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SHAKESPEARES GREAT TRAGEDIES, DEVISED NOT ONLY FOR HIS TIME, BUT FOR ALL TIME.

Likely the most influential writer in all of English literature and certainly the most important playwright of the English Renaissance, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The son of a successful middle-class glove-maker, Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582, he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical success quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558-1603) and James I (ruled 1603-1625); he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare's company the greatest possible compliment by endowing them with the status of king's players. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of Shakespeare's death, such luminaries as Ben Jonson hailed him as the apogee of Renaissance theatre.

All of Shakespeare’s famous tragedies appeared between 1600-1608. In the plays of this period the dramatist reaches his full maturity. He presents great human problems. Sh proves that it is not enough to be clever in order to achieve happiness that human relations depend upon social problems. He shows the social injustices and suffers together with men from it. Something must be done to change the world, the laws of men and his morals. This is particularly stressed in the great tragedies of “Hamlet” and “King Lear”. His tragedies made Sh the greatest humanist of the English Renaissance.

In the Middle Ages a tragedy meant dealing with the hero's transition from fortune to misfortune and ending with his death. Sh brought smth new to the tragedy. His hero perishes by reason of some trait of character that makes him either prefer some positive ideal to life, or else makes him betray an ideal and meet his doom. All the tragic characters are shown in their development; his soul having undergone great changes (that’s why KL’s madness is not a break-down, but a break-through). This is the 1st innovation. 2nd innovation is his way of explaining the evo­lution (or degradation) of his heroes by the social factors that form their psychology and influence their lives. Many of Sh's great tragedies are devoted to his favourite themes: state and society, the nature of power in general and the institution of monarchy in particular. He comes to the conclusion that monarchy is evil in its very essence, and can be nothing else. The different aspects of this idea are shown in "Hamlet", "Macbeth", and "King Lear", which form an anti-monarchic trilogy. There are some parallel motifs even in the plots of these plays. For instance, the theme of "Macbeth" is like that of "King Lear", but reversed, as in a mirror. If we formulate them in a rather simplified manner, they may be stated as follows: Macbeth was human; he wanted to become a king; he became a king, and became a monster. Lear was a king, and a monster; when he ceased being a king, he became human. And where does "Hamlet" come in? The plots of "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" are essentially the same. A usurper (Claudius ['kb:djas], Macbeth) murders his near relative, the lawful king (Hamlet Senior, Duncan), and seizes the throne, the son of the murdered king and lawful heir to the throne (Hamlet, Malcolm ['mælkəm]), begins his struggle against the usurper. But if in "Macbeth" the stress is on the psychology of the usurper, in "Hamlet" the main character is the man who opposes him.(óäàëè êîãäà ïðî÷èòàåøü)



In "King Lear" Sh shows the very foundations of monarchy to be inhuman, demoralizing, and monstrous. Sh. begins his play where most stories end. The old man, king Lear, seems to be at the finish of his reign and time. But in fact his journey has begun yet. At first KL is not a hero – he is a king, for whom the feudal hierarchy is the basis and reality of the world. He is sure in his almighty power. He puts his power to a final proof: divides his kingdom between his 3 daughters. The reason for this action lies in Lear's conviction of his personal greatness, which, as he thinks, does not depend upon his kingship but will be with him in any circumstances. He is sure that the kingdom will remain a kingdom without a king, and that he will remain a king without his kingdom.

Cordelia’s chief characteristics are devotion, kindness, beauty, and honesty. She is contrasted throughout the play with Goneril and Regan, who are neither honest nor loving. By refusing to take part in Lear’s love test at the beginning of the play, Cordelia establishes herself as a repository (õðàíèëèùå) of virtue. Cordelia’s reunion with Lear marks the apparent restoration of order in the kingdom and the triumph of love and forgiveness over hatred and spite. This fleeting moment of happiness makes the devastating end much crueler. Cordelia is a positive character, but static.

Another person revolts against Lear, the Earl of Kent, but for a different reason: protests against Lear's behaviour, which he considers unworthy of a true king (it’s not Lear himself that Kent loves, but the principle of monarchy personified in him). Soon Lear begins to understand that, having renounced his crown, he can no longer lay claim to any honour and respect. He is helped to understand this by his Fool (who disappears when fulfils his function), "a bitter Fool", who calls the old man "Lear's shadow" and by his stinging jokes makes the ex-monarch see the true state of things.

There are paradoxes in the tragedy's con­struction: Lear attains true dignity only when he loses his crown and becomes a beggar; he becomes truly wise only when he goes mad; Glouces­ter sees the truth about his sons after he has been blinded. But probably the greatest paradox of the play lies in the final catastrophe being caused by those who love Lear most: by Kent and Cordelia. (Cordelia wages war upon her sisters in order to restore the crown to Lear, as a result of which she perishes herself and causes Lear to die of grief.)

The sub-plot of the tragedy tells of the relations between the Earl of Gloucester and his two sons. There is a parallel and also a contrast between Lear and Gloucester. Like Lear, Gloucester rejects the worthy child and favours the unworthy; but, unlike Lear, he does not grasp the essence of life. Gloucester's illegitimate son Edmund is one of the most unprincipled villains created by Sh. His career is also built upon a paradox: the higher he climbs the social ladder, the lower he sinks morally. In the end he is slain in single combat by his half-brother Edgar, who, becomes the defender of justice and finally triumphs.

The end of the tragedy is quite unlike of Sh. All the other plays built around affairs of state end with the coro­nation of a new king. And in "King Lear" is there no coronation, and the throne is left unoccupied, for the Duke of Albany shares the right to rule the land with Edgar. We may say that the tragedy's ending is Utopian, and Sh shows that his concept of a state founded on justice does not include a king.

It is a story of how a king becomes a man. It’s not an allegory, Sh. doesn’t deal with abstraction, but he is an extremely realistic writer, who gives actual situations. His conclusions, his generalizations are based on particular observations and insights. He uses every resource of his imagination to create means of penetrating through words and fantasy the inner process of the situations and people he presents.

The Storm1) inner – drives Lear mad; 2) social - shakes the divided country. As Lear wanders about a desolate heath in Act III, a terrible storm rages overhead. At the same time, the storm embodies the awesome power of nature, which forces the powerless king to recognize his own mortality and human frailty and to cultivate a sense of humility for the first time. The storm may also symbolize some kind of divine justice, as if nature itself is angry about the events in the play.

We can single out 2 worlds: 1) wealth and power (2 sisters + Edmond); 2) rejected (Kent, Cordelia..)

Different themes: family relationships, order in the country, social relationship, human nature.

The tragedy and the problem it arises are urgent even today. We compare ourselves with heroes.


Date: 2016-01-05; view: 1574


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