English literature essays

Title: William Shakespeare
[...]Shakespeare understood human nature as few other artists have. He could see in a specific dramatic situation the qualities that relate to all human beings. He could thus create characters that have meaning beyond the time and place of his plays. Yet, his characters are not symbolic figures. They are remarkably individual human beings. They struggle just as people do in real life, sometimes successfully and sometimes with painful and tragic failure. Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays. [...]Above all other dramatists stands William Shakespeare, a supreme genius whom it is impossible to characterize briefly. Shakespeare is unequaled as poet and intellect, but he remains elusive. The sureness and profound popularity of his taste enabled him to lead the English Renaissance without privileging or prejudicing any one of its divergent aspects, while as actor, dramatist, and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s players he was involved in the Elizabethan theatre at every level.[...]The confusions and contradictions of Shakespeare’s age find their highest expression in his tragedies. In these extraordinary achievements, all values, hierarchies, and forms are tested and found wanting, and all society’s latent conflicts are activated. Shakespeare sets husband against wife, father against child, the individual against society; he uncrowns kings, levels the nobleman with the beggar, and interrogates the gods. In the major tragedies that follow, Shakespeare’s practice cannot be confined to a single general statement that covers all cases, for each tragedy belongs to a separate category: revenge tragedy in “Hamlet”, domestic tragedy in “Othello”, social tragedy in “King Lear” and so on.[...]Shakespeare revolutionized the drama, enlarging the audience’s vision of human life and enriching the language. His plays, then as now, appealed to a wide audience. They reveal both a thorough knowledge of literature and a profound sympathy with the language and behavior of the common person. The shrewd commercial dramatist and the supremely gifted artist cannot be separated. William Shakespeare handled the complicated plot of “Hamlet” brilliantly. In this play, he also created perhaps his greatest gallery of characters.[...]Hamlet’s attitude to Ophelia in Act 3 again suggests that he is not fully in control of his actions. Even if he knows that Polonius and Claudius are listening, and even if he feels that Ophelia, like this mother, is faithless, it is still hard to explain the cruelty of his remarks. Their effect on Ophelia is immediate. She believes that Hamlet is certainly mad. His behaviour in the graveyard calls his sanity into question. Although Hamlet is dep Although Hamlet is depicted as a pessimistic character, he is high-spirited, strong and courageous. icted as a pessimistic character, he is high-spirited, strong and courageous. [...]
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[...]Shakespeare understood human nature as few other artists have. He could see in a specific dramatic situation the qualities that relate to all human beings. He could thus create characters that have meaning beyond the time and place of his plays. Yet, his characters are not symbolic figures. They are remarkably individual human beings. They struggle just as people do in real life, sometimes successfully and sometimes with painful and tragic failure. Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays. [...]Above all other dramatists stands William Shakespeare, a supreme genius whom it is impossible to characterize briefly. Shakespeare is unequaled as poet and intellect, but he remains elusive. The sureness and profound popularity of his taste enabled him to lead the English Renaissance without privileging or prejudicing any one of its divergent aspects, while as actor, dramatist, and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s players he was involved in the Elizabethan theatre at every level.[...]The confusions and contradictions of Shakespeare’s age find their highest expression in his tragedies. In these extraordinary achievements, all values, hierarchies, and forms are tested and found wanting, and all society’s latent conflicts are activated. Shakespeare sets husband against wife, father against child, the individual against society; he uncrowns kings, levels the nobleman with the beggar, and interrogates the gods. In the major tragedies that follow, Shakespeare’s practice cannot be confined to a single general statement that covers all cases, for each tragedy belongs to a separate category: revenge tragedy in “Hamlet”, domestic tragedy in “Othello”, social tragedy in “King Lear” and so on.[...]Shakespeare revolutionized the drama, enlarging the audience’s vision of human life and enriching the language. His plays, then as now, appealed to a wide audience. They reveal both a thorough knowledge of literature and a profound sympathy with the language and behavior of the common person. The shrewd commercial dramatist and the supremely gifted artist cannot be separated. William Shakespeare handled the complicated plot of “Hamlet” brilliantly. In this play, he also created perhaps his greatest gallery of characters.[...]Hamlet’s attitude to Ophelia in Act 3 again suggests that he is not fully in control of his actions. Even if he knows that Polonius and Claudius are listening, and even if he feels that Ophelia, like this mother, is faithless, it is still hard to explain the cruelty of his remarks. Their effect on Ophelia is immediate. She believes that Hamlet is certainly mad. His behaviour in the graveyard calls his sanity into question. Although Hamlet is dep Although Hamlet is depicted as a pessimistic character, he is high-spirited, strong and courageous. icted as a pessimistic character, he is high-spirited, strong and courageous. [...]
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