Download Shakespeare: An Introduction

Shakespeare: An Introduction
Introduction
Review of Standard Deviants DVD
William Shakespeare
 Born in 1564
 Died 1616
 English Renaissance
 Elizabethan Era, Queen Elizabeth
 Creativity in culture and the arts
 Classic world, especially Roman
 Stratford-upon-Avon
I
Theatre
 Acting wasn’t a respectable position
 Lord Chamberlain’s Men
 Globe
O
 3 story wooden theatre with open roof
 Gallery
 Pit, groundings
 Extended stage
 Covered stage
 Tower
 Thatched roof
 King’s Men
 No women
Theatre continued
Shakespeare
 Shakespeare, writer, actor, shareholder
 Francis Bacon, author, philosopher, nobleman
 Comedies, histories, romances, tragedies
 1592: plague, book-length
 1590’s: sonnets
 1603: King James
 Poetry:
poetry
Shakespeare’s Language
concentrated language with rhythm and sound;
verse
 Prose: language of everyday speech
 Poetry: A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.
 Prose: I need a horse
 Meter: regular rhythmic pattern
 Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
Blank Verse
 Unrhymed: end of lines don’t rhyme
 iam: 1 unstressed syllable followed by 1 stressed
 Iambic: means the poetry contains iambs
 Pent= 5
 Meter: reg. rhythmic pattern in lang.
 5 iams
Why?
 Why
syllable.
blank verse? Not every line is in perfect i. p. Not all
written in poetry.
 He just did. It was common. The rhythm most closely
resembles natural speech.
 How important is it? It will naturally be pleasing to the
ea r .
Elizabethan Drama
 1. Importance of words
 Real life vs stage life
 Symbolic art
Importance of Words
 Theatre was different
 No movies, surround sound, pop corn
 Not many props or scenery
 Stock costumes
 No elaborate lighting
 Audiences listened; they were used to
stories and sermons
listening to long
Importance of Words
 Stock scenery
 No special effects
 Plays are primarily
verbal and not visual and the words are
used to convey to the audience the mood and tone.
 Modern audiences are more used to visual elements.
 Common Elizabethans didn’t speak this way.
Real life vs Stage life
 We realize that the play is a fantasy.
 Modern theatre has blurred the lines.
 Movies suggest everything is real.
 Shakespeare’s play are always understood
to be
characters—not real people.
 They’re just figures that represent real people
 It must be in the play to be part of the character.
How to know a character
 Analysis:
 1. What the character says
 2. What other characters say about them
 3. What the characters do.
 Stick to the text
 Theatrical companies interpret the play by
setting and dropping lines or characters.
changing
Aristotle
 Tragedy: imitation of an action
 4th century BC, studied under Plato
 Developed logic, wrote about ethics, politics
 The Poetics: drama, including tragedy, is just
of action (not real!)
an imitation
Symbolic Art
 Influenced by medieval art
 The halo on the saints’ heads
represents
goodness/holiness.
 The villain in the play represents all evil, he’s not just a
bad person.
 Truth, beauty, justice, purity (universal themes)