Shakespeare

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Shakespeare

1. A Brief Biography
2. The Globe Theater
3. Themes, Motifs, and Symbols in Romeo and Juliet
4. Dramatic Terms

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Born in April 1564 at Stratford-on-Avon
• John Shakespeare (father)
• tanner, glover, dealer in grain
• town official (alderman, and later mayor)
• Mary (mother)
• daughter of Robert Arden, a prosperous
  gentleman-farmer.

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Attended the Stratford Grammar School
• Did not go to Oxford or Cambridge

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Married Anne Hathaway in 1582
• Three children born Susanna, Judith, and Hamnet
  

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• By 1590, he was an actor and playwright
• Leader of the Lord Chamberlains Men and the
  Kings Men
• died April 23, 1616

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• He was buried in Stratford the inscription on
  his tombstone reads. . .

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Good Friend, for Jesus sake, forbear
• To dig the dust enclosed here
• Blest be the man that spares these stones
• And curst be he that moves my bones.

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Shakespeare A Brief Biography

• Author of 37 plays and 154 sonnets
• Robert Greene, a critic, attacked Shakespeare, a
  mere actor, for writing plays.
• He acted before Queen Elizabeth in 1594.
• The exact year in which William Shakespeare wrote
  Romeo and Juliet is unknown, but it is definitely
  one of his earlier works, and one of only two
  tragedies written in the period from 1590 to 1595
  

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The Globe Theater

• He wrote his plays to be performed in the Globe
  Theater.
• The only account we have of the Globe is from a
  diary of a Swiss doctor who visited London and
  crossed the Thames River to see a play in a
  theater with a thatched roof.

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The Globe Theater

• It was built in 1599 and burned down 14 years
  later in 1613.
• It was an 8 sided building with a central yard.

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The Globe Theater

• Spectators price of admissions was
• one penny - to stand in yard around stage (these
  were called the groundlings)
• two pennies - to sit in 2nd and 3rd floor
  galleries
• three pennies - to sit in the first floor
  galleries

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The Globe Theater

• Stage
• 1/3 of yard was filled with 6ft high platform
• no curtain
• no artificial lighting
• back wall had at least two doors
• balcony was used for hilltops, walls of cities,
  or second story scenes.
• trapdoors were used to raise or lower actors and
  props.

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The Globe Theater

• Take a tour of the new Globe Theater. . . .
• Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

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Shakespearian Drama

• Tragedy A drama that ends in catastrophemost
  often deathfor the main character and often for
  several other important characters as well
• Tragic Hero The main character, someone who is
  nobly born and has great influence in his or her
  society. This character has weakness or errors
  in judgment (Tragic Flaws) that lead to his or
  her downfall. Fate may play a role in the course
  that events take.

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Shakespearian Drama

• Comic Relief A humorous scene, incident, or
  speech that relieves the overall emotional
  intensity in the play. Comic relief helps the
  audience absorb the tragic events in the plot of
  a play.

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Shakespearian Drama

• Allusion A brief reference, within a work, to
  something outside the work that the reader or
  audience is expected to know. Many of
  Shakespeares allusions are to mythology or the
  Bible.

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Shakespearian Drama

• Foil A character whose personality or attitudes
  are in sharp contrast to those of another
  character in the same work. This highlights the
  other characters traits

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Shakespearian Drama

• Soliloquy and Aside
• A Soliloquy is a speech made by an actor alone
  on stage to let the audience know what is on that
  characters mind.
• An Aside is a characters remark to the audience
  or to another character that others on stage
  arent supposed to hear. The purpose of an aside
  is to reveal that characters thoughts.

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Shakespearian Drama

• Blank Verse Unrhymed lines of iambic
  pentameter. Shakespeare wrote all of his plays
  in blank verse.

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Shakespearian Drama

• Example of Blank Verse
• / / /
  / /
• But soft.What light through yonder window
  breaks?
• / / / / /
• It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!