SHAKESPEARE: HIS LIFE AND TIMES

EARLY LIFE
• Born April 23, 1564—died 1616
• Parents: John and Mary Arden Shakespeare
• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway. Had twins in 1585 (Hamnet & Judith)
WORK
• He wrote numerous poems and 154 sonnets
• He wrote 38 plays and collaborated on several others. These included:
• comedies
• histories
• tragedies
• romances
GLOBE THEATRE
• could together hold more than 1,500 people.
• DEATH
• He was 52.
THEATRICAL CONVENTIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRE
• Use of disguises/mistaken identity
• Last speaker—highest in rank (in tragedies)
• Multiple murders (in tragedies)
• Multiple marriages (in comedies)
• No electricity
• Women forbidden to act on stage
• Minimal, contemporary costumes
• Minimal scenery
• Types of speech
o Soliloquy – an extended speech, directed to the audience rather than to other
characters, in which the speaker explores their thoughts and feelings.
o Aside – Words an actor speaks to the audience which other actors on the stage
cannot hear. Sometimes the actor cups his mouth toward the audience or turns
away from the other actors. An aside serves to reveal a character's thoughts or
concerns to the audience without revealing them to other characters in a play.
• Blood and gore
• Use of supernatural
SHAKESPEARE’S LANGUAGE
• Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English.”
• A mix of old and very new
• Rural and urban words/images
• Understandable by the lowest peasant and the highest noble
• Shakespeare wrote both prose and poetry (verse).
o To understand his poetry , we need to understand these terms:
o Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.
o Iambic pentameter: five beats of alternating unstressed and stressed
syllables; ten syllables per line.
▪ It describes the construction of a line of poetry with five sets of
unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables.
▪ For example, “When I do count the clock that tells the time,
▪ “I,” count,” “clock,” tells,” and “time” hold stress.
UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE
The Natural Order

• God’s universe was divided between good and evil and there was a constant battle
between the two. The diagram explaining this order and shows key words associated
with good and evil, order and disorder.
Patterns in Shakespeare
• Authority Figure: tries to keep order – is a good person.
• Vice Figure: tries to create disorder – is a bad person.
• Events could be further complicated by Fate over which there is no control.
• Shakespeare’s plays also explore the human nature behind these ideas – or why
people act as they do.
• Life was short, and death was all around them, many dying young.
• People believed in God and were concerned with leading good lives to avoid Hell.
• The plays were designed to entertain, but were meant to be moral and thought-
provoking to appeal to a wide audience.
• Tragedy
 Some elements found in all his tragedies are:
- A tragic hero (A main character cursed by fate and possessed of a tragic flaw.)
- A struggle between good and evil.
- Tragic waste (The good is destroyed along with the bad at the resolution of the
play)
- External Conflict (Usually the antagonist)
- Internal Conflict (The struggle the hero engages in with his/her fatal flaw.)
- Catharsis (The release of the audience's emotions through empathy with the
characters.)
- Supernatural elements (Magic, witchcraft, ghosts, etc)
- Lack of poetic justice (Things end poorly for everyone, including the "good
guys.“)
- Comic Relief (One or more humorous characters who participate in scenes
intended to lighten the mood.)
Tragic hero
 In most tragedies written by Shakespeare, a man is a central protagonist.
 Shakespeare’s tragic characters usually have the following characteristics:
- The hero is a towering personality in his kingdom
- The hero must suffer because of some flaw of character, inevitable fate, or
both. This is called hamartia. When that flaw is excessive pride, it is called
hubris.
- He usually makes further errors in judgment following his misdeed.
- He suffers both outwardly (isolation, alienation, attacks) and inwardly
(tortured conscience).
- Usually, he recognizes his mistakes in the end.
- He either dies, or loses his prior glory and magnificence at the end of the play.
Shakespeare’s Comedy

 Usually what defines a Shakespearean play as a comedy is that it has a happy ending, often involving a
marriage.

 The main characteristics in Shakespeare's Comedies are:

- A struggle of young lovers to overcome problems, often the result of the interference of their
elders
- There is some element of separation and reunification
- Mistaken identities, often involving disguise
- A clever servant
- Family tensions that are usually resolved in the end
- Complex, interwoven plot-lines
- Comedy through language: Shakespeare's comedies are peppered
with clever word play, metaphors and insults.