William

1
William Shakespeare's World
To be, or not to be, that is the question...
This above all, to thine own self be true...
2
The Man That Would Be Shakespeare
William

• Born April 23rd, 1564
• Started out performing with The Lord
  Chamberlains Men
• Gave him a chance to write a play
• Henry IV, Pt. 1- It stunk but they gave him
  another shot

3

• Many playwrights with nowhere to play
• Barn turned into theatre (Yeah!)
• Puritans burn it down (Evil theatre! Boo!)
• Globe built! (Yeah!)
• Globe burns (sniff, darn cannon!)
• Globe rebuilt! (Yeah!)
• Globe burns (Dang that Fire of London!)

The Globe
Reconstructed in the 1990s
4

• Aristocrats
• The Queen/King
• The Groundlings!

5
When in a play...

• Only men were permitted to perform
• Boys or effeminate men were used to play the
  women
• Costumes were often the companys most valuable
  asset
• Costumes were made by the company, bought in
  London, or donated by courtiers

6
The Cost of a Show

• 1 shilling to stand
• 2 shillings to sit in the balcony
• 1 shilling was 10 of their weekly income
• Broadway Today
• 85 Orchestra
• 60 Balcony
• 10 of a teachers weekly salary

7
Macbeth
The tragedy of

• Set in Scotland
• Written for King James I (formerly of Scotland,
  now England)
• Queen of Denmark (Jamess sister) was visiting
• Shakespeare researched The Chronicles - Banquo is
  an ancestor of King James I

8

• King Duncan of Scotland
• Murdered by cousin Macbeth
• Honest and good
• Malcolm Donalbain
• Sons of the King
• Malcolm is the eldest son
• Macbeth
• Duncans most courageous general
• Ambition to become king corrupts him causing him
  to murder Duncan

The Characters
9

• Banquo
• General and Macbeths best friend
• Suspects Macbeth in Duncans murder
• An actual ancestor of King James I
• Lady Macbeth
• As ambitious as her husband
• A dark force behind his evil deeds
• Macduff
• Scottish general, suspects Macbeth of murdering
  the king
• Macbeth has his family murdered
• Swears vengeance

10
The Curse!
11
The Scottish Play

• It is believed to be bad luck to even squeak the
  word Macbeth in a theatre
• Legend has it you will lose all your friends
  involved in the production--horribly
• MORE ON THAT LATER...

12
The Tragic Hero
13

• In its simplest of definitions, a tragedy is a
  play that ends in death and violence. The best
  of the tragedies, however, do more than that.
  They affect our emotions by appealing to our
  pity and fear. We pity the outcome of the
  characters and yet -- at the same time -- we
  identify so closely with them that we fear the
  same circumstances could happen to us.
• Aristotilean Tragedies emphasize moral choices
  and are considered by scholars the most mature of
  the tragic dramas. According to this theory, the
  really powerful tragic hero is a person capable
  and culpable of both great good and great evil.
  The play emphasizes how the character moves from
  the one state to another. Othello is an excellent
  example here -- we are sympathetic to the main
  character but have to admit he is responsible for
  the death of his wife.
• Wheel-of-Fortune Tragedies deal with innocent
  victims caught up in a tragic situation they
  simply do not deserve. Fortune is a wheel that
  goes both up and down. Except for the innocent
  victim part, Macbeth has some of the qualities
  of this genre. Some modern students see the
  star-crossed lovers of Romeo and Juliet as our
  best example of Wheel-of-Fortune tragic
  hero/heroine in Shakespeare.
• Def. Man of high standard who falls from that
  high because of a flaw that has affected many -
  Aristotle
• Macbeth is one of the most famous examples of the
  tragic hero.

14
The Five-Act Paradigm
Critical action always takes place in this
act. This is the climaxor turning point.
1
2
3
4
5
While used in all Shakespearean plays, and most
of those of his contemporaries, the five-act
paradigm was created before the beginning of the
Christian era. The main proponent of this
approach was Seneca, the famous Greek tragedian,
whose plays were studied in the universities of
England. Remember the earlier slide on this
issue. Hamlet the third act includes the To be
or not to be soliloquy as well as the discussion
between Hamlet and Ophelia that is being observed
by her father and the king. Othello the third
act includes Othello and Iago observing a
conversation between Cassio and Desdemona -- and
the follow-up emotions. King Lear the third act
includes the storm scene and the incident at the
hovel of Poor Tom/Edgar. Macbeth the third act
starts with the invitation of Banquo to the
solemn supper, includes Banquos murder, the
banquet and even the witches three visions. Romeo
and Juliet the third act starts with the
incident where Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo
responds by killing Tybalt.
15
Tragic Conventions

• There are comic-relief characters in tragedies.
  An unusual characteristic of Shakespeares
  tragedies is his comic-relief characters.
  Examples include the drunken porter in Macbeth
  both the gravedigger and Osric in Hamlet and the
  Fool in King Lear.
• A lot of the action takes place off-stage.
  Remember the circular theater they used. Large
  movements of men, such as military campaigns,
  cannot be portrayed well in that cramped space.
  We learn about this type of action through a
  report spoken by a character. Scenes like this
  are common in Antony and Cleopatra, Julius
  Caesar, Macbeth or any early play where warfare
  was covered.
• Suicide -- in Senecan tragic theory -- is often
  a profound moral statement. Note Brutus wife
  -- Portias -- suicide in Julius Caesar. In some
  instances, producers have Gertrudes death as a
  Senecan suicide rather than an accident. In the
  value system of Medieval and Renaissance Europe,
  suicide was either the expected result of moral
  corruption (Lady Macbeth) or madness (Ophelia).
  In either case, however, churchmen considered
  suicide the one unforgivable sin. The maimed
  rites at Ophelias funeral reflects that insight.

16
More Conventions

• Madness (both real and feigned) is used many
  times as a dramatic convention. Lear genuinely
  goes mad and Poor Tom/Edgar only pretends this
  state as a defense mechanism in King Lear. In
  Hamlet, Ophelia actually goes mad perhaps
  responding to Hamlets feigned madness. Lady
  Macbeths sleepwalking scene fits here also.
• Remember the Great Chain of Being. To an
  Elizabethan, whenever royalty was challenged and
  royal authority loosened, chaos was the only
  possible result. Furthermore, chaos was seen as
  the ultimate evil. Most of Shakespeares
  tragedies somehow deal with a breakdown of this
  paradigm. Macbeth is responsible for regicide
  (killing a king) but he upbraids the missing
  Malcolm and Donalbain as being guilty of
  parricide (killing a father).
• The tragic state is irreversible. Once you
  start down the tragic path, you cannot recover
  and your fall is out of control. Remember the
  graphic on the previous slide about the Five-Act
  Paradigm.
• Pay attention to contrasting foils. These are
  characters that are exactly opposite to others
  and their relationship brings out features in
  both their personalities. Compare Iago and
  Othello, Desdemona and Emilia, Lear and the Fool
  or even Hamlet and Horatio.
• As audience, our knowledge of the events in the
  play is often different than the characters
  knowledge. The term for this is

17
So what really happens?

• Good guy goes bad
• Guy wants power
• Married to a pushy control freak
• She wants power
• Kills people- LOTS of people
• Gets power
• Gets paranoid (a.k.a. goes crazy)
• Ticks off a lot of people
• Want more power! Kill! Kill!
• Gets whats coming to him in the end

18
Best Line!
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps
in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last
syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays
have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out,
out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a
poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon
the stageAnd then is heard no more it is a
taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and
fury,Signifying nothing. - Act V s.5