2. William Shakespeare
• Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England
• At 18 he met and fell in love and married Anne
Hathaway – a local woman 7 or 8 years older than
WS
• Children: Daughter – Susanna (1593) and Twins – a
boy Hamnet (died) and girl Judith (1585)
• WS moved to London (without his family) to become
an actor and playwright shortly after birth of twins
• 1592-1594: theaters closed for most of this time due
to Black Plague outbreak – WS used time to write
poetry
3. Politics of Acting
• Theater wasn’t widely accepted when WS began writing
• People saw theater as breeding ground for crime and a
vehicle for the spread of the plague
• Luckily, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and later
King James I, who both loved plays and frequented their
performances, the theater still had great success in two
famous venues: THE GLOBE and THE BLACKFRIARS.
• After Queen Elizabeth’s death in 1603, King James
became a sponsor of WS’s acting company The King’s
Men – lending the group $$ and socializing with actors
backstage.
4. Politics of Acting
• Women did not act on stage because it was not
considered proper; boys aged 11, 12, or 13 – before
their voices changed - performed the female roles.
• JC, like most of WS’s plays, were produced in a
public theater – built around roofless courtyards that
had no artificial light.
• Surrounding the courtyard were three levels of
galleries with benches where wealthier playgoers
sat. Those who could not pay (paid the general
admission price of one penny) to sit – the
“groundlings” – stood and watched from the
courtyard, which was called the pit.
• Groundlings were a rowdy, lively bunch.
6. The globe
• No one is certain exactly what the Globe looked like, but
WS tells us is was round or octagonal.
• It was open to the sky and held between 2,500 and 3,000
spectators.
• When the plans for a reconstruction of the Globe began
in 1988, scholars and builders started with this
information.
• As they worked, they learned more from the site of the
original theater.
• The foundation was then discovered in 1990; its
excavation has revealed clues about the plays, the
actors, and the audience.
7. The Globe
• The main action of the play was performed on the
stage, which jutted halfway out into the yard. The
most expensive seats in the theater were
chairs/benches set directly on the two sides of the
stage to accommodate the elite among the patrons.
• A trapdoor on the stage led down to “Hell,” the area
beneath the stage from which actors dressed as
demons and devils could emerge.
• The ceiling above the stage was “the Heavens,”
likewise equipped with a trapdoor. Angels, gods, and
spirits could be lowered with wires to appear over
the other actors’ heads.
8. The Globe
• The tall building which rose above the stage was the tiring
house, providing the backstage area.
• It contained dressing rooms for the actors and a place to house
machinery used in the production of a play.
• The curtained space at the rear of the stage, a part of the tiring
house, is often referred to as the “inner stage” but was in reality
used mainly to conceal “discoveries” – props or performers
temporarily kept hidden until the proper time for showing them
during the play.
• Above the curtained area was a multi-use gallery where
spectators could sit, musicians could perform, or parts of the
play such as balcony scenes could be enacted.
9. Additional Globe Info
• There was no scenery in the theaters
of Shakespeare’s day. LANGUAGE
carried the play. Settings were
indicated by references in the
dialogue. As a result, one scene could
follow another in rapid succession.
• The actors wore elaborate clothing –
typical Elizabethan clothing, not
costuming. Thus, the plays produced
in Shakespeare’s day were fastpaced, colorful productions that
usually lasted two hours.
11. Shakespeare’s drama
• Because the Globe had no lighting, all performances
took place in the afternoon.
• Shakespeare relied on language to establish the
setting of his plays
• Example: the moon told audiences that a scene was
set at night.
• The only scenery consisted of props such as tales
and chairs. Instead of being a handicap, the bare
stage gave playwrights greater flexibility.
12. Shakespeare’s drama
• Although theatergoers were willing to imagine the
setting, they expected costumes to look realistic.
• Actors had to be prepared for many distractions.
People commonly ate, drank, and talked during
performances. Yet audiences at the Globe had to
have been fairly sophisticated to appreciate
Shakespeare’s plays.
13. JC – time and place
• Julius Caesar depicts Rome’s transition from a
republic to an empire. According to ancient
historians, the republic dates back to 509
B.C., when the last Roman king was expelled and
two consuls shared control of Rome’s military.
• Each year a new pair of consuls had to be elected.
The Senate was the republic’s most important
political institution. It was composed of several
hundred members of Rome’s leading families, who
could serve for life. Two citizen assemblies made
laws and elected Rome’s magistrates, including
consuls.
14. JC – time and place
• Although the Senate was supposed only to advise
the magistrates and the assemblies, it actually held
most of the power.
• Over several centuries, Rome greatly expanded its
territories in a series of foreign wars, but these
conquests created internal tensions. Some
politicians began to challenge the Senate’s authority.
• Often they gained support from disgruntled veterans
and other neglected members of society. Beginning
in 133 B.C., Rome was plagued with widespread
corruption and civil warfare.
15. JC – Time and place
• In 60 B.C., Rome came under the control of the
wealthy politician Crassus and two military
leaders, Julius Caesar and Pompey. This coalition
was known as the First Triumvirate.
• Crassus died in 53, and soon Pompey and Caesar
were at odds with each other. After Pompey tried to
strip Caesar of his powers in 49, Caesar crossed
into Italy, forcing Pompey to flee.
• Pompey was killed the next year in Egypt. Caesar
continued to meet resistance from Pompey’s sons.
He finally defeated them in 45 and returned to
Rome, where he had himself appointed dictator for
life.
16. JC – Time and place
• Julius Caesar opens in 44 B.C., when it appeared
that Caesar might topple the republic and
reestablish a monarchy.
• Caesar gained complete control of Rome in 45
B.C., having defeated Pompey and his supporters.
He quickly introduced new policies, such as
reforming the Senate and extending Roman
citizenship to residents of the provinces.
• He also established a new calendar, which is still
used today in a revised form. Although these
changes benefited many people, they angered
members of the nobility, who also resented the loss
of their power.
17. Julius Caesar Themes
• The fear of the absolute power of a monarch:
• Violence begets violence:
• The power of rhetoric in shaping public opinion:
19. Rhetorical Devices
• Invention: the advancement of logical, ethical, and
emotional arguments
• Arrangement: the structure of these arguments
• Style: the selection of original words and phrases to
express arguments
• Memory: a system of committing the text to the
speaker’s mind
• Delivery: the manner of presentation in a speech
that includes tone of voice, gesture, and expression
22. What is a tragic hero?
• A Shakespearean tragedy is a work in which a
series of events leads to the downfall of a main
character, in this case, Julius Caesar. This makes
Caesar a tragic hero. However, because of his
dominance of the entire play, perhaps an even
greater tragic hero could be Marcus Brutus.
• Four Qualities of a Tragic Hero:
• 1. Possesses importance or high rank
• 2. Exhibits extraordinary talents
• 3. Displays a tragic flaw – usually an error in judgment
or character – that leads to downfall
• 4. Faces downfall with courage and dignity
23. Terms
• Soliloquy – a longer speech in which a character speaks as if to
himself or herself
• Monologue – a long, uninterrupted speech by one character
• Aside – a brief comment a character makes that reveals his or her
thoughts to the audience or to another character
• Dramatic Irony – develops when the characters act to show their
ignorance to a situation which the audience is aware of
• Metaphor – comparing two UNLIKE things saying one this IS or
BECOMES the other
• Alliteration – a STYLISTIC device in which a number of words,
having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a
series
• Hyperbole – a figure of speech which involved an exaggeration of
ideas for the sake of emphasis.
24. More Terms
• Rhymed Couplet – a pair of lines whose end words rhyme –
closes the scene and sometimes suggests what will come next
– sometimes is used as a signal to introduce entry/exit of
character
• Personification – giving human-like characteristics to
inanimate objects
• Allusion – a brief/indirect reference to a person, place, thing or
idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance
• Blank Verse - unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter
• Iambic Pentameter – Iambic means that an unaccented
syllables followed by an accented one. Pentameter means that
there are five feet per line. (A foot is one beat set in the pattern
of accented and unaccented syllables.) Refer to Logic Nation
JC page.
25. Terms
• Anachronism – an event or detail inappropriate for
its time period. From JC: “Where is thy leather apron
and thy rule?”
• Conflict – the struggle between two forces – creates
drama
• Internal Conflict – involving a character’s struggle to
decide between two opposing ideas or values. The
climax of the play is the point at which the internal and
external conflicts are greatest. Usually the action rises
to the climax and then falls as the conflicts are
resolved.
• External Conflict – between two characters, groups, or
forces
26. Rhetorical Terms
• Antithesis – juxtaposition, or contrast of ideas or words
in a balanced or parallel construction. From JC: “Not that
I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”
• Metonymy – substitution of some attributive or
suggestive word for what is means (e.g., “crown” for
royalty; “Washington” for U.S. government) From JC:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
• Apostrophe – a sudden turn from the general audience
to address a specific group or to address someone or
something usually not present as if they were. From JC:
“O Rome. O Conspiracy.”
27. Rhetorical Terms
• Anaphora – repetition of the same word(s) at the
beginning of sentences or phrases. From JC: Mad
word! Mad kings! Mad composition.”
• Synecdoche – using a part of something to
represent the whole. From JC: “Thy full petition at
the hand of Brutus.” “My heart is in the coffin there
with Caesar…”
• Rhetorical Question – a statement that is
formulated as a question but that is not supposed to
be answered. From JC: “Art thou mad? Is not the
truth the truth?”
28. Aristotelian appeals
• Ethos – ability of the speaker to gain agreement
based upon his reputation
• Pathos – persuasion based on emotional pleas
• Logos – persuasion based on logic
