Shakespeare

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Shakespeare!!
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Who was William Shakespeare?

• An English playwright and poet
• Lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s
• His plays are now performed all over the world in
  hundreds of languages.
• He is known as one of the greatest writers of all
  time.

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Why is his work so popular?

• Shakespeare wrote about human nature and how
  people behave.
• Although his words can be hard to understand, his
  ideas are as relevant now as they were four
  centuries ago.

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Shakespeares Works

• At least two of his plays have been lost, but 38
  survive.
• Two of these, Henry VIII and The Two Noble
  Kinsmen, were co-written with John Fletcher.
• The other 36 are divided into comedies, tragedies
  and histories.

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Shakespeares Works

• No one knows exactly when each of his works was
  written there are approximate dates.
• Some experts have even said that Shakespeares
  plays are really the work of other writers.
• This may be because some people cannot believe
  that Shakespeare, who came from an ordinary
  background, could have written such great works
  of literature.

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Performing Shakespeare

• Whenever a new production of a Shakespeare play
  is staged, directors, designers and actors think
  of new interpretations, or ways to understand and
  present it.
• Plays can be performed in modern dress, or set in
  any historical period
• Directors sometimes cut or change the text of a
  play. The same scene can be funny, frightening,
  or exciting, depending on how the stage is set
  and how the actors say the words.

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Shakespeares Language

• The way people spoke 400 years ago was different
  from the way we speak now, and Shakespeares
  language can be hard to understand.
• Most editions of his works help by providing
  notes which explain the meanings of words and
  phrases.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Life in Elizabethan England could be cruel and
  hard. The poor often went hungry, disease was
  widespread, medical remedies often felt more like
  tortures, and many women died in childbirth. But
  through their beliefs, people found ways of
  making sense of their existence.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Religion
• People were, in general, much more religious than
  people today.
• Almost everyone believed in God and expected to
  go to heaven or hell after death.
• At this time, England was a Protestant country
  it had broken away from the Catholic Church of
  Rome. This was part of the European movement
  called the Reformation, which began with attacks
  on corruption in the Catholic Church.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• The Chain of Being
• A concept inherited from the Middle Ages
• An attempt to give order, or degree, to the
  vastness of creation.
• God created everything in a strict hierarchy, or
  chain, that stretched from God himself down to
  the lowest things in existence.
• Humans occupied a place in the chain below the
  angels but above animals, plants and stones.
  Some humans were higher in the chain than others.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• The Chain of Being, cont.
• The monarch was the highest
• Nobles and churchmen below
• Gentlemen
• Commoners
• All women were considered to be inferior to men,
  with the obvious exception of Elizabeth I.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Chain of Being, cont.
• Accepting ones place in the chain was a duty
  that would be rewarded by God in heaven.
• Disrupting the chain was thought to lead to
  chaos, but of course many people still did
  challenge their position in society.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Myths and Magic
• Fairies, magic, witches, spells and prophecies
  all formed part of their view of life.
• Folklore and superstition were often as important
  to people as the official religious beliefs
  taught by the Church.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Myths and Magic, cont.
• Many Elizabethans thought that fairies and
  goblins came out at night to play tricks on
  innocent people.
• It was believed they could make people go insane,
  give them terrible nightmares, or even lure them
  into a devilish underworld.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Myths and Magic, cont.
• Diseases and disasters were often blamed on
  witches
• Many women who didnt fit into society were
  branded as witches and accused of working for the
  devil.
• Astrology the belief that the position and
  movement of the stars can foretell and influence
  events on Earth - was more important than it is
  today.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• Until the mid-16th century, most plays were
  performed outside London.
• Craftsmen or tradespeople put on traditional
  plays and on village greens
• As it grew in size and importance, London became
  the center of English theatre.
• While hugely popular, it was not, at first,
  considered a very respectable pastime most of
  the theatres were in the rougher parts of town.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• The first London theatre was called The Theatre,
  built in 1576.
• The Rose 1587
• The Swan 1595
• All were deliberately built outside the City
  limits, so they were free from the restrictions
  of City regulations.
• Queen Elizabeth I loved the theatre and often
  held performances of plays at her court.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• In London, plays were put on by theatre companies
• By law, a company had to have a patron to
  support it financially. The company was named
  after its patron.
• Shakespeare spent much of his career with a
  company called Chamberlains Men.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• The audience
• It was an entertainment for everyone, like movies
  today.
• The cheapest tickets cost a penny, which most
  ordinary people could afford.
• Because of the crowds, theatres were popular with
  thieves and pickpockets.
• People jeered at the actors and shouted out rude
  remarks
• Some even climbed onto the stage and joined in
  with swordfights.
• People also brought food with them to eat during
  the performance, or to throw at bad actors.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• Stagecraft
• Special effects and scenery did not play a big
  part in Elizabethan theatre.
• Musicians provided sound effects with drums and
  trumpets.
• Actors often wore extravagant, showy costumes.
• Audiences were expected to use their imaginations
  for different locations and backgrounds.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• Plague and Players
• Theatres were closed during severe outbreaks of
  plague they thought it spread more quickly in
  crowds
• Many companies left London for tours of the
  countryside.
• Players often had to sell their costumes and
  scripts in order to survive.
• Some Puritans believed that plague was sent by
  God as a punishment for the wickedness of
  theatre-going.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• Shakespeares Players
• He is thought to have joined the theatre as an
  actor and become a writer later.
• It was normal for actors to help write plays or
  change them a lot during rehearsal.
• Actors often specialized in one type of part
  tragic hero, clown, etc.
• There were no actresses. Womens roles were
  played by boys. Women did not act on stage until
  the Restoration. (1660s)

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The Globe Theatre

• From 1599 onwards, Shakespeares plays were
  usually performed at the Globe, a huge, open-air,
  circular theatre.
• It could hold 3000 people, and there were two
  performances a day.
• Along with other members of his theatre company,
  Chamberlains Men, Shakespeare owned a share in
  the Globe and made a lot of money from it.
• Shakespeares writing may sometimes reflect the
  design of the theatre. Some of the lines in his
  plays have three parts, or a word repeated three
  times. At the Globe, this allowed an actor to
  address the audience on all three sides of the
  thrust stage.

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What kind of plays?

• During Shakespeares career, fashions and tastes
  in drama changed.
• He wrote mostly comedies and history plays during
  the Elizabethan period 1558-1603
• Tragedies and tragicomedies during the reign of
  King James 1603-1625

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What Kind of Plays?

• Tragedy
• Ends in the death of one or more of the main
  characters.
• Most of his tragedies involve historical
  individuals and events

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What Kind of Plays?

• Comedy
• Usually has a happy ending
• Can also include jokes, farce and innuendo
• His are usually love stories
• Settings are far away from England

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What Kind of Plays?

• Tragicomedy
• A mixture of tragedy and comedy
• Seems to move toward a tragic ending but a twist
  in the plot saves the characters.

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What Kind of Plays?

• History plays
• Usually tell the stories of great leaders and
  kings
• He sometimes altered what he found in the history
  books to suit his own dramatic purposes and make
  the plays more exciting.

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Tragedies

• Shakespeares most famous and popular plays
• Romeo and Juliet Macbeth Hamlet Othello King
  Lear Julius Caesar

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Doom and Destiny

• Many people believed in fate, or destiny, and in
  the power of the stars to foretell the future.
• Shakespeare uses the idea of fate or destiny to
  add excitement and anticipation to the tragedies
• Uses a prophecy as a way of holding the
  audiences interest, because everyone wants to
  see if it will be fulfilled.

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Tragic Endings

• Tragedies give a very bleak view of the world.
• At the end, the hero, and usually several other
  characters, are dead, and the survivors are left
  to start again without them.
• Although most tragic heroes are partly to blame
  for their own fates, death can be a very high
  price to pay for what may have seemed initially
  like a small failing.
• In most tragedies, there is also a feeling that
  some good may have come out of the terrible
  suffering.
• At the end of Romeo and Juliet, because the
  families fighting has partly caused the tragedy,
  they finally resolve to end their feud.

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The Roman Tragedies

• Julius Caesar deals with political power
• The hero is a state leader who has a
  responsibility to the people.
• Tragedy results when he fails to meet his
  responsibilities.
• These plays are not just about politics. They
  are full of personal emotions, dramatic power
  struggles, and brilliant writing, including some
  of the most famous writing in Shakespeares
  plays.

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The Roman Tragedies

• Two Themes
• Politics and Power shows how hard it is to be a
  political leader. The hero has power, but has a
  weakness which makes him vulnerable to being
  attacked or overthrown
• Love and Duty people often have to make
  difficult choices between their emotions and
  their responsibilities