Shakespeare - a literary 'giant' in the 21sat century

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21.06.2011

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The Chain of BeingTillyard in a NutshellSonnet 18 Hobart Shakespeareans Quiz Could Shakespeare Survive in Hollywood?  ► Bartleby: Shakespeare

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Macbeth & Witches [Extract]: Our present-day generation no longer accepts the standard prototype of the witch as scaring. To make witches disturbing for a modern audience is a real challenge, as Amita Dhiri, a young British actress, describes in Shakespeare Shorts (1999, BBC 2, Learning Zone): 'In the 1930s Orson Wells tried to do so by creating a rite-like atmosphere, using powerful images and music. The effect is frightening, it is as if they have created a baby out of clay.' Amita Dhiri herself has been asked to play one of the witches in a recent production, which has a modern setting, with Macbeth a returning war hero, from the Gulf War perhaps. It has reinterpreted the witches to make them more convincing to a present-day audience: as young and attractive women rather than old and haggard, strong personalities who are very much aware of their own sexuality, plotting together to ensnare their victim in an evil scheme. [more]

Macbeth bewitched

Macbeth /  etext /  translation (1 MB) /  Original v Modern 

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Central Aspects

Villains' propensity to commit crimes

POV: Villains v Victims

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Formal Consideration:

Monologue v Dialogue

Formal Aspects

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Biographical Focus: Justice and injustice in Shakespeare's contemporary society

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Focus on Iago (Othello) 

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Formal Aspects

soliloquy - monologue / dialogue

Formal Considerations Source: Literary Terms and Definitions *

SOLILOQUY: A monologue that is spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone. The technique frequently reveals a character's innermost feelings, such as thoughts, state of mind, motives or intentions, or provides necessary information to the audience. The convention in terms of drama is that whatever a character says in a soliloquy to the audience must be true, or at least true in the eyes of the character speaking (i.e., the character may tell lies to mislead other characters in the play, but whatever he states in a soliloquy is a true reflection of what the speaker believes or feels). The soliloquy was rare in Classical drama, but Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights used it extensively, especially for their villains. Well-known examples include speeches by the title characters of Macbeth and Hamlet, and Iago in Othello.

MONOLOGUE: (contrast with soliloquy and interior monologue) An interior monologue represents not spoken words, but rather the internal or emotional thoughts or feelings of an individual, such as William Faulkner's long interior monologues within The Sound and The Fury. Monologue can also be used to refer to a character speaking aloud to himself, or narrating an account to an audience with no other character on stage. Cf. dramatic monologue.

 'DIALOGUE: the lines spoken by a character or characters in a play, essay, story, or novel, especially a conversation between two characters, or a literary work that takes the form of such a characterization. Bad dialogue is pointless. Good dialogue either provides characterization or advances the plot. In plays, dialogue often includes within it hints akin to stage directions. For instance, if one character asks, "Why are you hitting me?" the reader can assume that on stage another character is striking the speaker.

Macbeth Soliloquies / Key scenes from the play / RSC Shakespeare

act one : scene three

the witches' initial prophecies to macbeth and banquo

act one : scene five

lady macbeth's soliloquy: "come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts."

Act One Scene 7

If it were done when 'tis done...

act two : scene one

macbeth's soliloquy: "is this a dagger which I see before me?" *

act three: scene four

banquo's ghost

act five : scene one

lady macbeth's sleepwalking scene

Act Five Scene Five

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow -Macbeth

act five : scene eight

the final confrontation between macbeth and macduff

Shakespeare Sonnets Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18 (1609) *

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Commentary This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare's works, only lines such as "To be or not to be" and "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" are better-known. more ..

The Sonnet A fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic types of sonnets, the Italian and the English. more .../ other source


BBC AS Guru

Shakespeare Biography and Historical Context
Extra facts on Willie can be found on tv. [83.43]

Shakespeare Biography and Historical Context
Go to tv1 for an interesting montage of Shakespearean theatre clips.

Shakespeare Biography and Historical Context
Race-hatred, political intrigue and sexual jealousy. Sound like an interesting mix. Tune in to find out more about the tragic elements of Othello.

Elizabethan Theatre
For examples of heightened dramatic tension there's nowhere better than tv1.

Shakespearean Language
Do you want to know what Zoe Wannamaker's got to say: tune in and find out.

Shakespeare Biography and Historical Context
Just how does the Moor of Venice use language to covey his feelings of jealousy? Tune in to find out.

Shakespeares Sources

Duncan I (d. Aug. 1, 1040, near Elgin, Moray), king of the Scots from 1034 to 1040. He was the grandson of King Malcolm II (ruled 1005-34), who irregularly made him ruler of Strathclyde when that region was absorbed into the Scottish kingdom (probably shortly before 1034). Malcolm violated the established system of succession whereby the kingship alternated between two branches of the royal family. Upon Malcolm’s death, Duncan succeeded peacefully, but he soon faced the rivalry of Macbeth, Mormaor (subking) of Moray, who probably had a better claim to the throne. Duncan besieged Durham unsuccessfully in 1039 and in the following year was murdered by Macbeth. Duncan’s elder son later killed Macbeth and ruled as King Malcolm III Canmore (1058-93), and the younger son, Donaldbane, ruled Scotland from 1093-1097. (Vol. III; p. 706) [more]

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Macbeth