SHAKESPEARE: HIS LIFE AND TIMES

EARLY LIFE

• Born April 23, 1564—died 1616

– In Stratford-upon-Avon

• Parents: John and Mary Arden Shakespeare

– Mary—daughter of landowner

– John—glovemaker, local wealthy politician

• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway. Had twins in 1585 (Hamnet & Judith)

• Sometime between 1585-1592, he moved to London and began working in theatre.

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

• Member and later part-owner of the, later called Globe Theater built in 1599 by
L.C.M. (Lord Chamberlain’s Men) with Shakespeare as primary investor

• was three-stories high and had no roof.

• could together hold more than 1,500 people.

• In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, a misfired canon ball set the Globe's
thatched roof on fire and the whole theatre was consumed.

DEATH
• The cause of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but an entry in the diary of John Ward,
the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), tells us
that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank
too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."
• He was 52.
• He is buried at Holy Trinity Church in his birthplace of Stratford.
 EPITAPH
• An epitaph is an inscription on or at a tomb or a grave in memory of the one buried
there.
• Shakespeare also wrote his own epitaph because during his time, when the graveyard
was full, people would dig up someone's corpse and burn it so that another could be
buried in that person's place. This disgusted Shakespeare, and he didn't want this type
of disrespect after his death. His epitaph reads as follows:

Good Friends, for Jesus' sake forbear,

To dig the bones enclosed here!
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones."

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.
• A few examples of Shakespearean omissions/contractions follow: *
o 'tis ~ it is
o ope ~ open
o o'er ~ over
o gi' ~ give
o ne'er ~ never
o i' ~ in
o e'er ~ ever
o oft ~ often
o e'en ~ even

UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE
• Shakespeare wrote about human behaviour and feelings, using very rich language; his
words are full of double meanings, metaphors and similes, and his plays have a lot of
humour in them.
• He wrote plays that were part of a tradition. Part of this tradition was the belief in The
Great Chain of Being. This was a rank order of the Universe (a league table) showing
how all of creation was linked. The following is a simplification of a complicated
system that explained “God’s Providence” or why things were as they were.

The Natural Order

The Great Chain of Being
• According to the the Great Chain of Being, as illustrated by Didacus Valades (1579),
minerals and other inanimate objects rank lowest in the natural order.

– Plants sit slightly higher due to their capacity for growth.

– Animals can move, sense and respond to the world around them, granting
them a higher status on the Chain.

– Yet humans are the only natural creatures with the capacity for reason or a
soul, allowing us to achieve salvation in Heaven.

– Angels, which lack material bodies and so cannot commit physical sins, stand
above humans.

– God, the creator of the universe, presides at the top of the Chain outside of
time and space.
• This was the Natural Order. One part depended on another. If this order were ignored
or changed, disorder would result.
• 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.
• There was also a battle within individuals: between reason that they had in common
with angels, and passions, which they had in common with animals.

Shakespeare’s Tragedy
• Shakespeare was a genius playwright, but is mostly indebted to Aristotle’s theory of
tragedy in his works.
• 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.

The Five Act play (Dramatic Structure)

• Act I- Exposition
Audience learns the setting (Time/Place), characters are developed, and a conflict is
introduced.
• Act II- Rising Action
The action of this act leads the audience to the climax. It is common for complications
to arise, or for the protagonist to encounter obstacles.
• Act III- The Climax
This is the turning point of the play. The climax is characterized by the highest
amount of suspense.
• Act IV- Falling Action
The story is coming to an end, and any unknown details or plot twists are revealed
and wrapped up.
• Act V- Denouement or Resolution
This is the final outcome of the drama; a moral or lesson is learned.