William Shakespeare Why he is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English literature…
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Transcript of William Shakespeare Why he is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English literature…
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William Shakespeare
Why he is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English
literature…
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Shakespeare
• 1563-1616
• Stratford-on-Avon, England
• wrote 37 plays
• about 154 sonnets
• started out as an actor
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Stage Celebrity• Actor for Lord Chamberlain’s Men
(London theater company)
• Also > principal playwright for them
• 1599> Lord Chamberlain’s company built Globe Theater where most of Shakespeare’s plays were performed
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Shakespeare wrote:
• Comedies
• Histories
• Tragedies
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London Life in the 16th century
Poor sewer system
High crime rate But … 200,000
inhabitants the cultural and
political heart of England
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The Theater
• Plays produced for the general public
• Roofless - open air
• No artificial lighting
• Courtyard surrounded by 3 levels of galleries
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Spectators• Wealthy got benches
• “Groundlings” - poorer people stood and watched from the courtyard (“pit”)
• All but the wealthy were uneducated/illiterate
• Much more interactive than today
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Staging Areas• Stage - platform that extended into the
pit
• Dressing/storage rooms in galleries behind & above stage
• second-level gallery - upper stage - famous balcony scene in R & J
• Trap door – used for ‘ghosts’, “Heavens”, angelic beings
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Differences (from today)• No scenery
• Settings – refs. in dialogue
• Elaborate costumes
• Plenty of props
• Fast-paced, colorful – often 2 hours long!
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Actors
• Were only men and boys
• Women’s roles – played by young boys whose voices had not changed
• Would have been considered indecent for a woman to appear on stage
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Elizabethan (QE1) Words• An, and: If
• Anon: Soon
• Aye: Yes
• But: Except for
• E’en: Even
• E’er: Ever
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QE1 Words (cont’d.)• Haply: Perhaps
• Happy: Fortunate
• Hence: Away, from her
• Hie: Hurry
• Marry: Indeed
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QE1 Words (cont’d.)
• Whence: Where
• Wilt: Will, will you
• Withal: In addition to
• Would: Wish
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Shakespearean Comedies
• Influences:– Greek ‘old’ comedy – generally satirical and
frequently political in nature– Greek ‘new’ comedy – involved sex and
seduction and often showed youth outwitting old age
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Elements of Comedy cont’d.
• Structure– 5 ACTS:
• 1 – situation with tensions or implicit conflict
• 2 – implicit conflict is developed
• 3 - conflict reaches height; frequently an impasse
• 4 – things begin to clear up (Falling Action)
• 5 – problem is resolved, knots untied
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Elements of Comedy
• ‘Plurals’:– Plots typically are multiple – many story lines– Frames, inductions as well as subsidiary actions– Tone often varies accordingly
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Elements of Comedies cont’d.
• Action in Comedies:– Traces a movement from conflict, to the
resolution of the conflict, from some sort of (generally figurative) bondage to freedom, despite obstacles, complication, reversals, and discoveries
– Ends with celebration and unity
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Shakespeare’s Romantic Comedies
• Conventions:– Main action is LOVE – courtship is staple
activity– Would-be lovers must overcome obstacles and
misunderstandings before being united in harmonious union
– Frequently contains elements of the improbable, the fantastic, the supernatural, or the miraculous
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Shakespeare’s Romantic Comedies
• Conventions cont’d.:– In BEST mature comedies, is frequently a
philosophical aspect involving weightier issues and themes --- personal identity, the importance of love in human existence, the power of language to help/hinder communication, transforming power of poetry and art, disjunction between appearance and reality, power of dreams or illusions
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Shakespeare’s Romantic Comedies
• Character Types:– Controller-figures – Petruccio (Taming of the
Shrew) – through their own ingenuity can be seen as trying to reshape reality
– Frequent disguisers/deceivers – manipulate others through their superior knowledge; their stragems, indispensable for the dramatic structure, generate both complications and resolutions
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Shakespeare’s Romantic Comedies
• Character Types cont’d.:– Woman-on-Top – speciality of Shakespeare –
had special relevance to Comedy – temporarily place servants over masters and women over men to dislocate the hierarchies sanctioned by society, only to reassert them at the play’s end
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Literary Devices Most Commonly Used
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Blank Verse• Much of Shakespeare’s work is
written in it:–unrhymed verse–iambic (unstressed, stressed)–pentameter( 5 “feet” to a line)
• ends up to be 10 syllable lines
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Prose• Ordinary writing that is not
poetry, drama, or song–Only characters in the lower
social classes speak this way in Shakespeare’s plays
–Why do you suppose that is?
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Plot
•The sequence of events in a literary work
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Exposition• The plot usually begins with
this:
–Introduces setting, characters, basic situation
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Inciting Moment
• Often called “initial incident”–the first bit of action that
occurs which begins the plot
–Romeo and Juliet “lock eyes” at the party
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Conflict
• The struggle that develops–man vs. man
–man vs. himself
–man vs. society
–man vs. nature
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Crisis
• The point where the protagonist’s situation will either get better or worse–Protagonist - good guy
–Antagonist - bad guy
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Climax
• The turning point of the story - everything begins to unravel from here –Thus begins the falling action
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Resolution
•The end of the central conflict
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Denouement
• The final explanation or outcome of the plot–If this is included in
literature, it will occur after the resolution.
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Tragedy • Drama where the central character(s)
suffer disaster/great misfortune– In many tragedies, downfall results
from -
•Fate
•Character flaw/Fatal flaw
•Combination of the two
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Theme
•Central idea or …
•Insight about life which explains the downfall
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Metaphorical Language
• Comparison of unlike things -– Paris standing over the “lifeless
body” of Juliet, “Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew…”
– “Thou detestable maw…” Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth…” Romeo
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Dramatic Foil
• A character whose purpose is to show off another character–Benvolio for Tybalt
•look for others in R & J
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Round characters
•Characters who have many personality traits, like real people.
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Flat Characters
• One-dimensional, embodying only a single trait -–Shakespeare often uses them to
provide comic relief even in a tragedy
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Static Characters
• Characters within a story who remain the same; they do not change; they do not change their minds, opinions or character.
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Dynamic Character
• Characters who change somehow during the course of the plot; they generally change for the better.
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Monologue
• One person speaking on stage - may be other characters on stage, too–ex : the Prince of Verona
commanding the Capulets and Montagues to cease feuding
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Soliloquy
• Long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage.
• In R & J, Romeo gives a soliloquy after the servant has fled and Paris has died.
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Aside
• Words spoken, usually in an undertone, not intended to be heard by all characters
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Puns
• Shakespeare loved to use them!!!
–Humorous use of a word with two meanings - sometimes missed by the reader because of Elizabethan language and sexual innuendo
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Direct Address
• Words that tell the reader who is being addressed:
• “A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.”
• “Ah, my mistresses, which of you all/ Will now deny to dance?”
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Dramatic Irony
• A contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader/
audience knows to be true
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Verbal Irony
•Words used to suggest the opposite of what is meant
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Situational Irony
• An event that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters, the reader, or the audience
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Comic Relief• Use of comedy within literature
that is NOT a comedy to provide “relief” from seriousness or sadness
• In R & J, look for moments of comic relief that help “relieve” the tragedy of the situation