shakespeare plays

INTRODUCTION ON William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare A famous and

influential author in English literature

His actual date of birth remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day

DO YOU KNOW

William Shakespeare’s life As a child William was sent to the local

grammar school that he had attended for six years. He studied Latin and Greek and read widely the books current in his day. When Shakespeare was fourteen, his father fell into debt, and the boy probably left school and became a country schoolmaster to help support his family. In 1582, William Shakespeare, then eighteen, was married to Anne Hathaway, eight years of his elder. Six months later, Susanna was born; in 1585, their twins, Hamnet and Judith, were baptized.

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England'snational poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses

Fact : William Shakespeare was the only member of his family that could read or write!

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool." William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Born Baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date unknown)Stratford-upon-Avon,Warwickshire, West Midlands,England

Died 23 April 1616 (aged 52)Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

Occupation Playwright, poet, actor

Period English Renaissance,Elizabethan Era

Spouse Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)

Children Susanna Hall Hamnet Shakespeare Judith Quiney

Before moving to London to become an actor at age 21. Shakespeare wrote different genres of plays throughout his career, starting out mainly with comedies and histories before moving on to tragedies as he grew older.

William Shakespeare was a very well-known character in Tudor England. It is thought that Elizabeth I was a fan of his plays.

 Some of Shakespeare’s better known plays include ‘Romeo & JULIET’, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.

His Script Style

Shakespeare comedies Tragedy And romance in his plays are popular Tragedy is about the break-up of civilization.Comedy is about the establishment of social harmony.Both are dramatic terms of art: thus “tragedy” is not the same as “horrible” and comedies can be bittersweet as well as funny. Drama is not life, but ritual: thus Shakespeare ends comedies in weddings as a sign, not a proof, of social stability, for example, 3 weddings in the Midsummers Night Dreams

TRAGEDIES

A tragedy is a dramatic play of human actions that produces exceptional suffering, ending in the death

of a tragic hero.A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy

who makes an error in his actions that leads to his or her downfall. It can also be a flawed character

trait.

Shakespearean dramaIn a Shakespearean drama, each of the five

acts corresponds with the following five components.

1. Introduction2. Complication3. Climax4. Falling Action5. Catastrophe

Shakespeare’s Language

•Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English”

•Old English is the language of Beowulf:Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunonHu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!

Shakespeare’s Language•Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English”

•Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, and Malory:

We redeth oft and findeth y-write—And this clerkes wele it wite—Layes that ben in harpingBen y-founde of ferli thing… (Sir Orfeo)

Shakespeare’s Language

•Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English”

•EME was not very different from “Modern English,” except that it had some old holdovers.

•Beginning about 200 years before Shakespeare, and largely complete by his day, long vowel pronunciation shifted: ex: good, name, life

Shakespeare’s Language•Shakespeare coined many words we still use today:• Critical• Majestic• Dwindle

And quite a few phrases as well:• One fell swoop• Flesh and blood• Vanish into thin air

Poems In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on erotic themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucerne. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucerne, the virtuous wife Lucerne is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.

The End

* Actor

* Playwright

* Poet

Died April 23, 1616 -52

PRESENTATION IS DONE BYANUSHKA

ANSHULDEEPUJAYASIMHA REDDYGAUTAM