Often, the references are to Shakespeare characters that
Jules wants to play. Jules tells her boyfriend, “I want to play Cleopatra, with
Peter Brook directing me” (p. 21). Then she tells us: “Last night I had dreamed
I was standing, naked, on a stage. I was playing Hermione in The Winter’s Tale and I had forgotten my
lines” (p. 28). And later she tells us, “I noted, sourly, that an actress who
had played my fellow supermarket cashier in an afternoon soap (parts for which
we were both miscast) had joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and was
rehearsing Imogen” (pages 67-68). And there are even Shakespeare characters
that Jules dishonestly says she has played. “I played Cordelia to his Lear” (p.
85), she says of Paul Scofield. Later Jules tells us, “I popped a grape into my
mouth and told him how I had worked for RSC, up at Stratford” (p. 218). When
asked what roles she played, Jules responds: “Imogen. Hedda Gabler.”
There are some other Shakespeare references as well. At
one point, Lila (the famous actor) tells Jules, “Get this – they wanted me to
wear yellow pantyhose!” Jules replies, “Like Malvolio” (p. 36). Malvolio, of
course, is tricked into wearing yellow stockings in a vain effort to please
Olivia in Twelfth Night. Moggach also
writes: “‘Don’t know yet. She’s on the wagon. Doctor’s orders.’ He lit his
cigarette. ‘There’ll be trouble ahead, you mark my words.’ He looked up at the
blue sky. ‘Blow, winds, and crack your
cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanes, spout till you have drench’d
our steeples, drown’d the cocks!’ He started coughing. ‘Drown’d the cocks!’” (p. 41). It is interesting
to me that Moggach chose to keep apostrophe D in “drench’d” and “drown’d,” but
changed “hurricanoes” to “hurricanes.” Jules also tells us, “Once you are
famous all the world’s a stage, and you can never be alone” (p. 99), a
reference to a famous speech from As You
Like It. At one point she quotes from Julius
Caesar. Moggach writes: “I knew I was heading in a dangerous direction, but
I couldn’t stop myself. Some demon inside me pushed me on. O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their
reason” (p. 223). The lines are from Antony’s famous speech.
Jules tells us her story from prison, and there is a
moment when she talks about the magazines available to her there. “Yesterday,
however, I chanced upon a copy of Newsweek.
It described some Trevor Nunn production of Othello
where Ian McKellen played Iago. The English names gave me a jolt, then a
patriotic glow. I’d met McKellen once, years ago. In this production,
apparently, he had realized that Iago’s strength lay in his indispensability. Newsweek said he gave an electrifying
performance. Othello was as simple a soul as Lila. He had no idea how deeply he
was in Iago’s power, simply because Iago had made himself indispensable –
quiet, efficient, and watchfully anticipating Othello’s every need. When the
play opens, Iago is as humble as a stand-in. But though he starts out as
Othello’s servant, he ends up as his master. That’s because, like me, he has
brains” (p. 162). Of course, it’s interesting that Jules equates herself with
the villain of the play. Moments later, she tells us, “I hadn’t become an Iago
yet – that would come later – but I was undeniably useful” (p. 163). Toward the
end, she tells us: “I try to take two showers a day. The other inmates think
there’s something wrong with me. They think I’m like Lady Macbeth. What, will these hands ne’er be clean?”
(p. 379). And then she tells us, “At night we have to put our hand against the
glass as proof of our continuing existence. Good
night, sweet ladies” (p.382). I’m guessing that’s a reference to Horatio’s
line at the end of Hamlet.
And some references are to Shakespeare himself. Moggach
writes, “in whose digs he had stayed when he had toured the country, playing
Shakespeare and Shaw in the days before the TV set, as he put it, had become a
twinkle in anybody’s lounge” (p. 40). Then she has Lila tell Jules, “I used to
see the map and I’d think, they’ll all talk like somebody in a Shakespeare play”
(p. 46).
Interestingly, considering how many Shakespeare
references there are in this novel, it seems the author doesn’t quite
completely understand Shakespeare. She makes a reference to Romeo And Juliet that indicates she doesn’t understand the line she
is referring to. Moggach writes: “I imagined myself the Juliet I had never
played, and now never would. Wherefore
art thou, Trevor?” (p. 29). The word “wherefore” means “why,” not “where.”
Juliet isn’t asking for Romeo’s location; she is asking why he has to be a
Montague. And if Moggach meant that Jules was asking why Trevor is Trevor,
there wouldn’t be a comma after “thou.” Basically, either author Deborah Moggach
or her character doesn’t understand Juliet’s speech (it seems it is Moggach
that doesn’t). As you might guess, this momentarily pulled me right out of the
story. However, the edition I read is an early edition, and perhaps that was
corrected later.
The Stand-In
was published in 1991.
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