SHAKESPEARE

RAFFAELLA MANNORI 2013-2014 1

SHAKESPEARE

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SHAKESPEARE

RAFFAELLA MANNORI 2013-2014

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1592 The Comedy of Errors; The Two Gentlemen of Verona1593 Love’s Labour’s Lost 1593-1594 The Taming of the Shrew 1595 A Midsummer Night's Dream 1596 The Merchant of Venice1598 Much Ado About Nothing 1599 The Merry Wives of Windsor; As you like it1601 Twelfth Night1602 Troilus and Cressida; All’s Well that Ends Well1604 Measure for Measure

Shakespeare’s comedies


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THE COMEDIES

• slightness of plot;• little revelation or development of

character;• spirit of simple fun• delight in verbal wit;• Shakespeare’ ability to create intricate

plots;• richer and more subtle comic spirit.


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• Shakespeare’s comedies include

• They end in multiple marriages.

• They trace the passage of young people out of their parents’ control and into marriage.

The comedian


• disguise;• frustrated love;• mistaken identity;• marital and romantic

misunderstandings.

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1593 Titus Andronicus 1595 Romeo and Juliet 1599 Julius Caesar1601 Hamlet1604 Othello1605 King Lear 1606 Macbeth1606 Antony and Cleopatra1607 Timon of Athens 1609 Coriolanus


The tragic playwright

Shakespeare’s tragedies & Roman plays

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THE GREAT TRAGEDIES• The recurrent theme: a man potentially good and great , in a

position of worldly importance, has a fatal defect of character;

• Shakespeare places the tragic hero in a set ofcircumstances where he submits himself to the urgings of this hidden defect;

• he offends morality, he betrays his own integrity , and the inevitable escalation follows;

• as the order is violated within himself , so it is violated around him;

• punishment is the inevitable consequence of error and blame


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ROMAN PLAYSThe recurrent themes are: man’s desire for power along with his crimes and plots

to achieve this power; his personal remorse at the consequences of his illegal

acts; the disintegration of good government and of stable

society which results. The Roman plays derive from the translation of

Plutarch’s LIVES.


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The tragic playwright


In Greek and Latin classical tragedies

• real balance between fate and human choices, based on characters’ flaws. Human beings in control of their own destiny;

• Shakespeare freely breaks the rule of place and time unities;

• the catastrophe at the end spells disaster for the tragic hero, responsible for his own fall, although his plan was noble.

• the protagonist acts against inexorable destiny;

• the action is limited to one place and one day;

• the turning point is where the goals of the tragic hero seem within reach.

In Shakespeare

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HISTORY PLAYS • They take their title from the names of kings and relate to the

struggle of the English crown.• They begin with a struggle for the throne or for its consolidation

and they end with the monarch’s death and a new coronation. • From banishment a young prince returns to defend the violated

law : he personifies the hope for a new order and justice .• Every step to power continues to be marked by murder,

violence , treachery.In these plays the story turns full circle, returning to the point of departure.


Shakespeare’s HISTORY PLAYS

Performer - Culture&Literature

HISTORY PLAYS

1592 HENRY VI1593 RICHARD III1594 KING JOHN1595 RICHRD II1597 HENRY IV1599 HENRY V1613 HENRY VIII

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Shakespeare’s history plays

1.based on serious records like the Tudors’ chronicles, and the civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster;

2.gave a portrait of the nation as a whole;

3.were part of a process by which people came to see themselves as belonging to ‘England’ rather than to families, households or local lords.

The historian


Shakespeare’s ROMANCE PLAYS

Performer - Culture&Literature

ROMANCE PLAYS

1608 PERICLES1610 CYMBELINE1611 THE WINTER’S ALE

THE TEMPEST

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ROMANCE PLAYS

• The plot has something of a fairy-tale character;• they portrays a half-fantasy world;• the supernatural enters the affairs of man;• they are «romantic» in that good finally conquers ,

love is rewarded and a happy ending is possible;• they are the products of Shakespeare’s more

mature vision of the world, as forgiveness can resolve man’s problems such as when one that has been gravely wronged refuses totake revenge on the offenders.


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6. The languageThe language of drama is particularly intense and vivid because it can share the features of everyday speech, of poetry or prose.The normal form of Shakespeare’s plays is blank verse but prose and poetry can be intermingled.Another feature of dramatic language is the use of clusters of imagery


lots of images of a similar nature linked to a specific theme in the play

Example = the imagery of clothing linked to the theme of ‘false appearances’ in Macbeth

clusters of imagery

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Dramatic techniques

Dialogue is the main support of drama since:• it creates the action;• it provides details about the characters and their

relationships;• it contributes to theme development;• it gives information about the past;• it can foreshadow subsequent events;• it may be built to cause specific reactions in the

audience.


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Dramatic techniquesSoliloquy and monologue are special conventions of Elizabethan drama.


These devices enable the playwright to let the audience know:• the character’s thoughts about a specific problem;• the character’s plans for the future;• the character’s feelings and reactions;• the character’s explanation of what happens between scenes.

the character is aloneon the stage

monologue

there are other characters but the speaker

ignores them

soliloquy

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Dramatic techniques

Asides are short comments made by a character for the audience alone, usually occurring in or between speeches.

Their purposes are:• to reveal the nature of the speaker,• to draw the attention of the audience to the importance

of what has been said;• to explain developments;• to create humour by introducing the unexpected.


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QUESTIONS What are the characteristics of each of the four periods

in which Shakespeare’s career is generally divided? What are the differences between Greek and Latin

classical tragedy and Shakespeare’s tragedies? Why can we say that the Hystory plays contributed to

the strengthening of the national spirit of the country? What are the characteristics of Shakespeare’s great

tragedies? How do Senecan tragedies influence Elisabethan

drama? Explain the characteristics of Shakespeare’s comedies. What do Romance Plays represent in Shakespeare’s

plays?


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