Shakespeare

1
Shakespeare

• An Introduction
• Renaissance culture,
• Shakespeares theater
• and main characters

2
Dominant Renaissance World Views

• Great Chain of Being
• Belief structure from middle ages
• Came from Ptolemaic system with earth at the
  center
  
• Hierarchical system with God and angels above,
  man in the middle, and animals, plants, minerals
  on the bottom.
  
• Within each species, same hierarchy, with King on
  the top, then nobles, moneyed middle-class, then
  peasants

3
Dominant Renaissance World Views

• Great Chain of Being
• System of Order, corresponding with belief in
  predestination, God has plan for world
  
• Order can be thrown into chaos if hierarchy not
  adhered to, if subjects rebel against monarch,
  sons against fathers
  
• Suggests everyone has purpose or role in life,
  should use reason and/or to find and fulfill
  purpose

4
Dominant Renaissance World Views

• Humanist views
• To the Christian belief system, the Renaissance
  added the Humanist beliefs of self-determinism.
  
• There was still an Ideal beyond the world as we
  know it, but we were to strive to reach that
  Ideal (or at least be worthy of it)
  
• Thus two supposed opposites, predestination and
  free will, were combined in the Renaissance
  Christian Humanist belief system
  
• The Renaissance Christian Humanists purpose was
  to make of himself his ideal Self

5
Dominant Renaissance World Views

• Christian Humanist
• History as moral lesson
• Overarching plan
• Great Chain of Being
• Nature understood through Bible
• language metaphor

• Machiavellian
• History as natural cycle
• Chance or fortune
• Man makes own place
• Nature understood by logic, reason
• language scientific

6
Dominant Renaissance World Views

• Language
• Renaissance Christian Humanist -- poetry
• Metaphoric or figurative language used to
  illustrate place in hierarchies
  
• Since Sun and King are on top of their respective
  groups, they are joined together through metaphor
  Metaphoric or figurative language used to
  illustrate place in hierarchies
• Machiavellian prose
• Scientific, logical language used to show
  importance of reason

7
Dominant Renaissance World Views

• Christian Humanist
• State microcosm of Divine world
• Divine Right of Kings
• Time and change moving toward perfection
  vertical concept of time
  
• Identity is temporal role moving toward spiritual
  essence (Ideal Self).

• Machiavellian
• State/politics based on power not right
  (privilege or correctness)
  
• Time and change cyclical, not advancing
• Identity plural, who we are in which situation or
  time, we can play many roles

8
The Great Chain of Being

• derived from Ptolemaic view of earth at center
• orderly universe, everything has place and
  purpose
  
• the hierarchies used in metaphoric language
• king associated with sun, lion, head, air
• antagonist associated with moon, snake, feet,
  earth
  
• reality tied with moral truth, what ought to be
• mans place in the world determined by birth
• belief in the guiding hand of Providence

9
Characters often found in Shakespeare plays

• the Fair
• past as heroic myth
• ideal world
• world of heroic action
• advice giving and tradition

• the Foul
• present as corrupt society
• unweeded garden
• world of Machiavellian intrigue
• spying and conflict

10
Characters often found in Shakespeare plays

• the Fair
• innocence and idealism
• belief and trust
• ideal character
• remembered past

• the Foul
• experience and cynicism
• suspicion and doubt
• malcontent, deceiver
• experienced present

11
Staging

• No set design -- actors must establish setting,
  time
  
• Few props -- actors must bring on throne, table,
  chair, then take them off stage again
  
• Stage has trap door, two entrances, balcony area

12
Staging

• If a character dies, Shakespeare must find a way
  to get the body off the stage
  
• Shakespeare must invent reason for characters to
  exit the stage
  
• The stage is a fixed place, so certain areas can
  be associated with a character

13
Reading the plays

• No Act, scene divisions originally, editors
  added
  
• Use of 5 acts is an editors choice
• could see all plays in three acts
• Act 1 -- introduces issues, ends in instigating
  event
  
• Act 2-4 -- develops issues and characters
• includes midpoint pivotal event
• includes second turning point
• Act 5 -- climax, resolves conflicts
• No stage directions (enter Hamlet), dialogue
  used

14
Reading the plays

• Conventionally important scenes
• Act 1, scene 2 ( or -) Court scene
• Introduce main characters, issues, themes
• Act 3, scene 2 ( or -) Court scene
• Climax, direction of plot turns toward inevitable
  end
  
• Act 5, scene 2 ( or -) Court scene
• Ending, all issues / themes resolved

15
Characters

• Primary
• dynamic, change
• complex, are revealed
• Protagonist
• Antagonist

• Secondary
• static, dont change
• simpler, stereotyped
• Reflective, reveal something about main characters

16
Plot structures

• Rise and Fall
• external / condition
• gaining/losing power
• internal / character
• become more aware
• become more complex
• less formal, fixed to role
• more analytical of self
• language less formal

17
Plot structures

• Main plot/subplot
• Main plot
• protagonist/antagonist
• court world/macrocosm
• major actions
• Subplot
• reflective characters, comment on main actions
• foiling with main characters
• private world/microcosm

Main plot
Subplot
Main
Sub
Main