RAFFAELLA MANNORI

2

1592The Comedy of Errors; The Two Gentlemen of Verona 1593Love’s Labour’s Lost The Taming of the Shrew 1595 A Midsummer Night's Dream 1596 The Merchant of Venice 1598 Much Ado About Nothing 1599 The Merry Wives of Windsor; As you like it 1601 Twelfth Night 1602Troilus and Cressida; All’s Well that Ends Well 1604 Measure for Measure RAFFAELLA MANNORI

slightness of plot; little revelation or development of character; spirit of simple fun delight in verbal wit; Shakespeare’ ability to create intricate plots; richer and more subtle comic spirit. RAFFAELLA MANNORI

Shakespeare’s comedies include They end in multiple marriages. They trace the passage of young people out of their parents’ control and into marriage. RAFFAELLA MANNORI disguise; frustrated love; mistaken identity; marital and romantic misunderstandings. 5

1593 Titus Andronicus 1595 Romeo and Juliet 1599 Julius Caesar 1601 Hamlet 1604 Othello 1605 King Lear 1606 Macbeth 1606 Antony and Cleopatra 1607 Timon of Athens 1609 Coriolanus RAFFAELLA MANNORI Shakespeare’s tragedies & Roman plays 6

The recurrent theme: a man potentially good and great, in a position of worldly importance, has a fatal defect of character; Shakespeare places the tragic hero in a set ofcircumstances where he submits himself to the urgings of this hidden defect; he offends morality, he betrays his own integrity, and the inevitable escalation follows; as the order is violated within himself, so it is violated around him; punishment is the inevitable consequence of error and blame RAFFAELLA MANNORI

The recurrent themes are:  man’s desire for power along with his crimes and plots to achieve this power;  his personal remorse at the consequences of his illegal acts;  the disintegration of good government and of stable society which results.  The Roman plays derive from the translation of Plutarch’s LIVES. RAFFAELLA MANNORI

In Greek and Latin classical tragedies real balance between fate and human choices, based on characters’ flaws. Human beings in control of their own destiny; Shakespeare freely breaks the rule of place and time unities; the catastrophe at the end spells disaster for the tragic hero, responsible for his own fall, although his plan was noble. the protagonist acts against inexorable destiny; the action is limited to one place and one day; the turning point is where the goals of the tragic hero seem within reach. In Shakespeare 9

They take their title from the names of kings and relate to the struggle of the English crown. They begin with a struggle for the throne or for its consolidation and they end with the monarch’s death and a new coronation. From banishment a young prince returns to defend the violated law : he personifies the hope for a new order and justice. Every step to power continues to be marked by murder, violence, treachery. In these plays the story turns full circle, returning to the point of departure. RAFFAELLA MANNORI

Performer - Culture&Literature HISTORY PLAYS 1592HENRY VI 1593RICHARD III 1594KING JOHN 1595RICHRD II 1597HENRY IV 1599HENRY V 1613HENRY VIII

Shakespeare’s history plays 1. based on serious records like the Tudors’ chronicles, and the civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster; 2. gave a portrait of the nation as a whole; 3. were part of a process by which people came to see themselves as belonging to ‘England’ rather than to families, households or local lords. RAFFAELLA MANNORI

Performer - Culture&Literature ROMANCE PLAYS 1608PERICLES 1610CYMBELINE 1611THE WINTER’S ALE THE TEMPEST

The plot has something of a fairy-tale character; they portrays a half-fantasy world; the supernatural enters the affairs of man; they are «romantic» in that good finally conquers, love is rewarded and a happy ending is possible; they are the products of Shakespeare’s more mature vision of the world, as forgiveness can resolve man’s problems such as when one that has been gravely wronged refuses totake revenge on the offenders. RAFFAELLA MANNORI

The language of drama is particularly intense and vivid because it can share the features of everyday speech, of poetry or prose. The normal form of Shakespeare’s plays is blank verse but prose and poetry can be intermingled. Another feature of dramatic language is the use of clusters of imagery RAFFAELLA MANNORI lots of images of a similar nature linked to a specific theme in the play Example = the imagery of clothing linked to the theme of ‘false appearances’ in Macbeth clusters of imagery 15

Dialogue is the main support of drama since: it creates the action; it provides details about the characters and their relationships; it contributes to theme development; it gives information about the past; it can foreshadow subsequent events; it may be built to cause specific reactions in the audience. RAFFAELLA MANNORI

Soliloquy andmonologue are special conventions of Elizabethan drama. RAFFAELLA MANNORI These devices enable the playwright to let the audience know: the character’s thoughts about a specific problem; the character’s plans for the future; the character’s feelings and reactions; the character’s explanation of what happens between scenes. the character is alone on the stage the character is alone on the stage monologue there are other characters but the speaker ignores them there are other characters but the speaker ignores them soliloquy 17

Asides are short comments made by a character for the audience alone, usually occurring in or between speeches. Their purposes are: to reveal the nature of the speaker, to draw the attention of the audience to the importance of what has been said; to explain developments; to create humour by introducing the unexpected. RAFFAELLA MANNORI

 What are the characteristics of each of the four periods in which Shakespeare’s career is generally divided?  What are the differences between Greek and Latin classical tragedy and Shakespeare’s tragedies?  Why can we say that the Hystory plays contributed to the strengthening of the national spirit of the country?  What are the characteristics of Shakespeare’s great tragedies?  How do Senecan tragedies influence Elisabethan drama?  Explain the characteristics of Shakespeare’s comedies.  What do Romance Plays represent in Shakespeare’s plays? RAFFAELLA MANNORI