Shakespeare's Behind Bars- Do these criminals deserve society's forgiveness?

I really enjoyed watching Shakespeare's Behind Bars and found the point of view in which the documentary portrayed the inmates interesting. From reading other ruminations, I found that many of our classmates thought differently about criminals after watching the documentary and had more compassion for their situations. I; however, disagree with this point.

Don't get me wrong...I think it is great that programs like the Shakespeare one occur in prison. I think the inmates should use their time locked up constructively and try to improve themselves or make themselves content. I also think that the inmates probably learn a lot about themselves and about life through programs like the Shakespeare one. Perhaps working through their frustrations through acting may help them with their struggle to forgive themselves for their crimes. I do agree that the inmates should try to find personal forgiveness within themselves because this is the only way that they will be able to become better individuals and try to live in a new way. Everyone deserves personal happiness/contentment/fulfillment, even inmates who have committed terrible crimes. On the other hand, when it comes to society as a whole, I do not think these people should be forgiven and released back into the general public.

In Shakespeare Behind Bars, most of the inmates had committed murder. Many of them killed someone who they were close with or loved. Others raped or sexually assaulted other individuals. I don't care what type of circumstances you grew up in or were exposed to as a child, everyone knows that killing someone or making someone do something against their will is wrong. These are serious crimes and have effected these victims families tremendously. I cannot have compassion for someone who has made someone's family loose someone that they cared about dearly. It is true many of the inmates felt that they were changed men after being in prison. However, even Sammie said that he was worried about how he would act/feel emotionally if he were released. In my opinion, you have to have something mentally unstable or wrong to commit these types of crimes. These people do deserve help from our society; however, they shouldn't be given the chance to effect another person or family in a negative way.

Who would I cast in Volpone?

When reading Volpone I tried to focus on the questions that were posted as suggestions to ruminate about, specifically who would I cast for each role. I actually had a lot more fun reading the play because I was thinking about which actors and actresses would be perfect for each role. Here are a couple of things I came up with.

First of all, I pictured this whole play as an Italian mafia scene, which probably seems out there to most people but the movie Goodfellas is a personal favorite of mine, I'm Italian, and the whole thing is sneaky and manipulative like the Italian mob. I pictured Volpone as a kind of godfather figure, who was in charge, scheming everyone through manipulation and deals. Therefore, I pictured the character of Volpone being played by Paul Sorvino!

Then, I pictured Mosca as Ray Liotta because for most of Goodfellas he is running around after Sorvino doing favors, helping him in his schemes, and trying to make sure he is happy. This behavior of "being attached at his boss's hip" made me think of how Mosca is called Volpone's parasite and seemed to fit the character.

For the character of Celia, I tried to think of an actress that was attractive and Italian (to go with the Goodfellas theme!) At first, I thought of actress Elizabetta Canalis because she is smoking hot and then I remembered I was pairing her up with Paul Sorvino and those two just did not mix. Plus, Celia's character is very religious and moral- and Canalis is too sexy to represent that! So I decided on Sophia Loren (but back in the day!) because she is age appropriate, still an Italian beauty but in a more classy and reverent way.

To play Voltore I thought Deniro; for Corvino I thought Pesci. Because Corbaccio is supposed to be older I pictured him as Charles Scorsese and his son Bonario as Martin, which worked out perfectly in my mind because they are already father and son.

For everyone else I did not have specific actors/actresses in mind, just a general, overall Italian mob/the movie Goodfellas theme. Obviously, this interpretation does not fit in the 17th century. However, if we were going to rework this play into a more modern version with up to date situations I think the whole Italian mafia theme could be pretty funny and present the overall themes in a new light.