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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (william_shakespeare.doc)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

        Shakespeare is one of the greatest dramatists the world has ever had. His works reflect an image of human unity and a love of people and nature.

        Born 1564 in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, England, he lived in the

reign of Queen Elizabeth l. His father, John Shakespeare, was a wool dealer and a glover, and a man well-respected in his native town. In 1565 he was elected one of twelve aldermen of Stratford, and three years later he became its bailiff (mayor). William had three brothers and four sisters.

        Young Shakespeare almost certainly attended the grammar school at his birthplace. At the age of 18 he married Ann Hathaway of Shottery, who was seven years older then himself. They had three children. In his twenties he left Stratford and went to London. Very little is known about his first years in London but it is quite probably that from the beginning his life was connected with the theatre and remained so for 25 years. Most of his masterpieces were performed at his own wooden theatre, the Globe. In 1611 Shakespeare returned to Stratford to live with his daughter and son-in-law. He died in 1616, 23rd of April, the anniversary of his birth and was buried in the local Holy Trinity Church.

        The order in which the plays of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE were written is uncertain. Shakespeare’s earliest work is probably seen in certain historical plays from national and antique history which won him success among the audience.

        Perhaps he began his work as a dramatist by improving the work of other writers; the three plays which tell the story of Henry the Sixth may be an example of this. In Richard the Third and the later Richard the Second we see Shakespeare gradually discovering his powers and mastering his art. In Richard the Second there is rather more freedom. Although the line usually ends at a natural pause, there are times when the sense pushes through from one line to the next: the rhythm of the blank verse is still quite strictly observed. Shakespeare has not yet developed the master's freedom which brings such freshness and power to his later verse plays; but the start is here.

        The two parts of King Henry the Fourth introduced the fat knight Sir john Falstaff to the world. Probably his importance in the play is greater than Shakespeare at first intended; but he grew to like the man, and so did his audiences, although Falstaff is certainly not a model of knighthood. The young Prince Henry (later to become King Henry the Fifth) wastes hours drinking and joking with Falstaff, who is proudly penniless, delightfully rude, fatly wicked, wonderfully unpleasant to look at, boastfully late for battles, and a cheerful coward who carries a battle even on the battlefield. When Henry becomes king, Falstaff expects to be given a position of honour (and an endless supply of refreshment) by his old companion. What a shock he gets! Much has been written about the cruel treatment of Falstaff; but Henry, as king, cannot have the fat old knight as a companion. Falstaff is heart-broken. Henry allows him some money, but considers the affairs of England more important than the affairs of Sir John Falstaff.  

        Henry the Fifth was performed in 1599. It is filled with the love of country and the spirit of war. Those who wanted to see Falstaff again were disappointed-he is not there.

        Shakespeare had an excellent sense of the comic and soon started to write comedies. In the last years of 16th century he created his most famous comedies: The Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

        The first of the comedies was probably A Comedy of Errors, its plot depends on the likeness of twins and the likeness of their twin servants, with the resulting confusion. The order of the early comedies after this may be The Taming of the Shrew (it shows how Katharine of Padua was tamed by Petrucio, a gentleman from Verona), The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love's Labour's Lost.

        The real step forward comes with A Midsummer Night's Dream, which shows Shakespeare's growing power in comedy. The different stories of this light-hearted play are mixed together with great skill. The feelings of the lovers are never allowed to tire the audience; something really funny always interrupts them in time. But there is true sympathy in the treatment of character, and a great deal of beauty in many descriptive lines.

        In the next play The Merchant of Venice, Antonio, a generous merchant borrows money from the Jewish usurer Shylock to help his friend Bassanio, who wants to marry the rich and beautiful Portia. Shylock hates Antonio and only agrees to lend the money on condition that, if it is not repaid at the right time, Antonio shall pay a pound of his flesh. When Antonio's ships are wrecked, and to everyone's surprise he cannot pay the money, Shylock demands his pound of flesh. The case is taken to court, and Antonio has no hope. Then suddenly Portia, dressed as a lawyer, appears in court. At first she tries to persuade Shylock to have mercy, but she does not succeed. Then Portia herself becomes hard: Shylock may have his flesh but not one drop of blood; there is nothing about blood in the agreement. As Shylock cannot take the flesh without spilling some blood, Antonio is saved.

        The story is nonsense - no one believes that living flesh caries form part of an agreement at law - but the play is great. It is called a comedy, though Shylock is, in fact, badly treated. He has been called the first great Shakespearian character, the first great tragic figure.

        As You Like It - entertainment is more important than plot in this play telling the story of a good duke living in the forest of Arden because his evil brother has driven him out of his country. Love affairs (the love story of Rosalind and Orlando) play an important part, and the interest is increased when Rosalind dresses herself as a man. Much entertainment is provided by the reflection of sad and thoughtful Jacques and the wise fool Clown, alias Touchstone, and by the large number of songs. On of them, „Under the greenwood tree“, was used by Thomas Hardy as the title for one of his novels.

        The pastoral setting gives us some beautiful descriptions, but there is a reality about the characters that was not to be seen in earlier pastoral poetry and plays. It is true that nature at its most cruel is seen as kinder than men in courts and towns.

        Much Ado About No thing, a well-balanced comedy with good speeches, is also built on love affairs; yet there is a dark side of the play which is there but almost hidden. The appearance of a selfish young man who brings sorrow to others is repeated in the even darker comedy, Alls Well that Ends Well, the date of which is uncertain. The Twelfth Night has been called the perfection of English comedy. The whole play is alive with humour and action. The skill in the changes from bright to dark, from gentle to severe, is matched by the skill in the arrangement of the verse and prose. The Duke Orsino believes that he is in love with the Lady Olivia, but he is more in love with love. 'If music be the food of love,' he says at the beginning of the play, 'play on.' There are twins again, and they cause confusion when the girl dresses like her brother. Two knights, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheck, provide amusement with their foolish plans and their drinking. The play contains several songs.

        Shakespeare presented the themes of love, friendship, human harmony and joy of life. He showed himself the master of dramatic construction, economy of dramatic means and above all the master of language. His greatest period was between 1600 and 1607 during which he wrote his most remarkable tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, historical drama Antony and Cleopatra and other plays. They are about morality and sensitivity in the insensitive world (Hamlet- about paradoxes of good and evil; Othello-about the true and false visions, and self-knowledge and self-blindness (King Lear), about the progress of evil in man, and the problem of choice and responsibility (Macbeth).

        Romeo and Juliet is the first of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. The Montagues and the Capulets are the two chief families of Verona. However, as they are bitter enemies, it is impossible for Romeo, son of Lord Montague, and Juliet, daughter of Lord Capulet, to get married. Since they love each other deeply, they rush to the aid of Friar Laurence to marries them secretly. At the same time, Juliets father is planning for her to marry Count Paris. She manages to avoid this, on the night before the wedding, by drinking a potion which will render her apparently lifeless for 42 hours. The Friar plans to warn Romeo to return  for her when she awakens, and take her away from Verona. However, the Friar's message to Romeo miscarries. Romeo, thinking that Juliet is dead, buys poison, drinks it and dies by Juliets side. When Juliet awakes and finds Romeo dead, she stabs herself and dies too. Montague and Capulet, faced by the tragic results of their enmity, become reconciled.

        The plot of this story of pure and tragic love is known in all parts of the civilized world. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are necessary: their families are enemies, and death is the only way out of their hope less situation. The tragedy is deeply sad and moving, but without the shock of the terrible tragedies that followed later.

        In the drama Othello a Moor in the service of the state of Venice, has married Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian senator. When he leads the Venetian forces against the Turks, he lands in Cyprus with his wife, his friend Cassio, and Iago, his lieutenant. Iago, who has been passed over for promotion by Othello, decides to revenge himself. His intrigues are directed at arousing Othello's jealousy over his wife, and this eventually results in the death of all the main characters, including Othello himself.

        In Macbeth, a brave and victorious general, meets three witches who prophesy that he will become king. Stimulated by this prophecy and by the taunts of his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, he murders Duncan, the King of Scotland, who is a guest in his castle. A feeling of insecurity grows in Macbeth when he becomes king, and he secretly arranges a series of terrible murders. Later his wife goes mad and dies. Macbeth is finally killed by Macduff, a Scottish lord, who has come back to his country with Duncan's son, Malcolm, and the English army in order to put an end to Macbeth's  tyrannical rule. Malcolm then becomes King of Scotland.

        Hamlet is set in the state of Denmark where Claudius has become king after murdering his brother and marrying his wife, Gertrude. Hamlet, the son of the former king and Gertrude, has his suspicions on Claudius reinforced when he encounters the ghost of his dead father, who orders him to avenge this murder. Finding himself unable to act decisively, Hamlet nevertheless manages to work out a plan: he will test Claudius's guilt by asking a group of actors to re-enact an old play that mirrors the events of his own father's murder. After watching this play, Claudius decides that he must get rid of Hamlet. He sends him to England and plots secretly to have him killed there. He tries also to convince Gertrude that Hamlet has gone mad because Ophelia, the daughter of the chamberlain Polonius, rejected his love. Before Hamlet leaves the country, he kills Polonius, mistaking him for his uncle. When Ophelia learns of her father's death and Hamlets exile, she loses her mind and commits suicide. Hamlet, returning unexpectedly to Denmark, faces up to the plot against his life. During a fencing match with Laertes, Ophelia's brother, who wants to revenge his father's and sister's deaths, Hamlet is cut by a poisoned sword. This had been prepared earlier by Laertes and Claudius. Before he dies, though, Hamlet kills both of them. His mother also dies after drinking from a cup of poison prepared for Hamlet by Claudius.

        Hamlets tragic weakness is hesitation, inability to act when action is needed. He is too much of a thinker.

        In his plays, particularly the tragedies, Shakespeare used the soliloquy as a means of conveying to the audience what a character's true thoughts or feelings might be. Hamlet is a complex and sensitive young man who agonises over his obligation to kill Claudius. He is given a number of soliloquies by Shakespeare.

        Julius Caesar is probably the best Shakespearian play to read first. In Julius Caesar the thought and the language are about balanced. Its structure is also clear: the rise from the introduction to the crisis (the killing of Caesar) in Act III, and the gradual fall to the tragic end of the play            (the death of the conspirators). Julius Caesar is not so dark and heavy as Coriolanus, nor so loose as Antony and Cleopatra. The hero is Brutus, who joins Cassius and the other conspirators in the plan to kill Caesar. They believe that he wants to make himself king. Much of the play is now famous. Before a large crowd of Roman citizens Antony makes his great speech over the body of Caesar.

        The main subject of Antony and Cleopatra is Antony’s love for the Egyptian queen. He returns to Rome from Egypt to meet Octavius Caesar, whose sister, Octavia, he marries. Cleopatra is jealous, and Antony returns to Egypt. Octavius follows with ships and men, and defeats Antony at Alexandria. Hearing (falsely) that Cleopatra is dead, Antony falls on his sword, is carried to Cleopatra, and dies in her arms. She then takes her own life by allowing a snake to bite her.

        Coriolanus concerns the life and death of Caius Marcius. Coriolanus, a proud Roman commander, who leads his armies against the Volscians, and beats them. On his return to Rome, he wishes to become one of the consuls (rulers) of the city; but to succeed in this aim, he must ask the people for votes. His pride makes this impossible: he can not beg for votes or for anything else. He is driven from Rome for insulting the people, comes back with a Volsican army to attack his own city, is met there by his wife and his mother, and is persuaded to lead the army away. The Volscians then kill him for failing in his duty to them.

        In each of these tragedies, the fatal weaknesses of character, and the tragic course of events, which together lead a great man to ruin, are clear enough. Brutus is not a practical man. He loves Rome more than he loves his friend, Caesar; but he is thrown into a situation where he must deal with practical life and war. He makes several bad mistakes. For example, he allows Antony to speak to the people after himself; and the crowd remembers Antony´s speech better because it is later. A practicaI man would speak last to an uneducated crowd. He uses reasons to show the crowd that the murder was necessary. Antony more wisely stirs up their feelings.

        In the next play Antony is ruined because of his love of comfort and love. Coriolanus is ruined by his terrible pride. If he had humbly asked for votes, the people would gladly have chosen him as a consul, but he scorns their dirty bodies and their stupid minds. This wrecks his own life. Many men are not practicaI; many men love comfort; many men are proud. But they escape destruction because the course of events helps to hide their weaknesses.

        In King Lear we see an old king thrown out of his home by two wicked daughters, and treated so badly that he goes mad and dies. It is perhaps Shakespeare's greatest work, reaching into the deepest places of the human spirit; but as a play on the stage it is very difficult, if not impossible, to act. Lear's weakness is his openness to flattery. He gives his kingdom to the two evil daughters

who flatter him, and nothing to the youngest girl, who tells the truth but loves him best.

        In his long sonnet sequence, Shakespeare treated themes of love and beauty, especially in an ever-changing transient world. Many of the earlier verses are addressed to a young man, while those coming later refer to a so-called Dark Lady. Much speculation has resulted from attempts to establish their identities but no firm evidence has been found.

        In the Elizabethan period, the writing of Iyric poems was considered to be a necessary accomplishment of the young man of the court, and the sonnet form was used extensively. Shakespeare, in constructing these verses, tended to employ a specific rhyming scheme of: abab, cdcd, efef, gg (i.e. three sets of four rhyming lines, or quatrains, followed by a rhyming pair or couplet.) After introducing and developing his theme in the quatrains, Shakespeare of ten used the final couplet to sum up or to comment upon the ideas in his sonnet. Sometimes he would even use it to provide some counter-argument or new response to his main subject which might take the reader by surprise. In Sonnet 60, Shakespeare meditates on the impermanence of beauty. Then, in the final two lines, he takes some comfort from the thought that his poetry, in which he celebrates that same beauty, may itself survive the destruction of Time.

        The main last plays of Shakespeare are usually called the romances. They are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. It is generally agreed that The Tempest is his last complete play. All these works are coloured with the idea of forgiveness. They also deal with problems of good, evil, guilt, innocence, and responsibility. Unlike in his great tragedies, the result is always the triumph of the good and innocent.

        There is still wickedness in these worlds, but it is not the final word of the plays. Gone is the violence of the great tragedies. Instead we have happier things - beautiful islands and beautiful girls: Imogen in Cymbeline, Perdita in The Winter's Tale and Miranda in The Tempest.

        The world of romantic dramas is symbolic. Shakespeare often uses magic, mythology and folklore elements in his romantic dramas.

        Shakespeare's success as a playwright and a partner in theatrical ventures brought him wealth, some of which he invested in property in London and Stratford. He bought New Place, one of the largest houses in Stratford where he retired in 1610 to live with his family and friends. The Winter's Tale and The Tempest were probably written there.

        A great part of Shakespeare's work remained in manuscript form until his colleagues brought out the collection we now call the First Folio in 1623. This large book contains all the plays except Pericles.

        Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and 37 outstanding comedies, tragedies and historical plays. He is also the author of the Romance The Two Noble Kinsmen but much of it was probably written by his collaborator John Fletcher (1579-1625).

        The immense power and variety of Shakespeare's work have led to the idea that one man cannot have written it all; yet it must be true that one man did. There is usually more in the language of the later plays than at first meets the eye. They must be read again and again if we want to reach down to the bottom of the sense. If a new play is found and supposed to be by Shakespeare, we can decide whether it belongs to his later work. If it does, no one will understand the whole meaning at a first reading.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brendlová, Světla; Novy, Jan Lindsey: A Survey of Literature in English-Speaking Countries. Bratislava: Nakladateľstvo Fraus, 1999. ISBN 80-88844-47-9

Silvánová, Barbara: Angličtina. Bratislava: Enigma jr., 1994. ISBN 80-9671907-0-9

Thornley, G.C.; Roberts, Gwyneth: An Outline of English Literature. Essex: Longman Group, 2001. ISBN 0-582-74917-4

Vaughan-Reese, Michael; Sweeney, Geraldine; Cassidy, Picot: In Britain. 21th Century Edition. London: Chancerel Internationl Publisher,2000. ISBN 1-899888-64-0