Introduction to Shakespeare

Shakespeare

Introduction:

Shakespeare (W. William Shakespeare; 1564～1616) original name: Edward De Vere, 1564 AD Born in Stratford, England on April 23, 1616 - May 3, 1616 (April 23 in the Julian calendar), he is a famous British playwright and poet. His main works include "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet" and "Michael "White" etc.

Life

The great British playwright and poet William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick County, central England, in 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a grocer operating wool, leather manufacturing and grain businesses. He was appointed town civil officer in 1565 and was elected mayor three years later. Shakespeare studied at a local grammar school as a child. Historian George Stevenson said that later generations can roughly outline Shakespeare's life trajectory from these written materials: when he was 13 years old, his family fell into ruin, and then he dropped out of school to go into business. At the age of 22, he went to London, worked in the theater, and later became an actor. and playwright; returned to his hometown in 1597 to buy real estate and spend the last days of his life. Although he received a good basic education, he never went to college. In 1582, when he was 18 years old, he listed Shakespeare's plays before he was 35 years old and praised his comedies and tragedies as "unparalleled" and that he could be regarded as the first-class drama poets in ancient times. But he never published any of his plays during his lifetime. In 1596, he applied for the title of "gentleman" and the right to own a coat of arms in his father's name, and purchased considerable real estate three times. In 1603, when James I succeeded to the throne, his troupe was renamed the "King's Troupe", and he and the actors in the troupe were appointed as chamberlains. Around 1612 he bid farewell to London and returned to his hometown to settle down. He died of illness on April 23, 1616 and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in the town. He left a will before his death. Two of his portraits that are said to be more reliable are the bust in the church and the portrait of Drochot, and the handwriting has 6 signatures and three pages of the play "Sir Thomas More". In 1623, actors J. Heming and H. Condale printed his plays into a folio, which included 36 plays (20 of which were printed for the first time), known as the "First Folio". Since 1772, some people have continuously raised questions about the author of Shakespeare's plays, and tried to prove that the author was Bacon, C. Marlowe, Earl of Letland, Earl of Oxford, Earl of Derby, etc., but there is a lack of evidence.

Shakespeare lived in London for more than twenty years, during which time his wife remained in Stratford. Nearing the age of destiny, he retired and returned to his hometown of Stratford (around 1612). Shakespeare died unfortunately around his fifty-second birthday in 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church. He left a will before his death. Two of his portraits that are said to be more reliable are the bust in the church and the portrait of Drochot, and the handwriting has 6 signatures and three pages of the play "Sir Thomas More". In 1623, actors J. Heming and H. Condale printed his plays into a folio, which included 36 plays (20 of which were printed for the first time), known as the "First Folio".

Works

Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays in more than 20 years from about 1590 to 1612 (such as "The Two Noblesse" co-written with Fletcher) "Mother" is thirty-eight volumes), and also contains two long poems and one hundred and fifty-four sonnets. His plays are mostly based on existing materials such as historical records, novels, folklore and old plays, reflecting the historical reality of the transition from feudal society to capitalist society, and promoting the humanitarian thoughts and humanistic views of the emerging bourgeoisie. On the one hand, he extensively drew on ancient dramas, British medieval dramas, and emerging European culture and art. On the other hand, he deeply observed life, understood society, and grasped the pulse of the times. Therefore, Shakespeare was able to create many lifelike characters and depict a vast and colorful world. It is a picture of social life and is famous for its blend of sorrow and joy, rich in poetry and imagination, unity in contradictions and changes, and rich in philosophy of life and critical spirit.

Generally speaking, Shakespeare's drama creation can be divided into the following three periods:

The first period (1590-1600) mainly wrote historical dramas and comedies, with 9 historical dramas. , 10 comedies and 2 tragedies.

Among the 9 historical dramas, except "King John" which is about the history of England in the early 13th century, the other 8 dramas are two tetralogy with connected contents: "Henry VI" Parts 1, 2 and "Charlie III"; Charles II", "Henry IV" Parts 1 and 2 and "Henry V". These historical dramas summarized the turmoil in British history for more than a hundred years and created a series of positive and negative monarch images. They reflected Shakespeare's opposition to feudal separatism, support of centralization, condemnation of tyrants' tyranny, and demand for enlightened monarchs to carry out top-down reforms and establish The humanist political and moral ideal of harmonious social relations.

10 Comedies "The Comedy of Errors", "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "Love's Labour's Labour", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Merchant of Venice", "Windsor" "The Merry Wives", "Much Ado About Nothing", "As You Like It" and "Twelfth Night" mostly take love, friendship and marriage as their themes. The protagonists are mostly young men and women with humanistic wisdom and virtue, through whom they strive for freedom and happiness. Struggle, praising progress and beautiful new people and new trends, while also gently exposing and ridiculing the decay and ugliness of old things, such as the hypocrisy of asceticism, the hypocrisy of Puritans, and the greed of loan sharks. The basic mood of Shakespeare's drama creation during this period was optimistic and clear, and full of confidence in solving social conflicts with humanistic ideals. Even the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" written in this period was also permeated with a comic atmosphere. Although the protagonist died for love, the ideal of love defeated death and led to the reconciliation of feudal feuds. However, the later mature comedy "The Merchant of Venice" in this period also contains melancholy and tragic elements. While advocating benevolence, friendship and sincere love, it also reflects the class oppression and racial discrimination issues of the weak and the strong in Christian society. It shows that the author has gradually realized that there is an insoluble contradiction between ideal and reality.

The second period (1601-1607) was dominated by tragedy, and he wrote 3 Roman plays, 5 tragedies and 3 "dark comedies" or "problem plays".

The Roman dramas "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus" are based on Plutarch's "The Heroes of Greece and Rome" historical drama.

The four major tragedies "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth" and the tragedy "Timon of Athens" mark the author's in-depth thinking on the times and life, and his efforts to shape It contains some tragic heroes of the new era: they woke up from the imprisonment and ignorance of the Middle Ages, and under the dawn of modern times, they ambitiously wanted to develop or improve themselves, but they could not overcome the limitations of the times and themselves, and finally found themselves in the same environment. In the struggle against the disparity in power between the hostile forces within, he suffered inevitable defeat and sacrifice. In order to avenge his father, Hamlet found that "the whole era was out of joint" and decided to take up the responsibility of "rearranging the world". The result was that he had empty ambitions and was unable to recover. Othello is an upright and honest man who trusts people but hates evil as much as he hates evil. He killed his wife and himself under the influence of an adulterer. In pursuit of the best and the most beautiful, he suffered evil retribution. King Lear lost his nature and reason in the honor, pride, and self-confidence that power brought to him. He imagined that by giving up power and dividing the country to prove that he was not a king but an ordinary person, he could be the same or greater, so he suffered A painful ordeal. Macbeth was originally a meritorious hero with a kind and beautiful side to his character. However, driven by the temptation of the throne and his ambition, he became a sinner "from blood to blood" and regretful. The tragedies of these characters profoundly reveal the various social evils and bourgeois egoism that have begun to appear during the period of primitive accumulation of capital, and show the irreconcilable contradiction between humanistic ideals and cruel reality, which has a high degree of general significance.

Due to the enhanced depth of thought and realism in the plays of this period, "comedies" such as "Troilus and Cressida", "Marriage at Last" and "Tit for Tat" It also reveals its dark side, shrouded in the evil shadow of betrayal and intrigue, so it is called a "problem drama" or a "dark comedy."

The third period (1608-1613) tended to be tragicomedy or legendary dramas of compromise and fantasy.

The main works are four tragicomedies or legendary dramas: "Prince of Tire", "Cymbeline", "The Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest". These works mostly deal with separation, reunion, frame-up, and reconciliation.

Although it still adheres to humanistic ideals and reveals the dark reality, the resolution of conflicts mainly relies on magic, fantasy, coincidence and accidental events, and ends with the promotion of forgiveness, tolerance, compromise and reconciliation. Shakespeare also collaborated with Fletcher to write the historical drama "Henry VIII" and the legendary drama "Two Noble Kinsmen", the latter of which has been included in some Shakespeare drama collections in recent years.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was the most important writer in England and Europe during the Renaissance. He was born into a merchant family in Stratford, central England. As a boy, he received basic education at a local grammar school, studied Latin, philosophy and history, and was exposed to the works of ancient Roman playwrights. Later, due to his family's financial difficulties, he dropped out of school to make a living. When Shakespeare was a child, famous theater troupes often toured the countryside for performances, which cultivated his interest in drama. Around 1585, he left his hometown and went to London. He first worked as an oddball in the theater, and later became an actor, and then adapted and wrote scripts. In addition to participating in performances and screenwriting, Shakespeare also had extensive contact with society, often traveling to the court or the countryside with theater troupes. These experiences expanded his horizons and laid the foundation for his creations. The period from 1590 to 1600 was the early period of Shakespeare's creation, also known as the historical drama and comedy period. During this period, Shakespeare's humanistic thoughts and artistic style gradually took shape. At that time, Britain was in the heyday of Queen Elizabeth's rule, with a stable and unified royal power and a prosperous economy. Shakespeare was full of confidence in realizing humanistic ideals in real society, and his works are full of optimism and clarity. During this period, he wrote 9 historical plays including "Richard III" (1592), "Henry IV" (Part 1 and 2) (1597-1598) and "Henry V" (1599). The basic theme of the script is to support the central royal power, condemn feudal tyrants and praise enlightened monarchs. For example, "Henry IV" shows a turbulent domestic situation. The nobles united to rebel against the king, but the rebellion was eventually put down; the crown prince lived a dissolute life in the early days, but later realized his mistakes and made great achievements in quelling the civil strife. In the play, historical facts and artistic fiction are highly unified. Among the characters, Falstaff is the most vivid. He is selfish, lazy, and timid, but he is also alert, clever, and optimistic, which makes people laugh.

The comedies created during this period include the poetic "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1596), "The Merchant of Venice" (1597) which promotes good and punishes evil, and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" which reflects the life and customs of the citizens. " (1598), "Much Ado About Nothing" (1599), which promotes chaste love, and "Twelfth Night" (1600), which praises love and explores human nature. The basic themes of these plays are love, marriage and friendship, with a strong lyrical color, expressing Shakespeare's humanistic ideals of life. At the same time, he also wrote three tragedies including "Romeo and Juliet" (1595). Although the works have a sad side, their basic spirit is the same as that of comedy. Shakespeare also wrote long poems "Venus and Adonis" (1592-1593), "The Humiliation of Lucrece" (1593-1594) and 154 sonnets. At the beginning of the 17th century, the regimes of Queen Elizabeth and James I alternated. British social conflicts intensified and social ugliness was increasingly exposed. During this period, Shakespeare's thoughts and art matured, and humanistic ideals collided fiercely with social reality. He felt that his ideals were difficult to realize, and his creations changed from praising humanistic ideals in his early days to exposing and criticizing the darkness of society. The second period of Shakespeare's creation (1601-1607), also known as the tragic period. He wrote famous works such as "Hamlet" (1601), "Othello" (1604), "King Lear" (1606), "Macbeth" (1606) and "Timon of Athens" (1607). tragedy. In "Othello", Desdemona, who was born into a noble family, secretly married the Moor Othello despite the opposition of her father and society, which showed the theme of opposing racial prejudice, and the cause of their tragedy was not only Othello's Jealousy, and the power of evil represented by Iago. Othello's clarity before his death contains the victory of human reason. What is shown in "King Lear" is a disintegrated society. King Lear paid the price with his life because of his own willfulness, and also brought huge disasters to the country and people. The protagonist changes from a feudal monarch with absolute authority to a penniless and homeless old man. The character's destiny and personality undergo a huge change, which is the most distinctive in Shakespeare's works.

Generally speaking, these tragedies have made in-depth exposures to the decadence and decline of feudal aristocrats, the appalling egoism, the sins of money relations, and the suffering of the working people; in terms of style, the atmosphere of romance and joy has decreased, and the mood of melancholy and indignation has increased, and the image Fuller, more proficient in language.

After 1608, Shakespeare entered the final period of his creation. At this time, Shakespeare had seen that the ideal of humanism could not be realized in the real society, so he turned from writing tragedies to writing legendary plays, and from exposing and criticizing the darkness of real society to writing about the dream world. Therefore, this period is also called Shakespeare's legendary drama period. During this period, his works often used mythical fantasy and supernatural power to resolve the contradiction between ideals and reality; the works run through the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation, without the joy in the early stage or the gloom in the middle stage, but full of Beautiful fantasy of life, rich in romance. "The Tempest" (1611) best represents the style of this period and has been called "a testament written in verse". In addition, he also wrote three legendary dramas including "Cymbeline" and "The Winter's Tale" and the historical drama "Henry VIII".

In "Macbeth", a heroic character becomes a personal careerist and tyrant due to inner ambition and external instigation. The tragic implication is that personal ambition and self-interest can destroy a character who was not originally evil. Shakespeare's works are based on real life and profoundly reflect the style of the times and the nature of society. He believes that drama "seems to hold up a mirror to nature: to show virtue its own face, to show absurdity its own posture, and to show its own image and imprint on the times and society." Marx and Engels praised Shakespeare as a classic writer of realism and proposed that drama creation should be more "Shakespearean". This is a creative principle proposed in response to the shortcoming of "turning the individual into a mere mouthpiece for the spirit of the times" in drama creation.

The so-called "Shakespeareanization" requires writers, like Shakespeare, to be good at starting from the reality of life, showing a broad social background, and providing the characters and events in the work with a typical environment rich in the characteristics of the times; the plot of the work It should be vivid and rich, and the characters should have distinct personalities and typical significance; the realistic depiction and romantic atmosphere in the work should be skillfully combined; the language should be rich and expressive; the writer's tendency should be reflected in the plot and description of the characters Concealed and revealed naturally.

Shakespeare's works include:

Tragedies: "Romeo and Juliet", "Macbeth", "King Lear", "Hamlet", "Othello", "Titus?" "Andronicus", "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra (Cleopatra)", "Coriolanus", "The Siege of Troy", "Timon of Athens", etc. .

Comedy: "The Wrong One", "We Are Married", "As You Like It", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Much Ado About Nothing", "Tit for Tat", "The Tempest", "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Twelfth" "Night", "The Merchant of Venice", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "Love's Labour's Labour", "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "Pericles, Prince of Tire", "Cymbeline", "The Winter's Tale", etc.

Historical dramas: "Henry IV", "Henry V", "Henry VI", "Henry VIII", "King John", "Richard II", "Richard III"

Sonnets: "The Lover's Complaint", "Lucrece's Lost Virginity", "Venus and Adonis", "The Passionate Pilgrim", "The Phoenix and the Turtle Dove",