The Man, The Myth, The Legend The Torture-er of Freshmen Everywhere…

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

The Torture-er of Freshmen Everywhere…

William Shakespeare

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Well-known Facts about Will

• Great writer of England

• Plays translated into all languages, musicals, ballets

• Born Stratford-upon-Avon

• Well-to-do, affluent while alive

• Most quoted, other than the Bible

Lesser-known Facts

• Teen father: married pregnant 26 year old Anne Hathaway when he was 18

• Deadbeat dad: Left wife and children for London stage career

• Father of twins• Elizabethan rapper: uses rhythm and rhyme

• “Plagiarism”?

The Competition

• Bear-baiting• Races• Gambling• Music• Drinking/Socializing

• Public executions

Conditions in London-NOT Pretty!

• Thames River polluted with raw sewage

• Trees used up for fuel

• Poverty

Personal hygiene/health

• Bathing considered dangerous

• Body odor!!• Children often died before 5 years

• Small pox• Bubonic Plague

• Ugly!

Living Conditions

• No running water

• Chamber pots• Open sewers• Crowded

Clothes

• One set used all year long, rarely washed

• Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed

• Clothes handed down from rich to poor

Theater in London

• Performed in courtyards of inns

• Daytime/open air• Limited set design

• Relied on music, sound, costumes, props and great description

The Globe

• Built in 1599• Across the Thames- “Wrong side of town”

• King’s Players- Shakespeare’s company

• Penny admission

Actors

• All men• Female parts played by young boys

• No actual hugging or kissing on stage

• Viewers threw rotten fruit if unpleased.

“Romeo and Juliet”

• Tragedy• Written in 1595• Set in Verona, Italy

• Themes: parental control vs. rebellious teens; fate vs. free will; impulsive behavior vs. self-control

Play’s source

• Borrowed from a poem by Brooke-1562

• Poem found in French translation by Brooke

• Shakespeare gave the story new life and beauty

Tragedy

• Focuses on an individual, concentrating on the suffering of a single, remarkable hero- leading to individual torment, waste and death

• Will not have a happy ending

Terms• Prose- language without metrical structure

• Verse-poetic language and style• Verse will correspond with station: rich ppl speak rhyme. Poor ppl don’t.

• Look out for: Similes, metaphors, personification, foresadowing, irony, puns, odymorons. --it’s ALL deliberate!

Understanding the Bard

• Unusual Word Order• I ate the banana.• Ate the banana I.• The banana I ate.• I the banana ate.• Ate I the banana.• The banana ate I.

• Uses this to emphasize an action, a word, an emotion or just to create a rhythm.

Sonnet

• Poem form consisting of 14 lines

• Each line has ten stressed and unstressed syllables known as iambic pentameter

• Rhyme scheme- ear rhyme (increase/decrease) or eye rhyme (compare/are)

• If it’s square…it’s a sonnet

Sonnet

• a b a b c d c d e f e f g g scheme

• Three quatrains (sets of four lines) followed by a couplet (set of two lines)

• Generally deal with Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity

• VIP to notice when Shakespeare uses sonnets in the play.

Questions to Ponder

• 1. Is the play truly a tragedy?• 2. How powerful is the role of fate?• 3. How much of your destiny can you control?

• 4. Does love really conquer all? Is love enough?

• 5. How do my decisions affect others and am I responsible for that?

What’s Next

• Homework• Read through Act I scene I in your text book.

• Fill in timeline and character chart

• In class: PROLOGUE