William Shakespeare

1. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

2. LIFE
• Little is known about the events
of Shakespeare’s life.
• He was born in Stratford-
Upon-Avon in 1564, probably
on April 23rd
.
• He probably attended Stratford
grammar school, but he did not
go on to study at university.
• When he was eighteen he
married Anne Hathaway who
was eight years older. They
had three children.

4. LIFE
• His success as dramatist grew. He
mixed in high social circles and the
Earl of Southampton, to whom he
dedicated his sonnets, became his
patron and friend.
• His improved financial situation
allowed him to invest in the
building of the Globe Theatre,
where most of his plays were
performed.
• He retired to his hometown in
1611, where he died on April 23rd
1616.

6. WORKS
• Shakespeare wrote thirty-
seven plays in a period of about
twenty years, from 1591 to
1611.
• He did not publish his plays. In
1623, seven years later his
death, two former actors and
friends decided to publish the
first collection of his plays.
• The so-called First Folio
included thirty-five plays that
were divided into ‘Comedies,
Histories and Tragedies’.

7. THE PLAYS
The plays were not dated. However, approximate dates have
subsequently been given to them based on:
• references to contemporary events in the play;
• references to the works of other writers which are dated;
• style, plot, characterization and metre used in the play.

8. The Four Periods
First Period
• Shakespeare’s plays are usually divided into four periods.
• The first period covers the years from 1590 to 1595 and
was a period of learning and experimentation.
• In these years Shakespeare wrote very different types of
plays:
• Chronicle plays dealing with the history of England
such as Henry VI and Richard III;
• Comedies which include A Midsummer Night’s Dream
and The Taming of the Shrew;
• the tragedies Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet.

9. Second Period
• During the second period,
from 1596 to 1600,
Shakespeare focused on
chronicle plays and
comedies.
• It is generally agreed that
it was during these years
that he wrote his best
comedies, including The
Merchant of Venice, The
Merry Wives of Windsor,
Much Ado About Nothing,
As You Like and Twelfth
Night.

10. Third Period
• During the third period, from
1600 to 1608, Shakespeare
wrote his great tragedies.
• These plays have given world
theatre unforgettable characters
such as Hamlet, King Lear,
Othello and Macbeth.
• The comedies that were written
in this period no longer have
the bright, optimistic appeal of
earlier works.
• The darker elements that are
found in these works seem to
suggest that Shakespeare was
experiencing difficulties in his
personal life which made his
outlook rather pessimistic.

11. Fourth Period
• A return to the happier state of mind is reflected
in the plays of the final period from 1609 to 1612.
• The Tempest, for example, is set in the ideal world
of an enchanted island where an atmosphere of
magic, music, romance and harmony prevails.

12. Characters
• Shakespeare does not take his characters from one
social class only.
• Hierarchy forms the background of every play.
• From the king or duke the list descends to nurses
and servants. The lower classes, however, are
often portrayed in groups and anonymously
because the emphasis is always on aristocracy.

13. Characters
• Another important feature is the importance of family ties:
father and children, mother and children, brothers and
sisters.
• These relationships are often expression of conflict
between the older and younger generation.
• There are always symmetrical correspondences in
Shakespeare’s characters: three lords and three ladies, the
heads of two hostile families, two lovers, two princes, two
brothers.

14. The structure
• Shakespeare does not give great significance to
the division between the acts; sometimes the
division was imposed later.
• In the Elizabethan theatre there was no curtain
between the acts and the plays were performed
without an interval.
• In Shakespeare’s plays a scene is over when all
the characters have left the stage.

15. Variety of style
• Shakespeare used different levels of speech and action to
portray his characters from different angles.
• A character may switch from everyday prose to solemn
verse.
• The plot presents an alternation between symbolic and
realistic action.
• There is sometimes the insertion of allegorical scenes,
songs, music and dances, and magical transformations.

16. Language
• The highly poetic quality of the language is a feature of all
Shakespeare’s plays.
• In Elizabethan theatres scenery were almost non-existent
so Shakespeare had to convey settings, moods, and
atmospheres with words.
• His language is dense and rich in striking imagery and
musicality.

17. Language
• Shakespeare’s language is characterized by
– a multiplicity of linguistic levels
– a wide variety of rhetorical figures:
• similes and metaphors, obscure and archaic words,
mythological allusions, new-word formations, puns,
assonance and alliteration.
– an impressive variety of verse structure:
• he reshaped the regular blank-verse line, using
irregular lines.

18. Plot
• The progress of a play is usually based on the gradual
clarification of things that are kept mysterious at the
beginning.
• Themes are introduced at the beginning but their real
meaning becomes clear much later.
• Opinions are formed but even they do not seem important
at first they become decisive after several scenes.
• Two threads of the action may proceed side by side in
alternating scenes and finally joined in a single scene at a
later stage.

19. Plot
• There is also frequent contrast between scenes with many
characters and scenes with few, in public and in private,
now full of action and now devoted to reflection.
• Major scenes, with crucial events, are preceded and
followed by shorter scenes whose function is to provide
information.
• In most of his plays Shakespeare do not consider the three
units of time, place and action, so the structure of the
play is flexible.
• Shakespeare sometimes leaves some questions open so
the audience continues to think about the answers after the
play is over.

20. Romeo and Juliet
• It was probably written in 1595 and printed in 1597.
• The two fundamental elements are:
• the lack of knowledge
• the reflection upon language made by Juliet.
• The lack of knowledge derives from bad communication.
• This play can be considered a tragedy of unawareness and
not knowing.

21. Romeo and Juliet
• Juliet’s use of language is concrete and realistic.
• She stands for innocence and belongs to the courtly love
convention but despite this she returns Romeo’s love.
• She is not an idealization, she is a real woman.
• She reflects upon language when she considers Romeo’s
“name” is first obstacle to their love, a name which does
not correspond to the “real Romeo”.

22. Romeo and Juliet
• There are elements of comedy and tragedy:
– it is a comedy for the theme of equivocation;
– it is a tragedy for the tragic role of chance
despite the absence of a character who plays the
role of the villain.