Concetti Chiave
- Shakespeare was a versatile figure, being a playwright, poet, actor, and shareholder in his theatre company.
- His historical dramas from 1590 to 1596 depicted the English State and the emergence of national identity through tetralogies like Richard III.
- From 1593 to 1600, he wrote comedies featuring themes of disguise and mistaken identity, often culminating in multiple marriages, exemplified by The Merchant of Venice.
- The period between 1595 and 1605 saw the creation of great tragedies like Hamlet and Macbeth, exploring human life and political power in transitional times.
- Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, published in 1609, are divided between a 'fair youth' and a 'dark lady', exploring themes of beauty, virtue, and desire.
Shakespeare was a playwright, a poet, an actor and a shareholder in his theatre company. He wrote several plays various in topic and kind:
1590-1596: Historical dramas, based on actual and real facts such as the War of Roses. They gave a portrait of English State as a whole, not focusing only on kings or queen. It was in this period that the idea of England as a nation was born. These plays are divided in 2 tetralogies (groups of four plays) with titles like Richard III or Henry V.
1593-1600:10 comedies on stage (farce and romance), which all follow some conventions: disguise, frustrated love, mistaken identity, marital and romantic misunderstandings. They usually end in multiple marriages and the playwright worries a lot about women’s journey from the virginity to the marriage. A famous example is The Merchant of Venice.
1595-1605: Great tragedies, written in a historical moment of transition between the medieval and the modern world. He took inspiration from Seneca’s works and they are mainly about human life, the nature of political power and the problems of the powerful in a changing world such as Hamlet or Macbeth.
1590-1609: Collection of 154 sonnets, published in 1609, divided in 2 sections. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a ‘fair youth’ (probably the Earl of Southampton) encouraged by the poet to marry and preserve his virtues and beauty trough his children. The others, expect the last 2, are addressed to a ‘dark lady’ or ‘black woman’, who is physically unattractive, but irresistibly desirable.
He coined new words and phrases that we still today use. He constantly confounds the audience, asking to laugh in a painful scene or philosophical questions in a comic one.
The verse is used by aristocratic characters in serious or dramatic scenes, while the blank verse by lower-class characters in informal conversations or comic scenes. A character may suddenly switch from everyday prose to solemn verse. There are also in his play a profound irony and several figures of speech like metaphors, similes, personifications, antithesis, repetition and hyperbole.
Domande da interrogazione
- Quali sono i temi principali delle tragedie di Shakespeare scritte tra il 1595 e il 1605?
- Quali convenzioni seguono le commedie di Shakespeare scritte tra il 1593 e il 1600?
- Come sono strutturati i sonetti di Shakespeare pubblicati nel 1609?
Le grandi tragedie di Shakespeare, scritte in un momento storico di transizione tra il mondo medievale e quello moderno, trattano principalmente della vita umana, della natura del potere politico e dei problemi dei potenti in un mondo in cambiamento, come si vede in opere come Amleto o Macbeth.
Le commedie di Shakespeare di questo periodo seguono convenzioni come travestimenti, amori frustrati, identità sbagliate e malintesi matrimoniali e romantici, solitamente culminando in matrimoni multipli, come illustrato ne Il Mercante di Venezia.
La raccolta di 154 sonetti è divisa in due sezioni: i primi 126 sonetti sono indirizzati a un "giovane bello", probabilmente il Conte di Southampton, mentre gli altri, eccetto gli ultimi due, sono indirizzati a una "donna scura", fisicamente poco attraente ma irresistibilmente desiderabile.
Accedi a tutti gli appunti
Tutor AI: studia meglio e in meno tempo
