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Shakespearean Tragedy
Revenge, intrigue, murder, and insanity—these are just a few of the topics explored in William Shakespeare’s tragedies. Basing his works on the Greek and Roman traditions of drama, Shakespeare created some of the most enduring tragedies, which continue to enthrall audiences to this day.
Characteristics of TragedyThe intention of tragedy is to exemplify the sense that human beings are doomed to suffer, fail, or die because of their own flaws, destiny, or fate. As part of this tradition, Shakespeare’s tragedies share the following characteristics with the classic Greek tragedies.
Shakespearean tragedy differs somewhat from classic Greek tragedy in that Shakespeare’s works are not unrelentingly serious. For example, he often eased the intensity of the action by using the device of comic relief—a light, mildly humorous scene following a serious one.
The printed text of Shakespeare’s plays, Shakespeare’s tragedies are like that of any dramas. They are divided into acts,which are divided into scenes,often marking a change in setting. The dialoguespoken by the characters is labeled to show who is speaking, and stage directions,written in italics and in parentheses, specify the setting (time and place) and how the characters should behave and speak. In addition, Shakespeare typically used the following literary devices in his dramas.
• Blank verseLike many plays written before the 20th c., Shakespeare’s tragediesare verse dramas,plays in which the dialogue consists almost entirely of poetry with a fixed pattern of rhythm, or meter. Many English verse dramas are written in blank verse,or unrhymed iambic pentameter, a meter in which the normal line contains five stressed syllables, each preceded by an unstressed syllable.
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
• Soliloquy and AsidePlaywrights rely on certain conventions to give the audience more information about the characters. Two such conventions are the soliloquy and the aside. A soliloquyis a speech that a character makes while alone on stage, to reveal his or her thoughts to the audience. An asideis a remark that a character makes in an undertone to the audience or another character but that others on stage are not supposed to hear. A stage direction clarifies that a remark is an aside; unless otherwise specified, the aside is to the audience.
• Dramatic ironyis based on a contrast between appearance or expectation and reality. In dramatic irony,what appears true to one or more characters in a play is seen to be false by the audience, which has a more complete picture of the action.
• Foreshadowingis a writer’s use of hints or clues to suggest what events will occur later in a work.
Shakespearean LanguageThe English language in which Shakespeare wrote was quite different fromtoday’s. As you read a Shakespearean play, pay attention to the following.
| Reading Check 1. How does Richard’s speech reflect Shakespeare’s humanism? 2. Find three lines or phrases in Richard’s soliloquy that show how he feels about his appearance. |
| Reading The power of Shakespeare’s imagination informs his understanding of even his villains’ complexities. In the following passage from Richard III, the title character vows to become a villain because of his physical repugnance and the unhappiness it has brought him. from Richard III, Act 1, scene 1by William Shakespeare Now is the winter of our discontent I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, Made glorious summer by this sun of York; Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature, And all the clouds that loured upon our house Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; And that so lamely and unfashionable Our bruised arms hung up for monuments; That dogs bark at me as I halt by them; Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings; Why I, in this weak piping time of peace, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Have no delight to pass away the time, Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front; Unless to spy my shadow in the sun And now, instead of mounting barbéd steeds And descant on mine own deformity: To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To entertain these fair well-spoken days, To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. I am determined to prove a villain But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, And hate the idle pleasures of these days Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamped, and want love’s majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; |
Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1087
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| Literature Focus III. Shakespearean Drama | | | Literature Focus IV. The Metaphysical Poets |