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William Shakespeare
“It's all moon's fault, when it gets
too close to the earth it makes
everyone crazy” W.S.
William Shakespeare was an
English poet and playwright, widely regarded as
the greatest writer in the English language and
the most important dramatist. He is often called
England's national poet ,he is a model for the
English literature and he is considered modern.
About Shakespeare
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Life (early years, last years, later years)
Theatre (Lord Chamberlain’s men)
Shakespeare plays
Themes
members
Shakespearean question
Shakespeare and Italy
The History of English
SHAKESPEARE ‘S LIFE
Early years: W.S. was born on 23rd April 1564 in
Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire. His father
belonged to the corporation of glovers and at one time
was Bailiff of Stratford ; his mother came from a
country family of some importance. In his youth he
probably attended Stratford’s grammar school, since
the knowledge of Latin, Greek and rhetoric which
emerges from his plays is of the kind that was then
taught in grammar schools. When he was eighteen he
married Anne Hathaway, a girl eight years older than
him, and in a few years they had three children. The
young poet found himself with a large family and no
income
Lost years: the period between 1585 and 1592 is known
as “Lost years” because there are no documentary records about
his activities.
Later years: around 1592 he decided to go
to London to work for the theatre and
became an actor. Worked with the Lord
Chamberlain’s company of players, later
known as the King’s men. Returned to
Stratford around 1610 where he lived as a
country gentleman. Died in 1616 at the age
of 52. It is rumored that he drunk too
much and contracted a fever or that he
died for a cerebral hemorrhage.
Theatre
Shakespeare as a playwright is without a doubt the most well known and recognized ever
existed in the world. The first work published by S. was the mythological poem Venus and
Adonis in 1593, dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. The theatre where Shakespeare
worked was The Globe. The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 in London on the south bank
of the River Thames in Southwark (one of the liveliest districts of the Elizabethan era) by
Cuthbert Burbage. It was the theater of Shakespeare's company. It was destroyed by fire
in 1613 and was rebuilt in 1614 and demolished in 1644. After reconstruction work lasted
more than twelve years, the theater of Shakespeare is alive again. It 'was inaugurated in
1997. It is called "Shakespeare's Globe Theatre". The Lord Chamberlain's Men was
a playing company for whom Shakespeare wrote for most of his career. Richard
Burbage played most of the lead roles, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth,
while Shakespeare himself performed some secondary roles. Formed at the end of a
period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two
leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I. It was
founded during the reign of Elizabeth I of England in 1594, under the patronage of Henry
Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, then the Lord Chamberlain, who was in charge of court
entertainments.
After its patron's death on 23 July 1596, the company came under the
patronage of his son, George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, for whom
it was briefly known as Lord Hunsdon's Men until he in turn also
became Lord Chamberlain on 17 March 1597, whereupon it
reverted to its previous name. The company became the King's
Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became
the company's patron. The company held exclusive rights to
perform Shakespeare's plays. . . The wooden structure also known
as "The Wooden” is 10 meters high, 30 meters in diameter and 90
meters is the circumference. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre,
apparently linked to the fame of the great playwright, is the
symbolic expression of Britain. In Italy, in Rome, in the gardens of
Villa Borghese in 2003 was inaugurated the "Silvano Toti Globe
Theatre" built in just three months and with the use of oak as the
English one.
THEMES
• Through Language and Through Recurring
Images
• Four Common Themes
• Some Particular Themes
Through Language
The theme is conveyed most powerfully through language. This may be through
individual words uttered repetitiously throughout a play such as ‘blood’, ‘honest’
or ‘nothing’ or through the use of a particular language device such as antithesis
and oxymoron.
The language genius
Shakespeare uses a poetic, rich and theatrical language.
He coined new words and expressions still used today, in modern English.
He chooses actual themes, as love, jealousy, racism, mourning, religion, family.
He confounds the reader/audience: he/it was asked to laugh in tragical scenes,
and he/it was engaged in profound philosophical questions in a comic scene.
Through Recurring Images
For the audience, imagery builds up a sense of deep preoccupation of the play. Images
of light and darkness in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ are but one example; suffering bodies
in ‘King Lear’; the theme of false appearance in ‘Macbeth’ are others.
As time passes, different generations look at the themes in Shakespeare with new
eyes, redefining and reinterpreting as influenced by the political, social and
cultural conditions of each era. How you interpret the play we explore this
semester will depend on your own cultural and societal values and mores and how
you see the characters and issues that they face.
Four Common Themes
1. Conflict
Here lies the essence of all drama and in Shakespeare’s drama, conflict
can take many forms. It may be rivals in love and war, quarrels
within families or quarrels between families, historical and political
quarrels.
2. Appearance and reality
Shakespeare is a master of making people and things appear what
they are not. Women pretend to be men, others pretend to be
friends whilst planning treachery, characters pretend to be mad;
identities are mistaken. In some plays, the idea of appearance and
reality lies at the very heart of what the play is about. ‘Measure for
Measure’ is depends on the notion of ‘appearance’ whilst in
‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’ there is also deceit and treachery.
3.Order, Disorder and Change
Another common element in Shakespeare’s plays is the idea of stability
giving way to confusion. This may happen to a person (King Lear
goes mad), to society (England is divided by civil war), or nature
(storms and tempests fractured the lives of people and societies).
(adapted from Gibson p.132) The ultimate ending in these plays is
restoration - restoration to all that has been destroyed, insight to
those who have been in misery or madness. Indeed, Shakespearean
scholars have argued diversely about whether Shakespeare ends his
plays with all restored or that disorder still exists. What we do know
is that in every play characters change in this way. This may be from
life to death or the development of new insights and empathy.
Here are some examples as outlined by Gibson:
- Nick Bottom is magically transformed into an ass in ‘Midsummer’s
Night’s Dream’.
- In ‘Twelfth Night’, a false letter tricks Malvolio into changing from a
puritan steward to a foolish would be lover
- Sometimes change happens in unique contexts: the woods, a heath,
an island or a near magical setting of some kind.
Time usually underlines the changes witnessed in the plays.
4.Levels
Gibson points out that themes work at three
different levels in each play:
1. The individual level (psychological, personal).
Personal conflict, mental or spiritual disorder may
be experienced by a specific character/s
2. The social level (family, nation, society)
3. The natural level (cosmic, supernatural or
nature). This can be witnessed in the forms of
storms, witches, ghosts or nature itself.
Disruptions and conflict in the life of the
characters is mirrored by disruptions in nature
which are then often restored by the end of the
play.
Some Particular Themes
• 1. Macbeth. ambition, evil, order and disorder,
appearance and reality, violence and tyranny, guilt and
conscience, witchcraft and magic
• 2. Romeo and Juliet. love and hate, fate and free will, life
and death, youth against age, fortune.
• 3. The Tempest. nature V nurture, imprisonment and
freedom, colonialism, illusion and magic, forgiveness and
reconciliation, sleep and dreams, transformation
• 4. Hamlet. procrastination, madness, revenge, sin and
salvation, poison, theatre and acting, corruption
• 5. King Lear. justice, nature, sight and blindness, the
tortured and broken body
• 6. Othello. jealously, racism, self-deception
Shakespeare plays
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Along with acting, he also wrote some of the most renowned and studied
literature written in the English language. He wrote 37 very successful plays.
Comedies : The Taming of the Shrew The comedy of errors The Two Gentlemen of
Verona Love's Labour's Lost, A midsummer Night’s Dream , The Merchant of
Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night ,The Merry Wives of Windsor, All's well that
ends well, Measure for Measure, Pericles Prince of Tyre, Cymbeline, The Winter's
Tale, The Tempest.
THE TRAGEDIES: Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet ,Julius Caesar, Hamlet ,Troilus
and Cressida ,Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra ,Coriolanus,
Timon of Athens.
THE POEMS: The Sonnets, The passionate pilgrim, The phoenix and the turtle,
Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece.
The themes in the works of Shakespeare burrow into the psychology of the
individual, dealing with human aspirations, and wonder about the reality of the
real and the madness. Most important is the question of death, love, revenge and
power, which makes man a slave of his passions.
Shakespearean question
The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument about whether someone other than William
Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. Anti-Stratfordians—a collective
term for adherents of the various alternative-authorship theories—say that Shakespeare of Stratford was a
front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason did not want or could not
accept public credit. Although the idea has attracted much public interest, all but a few Shakespeare
scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe belief and for the most part acknowledge it only to rebut
or disparage the claims.
Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th century, when adulation of
Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time had become widespread. Shakespeare's biography,
particularly his humble origins and obscure life, seemed incompatible with his poetic eminence and his
reputation for genius, arousing suspicion that Shakespeare might not have written the works attributed to
him. The controversy has since spawned a vast body of literature and 80 authorship candidates have been
proposed, including Francis Bacon, the 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, and the 17th Earl of Oxford.
Supporters of alternative candidates argue that theirs is the more plausible author, and that William
Shakespeare lacked the education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court that they say is
apparent in the works.Those Shakespeare scholars who have responded to such claims hold that
biographical interpretations of literature are unreliable in attributing authorship and that the convergence
of documentary evidence used to support Shakespeare's authorship—title pages, testimony by other
contemporary poets and historians, and official records—is the same used for all other authorial
attributions of his era. No such direct evidence exists for any other candidate and Shakespeare's authorship
was not questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his death.
Despite the scholarly consensus, a relatively smallbut highly visible and diverse assortment of supporters,
including prominent public figures, have questioned the conventional attribution. They work for
acknowledgment of the authorship question as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry and for acceptance of
one or another of the various authorship candidates.
Shakespeare and Italy
Over the centuries scholars have been puzzled by Shakespeare's profound
knowledge of Italian. Shakespeare had an impressive familiarity with stories by
Italian authors such as Giovanni Boccaccio, Matteo Bandello, and Masuccio
Salernitano. In an attempt to solve the mystery of Shakespeare's Italian aptitude,
one former teacher of literature has unleashed a new hypothesis on a world
eager to hear anything fresh about the Bard.
In his book Shakespeare era italiano (2002), retired Sicilian professor Martino Iuvara
claims that Shakespeare was, in fact, not English at all, but Italian. His conclusion
is drawn from research carried out from 1925 to 1950 by two professors at
Palermo University. Iuvara posits that Shakespeare was born not in Stratford in
April 1564, as is commonly believed, but actually was born in Messina as
Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza. His parents were not John Shakespeare and
Mary Arden, but were Giovanni Florio, a doctor, and Guglielma Crollalanza, a
Sicilian noblewoman. The family supposedly fled Italy during the Holy Inquisition
and moved to London. It was in London that Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza
decided to change his name to its English equivalent. Crollalanza apparently
translates literally as 'Shakespeare.' Iuvara goes on to claim that Shakespeare
studied abroad and was educated by Franciscan monks who taught him Latin,
Greek, and history. He also claims that while Shakespeare (or young Crollalanza)
was traveling through Europe he fell in love with a 16-year-old girl named
Giulietta. But sadly, family members opposed the union, and Giulietta committed
suicide.
Lavoro realizzato da:
Antonio Marino (narrator)
Martina Schiassi (speaker)
Angelo Vigliotti (group orienter)
Luigi Campolieti (task orienter)
Cosima Malerba (controller)