Shakespeare, William - Informazioni e Curiosità

Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s sonnet were published in 1609. The collection includes 154 sonnets (three quatrains and a final couplet). The sonnets have no title and can be divided into two section. The first is addressed to a fair youth, probably his young patron, the Earl of Southampton. The main theme here is the destructive power of the time that is an active antagonist. The second section is addressed to a dark lady, that is physically unattractive, but the poets find her irresistibly desirable.

In the sonnet n.18 the main theme is the time which is destructive. He destroys the beauty and the youth. Here the tone is optimist, because the sonnet is confident, thanks to the procreation and the poetry, that are the key to not lose the beauty. The sonnet starts with a rhetoric question and compare there fair youth to a summer day, that is synonymous of beauty. In the n.60 the time is more destructive, but in the couplet there is the turning point where there is the solution he put in the sonnet. There is a change of tone. The sense of the poetry is all in the couplet. He praises the immortal power of the poetry, and the tone is more negative. In the 1st quatrain there is the passage of time, 2nd is about human life, 3th downfall of human life and in the 4 couplet there is the solution, the eternity of poetry. He chose n. 60 because in each minute there are 60 seconds and in each hour there are 60 minutes. The woman in Shakespeare’s sonnets in rare and so is precious; he talks in a solemn tone. Theo Crosby and Sam Wanamaker wanted to rebuilt the Globe and they surrounded themselves of a team of good engineers and architects. In the New Globe the performances are from May to October; umbrellas are forbidden. Trap door: heaven paradise, Earth is the main stage, Hell represents the hell and come out ghosts and devils. He did not write his plays for publication, they were produced to be performed > uncertainties about the authenticity of his play texts and the dates of their composition; Versions of Shakespeare’s plays circulated in unauthorized copies, known as ‘bad quartos’, put together from notes taken during the performance or from memorial reconstruction by the actors of the company; In 1623 Shakespeare’s works were published in the First Folio edition, that includes 38 plays grouped by genre: comedies, historical plays and tragedies. Folio: a sheet of paper folded once Quarto: a sheet of paper of the same size but folded twice. Features of Shakespeare’s theatre: No respect of the three Aristotelian unities (place, time, action). Mixture of dramatic genres. Metadrama: idea of the world as a stage and theatre as reflection of life.
Use of cross-dressing. In Shakespeare’s works there are: Classicism and Modern world, Analysis of human nature,Tragic Heroes,Themes like LOVE, FRIENDSHIP and HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS. Features of Shakespeare’s play: Evolving scenes: gradual clarification of things; some questions are left open on purpose. Structure: flexible structure without an interval; close contact with the audience. Stage directions: the text itself provides information about the atmosphere. Characters: hierarchy; family ties; symmetrical correspondences.Variety of style: different levels of speech and action to portray his characters. Imagery: rhetorical figures connected to the themes of the plays. Shakespeare’s comedies include disguise; frustrated love; mistaken identity; marital and romantic misunderstandings.Tragedies: real balance between fate and human choices, based on characters’ flaws, Shakespeare freely breaks the rule of place and time unities.