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44. Shakespeare, 6. Bibliography www.shakespearesglobe.com, www…

- - - - BUT- still a time of tremendous political and social flux.
- - - - Drama was inclusive - the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. 20,000 per week going to see a play by 1600! Est of large and profitable public theatres = essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama. Construction came about because plays were banned by City of London due to thinking they were noisy & disruptive, fears of spreading plague & also attracted 'undesirables' - thieves etc - playhouses therefore built outside city walls. 1st Red Lion 1567. eg Globe on Southbank.
        
        Theatres had similar architecture - central yard (uncovered), raised stage sticking out into the yard, roof over the stage 'the heavens', backstage area & roofed, raked seating all around the yard.
        
        Sets were simple but costumes extravagant. Also special effects! Thunder & lightening. Actors entering from the 'heavens' & lowered on rope. Evil spirits came from trapdoor on stage. sometime gunpowder used - actually caught fire during a performance of S's Henry VII and burned the Globe down! No women actors - women generally played by younger boys
- - - - Went to London to make career for himslef, possibly due to limited opportunities in Stratford. Arrived just 10 years after opening of 1st theatre - Rose. Life expectancy just 25!
        Changing world, flip flipping between religions, population doubled in last 50 yrs.
        
        Little known about 1st yrs but by 1592 he was a well known actor & playwright in London. Died 1616, after writing over 40 plays and 154 sonnets. Also part owner of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later King's Men when James I ascended to throne) & The Globe
- - - - Tragedies common features: 1) Fatal flaw (a weakness that leads to their downfall) eg in Othello - jealous - kills beloved wife Desdemona when Iago tells him she's been cheating, then kills himself when he finds out it wasn't true, in Macbeth - fatal flaw = guilt 2) The bigger (richer, more imp., they are, the harder they fall) 3) external pressures: fate, evil spirits etc manipulate characters eg witches/ghosts 4) Repetition of certain words (eg blood Macbeth) 5) Internal & eternal conflict
      - Tragedies Common THEMES: Blood (Macbeth), 'Nothing' (King Lear) - he is stripped of possessions & identity), hands (represents both cruelty & tenderness/healing), appearance vs reality, change, order & disorder, conflict
    - - Considered greatest play - due to psychological complexity of central character. Semi-autobiographical (Hamnet). Play follows Hamlet's efforts to avenge the murder of his father, Explores how he's been affected by father's death & how the ghost encourages him to take revenge. 1st play where feelings, not action, take centre stage & 1st play to be performed at newly built Globe Theatre.
        
        THEMES HAMLET: 1) Revenge:Hamlet unable to commit the acts of revenge. His inability to act drives the plot & causes the death of many others - Polonius, Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, Rosencrantz. 2) Action vs inaction. Contrast between H's inability to act & decisive action of others (eg Fortinbras travels miles to take his revenge) 3) Grief - H lost in grief and confusion. 4) Death - permeates all of play. Ghost - present from the beginning, represents disruption to the social order. H - fascinated by death - his lack of action leads to his own death. Famous soliloquy in Act 3 Scene 1 in which H contemplates suicide.
        
        To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
        The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
        And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more;
        
        SUBTHEMES Hamlet: 1) The state of Denmark ↑ political & social unrest 2) Sexuality & incest (Gertrude's incestuous relationship with brother-in-law 3) Uncertainty - dramatic device. Ghost poses uncertainty. What is its purpose? Is it an evil spirit/H's own conscience? Questions & doubts god, sanity, relationships with family, duty etc. Huge doubt.
        
        S improved his mastery of blank verse in later plays. Early ones were beautiful but sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony. By Hamlet he had begun to interrupt and vary its flow - gives new power and flexibility to the poetry. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind
    - - Most popular play. Simple plot thf v accessible. Summary. Was written partly for new King James 1 - form of flattery - King fascinated by witches & supernatural. Also a message look what happens if you dare to plot vs a king. Macbeth a success - secures S's position.
        
        THEMES MACBETH: 1) Ambition (driving force) & greed. 2) Morality - Macduff - has moral code (more imp. than blind ambition) 3) Guilt- softens M's ambition & callousness. Comes out more subconsciously in LM through dreams - eventually causes her downfall. 4) Supernatural - witches. Fate vs free will. 5) Violence. 6) Masculinity - some say it's a misogynistic play as evil comes from LM & witches
        
        Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. Macbeth contemplates the fleetingness of life upon hearing of the death of L Macbeth
  - - - Despite being v different from our modern comedies they have stood the test of time. Style & characteristics are not disimilar to the history plays & tragedies. Sometimes call tragi-comedies.
        
        Common characteristics: 1) LOVE - theme of love is prevalent in all. Often love overcomes the obstacles & ends up uniting. 2) COMPLEX PLOTS - the comedies have more twists & turns. However, the 3rd act & final scene is where the lovers finally declare their love for each other 3) MISTAKEN IDENTITIES - often drives the plot. Characters in disguise is also common. 4) DIFFICULT to classify - eg in MAdoAN starts as a comedy but then Hero is disgraced & fakes own death - similar to R&J
    - - 1st play not taken from a previous source - completely original.Summary: Events surrounding marriage of Duke of Athens (Theseus) & Hippolyta. 4 Athenian lovers + 6 actors - all controlled & manipulated by fairies. 4 levels of plot & characters: Theseus & Hippolyta, the lovers, the mechanicals & the fairies. Puck - very imp. character - closest to a protagonist
        
        THEMES AMSNDream: 1) Love - invites the audience to laugh with how LOVE can make people blind, foolish & desperate, A force the characters cannot control. The happy ending reaffirms its importance. The course of true love never did run smooth. (Lysander, Act 1 Scene 1) 2) Plays within plays - adds element of farce & comedy as well as allowing S to commend on art/theatre. Also it parodies the rest of AMSND. 3) DREAMS - characters describe what happened to them as a dream. Methought I was enamoured of an ass - Titania 4) Men & women - attempt by male authority figures to control women? 5) The SUPERNATURAL - fairies & their magic are the engine of the plot.
        
        If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear - Puck in msg to audience at end
  - - - HOWEVER - Holished's work wasn't particularly accurate - but didn't matter as S seeking to entertain
        
        Characteristics: most set in times of medieval English History. Many dramatize the 100 years war, eg: Henry Tetralogy, Richard II & III, King John etc (many feature the same characters at different ages). S provides social commentary through his own characters & plots. The history plays say more about S's own time rather than the medieval society in which they are set. Offers a view of society that cuts across the class system - from lowly beggars, to monarchy. Offers tragical-comical-historical-pastoral.
        
        As depict fairly recent history - sometimes too close to the bone! Eg in Henry IV mocks two recently deceased noblemen, depicting them as fat drunkards, but widow of 1 still alive & is outraged. Does a petition. S forced to apologise & changes the name to Falstaff.
- - - - WORDS coined by S: his works provide the first recorded use of over 1,700 words in the English language. Thought that he invented many himself, combining words, changing nouns into verbs, adding prefixes or suffixes etc. Some lasted some didn't: Critic, Gossip, Hurry, Obscene, Rant, Undress.
    - - Eg Macbeth - 6 murders but still has sympathy until end as he is a flawed human being, not a monster. Hamlet is too indecisive, too self-doubting, to carry out revenge until he has no choice -he failings cause his downfall & he exhibits some of the most basic human reactions and emotions. By making the protagonist's character development central to the plot, Shakespeare changed what could be accomplished with drama
      - Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
        Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form. Then, have I reason to be fond of grief? Constance laments the loss of her son at beg. of King John