At the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, we decided to do our own ‘Shakespeare’s Yearbook’ in celebration of the bard’s best and worst characters and to find out exactly who all of your favourites were. Over a day we ran polls on our Twitter page @ShakespeareBT to decide on the winners of 10 different characters from biggest suck up to cutest couple. The results are now in so we can finally share the winners of these classic yearbook titles with you. Keep reading to find out if your favourite got a spot!
Cleopatra, Biggest drama king/queen
Cleopatra is the original diva. Both over dramatic and spectacular it’s almost impossible to think of anyone as fit for the title of ‘Biggest drama queen’. She is so changeable in her emotions that famously, ‘Age cannot weary her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety’. It’s even said that she bet Marc Antony that she could spend 10 million sesterces in one meal, dissolving one of her pearl earrings, some of the biggest in the world according to accounts, in a vessel of vinegar and drinking it to win the wager. If that’s not dramatic we don’t know what is!
Polonius, Biggest suck up
If you’re not familiar with Polonius then you just have to flick through a couple of his speeches from Hamlet to see how much of a flatterer he is. He’s so intent on becoming friends with the King that he exploits his own daughter’s feelings for Hamlet to help Claudius and Gertrude spy on the young prince. His constant sucking up to Claudius, ‘I hold my duty, as I hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious king’ shows his absolute disregard for his daughter’s feelings in pursuit of power, ultimately contributing to Ophelia’s unhappy fate.
Beatrice, Best loved girl
Can you believe that Beatrice is actually meant to be simply a supporting part to Hero and Claudio’s love story? No? That’s because in most productions, Beatrice’s own story steals the show. Unlike Hero and Claudio’s idealistic and far too unrelatable high love, Beatrice is just like us. She has suffered heartbreak and isn’t afraid to stand up for herself in a fight, making her the perfect underdog to win ‘Best loved girl’. Her wit and humour shows she is not just a two dimensional character, but someone who the audience can understand and empathise with, the perfect heroine for Shakespeare’s plays.
Mercutio, Best loved guy
Mercutio has some of the best qualities of all of the Montague-Capulet cohort. In a society riddled with corruption and evil, Mercutio’s loyalty and optimism offer some light relief. Even his jokes, though bawdy, offer some distraction from the inevitable misery of the play’s end. He never fails to cheer Romeo up and loses his life trying to defend Romeo’s honour. Possibly foolish, but nonetheless, shows him as devoted friend to the end.
Bottom and Falstaff, Class clown
It’s a tie! Both these comedy characters were voted as class clown and we can see why! Bottom and Falstaff provide some of the funniest scenes in all of Shakespeare’s works, from accidentally becoming the apple of the Fairy Queen’s eye to telling tall stories about sugar. Both these clowns provide plenty of entertainment and laughs for their audiences and their plain-speaking ways offer some respite from the sometimes tricky to penetrate verse speeches of the more sophisticated characters. Bottom and Falstaff are reminders that Shakespeare can be both profound and profane.
Romeo, Biggest daydreamer
Romeo is undeniably an idealist. He spends most of the play pining after Juliet and lamenting their forbidden love. His relationship with Juliet isn’t the only time we see him daydreaming over a woman either. In fact, the first time he appears on stage he is moping over a different woman, Rosaline, daydreaming over her ‘exquisite’ beauty. For Romeo, this gazing seems more a hobby than an isolated act of love. He is the classic lover in love with love.
Iago, Most unlikeable
There are very few good things that can be said about Iago. He murders two people over the course of the play, including his wife, and is directly responsible for the deaths of Desdemona and finally Othello. Not only this, but his sly and scheming character means he is completely untrustworthy and willing to manipulate people to get his own way, even at the expense of his own morality. Overall, not a good egg!
Falstaff, Most likely to sleep through the whole day
Falstaff appears again! This time as the laziest of Shakespeare’s characters, he earns this reputation early on from his first appearance in Henry IV Part One in which he falls asleep while hiding from the sheriff who is trying to arrest him for stealing. He even sleeps through Prince Hal picking his pockets! This along with his lack of fitness, for which Prince Hal calls him ‘a fat rogue’ who isn’t able to walk a quarter of a mile without keeling over, cements him as Shakespeare’s most indolent character.
Sir Toby Belch, Biggest party animal
With a name like Belch, it’s almost inevitable that Sir Toby would win biggest party animal. If his name wasn’t enough, his playboy lifestyle of living off his niece Olivia’s money, drinking, eating, dancing, singing and playing music until the early hours definitely qualifies him for the title. The whole plot of Twelfth Night revolves around festivities and carnival and there is no one that embodies these qualities more than Sir Toby.
Benedick and Beatrice, Cutest couple
Benedick and Beatrice may not appear the most classically romantic of all of Shakespeare’s couples, but, in many ways, this is exactly why they are the perfect choice for cutest couple. They are older, more cynical and not as polished as many of Shakespeare’s more famous couples and as a result, far more relatable. The ‘merry war’ apparent between the two of them at the opening of Much Ado About Nothing is evidence of their great compatibility and the audience is always simply waiting for the couple to admit their love for one another.
Thanks everyone for voting. We hope you all enjoyed being part of our polls, we loved creating them!