1

TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER
NO.

PAGES

Introduction 2
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.

Four periods of Shakespeares life 3 - 4

Shakespeare as a dramatist 5 - 8
Art of characterization 9 - 10
Style and Imagery 11 - 12
Shakespeare Influence. 13 - 14
Shakespeares concept of Tragedy. 15 - 19
Shakespearean comedy: Its chief characteristics 20 - 22
The Heroines of Shakespeares comedies... 23 - 24
Mingling of the Comic and the Tragic. 25 - 26
Sonnet... 27 - 28
Shakespeares Soliloquies... 29 - 31`
Shakespeares Roman Tragedies. 32 - 34
Critical Reputation... 35 - 37
Shakespeare-Quotes and Quotations.. 38 - 39

Conclusion 40 - 41
Bibliography
. 42 - 43

INTRODUCTION

Ben Jonson called Shakespeare not of an age, but of all ages, but he also
referred to him as the soul of the age.Drama, by its very nature, holds a mirror to
life, an the plays of Shakespeare not only mirror his age ,but are also a running
commentary on the life of the times .Topical allusions and references to contemporary
events are scattered all up and down his works .He was a popular dramatist who wrote
for the public stage and his art was conditioned by the tastes of the people and the
limitations of the stage.
William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 23 Apri1 616) was an
English poet, playwright, and act or widely regarded as the greatest writer in
the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called
England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including
some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative
poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His
plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more
often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of
18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and
twins Hamlet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in
London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord
Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to
Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of
Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about
such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the
works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His
early plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as
some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until
about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of
the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies,
also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy
during his lifetime. In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two friends and
fellow actors of Shakespeare, published the First Folio, a collected edition of his

dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as
Shakespeare's.

CHAPTER I

Four Periods of Shakespeare's Life

Shakespeare's plays can broadly be divided into four time periods:

1.

Pre-1594 (King Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, etc.)

2.

15941600 (King Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, etc.)

3.

16001608 (Macbeth, King Lear, etc.)

4.

Post-1608 (Cymbeline, The Tempest, etc.)

The first period (pre-1594) has its roots in Greek, Roman, and medieval
English drama the plays show certain obviousness. It's possible that Shakespeare
was influenced by Christopher Marlowe now considered Shakespeare's greatest
literary rival whose writing was gaining recognition as Shakespeare's play
wrighting career began.
The second period (15941600) shows a clearly maturing author, and the
plays are less labored and predictable. The histories of this period portray royalty in
human terms rather than as ciphers to move along a plot. He experiments with
blending comedy and tragedy, considered a trademark of Shakespeare's that would
become a stylistic signature.
The third period (16001608) marks the great tragedies. At this point he wrote
the plays that would earn him his place in history. Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello
are classic tragic protagonists in the best dramatic sense. The comedies, meanwhile,
grow moody and ambiguous.
The plays of his fourth period, 1608-1613, are remarkable for calm strength
and sweetness. The fierceness of Othello and Macbeth is left behind. In 1608
Shakespeare's mother died. Her death and the vivid recollection of her kindness and

love may have been strong factors in causing him to look on life with kindlier eyes.
The greatest plays of this period are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest.

CHAPTER- II

Shakespeare As A Dramatist: His Greatness

Or
The Universality and Permanence of Shakespeare

His Lack of Originality

Shakespeare was one of the greatest men of genius that have

ever been born on this blighted planet of ours. The extent, variety
and richness of his plays are quite bewildering as one approaches
them. Yet he never took the trouble to be original .He is one of the
greatest of literary plagiarists.
According to the custom of the times, he borrowed freely from
plays already in existence, and often simply reshaped older plays,
Few of his plots are his own invention. Most of them are based upon
Plutarch,s Lives ,Holinsheds chronicles, or other popular classical
translations . Still he shines to us through the intervening darkness
of over three centuries with a dazzling light.

His Immense Variety

First of all, his superiority lies in the combination of all the gifts
which are scattered or isolated in the works of others, in the
extreme diversity of his talents. He could not surpass the pathos
and sublimity of the last scenes of Marlowes Dr. Faustus, he created
no atmosphere of grief and terror so poignant and terrible as that of
Websters Duchess of Malfi. None of his plays is so solidly
constructed as Johnsons The Alchemist; and Fletcher and Dekker
often equal him in lyrical intensity.
His greatness, His superiority over his contemporaries, lies in
the combination of all these gifts. While they tended to be stale and
stereotyped, Shakespeare is ever changing, ever becoming different
from what he was before .Says Legouis, His flexibility was
marvellons. He adapted himself to the most diverse material and
seemed to use all with equal ardour and joy. His dramas are so
astonishingly various in kind that no one theory fits them and each
of them must be studied separately. He is never found twice at the
same point.He shows equal aptitude for the tragic and the comic,
the sentimental and the burlesque, lyrical fantasy and characterstudy, portraits of men and women. This diversity exists
everywhere in his dramas.

His Universality

Shakespeares freshness is perennial; his appeal is universal.

He is worlds immortal poet. He wrote for the Elizabethan stage and
audience; but he is read and enjoyed even today not only by
Englishmen, but by the English-speaking people all over the world .
His works have been translated into all the important languages of
the world; and the films based upon his dramas continue to draw
packed houses. His freshness and appeal seem to grow the more he
is read; the mystery of his own Cleopatra seems to belong to him:

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies,
Shakespearean drama is like an ever flowing river of life and
beauty, and all who thirst for art or truth can have their fill from it.
In the field of characterization, the dramatist reigns supreme.
It is principally in this respect that Shakespeare surpasses all his
rivals and is Shakespeare. They are all alive, they grow, change
and evolve before the very eyes of the readers. In sheer prodigality
of output, says Albert, Shakespeare is unrivalled in literature.
From king to clown, from lunatic to demi-devil to saint and seer,
from lover to misanthrope all are revealed with the hand of a
master. He is entirely objective and impartial, and paints the good
and the evil, the wicked and the virtuous, with the same loving care.
He is like the proverbial sun in this respect, which shines on the just
and the unjust alike. Hence follows the vital force that resides in his
creations.

His Humour

Shakespeare is the greatest humorist in English literature. His

laughter is varied, many sided and all pervasive. But when the
occasion demands it, he can also be ironical and satiric, grim or
morbid. We find in him comedy of character, and wit, as also farcical
situations productive of horse-laughter. In his plays, we laugh at
fools, at those who pretend to be wise, at affection, at extreme
simplicity, at awkwardness and at hypocrisy. We are amused at
misunderstandings of intention, fruitless struggles of absurd
passion, contradictions of temperament, and situations of utter
helplessness.

Blending of Humour and Pathos

Though Shakespeare can laugh incomparably, mere laughter

wearies him.He often blends it subtly and skillfully with tragedy and
pathos .In the tragedies his humour serves to enliven the general
atmosphere of gloom , to relieve tragic tensions, and to heighten
the effect of the scene that follows , in short , to provide those tone
c lashes .He holds a mirror of nature in the true sense of the term
.

The Poetic Element: Style

The first dramatist was also the first poet of his day and one
of the first of all times. The poet is not only revealed by the
hundred exquisite songs with which the plays are strewn. The ardent
passion for beauty which is the distinction of the sonnets, and
causes the best of them to reach the high watermark of beauty in
English poetry, attains in the playsto results as fine, and there has a
diversity of mood and accent impossible to the sonnets.

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When at his best similies and metaphors come out of his pen
as sparks from a chimney fire. The very syntax is the syntax of
thought rather than of language; constructions are mixed,
grammatical links are dropped , the meaning of many sentences is
compressed into one , hints and impressions count for as much as
full bown propositions. He is a matchless painter albeit not with a
brush, but with words.

In short, in the words of Dryden, He is the man, who all

modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and the most
comprehensive soul.We may sum up this account of the greatness
of Shakespeare with the words of Raleigh : So Shakespeare has
come down to us ,as English man of letters; he has been separated
from his fellows, and recognized for what he is: perhaps the greatest
poet of all times ; one who has said more about humanity than any
other writer, and has said it better, whose works are the study and
admiration of divines and philosophers of soldiers and statesmen, so
that his continued vogue upon the stage is the smallest part of his
immortality: who has touched many spirits finely to fine issues, and
has been for three centuries source of delight and understanding, of
wisdom and consolation.

11

CHAPTER III

12

ART OF CHARACTERISATION

Shakespeares Characterisation Superior to His Plots

In nothing Shakespeare so great and original, as in the delineation of character.

He takes a story as it comes to his hand, lets the plot take care of itself and devotes his
best attention to characterization. Indeed, it is heightened character interest which
smoothens the crudities, the absurdities, and the improbabilities of his plots and
makes them acceptable. He is the creator of a larger number of immortals of literature
than any other single individual. His figure will live as long as English and its
literature is read and enjoyed.

The Humanity of His Characters:

Shakespeares characters are strongly humanised. They are neither gods nor
devils, but real human beings with common human weaknesses and virtues, similar
joys and sorrows and moved by similar passions. They have the reality of life itself.

13

CHAPTER- IV

14

STYLE AND IMAGERY

His Command Over Words

Shakespeare had a unique command over the English language. He had a mint
of fine phrases in his brain, and his speech is, a very fanatastical banquet. Words
come winged at his bidding and seem to know their places. Though he had fed of the
dainties that are bred in books, yet he learned his language not from scholars but from
the school of life. He went for his words to the language of everyday speech, hence
the compass, variety, raciness and perennial freshness of his diction. He may be read
again and again, but like his own Cleopatra, he never cloys, even where most he
feeds. In his age, the English language was still fluid, and Shakespeare enjoyed a
freedom of choice and invention unknown to his successors. He freely mixes up
words of Saxon and Latin origins, but the mixture is so judicious, that instead of any
loss in vigour and spirit there is a decided increase in grasp and strength.
He coins, at need words like, opposeless, vastidity, upright, inaudible
etc. He strikes out dimunitives when he needs them as smilets, crownets etc. The
more or less precise significations which are now attached to certain Latin prefixes
and suffixes are all disordered and mixed in his use of them. Indeed his use of words
is impressionistic; if a word sounds aright, he accepts it without further ado.

His Neglect of Grammar and Syntax

In his construction of sentences and arrangement of words, Shakespeare does

not care for and rules of grammar. He violates almost every rule of syntax, and
neglects formal concord in the interests of a larger truth of impression. Sometimes his
arrangement of words is so peculiar and arbitrary that the meaning tends to be a
obscure. It is for this reason that many of his sentences have been interpreted in a
number of ways, and have given rise to endless discussion. But he wrote for the stage,
and the actors looks, turns, and gestures went a long way in rendering his meaning
intelligible. He cares little for grammar or syntax for his main care is to convey the
exact thought. Language with him, writes Hudson, is not the dress, but the

15

incarnation of ideas; he does not rob his thought with garments externally cut and
fitted to them, but his thoughts rob themselves in a living texture of flesh and blood.

CHAPTER V

16

SHAKESPEARES INFLUENCE

Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and

literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterization,
plot, language, and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been
viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey
information about characters or events; but Shakespeare used them to explore
characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic
poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success.
Critic George
Steiner described
all
English
verse
dramas
from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."
Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner,
and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much
to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick is a classic tragic hero, inspired
by King Lear. Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's
works. These include two operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Othello and Falstaff, whose
critical standing compares with that of the source plays. Shakespeare has also inspired
many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites. The Swiss Romantic
artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated Macbeth into German.
The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular
that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature.
In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling and pronunciation were less
standardized than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern
English. Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A
Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type. Expressions
such as "with bated breath" (Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion"
(Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.

17

CHAPTER VI

18

SHAKESPEARES CONCEPT OF TRAGEDY

OR
SHAKESPEARES TRAGIC HERO

Shakespeares Tragic Period

Shakespeare has felt behind him anumber of great tragedies, written during
different periods of his career. They are1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Richard III and Richard II

Romeo and Juliet
Julius Ceasar and Antony and Cleopatra;
Timon of Athens and Criolanus;
Hamlet , Othello, Macbeth and King Lear

The last four are his greatest creations and rank among the greatest tragedies of
the world. They are the dramatist tour de force, and all discussions of his tragic art
centre round them.

The Theme: Struggle between Good and Evil

The theme of a Shakespearean tragedy is the struggle between Good and evil,
resulting in serious convulsions and disturbances, sorrows, sufferings and deaths.
Says Dowden, tragedy as conceived by Shakespeare is concerned with a ruin or
restoration of the soul and of the life of man. In other words, its subject is the struggle
of good and evil in the world. It depicts men and women struggling with evil, often

19

succumbing to it, and brought to death by it. Through their heroic struggle, we realize
the immense spiritual potentiality of men. For Shakespeare tragedy becomes the
stern, awful, but exalting pictures of mankinds heroic struggle towards a goodness
which enlarges and enriches itself as human experience grow longer and wider
through the age.

The Melodramatic Note

Our dramatist wrote for the stage and not for our armchair reading. He strove to
display themes essentially stirring and often melodramatic and that his primal
thought was dramatic effectiveness. In this tragedies, he presents a rich series of
excitements that is likely to rouse the most apathetic audience. The themes of all the
four great tragedies are sensational. For example, Macbeth has its witches, its ghosts
and appartions, its murder in a darkened castle, its drunken tipsy porter, and its
thrilling site of Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep. In Hamlet, we have the ghost and
the grave-diggers in Othello night alarm and sword fights, and in King Lear The
celebrated trio of madness. Obviously this is only the outward framework : beyond
and within the external sensationalism, Shakespeare has placed a more subtle, a more
poetical, and a less tangible tragic spirit.
The Tragic Hero
A Shakespearean tragedy is pre-eminently the story of one person the hero or at
most of two, the hero and the heroine. It is only in the love tragedies, Romeo and
Juliet, and Antony and Cleopatra, that the heroine is as much the centre of action as
the hero. There are no doubt, a number of other persons, but the attention is
concentrated on the main figure. A typical Shakespearean tragedy is single star. The
story leads upto and includes the death of the hero- at the end, the stage is often
littered with corpses.
His Exalted Rank and Status
The tragic heroes are all conspicuous persons who stand in a high degree. They
are either kings, or princes, or great military generals indispensable for the state. Thus
Hamlet is a prince, Lear is a king, Macbeth belongs to the royal family, and is a
trusted kinsman and general, and Othello is a great warrior and brave general.
Shakespeare conception of tragedy is medieval, for he is not concerned with the fate

20

of the common man, his sorrow and suffering which is the concern of a modern
tragedy. These exalted personages suffer greatly; their suffering and calamity is
exceptional. Thus, Macbeth after the murder suffers the tortures of Hell, as if there
were scorpions in his brain: Othello is on the rack with jealousy for the greater part of
the play; Lear goes mad and raves; and Hamlets soul is torn within. Their suffering is
contrasted with their previous happiness. The hero is such an important personality
that his fall affects the welfare of a whole nation or empire, and when he fall suddenly
from the height of earthly greatness to the dust, his fall produces a sense of the
powerlessness of man and the omnipotences of Fate.

An Exceptional Individual The Tragic Flaw

The tragic hero is not only a person of high degree, he also has an exceptional
nature. He is built on a grand scale. He has some passion and obsession which attains
in him a terrible force. He has marked one-sidedness, a strong tendency to act in a
particular way. They are all driven in some one direction by some peculiar interest,
object, passion, or habit of mind. Bradley refers to this trait as the tragic flaw. Thus
Macbeth has valuting ambition. Hamlet noble inaction, Othello credulity and
rashness in action , and Lear the folly and fondness of old age. He is passionate and
lacks in self-control. Owing to the fault or flaw of his character, the tragic hero falls
from greatness. He errs, and his error, joining with other causes, brings ruin upon him.
In other words, his character issues in action, or action, issues out of his character. It
is in this sense that character is destiny is true of a Shakespearean tragedy. The
character of the hero is responsible for his actions; and from this point of view they
appear to be instruments shaping their own destiny.

Three Complicating Factors

As a matter of fact, the characteristic deeds of the hero i.e, deeds issuing from his
character, are influenced, and complicated, by the following three additional factors:
Some abnormal conditions of mind as insanity, somnambulism, or excitable
imagination resulting in hallucinations. Thus king Lear suffers from insanity, Macbeth
has hallucinations, and Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep. The deeds that proceeds
from such abnormal conditions of mind are not characteristic or voluntary such
abnormality never originates deed of any grammatic importance, though it may
influence the cource of action and and precipitate the fall of the hero.

21

The supernatural, ghost and witches. The supernatural element is not a mere
illusion of the hero. The witches in Macbeth and the ghost in Hamlet have an
objective existence as they are seen by others also. Further, the supernatural does
contribute to the action, and is often and indispensable part of it. But it is always
placed in closest relation with character. It gives a conformation and distinct form to
the inner workings of the heroes mind. The ghost which Brutus sees is an expression
of his sense of failure; the witches in Macbeth are symbolic of the guilt within his
soul; and the ghost in Hamlet results from the suspicion already present in his mind.
But its influence is never of a compulsive kind; we are never allowed to feel that it
has removed the heroes capacity or responsibility of dealing with the situation in his
own way. It is merely suggestive: the hero is quite free to accept the suggestions or to
reject it. But the hero follows its suggestion. It is in this way, that the supernatural
hastens the downfall of the hero.
In most of the tragedies Chance plays a prominent part as it does in life itself.
Such chance happenings always work against the hero and quickens his downfall. It is
just a chance that Romeo never got the Friars message about the Romeo and that
Juliet did not awake from her sleep a minute sooner : that Desdemona dropped her
handkerchief at the crucial moment and that Bianca arrived on the scene just in time
to serve the purpose of Iago; that the pirate ship attacked Hamlets ship and he could
return to Denmark so soon; and that Edgars messenger arrived too late at the prison
to save Cordelias life.

No Poetic Justice
But one thing Shakespeare makes quite clear- that this order or ultimate power
is moral. It is just. Its justice may be terrible, but still our sense of justice is always
satisfied. Ofcource, there is no poetic justice in Shakespearean tragedy. Poetic justice
means that prosperity and adversity are distributed in proportion to the merits of the
agents. The tragic heroes suffer more, infinitely more, than is merited or deserved by
their faults. The good and the virtuous are often crushed and they do not get that
prosperity which they fully deserve. Lear and Othello suffered terribly out of all
proportion to their faults; and Desdemona and Cordelia are wholly good. poetic
justice is not fact of life and so Shakespeare, the realist, does not introduce it in his
tragedies.

22

In short, the dramatists tragic vision is solemn, terrible and convincing in its
reality. As Raleigh puts it, they (tragedies of Shakespeare) deal with greater things
than man; with powers and patience, elemental forces, and dark abyssesof suffering :
with the central; fire which breaks through the crush of civilizations. And makes a
splendor in the sky above the blackness of ruined homes. Man is presented with a
choice, and the essence of the tragedy is that the choice is impossible.

CHAPTER- VII

23

SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDY: ITS CHIEF

CHARACTERISTICS

COMEDY: ITS NATURE

A comedy is often rather crudely defined as a dramatic composition with a
happy ending. It has also been defined as a play aiming at the production of laughter,
more laughter and nothing but laughter. A Shakespearean comedy has both these
elements: it has a happy end and it also makes us laugh. Follies and affections are
exposed and ridiculed, and the treatment is gentle and sympathetic, as it should be in a
comedy.

ITS TWO KINDS - (1) THE CLASSICAL COMEDY

A Comedy like the drama in general, may be of two types Classical and
Romantic. The classical comedy follows the rules of dramatic composition as laid
down by the ancient Greek and Roman masters. The more important of these rules are
(1) The observance of the three unities of time, place and action

24

(2) The strict separation of the comic, and tragic or the light and serious elements
(3) Realism. It deals with the everyday, familiar life of ordinary people, and
(4) Its aim is corrective and satiric. Some human folly, weakness, or social voice is
exposed and ridiculed.

THE ROMANTIC COMEDY

The Shakespearean comedy, on the other hand, is a Romantic Comedy. It grew
out of national tastes and traditions. The dramatist does not care for any rules of
literary creation but writes according to the dictates of his fancy. The three unities are
carelessly thrown to the wind. There is a free mingling of the comic and the tragic, the
serious and the gay, for Shakespeare instinctively realized that life a mingled yarn of
joy and sorrows, and it would be unnatural to separate them. Its aim is not corrective,
or satiric, but innocent, good natured laughter. Follies are, no doubt, exposed and
ridiculed, but the laughter is gentle and sympathetic and there is no moral indignation,
or the zeal of a reformer. The dramatist sympathizes even when he laughs.

MUSIC AND THE SPIRIT OF MIRTH

Music is the food of love, Shakespearean comedy is intensely musical. Music
and dance are its very life and soul. Twelfth night opens with music which strikes the
key-note of this merry tale of love. Several exquisites songs are scattered all over As
You like It, and A Midsummer Nights Dream, too abounds in music. In the end, there
is always music, dance and merrymaking with Hymen, the god of love, presiding.
Indeed, Shakespeare is prodigal in the provision of light-hearted mirth and revelry in
his comedies. It is only in the later and darker comedies, when the dramatists mind
was centered on tragic themes that this spirit of mirth takes on a graver and more
serious turn.

THE FOOL : HIS ROLE AND SIGNIFICANCE

This all pervasive spirit of mirth gains much from the presence of the Fool, or
some clownish characters, whom the dramatist introduces into all his love tales.
Bottom and his companions, the musical Feste, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby, Touchstone,
Dogberry and Verges, come readily to the mind of all readers of Shakespeare. Besides
contributing fun and humor to the play, they inter-link the main and the sub-plots, and

25

provide a running commentary on character and action. Sometimes the Fool is not
really a fool, but the wisest character of the play. For instance, Touchstones acid
comments are replete with much practical wisdom.

CHARACTERISATION : HIS GLITTERING HEROINES

The characters of a Shakespearean comedy are kindly, light hearted and
humorous. They are lovable creatures who win our sympathies so that we share their
joys and sorrows and wish them all success. The women specially are winning and
charming. They dominate the action and are always in the front. An array of glittering
Heroines, bright, beautiful, and witty, enlivens the world of the comedy of
Shakespeare. It is true of most of Shakespeare comedies, as it is of daily life, that
where woman is, there also, probably, is the root and heart of the matter.

CHAPTER- VIII

26

THE HEROINES OF SHAKESPEARES

COMEDIES

SHAKESPEARES HEROINES : THEIR WIDE RANGE AND

INDIVIDUALITY
In his works, Shakespeare has treated of every shade and type of womanhood,
ranging from Miranda, representing simplicity and innocence, at one extreme to
Cleopatra, the eternal courtesan, at the other. Much has been written to eulogies his
penetrating insight into the female mind and heart. Various attempts have been made
to classify his heroines on the basis of some dominant traits by the scholars like
Dowden and Mrs. Jameson.

SUPERIOR TO MALE CHARACTERS

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Shakespeares men cannot, as a class, compare with his women for practical
genius. Their imagination often masters and disables them. While Orsino remains at
home passively enjoying the luxury of love, Viola courts his lady for him, and brushes
aside all obstacles in her way. It is Beatrice who incites Benedick to a duel, and thus
tries to defend the honour of her cousin. In his ideal woman, says Gordon, the heart
and head sway equal in his women alone, will you find that perfect harmony which
is the basis and first condition of a happy life.

SOME LIMITATIONS: ARE THEY INFERIOR TO MAN ?

Though the note of praise is more persistent and frequent, the women of
Shakespeare have also come in for some criticism. First, fault has been found with
them for their occasional jests and remarks considered improper for the fair sex. In
this connection, it may be noted that in the age of Shakespeare, ladies of even the
noblest families used stronger language in their letters and day to day conversation,
than is ever used by any female character of the dramatist. Secondly, it has been
pointed out that his range of feminity does not include women of wit and humour there is no female character like Falstaff among his gallery of womanhood. The
dramatist was right in not painting any such character, for it would have been a
monstrous caricature, gross and unnatural. Witty women there are, but it is not all of
them, the other part of them consist of the usual virtues of real, natural women.

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CHAPTER- IX

MINGLING OF THE COMIC AND THE TRAGIC

In this scene, says one critic, Shakespeare achieves a remarkable interpenetration of the comic, the tragic and the pathetic. Hudson, commenting on this
mingling of the comic and the tragic,writes,His humour in tragic scenes carries the
power of tears as well as smiles; in his deepest strains of tragedy is often a subtle
infusion of it, and this, too, in such a way as to heighten the tragic effect; we may feel
it playing delicately beneath his most pathetic scenes, and deepening their pathos .
One of the most remarkable instances of their interpretation of the comic and
the tragic in all Shakespeare occurs in Othello,when just before the final catastrophe,
Emilia humourously tells the pathetic and suffering Desdemona , that she is willing to

29

do such a deed for all the world , for it is great prize ; but she would prefer to do it in
the dark and not by the light of day. The dramatic value of the episode needs no
comment.

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CHAPTER- X

SONNET
Sonnet is derived from the Italian sonnetto which means a song. Its a poem
consisting of
14 lines (of 11syllabals in Italian, generally 12 in French and 10 in English) with
rhymes arranged according to one or other of cer in definite schemes , of which the
Petrarchan and the Shakespearean are the principal .The rhyme scheme of the

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Petrarchan sonnet is abba, abba, followed by 2 or 3 other rhymes in the remaining

six lines with a pause in the thought after the octave.
The sonnets of Shakespeare (also called as Elizabethan) are a little different
from the Petrarchan variety. They have three quartrians, followed by a concluding
couplet . the rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.the var iety of sonnet was
introduced to England by Wyatt and developed by survey;and was thereafter widely
used notably in the sonnet; sequence of Shakespeare. Sidney,Daniel,Spencer are the
other poets who wrote sonnets during the golden period, most of which are amatory
in nature and contain a certain narrative development. Later sonnet sequences on the
theme of love include those of Donne, Keats, Elizabeth, Barret,
Browning,D.G.Rossetti and Teats. All these poets have used the form to great and
varied effect and it continues to flourish in the 20th century. The latest form is that of
Rilke and is by far the simplest since it consists of seven couplets.
The sonnets of Shakespeare were printed in 1609 and probably date from
1590s in 1598 meres referred to Shakespeares sugred sonnets among his private
friends, but these were not necessary identical with the ones we now have. Most of
them trace the course of the writers affection for a young man of rank and beauty. The
first 17 sonnets urge him to marry, to reproduce, the same number as in Sydneys
sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella. The complete sequence of 154 sonnet was
issued by the publisher Thomas Thrope in 1609 with a dedication to Mr. W. H. the
only begetter of these insuing sonnets. Mr. W.H has been identified as, among
others William Laud, Herbert afterwards Earl of Pembroke or Henry Wriothesley, Earl
of Southampton, and further as the young man addressed in the sonnets. Another view
argues that Mr. W.H was a friend of Thrope, through whos good offices the
manuscript had reached his hand begetter, being used in the sense of getter . other
character are alluded to in the sequence, including a mistrers stolen by a friend 4042 are rival poet 78-80 and 80-86 and a dark beauty loved by the author (12752) numerous identification for all the characters involved in the sequence as well as
for Mr. W.H, have been put forward, none of them is certain. Perhaps the most
ingenious and amusing of these is Oscar Wildes, The Portrait of Mr. W.H.

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CHAPTER- XI

Shakespeare's Soliloquies

A soliloquy is a device often used in drama when a character speaks to

himself or herself, relating thoughts and feelings, thereby also sharing them with the

33

audience, giving off the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections. If other
characters are present, they keep silent and / or are disregarded by the speaker.
The term soliloquy is distinct from a monologue or an aside: a monologue is a
speech where one character addresses other characters; an aside is a (usually short)
comment by one character towards the audience, though during the play it may seem
like the character is addressing him or herself.
Soliloquies were frequently used in dramas but went out of fashion
when drama shifted towards realism in the late 18th century.

Soliloquies in Shakespeare
Shakespeares soliloquies contain some of his most original and powerful
writing. Possibly prompted by the essays of Montaigne, he explores in his greatest
tragedies the way someone wrestles with their private thoughts under pressure, often
failing to perceive the flaws in their own thinking, as in the great galloping I-vii
soliloquy (if twere done when tis done) in which Macbeth unconsciously reveals
through his imagery his fear of damnation but fails to realise what really holds him
back from murdering his king: simply the fact that it is wrong.
The earliest of the mature soliloquies occur in Julius Caesar where
Shakespeare develops Brutus as a forerunner of Hamlet: the self-critical and honest
man struggling to do whats right in unpropitious circumstances. Hamlets seven
soliloquies, and the single major soliloquy of Claudius in Hamlet can all be described
as a search for a difficult sincerity, and represent Shakespeares most extended study
of the workings of the human mind; it is not until the novels of Dostoyevsky that a
characters inner self is examined with such power, discrimination and technical skill.

34

Shakespeares soliloquies are written in blank verse of unparalleled variety,

invention and rhythmic flexibility, suggestive of the rapidly changing moods of their
speakers. Often, it is through vivid and memorable imagery that an individual
registers his unique take on the world: Hamlets perception of Elsinore as an
unweeded garden that grows to seed, the frantically deluded Leontes who feels he
has drunk and seen the spider, the self-dramatising murderer, Othello Methinks it
should be now a huge eclipse or Antonys transcendent vision of his afterlife with
Cleopatra: Where souls do couch on flowers, well hand in hand, And with our
sprightly port make the ghosts gaze.

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CHAPTER- XII

36

SHAKESPEARES ROMAN TRAGEDIES

OR
HISTORICAL PLAYS

THE ROMAN PLAYS

Shakespeare has left behind him, three plays dealing with Roman history. They
are:
(1) Julius Caesar, 1601
(2) Antony and Cleopatra, 1608
(3) Coriolanus, 1609
For the themes of his Roman plays Shakespeare is indebted largely to Norths
translation of Plutarchs Lives. He has adhered more closely to his original in his
treatment of Roman history than he did while writing the series of plays dealing with
English history. He has deviated from history only when he was compelled to do so
by the needs of dramatic art. However, this does not mean that there is a faithful,
recording of facts. There may be literal fidelity to fact sometimes, but more often than
not the dramatist has succeeded in capturing the spirit of the remote far off ages which
he was dramatising.

COMPARISON WITH THE ENGLISH HISTORIES

The Roman Plays differ from the English histories both in the selection of
their material and in the treatment of the selected material. Selection of themes for the
English history plays was influenced by contemporary historical interests. These
interests were the unity of the country under a strong sovereign, rejection of
Papaldomination, and the power, prestige and safety of the country against such
enemies as France. All the ten plays on English history deal with rivalry for the
throne, the struggle with the Pope of Rome , and the success or failure of the English
in France. But while dealing with Roman history the circumstances were different.
Despite keen interest in antiquity, Roman history was known to the people only in the

37

mass, so to say, and they were likely to be impressed only by the outstanding features.
He, therefore, selected episodes of more salient interest and more catholic appeal.

COMPARISON WITH GREAT TRAof GEDIES

But this does not mean that they follow the tragic technique of the four
tragedies of the dramatist. The Roman plays differ from the great tragedies in as much
as the background, the atmosphere, and the environment is always provided by the
larger political life of the state. The chief characters are always exhibited in relation to
the great mutations in the state. The political vicissitudes and public catastrophes are
not of such interest and significance in the tragedies proper.

IMAGINATIVE TREATMENT OF HISTORICAL FACTS

Thus his treatment of Roman history is marked with a dual characteristic: it
combines a pious regard for the facts of history with complete indifference to critical
research. The fact is that Shakespeare was neither an antiquarian nor a classical
scholar like Ben Johnson, and, therefore, we do not find in him any scholarly
accuracy or fidelity to fact. Facts are accepted as they are without any critical
investigation or verification. He was an imaginative artist, and certain aspects of his
material were realized in his mind with all the power of his imagination, emotion,
passion and experience. Hence it is that his delineations are often more authentic that
those of far greater scholars. He may not reproduce the minor peculiarities but he
gives us the very essence of the times, the spirit, the living energy and principal of it
all. He does never distort history. He may introduce fictitious characters like Lucius
in Julius Caesar and Sillius in Antony and Cleopatra but such fictitious characters do
never interfere in the political story. No unhistorical person has historical work to
do, and no unhistorical episode affects the historical action. He represents historical
truth as idealized by his poetic imagination.

THE SPLENDID ROMANS : THEIR MORAL WEAKNESS

But these mighty Titans have faults equally great, and these faults ultimately
bring about their ruin. Antony knows no self control, and his lordly nature and heroic
powers go waste, owing to his blind infatuation with Cleopatra. Both of them are
given to pleasure, thogh pleasure of a magnificent kind, and hence their downfall.

38

Caesar is over-ambitious, tyrannical and arrogant and hence he arouses the hostility of
the lords and senators of Rome. Coriolanus brings about ruin on himself by his
inordinate pride. These are all figures drawn to heroic proportions, and through their
moral degradation, Shakespeare has highlighted ethical values and the need for moral
control and orientation of life.

CHAPTER XIII

39

CRITICAL REPUTATION

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of
praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of
English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. The authors of
the Parnassus plays
at St
John's
College,
Cambridge numbered
him
with Chaucer, Gower and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare
the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", though he had
remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art".
Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th
century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated
Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. Thomas Rymer, for example,
condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and
critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I
love Shakespeare". For several decades, Rymer's view held sway; but during the 18th
century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and acclaim what
they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably
those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing
reputation. By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet. In the 18th and
19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him
were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhaland Victor Hugo.
During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary
philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge; and the critic August Wilhelm
Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism. In the 19th century,
critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation "That King
Shakespeare," the essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in
crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying
signs; indestructible". The Victorians produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a
grand scale. The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of

40

Shakespeare
worship
as
"bardolatry",
claiming
new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.

that

the

The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from
discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde.
The Expressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of
his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic
theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T.S. Eliot argued
against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern. Eliot,
along with G. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticism, led a movement
towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new
critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for "post-modern" studies
of Shakespeare. By the 1980s, Shakespeare studies were open to movements such as
structuralism, New Historicism, African-American studies, and queer studies. In a
comprehensive reading of Shakespeare's works and comparing Shakespeare literary
accomplishments to accomplishments among leading figures in philosophy and
theology as well, Harold Bloom has commented that, "Shakespeare was larger than
Plato and then St. Augustine. He encloses us, because we see with his fundamental
perceptions."

41

CHAPTER-XIV

42

SHAKESPEARES QUOTES AND QUOTATIONS

Shakespeare quotes such as "To be, or not to be" and "O Romeo, Romeo!
wherefore art thou Romeo?" form some of literature's most celebrated lines. Other
famous Shakespeare quotes such as "I'll not budge an inch", "We have seen better
days" ,"A dish fit for the gods" and the expression it's "Greek to me" have all become
catch phrases in modern day speech. Furthermore, other William Shakespeare quotes
such as "to thine own self be true" have become widely spoken pearls of wisdom.
SOME FAMOUS QUOTES OF SHAKEPEARE

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
If music be the food of love, play on.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good
night till it be morrow.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust
upon them.
As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with
words.
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have
their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his
acts being seven ages.
If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you
poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

43

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in
miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current
when it serves, or lose our ventures.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell
as sweet.
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to
heaven.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
This above all; to thine own self be true.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged
Cupid painted blind.
The wheel is come full circle.
When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father,
both cry.

CONCULSION

44

CONCLUSION

About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of
William Shakespeare's plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like
Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Baconmen of more known
backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspirationas the true authors of the plays.
Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare's life and the dearth of
contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the
Stratford government record the existence of a William Shakespeare, but none of
these attest to him being an actor or playwright.
What seems to be true is that William Shakespeare was a respected man of the
dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th
centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn't recognized until the 19th
century. Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing
through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for William Shakespeare and his
work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and
performance have rediscovered and adopted his works.

45

Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in
performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare's
characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of
emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

46

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Dr. Raghukul Tilak: Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Dr. Raghukul Tilak: Shakespeare Othello
William Shakespeare- Wikepedia
Brainyquote.com
Shakespeare.mit.edu

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