has just eloped with Desdemona when the play opens, leaves Venice to command the Venetian armies in Cyprus, accompanied by his new wife and lieutenant Cassio. The treacherous standard-bearer, Iago, plants Desdemona's handkerchief on Cassio, managing to convince Othello that his wife has been unfaithful with the lieutenant. Othello kills Desdemona out of jealousy, before Iago's wife eventually reveals that Desdemona's affair was but an invention of Iago's. Iago immediately kills his wife also, and Othello then commits suicide in grief.

It was suggested, that Iago has his equivalent in Summer Camp in Rod and when we take "killing" as "ending of relationship, it seemed proven, that Othello and Desdmona are Paul and Gina and Iago's wife is Regan. (Venice would be Atlanta, Cyprus was replaced by Knoxville, and in Cassius we see maybe Trip.) At least, Paul would learn the truth through Regan. A variation of this theory is the existence of Roderigo in Shakespeare's version of the play. In his source by Cinthio it was the standard-bearer (Iago) who pursued the Moor's wife. Shakespeare introduced another character for those purpose, Roderigo. In that variant Iago would be Neil, so Paul might learn the truth once through Margot. Anyway, Othello ends tragical, so also the Paul-Gina relationship might have ended unrevokable.

An interesting detail in Othello is the disappearing and reappearing of a handkerchief, inscenated to make Othello suspicious. The disappearing of Gina's watch in the contrary was "inscenated" to make the reader suspicious but got never really resolved.

Another parallel is the character of Bianca — she might be another source for Kendall in SC 3 — as Iago tells, she is a "hussy, that by selling her desires buys herself bread and clothes". Ironically, just before Desdemona (Gina) pleads with Othello (Paul) that she is not a whore, Bianca (Kendall) too protests to an accuser (Paul after the Snow Night with Felicia) that she is "no strumpet, but of life as honest/ As you that thus abuse me" — leading the audience to realize that, just as with Desdmona, the only evidence anyone has, that Bianca is a whore, is Iago's word. In Summer Camp, the only evidence about what really happened in Vermont are the words of the Greeks. be287m's tale Dealing With The Devil is confirming this motive, i.e Patricia said, that "stories were all over the place." Keep also in mind that those story about Vermont from Jessica's point of view wasn't originally planned, but fits tightly into what the reader knew and what wanted to know.)

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Study for The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania by Joseph Noel Paton

Study for The Quarrel
of Oberon and Titania
c. 1849
Sir Joseph Noel Paton

The name of this play could suggest, that the whole Summer Camp is nothing more than a dream, which Paul had in the middle of the night.

A closer look into the plot reveals other possibilities. From Wikipedia: "The play features three interlocking plots, all of which are connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian Hippolyta. Two young Athenian men, Lysander and Demetrius, are both in love with the same woman, Hermia; Hermia herself loves Lysander, but her friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius. When the father of Hermia forbids her to marry Lysander, the four pursue each other into the woods around the city, losing themselves in the dark and in the maze of their romantic entanglements. As usual with Shakespeare, the comedy has a bitter-sweet note, when Hermia's two lovers both, temporarily, turn against her in favour of Helena."

With a bit fantasy, the transformation into SC could be seen in the wedding of Jason and Stacy, with Lysander and Demetrius being Paul and Trip, while Hermia and Helena are Christy and Wren.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is perhaps, the most famous play by William Shakespeare. It is about the fate of two young lovers and a very popular love story (!), which ends unlucky. This suggests, that Paul and Gina are representing Romeo and Juliet. But on the contrary to Romeo and Juliet, the families of Paul and Gina aren't enemies to each other (and it seems they won't turn to such only because the breakup). The appearence of Friar Laurence though enables another interpretation, that Juliet is an equivalent to Christy. Because at this point we don't know enough details about the Carmichael family, at this point can't be estimated, if Romeo is Paul or Simon. The enemy motive can be found in Christy's statement, that the Admiral doesn't like anybody who isn't military.

Statue of Romeo and Juliet
in Central Park
(New York City, USA).
Photograph by Uris.

Then maybe Simon was Paris. In the original play, it was Friar Lawrence, who performed the wedding ceremony. In Summer Camp, is was partially a result of the Christy's brother's tragical death, what got Paul and Christy together as very near friends. (At the end of SC 3, Paul organised several parties to distress Christy from mourning on her brother's death.) The scenario suggests, that at the end, neither Paul nor Simon will come together with Christy.

In the case, that Gina was Juliet, the equivalent to Paris is yet to discover (Regan?).

Conclusion

It can't be decided, if Shakespeare's works got really adapted into Summer Camp, but some parallels are easy visible. Nick might have been influenced by plot elements in Shakespeare's plays and included motives seen in Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, and some other plays, even transformed certain figures into Summer Camp, but deducting the further plot of Summer Camp from the knowledge of these — in the majority — tragedies is impossible.

There are several good reasons, why — if he did — Nick would adapt Shakespeare: The first one is, he likes his stuff. Another reason is an ERBy test, if anyone would remark it. Or to try, if it's possible to do an aggregation of Shakespeare's œuvre into only one story. And finally, of course, it's possible that all is only coincidence and a silly man wasted too much time in producing this text.

Further literature:

Shakespearean Tragedy. Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.
by A. C. Bradley, Second Edition March 1905.
As an ebook at: http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/16966

The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream',
1908 publication compiled by Frank Sidgwick.
As an ebook at: http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/15001

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/Othello
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet