Transcript William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare
London, Theatre and His Life
4 Basic Forms of Plays
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History
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only deals with English histories
not always tragic
Comedy
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Love, sex, relationship between people
of the same age genre
Four Basic Forms of Plays
• Tragedy
▫ Death, darkness and foreshadowing
▫ Sometimes only the ending is what
qualifies the play to be tragic (like
Romeo & Juliet)
• Romance
▫ The relationships between mostly
father and daughter – her growing up,
and his inability to let her grow up
Theatre/Drama
On paper, his work is just literature…
the live performance of this literature is
what creates actual drama and makes his
work understandable.
These works were DESIGNED to be read
out loud. If you are not reading this work
out loud, the point gets muddled.
Theatre/Drama
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The following help create drama:
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Tone, diction: the way actors speak
Body language: the method in which
bodies move and portray emotion
Comic jokes: meant to lighten any
situation
Actions made: sword fights, crossing
the stage, screaming, etc.
Theatre/Drama
• Additional Factors in Drama
▫ Background action: people eating
dinner, dancing, etc.
▫ Monologues: a person moving to the
front of the stage to say something only
you and I hear
▫ Costumes and sets: the outfits and the
backgrounds
▫ Fights: highly choreographed violence
Elizabethan Stage / The Globe Theatre
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No roof, plays were done during the day to
utilize as much natural daylight as possible
Actors were often in a center stage pressed on
the back wall, while the audience surrounded
them
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This meant that actors had to move constantly
and had to address different angles of the
audience
If the audience was neglected, problems arised
Elizabethan Stage
• Most commonly played on THE GLOBE
THEATRE
• Cost a penny to be standing on the ground, this
was often a full day’s work
• Seats on the tiers cost tuppence to four pence (a
month’s amount of work)
Elizabethan Stage
• Held up to 2,500 people
• Stage was covered, as were tier seats
• Those on the ground had no cover from sun or
rain
• It was always a spectacle – people above and
below the stage for special effects
▫ Even used a sewn up pig’s bladder for blood!
Elizabethan Stage
Elizabethan Stage
Elizabethan Stage
• Shakespeare wrote the play, but had no more
authority than that
▫ Actors, upon receiving the script, could change and
alter everything in the script to ensure the play
worked while on stage
• We have no idea how roles were selected, directors
directed, etc. The records are all gone.
▫ We don’t even know if they had prompters or if they
knew how to improvise
Elizabethan Stage
• They would play the same play twice in
a row, and during the course of a week
would perform six different plays
▫ It was all situational: weather, audience,
authority, etc.
• Some days, it worked. Other days, it
failed miserably.
Elizabethan Stage
• These people had memorized
THOUSANDS of lines, and knew the roles
over nearly 18 different characters!
• Mostly, the troupes consisted of SEVEN
people total!
• Really consider this feat: seven people
total would perform plays that
would have nearly 20 characters!
Fun Fact: Dialogue
• What you read is NOT how they spoke in that era,
they spoke a form of English that you could easily
understand today
• The language in Shakespeare’s poems and plays
were simply a formality
▫ They did not walk around saying “Thou art” or
“thine”… remember that as you read!
▫ Likewise, you have to READ these out loud. Take
your time and really try to decipher what they are
saying. Don’t immediately say “I don’t get it.” You
can get it if you take the time to get it.
William
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare: Background Info
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1564-1616: Approximate dates
Birth year is debated, as records were not as
accurate as today
Church records show he was born in Stratford
on Avon, Trinity Church
Parents: John Shakespeare and Mary Arden
William Shakespeare: Background Info
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1582: Shakespeare is 18 and marries Anne
Hathaway who is 26 (probably was an
arranged marriage)
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Left questions to consider: why was she so late
getting married? Why does he marry so early?
Their ages should be reversed.
William Shakespeare: Background Info
• She was pregnant when they wed
▫ Statistics show that nearly 1/3 of women were
pregnant on their wedding day
▫ If she was not pregnant, it was not a “good
sign” that the groom’s family would have an
heir.
• They had a daughter (Susanne) in 1582, and
then twins (Hamnet and Judith) in 1585
William Shakespeare: Background Info
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He had basic reading skills (the Bible and some
Latin), basic mathematics
There is no proof that Shakespeare was taught
how to write.
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Leaves the question: how can one of the greatest
writers in the world not know how to write?
William Shakespeare: Background Info
• There are no records to show writing ambition,
he simply showed up in London in 1592 to write
▫ We don’t know why he left his family, but we know
it happened in 1592 because we have articles from
other playwrights hated him (the theory is because
his son died)
William Shakespeare: Background Info
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Writing begins…
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Started writing comedies (they were awful)
Progressed to histories (takes place in early
English history; civil wars predating Henry VII)
England’s history and monarchy IS important
when it comes to this subject!
How he wrote was directly impacted by who was
King or Queen, or what the official religion was…
William Shakespeare: Background Info
• He NEVER wrote about the current historical
times….
▫ He did this intentionally: if you talked about
Elizabethan times, you could upset the audience as
they were all aware there was no heir.
▫ If Elizabeth caught wind of this, she would cut off
your hand leaving you unable to write
• It was a matter of safety for his own life
• He also found that you could draw on history, play
it up and enjoy success
William Shakespeare: Background Info
• 1594-1612: writes plays, but we have no idea of
what order they came in
• After Elizabeth’s death, he focused mostly on
tragedies
▫ King Lear, MacBeth, Romeo & Juliet
• As he ages, his works become darker and darker
William Shakespeare: Background Info
• The Romances (the last ones we know of) are
pretty dark, however still fit in the specific
genre as there is always some form of
reconciliation at the end
• Real life connection: there are no happy
families or couples in Shakespeare
literature
▫ Relate to authorial purpose:
 Is it to assume he did not know a happy married
life? We do not have those answers.
William Shakespeare: Background Info
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Financially…
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He owned 1/5 of the theatre
Never made a dime off his writings
1609: His sonnets are published (possibly
without consent)
1616: dies of natural causes (though that’s
speculated as well), his will still survives
Late 16th to Early 17th Century
England
Crucial cultural information that
pre-dates Shakespeare and ties it
all together!
Setting the Stage…
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Queen Elizabeth reigned from 1559-1603 (the
majority of Shakespeare’s life)
She was nervous the majority of her reign due to
a war with Spain in 1580s
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Simple reason: She was a woman leading a
kingdom
The word “kingdom” traditionally (throughout
history) has specific implications of being male
dominated
Women in Theatres
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Not officially in theatres, they were not
allowed; however, there were street
performers that were women
Important to know is that everything
Shakespeare did was witnessed by women
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The 15/16th century was a “man’s world”
Women were not allowed to act, to own land,
to have power, etc.
The only reason a woman was Queen was
because there was no other person in the
Tudor bloodline.
Church and Religion
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Christian church was split during
Shakespeare’s life (which lead to a crisis of
questioning which was the right way to
worship?)
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This is in large part Anne Boleyn and Henry
VIII: Elizabeth’s parents
The churches were torn between Protestant
and Catholicism – and it changed depending
how the monarchy changed
Patriarchal Society
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All was ruled by the “father”
Patri is derivative of a Greek word, meaning
“father”
Archy is derivative of another Greek work,
meaning “power”
Literally translates to “father power”
Patriarchal Society
• The ranks of power literally looked like this:
Father to oldest son to other children to women
• Kings were “monarchs” – they were, essentially,
the father of the country
▫ Again – this is why Queen Elizabeth had so many
problems… she was a woman ruling during a time
when males were supposed to have supreme
power.
Patriarchal Society
• “1 God, 1 King”: The universe is ruled by 1 person,
which means that the country should be ruled by 1
person as well
▫ This was the “common logic” of that time.
• The general belief is that God anointed the ruler of
England (he or she was hand selected by God,
which left little room for debate regardless if he or
she was a good ruler)
• It was a natural concept designed by
nobility to allow the elitists to govern
Welcome to Shakespeare’s World
• Prepare for drama at its
absolute finest:
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Murder
Requited love
Suicide
Family problems