I. Life and creation

William? William shakespeare (1564- 16 16) is the most outstanding representative of European literature in the Renaissance. He wrote 37 plays, 2 long poems and 154 sonnets in his life. His works widely reflected the politics, economy, ideology, culture and customs of Britain at that time. Ben Jonson called him "the soul of the times". His plays play an important role in the development of European drama or literature.

(1) life history

1 adolescence

Shakespeare 1564 was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire on April 23rd. Father John is a self-employed man in Warwickshire. He moved to Stratford in 155 1 and engaged in wool, leather manufacturing, grain trading and other industries. Some people say that he is also a butcher. John was the civil administrator of 1565 Stratford and was elected mayor three years later. The eldest son William was sent to a local grammar school to study Latin and ancient history, philosophy, poetry, logic and rhetoric. 13, 14 years old, when his family came down, he may have dropped out of school to help his father take care of the business. 1582165438+10 In October, when he was 18 years old, he married jacqueline hathaway (2 6 years old), the daughter of a wealthy farmer in a neighboring village. Susanna was born in May of the following year, and twin children Judith (female) and Hamnet (son) were born in 1585.

Stratford

Shakespeare's former residence

Arriving in London for the first time.

Shakespeare left his hometown for London in. This is the heyday of Queen Elizabeth I's rule in Britain. Shakespeare entered the troupe under the introduction of a Stratford man named Richard. At first, he worked as a groom, serving the gentlemen at the gate of the theater, and later became a hired actor. He studies hard and practices acting while doing odd jobs. He also used his spare time to watch performances by other troupes. Around 1588, Shakespeare began to adapt the old scripts for the troupe and modify the scripts of other playwrights. From then on, Shakespeare began his career as a playwright.

Contact with ancient Roman poetry and drama-theater handyman-hired actor-screenwriter-theater shareholder-hereditary gentleman

3 creative peak

From 1594, Shakespeare Company was called "Palace Minister Company" under the protection of the competent minister. Later, he co-founded the Globe Theatre, where his plays were mainly performed. Shakespeare's plays before the age of 35 have always been praised as "unparalleled" by everyone, and he can be said to be a first-class drama poet in ancient times. But he never published his own play before his death. Shakespeare has created 37 plays in more than 20 years, the themes of which are mostly drawn from historical books, novels, folklore and old plays, which reflect the historical reality of the transition from feudal society to capitalist society and publicize the humanitarianism and humanity of the emerging bourgeoisie. On the one hand, it draws lessons from ancient drama, English medieval drama and emerging European culture and art, on the other hand, it deeply observes life, understands society and grasps the pulse of the times.

Therefore, Shakespeare can create many vivid characters and paint a broad and colorful picture of social life, which is characterized by the blending of sadness and joy, the unity of poetry and imagination, contradiction and change, life philosophy and critical spirit. Shakespeare has a close relationship with the theater of the troupe for more than 20 years. Besides writing, he also acts as a director. When writing a script, he often thinks about the specific actors and never forgets the theater and the performance effect. He tried to attract all kinds of audiences, especially those with higher education, inherited the existing popular drama tradition and absorbed the artistic interest of Italian and British court nobles. This is the golden age of Shakespeare's creation.

4 old age

From 1608 to 16 1 1 year, it was the later period of his creation. Began to turn to the writing of legendary dramas. I returned from London around 16 13. Shakespeare spent most of his later years in his hometown. 1665438+On April 23rd, 2006, on his 52nd birthday, he passed away. On the 25th, his body was buried under the altar of Trinity Church in Stratford. For small countries, history is ruthless; For a great man, history is like a loving lover, standing there all the time, describing the elegance of his lover to every latecomer.

(2) Creation process (detailed version)

Fortunately, a large number of Shakespeare's works have been handed down and become a very precious part of the treasure house of human culture. This involves Shakespeare's creative path. We divide the poet's whole creative career into three periods: the first period is from 1590 to 1600; The second period is 160 1 year to 1607, and the third period is 1608 to 16 13 years.

1 Phase 1

Some people call the first period of Shakespeare's creation "comedy period", which is inaccurate. Yes, the poet did create ten comedies during the period from Wrong Comedy to Twelfth Night, but at the same time he also created nine historical dramas (three before, during and after Henry VI, two after Henry IV, and the rest were Richard III, King John, Richard II and. It is obviously inappropriate to simply refer to this period of Shakespeare as "comedy period". On the other hand, ten of Shakespeare's seventeen comedies were written during this period, and his most famous comedies, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, All Happy, Merry Wives of Windsor and Twelfth Night, were all written during this period, so Shakespeare's comedies occupied a particularly important position during this period. These two aspects must be seen at the same time, and we must not neglect them.

Let's talk about comedy first. All comedies should have a happy ending. This is self-evident. Shakespeare's comedies all have happy endings. But in addition, Shakespeare's comedies have some obvious and distinctive features, namely:

(1) The main theme of comedy is to write about love, friendship and marriage, and express humanistic ideals through these. Take an important comedy in this period as an example. It describes the pure love between Orlando and Roselyn, Oliver and Celia, and the simple love between shepherd Silves and shepherd Phoebe, clown Tackiston and village girl Audrey. Despite all kinds of difficulties and twists and turns, the last four couples got married at the same time, which is really the so-called "jack shall have Jill". Everyone is very happy. At the same time, this comedy also describes a loyal friendship: Roselyn and Celia are cousins, and Celia's father, Flederick, usurped his brother's position as duke and drove him away, forcing him to live in exile in the forest, but the two cousins have always loved each other and would rather live a hard life together in the forest than be separated. This pure friendship is also precious.

(2) Most of Shakespeare's comedies are full of romanticism. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, there are beautiful forests, fairies, fairies, fairy Wang Ao Blank, the king of the Nordic dwarves, legendary fairy Robin in English folklore, fragrant bean flowers, spiders weaving webs, petite moths and wonderful music. This is not a simple comedy, it is simply a beautiful fairy tale full of poetry and painting, fascinating and fascinating! Take The Merchant of Venice, which is full of fierce struggles in the play, for example. The heroine Portia chooses her husband, which is neither "parents' orders, matchmakers' words" nor referrals, but (dear readers, you will never think about it again) puts three boxes of gold, silver and lead in her boudoir for the suitors to choose. Who would choose a box with small photos of Portia? What a romantic way to choose a spouse!

(3) Another feature of Shakespeare's comedies is that each script often has one or two or more storyline clues besides a main plot. There are three parallel clues in The Merry Wives of Windsor: First, a series of adventures of the ruined knight Falstaff; The second is the marriage of girl Ann Peggy, and three men are chasing her. Thirdly, Ann Peggy's marriage caused a dispute between French doctor Chaos and Welsh priest Evans. There are four clues in A Midsummer Night's Dream: one is the relationship between theseus, Duke of Athens, and his fiancee Hippolyta; The second is the love entanglement between Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena; The third is the quarrel between the fairy king O 'Brown and the fairy queen Titan. Fourth, the relationship between craftsmen headed by Burton.

The plots of these comedies of Shakespeare are complex, and each clue is relatively independent and closely related to each other, including real life, fairyland and fantasy, which makes the whole comedy full of ups and downs, confusion and artistic charm. The plots of these comedies are too limited to be described in detail. However, this is not important. Readers can read the original work according to these rough introductions, which is very clear. In addition, some works will be introduced in this book to give readers a preliminary impression. Reading Shakespeare's plays is a good artistic enjoyment. I sincerely hope that readers will not be satisfied with the brief introduction of our little book, but should take this little book as a key to open Shakespeare's art treasure house. Through it, you will enter a magnificent art hall, which is full of beautiful things.

As for historical plays, as mentioned above, Shakespeare wrote nine historical plays during this period. Historical plays are based on historical facts, while Shakespeare's historical plays are all about emperors in English history. Except King John (1199-1216 during the reign of King John of England), the other eight historical dramas just constitute two "four-part" dramas, Richard II and Heng. The other "four-part" is the first, middle and second part of Henry VI and Richard III, belonging to York and Lancaster families respectively. These two "Tetralogy" wrote the history of Britain from the end of14th century to the end of15th century, and wrote about the royal family disputes, internal turmoil, the war against France and the "red and white wars of the roses" and other major events in this period. An important spirit running through these eight plays is the spirit of the times shared by humanists at that time: patriotism. These historical dramas profoundly reflect the British people's desire to oppose feudal separatism, feudal tyrants and national unity.

Shakespeare's most representative historical plays are Henry IV and Henry V. Through these three scripts with coherent plots, the poet shaped the image of Henry V for us: he was in a daze when he was a prince, fooling around with drunkards and hooligans in restaurants and other amusement places all day, and gradually realized his mistakes under the education of his parents. After the death of his father Henry IV, he succeeded to the throne, determined to turn evil into good, and finally became a wise monarch. Shakespeare described Henry V as an ideal monarch. Even so, he didn't write the monarch as a sacred person with a sacred spirit, perfect and free from vulgarity. Instead of avoiding contradictions, he wrote the shortcomings of Prince Hal (the name of Prince Hal when Henry V was in office), which made him gradually change in various contradictions in real life and become a wise king. In sharp contrast to Henry V's praise, Shakespeare severely condemned the immoral king Richard in his play Richard II. It can be seen that Shakespeare did not praise feudal emperors in general, but distinguished right from wrong according to historical facts and praised historical figures.

The second period

If Shakespeare wrote comedies and historical plays in the first period of his creation, he wrote tragedies in the second period. During this period, he wrote seven tragedies, four comedies and some sonnets, which were only half of the previous ones, but they were extremely important. Why? Because his thoughts and art were more mature during this period, the four most important tragedies in his life (the so-called "four tragedies" of Shakespeare: Hamlet, otero, King Lear and Macbeth) were all created during this period and became his immortal masterpieces. Shakespeare believes that tragedy must have the following three characteristics:

(1) must end with the death of a hero. All Shakespeare's tragedies (three tragedies in the first phase, seven tragedies in the second phase, a total of ten tragedies) ended in the death of the tragic hero. This is mainly influenced by his contemporaries and pioneers, two famous tragic poets in the English Renaissance, Thomas Cade (1558? — 1594? ) and christopher marlowe (1564- 1593), also because people had different views on tragedy at that time. During the Renaissance, humanists like Sha Tubia believed that tragedy must end with the tragic ending of the protagonist, and death is the greatest disaster for a person, so tragedy must end with the death of the protagonist. Modern tragedy is not like this. Tragic heroes can die or not. What matters is not only the personal experience of the tragic hero, but also the depth of the contradiction expressed in the tragedy and the depth of the characters' ideological character.

In Shakespeare's tragedy, although the hero died heartbreakingly (except for Macbeth, Macbeth's death was due to his own heinous crime of killing a wise monarch and slaughtering innocent subjects, and his death deserved it), the ideal that the tragic hero fought for won, which made people feel bright for the future. The death of the tragic hero gives people a feeling of sadness, not simple sadness, and certainly not pessimism.

For example, in Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet died, and the Norwegian prince Fuding brass led the army to announce Denmark's return to normal order; In King Lear, King Lear dies and is loyal to his courtiers, the Duke of Aubenny, the Earl of Kent and Edgar Qi Xin, and unites to rebuild the country. In Othello, Autero, who was too kind, was deceived and instigated by the schemer Iago, killed his wife by mistake, and committed suicide with his sword to punish himself. His lieutenant Cassio immediately took over the military and political affairs and arrested Iago, the villain who was about to be severely punished. In Antony and Cleopatra, the two lovers died one after another, and Caesar, one of the three rulers of Rome, buried them together in a grave so that they would never be separated. In a word, it makes people see that although the protagonist in the tragedy paid a heavy price and sacrificed his own life, it has a bright future and gives people comfort and encouragement.

(2) The hero of the tragedy must be a nobleman. This view is obviously wrong. This is due to the class and age limitations of Shakespeare and Renaissance humanists, as well as the influence of ancient Greek and Roman tragedies. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, there were many plagues and diseases, and the people were extremely poor. Coupled with frequent wars, the lives of working people are worthless. For example, in the years from 1349, a so-called "black death" (that is, plague) swept through western Europe. In England alone, the death toll has reached two-fifths of the total population. In this case, who will care about the lives of ordinary working people?

There is also the influence of traditional ideas. From the three great tragic writers in ancient Greece, through the theoretical summary of the famous Greek literary theorist Aristotle (384-322 BC) to the tragedy of ancient Rome, people never thought that only the disasters that fell on emperors and nobles could be written as tragedies, and the disasters of working people could not be the subject of tragedies. This class prejudice and the limitation of the times make Shakespeare's tragic heroes all emperors, queens or other noble men and women.

(3) The actions of tragic characters must come from their own will and heart, that is, the tragic ending of tragic characters can not be attributed to objective reasons, but should be responsible for themselves (Romeo and Juliet may be an exception, which will be discussed separately below). Macbeth committed the crime of regicide and murdered the wise monarch, not because of Lady Macbeth's encouragement, nor because he met three witches in the wilderness. Witches predicted that he would become king of Scotland, but it was because of his personal ambition. Timon, the Athenian, was very rich, but poor. The main responsibility lies not with others, but with himself, because he is too generous and extravagant, and he doesn't know how insidious some people in his world are. The above three points are the main features of Shakespeare's tragedy.

3 the third phase

This is the third and last period of Shakespeare's creation. During this period, the poet wrote four plays, namely three comedies, cymbeline, The Story of Winter, The Tempest and a historical play Henry VIII. The latter was co-written with the famous playwright john fletcher (1579- 1625), but it was mainly written by Shakespeare. Regardless of the latter historical drama, all three comedies are legendary dramas, that is, the works deal with comic characters and their experiences in fairy tales or legends. The realism of these works has been greatly weakened, and the criticism of society has also been weakened. Sharp social contradictions are often solved by unrealistic methods.

Take The Tempest as an example. The play tells the story that Prospero, the Duke of Milan, was usurped by his younger brother and left the sea with his three-year-old daughter Miranda, living on an island. The duke can use magic to save the elves imprisoned by witches on the island for his own use. In addition, he also served the ugly Kaileban, the only resident on the island who was raised by witches. Twelve years later, Antonio, the usurper, his conspirator, King Allonzot of Naples, and Prince Ferdinand, the son of Ah, went to sea by boat. Prospero used magic to sink the ship, and all the people on board came to the island. Later, Sibas Xin, Allonzot's brother, conspired with Antonio to kill King Allonzot of Naples and his loyal servant Goncharo. On the other hand, Keleban, Stefano and Jester Tringuero also occupied the whole island after planning to kill Prospero.

While these two murder plots were going on in secret, Miranda and Ferdinand fell in love at first sight. Prospero learned that Keleban and others planned to kill themselves, and immediately sent Ariel the elf to punish them. Finally, Prospero publicly revealed his past status as a duke, asked his brother Antonio to return the land to himself, and warned Sibas Xin and others not to engage in intrigue. At this point, all contradictions were immediately resolved, and people were ready to set sail the next day and return to Naples and Milan respectively. The story of the younger brother usurping his elder brother's position in The Tempest, or the story of the younger brother preparing to kill his own younger brother, has certain practical significance, but the solution to the contradiction is unrealistic.

In Shakespeare's time, it is not uncommon for brothers to kill each other for the throne and title in English history. However, in The Tempest, this life-and-death struggle is instantly resolved by kindness and forgiveness, and its persuasiveness is minimal. Nevertheless, The Tempest is still Shakespeare's first-rate work in terms of rich fantasy, tortuous stories, vivid characters, romantic interest and artistic skills of poetry.

Chronology of creation

Early stage (1590- 1600)

comedy

Wrong comedy 1592

Taming the Shrew 1593

Two gentlemen in Verona 1594

Love in vain 1594

A Midsummer Night's Dream +0595

Merchant of Venice +0596

Much ado about nothing 1598

Merry wives of Windsor 1599

Everyone is happy 1599

Twelfth night 1600

historical play

Henry VI 1590

Richard 1592

Richard II 1595

King John 1596

Henry iv 1597

Henry V 1598

tragedy

Titus and Launix 1593.

Romeo and Juliet 1595

Julius Caesar 1599

Mid-term (160 1- 1607)

comedy

Troilus and Krista 160 1

All is well that ends well. 1602

Measure for measure 1604

tragedy

Hamlet 160 1

Outlaw 1604

King Lear 1605

Macbeth 1606

Anthony and Cleopatra 1606

Ko Leoline Nas 1607

Timon 1607 in Athens

Late stage (1608- 16 13)

comedy

Prince Pericles of Tyre 1608

Cymbeline 1609

The story of winter 16 10

Storm 16 1 1

historical play

Henry VIII

(2) the creative process (concise version)

Creation stage

Q q prophase (1590—— 1600): historical drama and comedy period.

Main works: comedies Henry IV, Henry V,

A midsummer night's dream and the merchant of Venice.

Twelfth Night

The tragedy Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar.

Q q metaphase (1601—1607): the tragic period.

Main Works: Tragedy Hamlet, otero, King Lear,

Macbeth, Timon of Athens

Comedy "Measure for Measure"

Late QQ (1608 ——1612): the legendary drama period.

Main works: the legendary drama The Tempest

The historical drama Henry VIII

Early1(1590-1600) historical drama and comedy period.

This is the forming period of Shakespeare's thought and art, during which the Elizabethan regime is still consolidating, and the temporary alliance between the royal family, businessmen and new noble is still developing. After 1588 defeated the Spanish "Armada", the national situation was greatly boosted. This makes the author full of optimism about life and believes that humanism can be realized. The historical dramas and comedies created in this period all showed a bright and optimistic style. Historical dramas, such as Richard III (1592) and Henry IV (1597), condemn feudal tyrants and praise enlightened monarchs, showing humanistic anti-feudal tyranny and enlightened political ideals of feudal separatism. The first and second parts of the historical drama Henry IV are representative works, among which Falstaff is one of the most famous comic figures in Shakespeare's works.

Comedy films, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), Twelfth Night (1600), Everybody is Happy (16O0), etc. Describing gentle, beautiful, determined and brave women, breaking through numerous feudal obstacles and finally winning love shows humanism's praise for free love and opposition. Even the tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1595) written in this period has many bright and optimistic factors.

poetic sentiment

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, two long poems and other poems. The long poems Venus and adonis (1592 ~ 1593) and the shame of Lucretius (1593 ~ 1594) are all based on the works of the vivid Roman poet Jill, whose themes are to describe irresistible love and condemn the violation of honor. Sonnets (1592 ~ 1598) are mostly in the form of conjoined poems with the theme of praising friendship and love.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a movie full of fantasy.

Want to talk to romantic lyric comedy.

A midsummer night's dream is a story about the pursuit of true love by Athenian girls. Her father asked her to marry a noble young man, and she had another love. Finally, with the help of the fairy, she finally got what she wanted. The contradiction between the mythical world and reality in the play is one of Shakespeare's most poetic and imaginative plays.

"Since it seems to be a law of fate that true lovers always suffer, let's practice patience; Because this kind of abrasion, like memories, dreams, sighs, hopes and cries, is an indispensable follower of poor love. ……"

The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's comedies.

The most ironic one.

The Merchant of Venice is the most ironic one in Shakespeare's comedies. Its main plot is a lawsuit between Antonio, a Venetian businessman, and Shylock, a Jewish businessman. The former emphasizes friendship, while the latter is mercenary. Antonio borrowed money from Shylock and wrote an IOU. If he doesn't pay back the money, Shylock will cut off a pound of Antonio's flesh. Antonio's failure to pay his debts on time caused a lawsuit. The judge suggested that there should not be a drop of blood on the IOU, so bleeding is not allowed when cutting meat. As a result, Shylock failed. The script is also interspersed with several love plots, and the endings are all very happy.

"There is a kind of people in the world who put on a look of inner peace on their faces and deliberately show their calmness, which makes people admire their deep wisdom and profound thoughts; Between them, it seems to say, "My words are full of sounds. If I open my mouth, there won't be any dogs barking! "Ah, my Antonio, I have seen through such people, and they have won the reputation of wisdom just because they don't talk; But I can say for sure that if they talk, everyone who hears them will call them fools. ……"

Romeo and Juliet

This is a love tragedy with anti-feudal consciousness. It tells the story of a pair of young lovers who died because of family feud. The struggle between one or two families in the play begins with the reconciliation of the two families in exchange for the death of the protagonist. The author condemns feudalism and feudal arranged marriage.

Characters in the play: Aeschylus, Paris, montague, Capulet, Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, Tibolt, Father Lawrence, Father John, Paul Sasser, sampson, Gregory, Peter, Abraham, drug dealer, musician, servant of Mercutio, servant of Paris, Mrs. montague and Mrs. Capulet.

Romeo and Juliet

(Romeo and Juliet)

In Verona, Italy, there are two hostile families. They are Capulet family headed by Juliet's father and Monte family headed by Romeo's father. The continuous violent conflict between the two families cast a shadow over the city.

Romeo is a young man who indulges in love and fantasy all day. At the instigation of his friend Mochula, Romeo attended the fancy dress ball held by Kaplet's family. Juliet's mother held this dance to let Juliet marry a young man of her choice, but it backfired. Juliet met Romeo at the dance and they fell in love at first sight.

After the dance, Romeo sneaked into Capulet's backyard to meet Juliet, and they poured out their love affair. With the help of the priest, they got married secretly. The priest hopes to resolve the long-standing hatred between the two families. Juliet's cousin Taihua is a killer. He found Romeo and asked for a duel with him, but Romeo, who hoped for peace, refused. Taihua beat Romeo wildly, causing Mochuto's anger. Under Romeo's persuasion, Mochuto did not kill Taihua, but Taihua took the opportunity to kill Mochuto. Tragedy happened. The angry Romeo killed Taihua and was punished by being fired.

Romeo met Juliet at night and left, but at this time Juliet's father wanted to marry Juliet to a young man she didn't love. Under the planning of the priest, Juliet committed suicide by pretending to take poison, but the priest's letter failed to reach Romeo. Romeo hurried to the church after receiving the bad news. When Juliet woke up, Romeo had drunk the poisonous medicine, and Juliet also shot herself. The discord between the two families led to the love tragedy of the younger generation.

"Run, step on the steed of flaming clouds and drag the sun back to its resting place; I hope that the Phaeton driving will spur you to fly west, so that the gloomy dusk will come soon. Open your thick curtains and finish the night of love! Cover Nightcrawler's eyes and let Romeo fall into my arms quietly, without being seen or talked about! Lovers can love each other in their beautiful brilliance; Even if love is blind, it only matches the night. Come on, gentle night, you simple woman in black, teach me how to fail in a win-win gambling and bet on each other's pure virginity. Cover the shy red tide on my face with your black scarf, and wait for my unforgettable love to become bold, so I will no longer be ashamed to show my true feelings in my actions.

Come on, night! Come on Romeo. Come on, your dark day! Because you will sleep on the wings of the night, whiter than the new snow on the crow's back. Come on, gentle night! Come on, lovely night, give me my Romeo! After his death, you can take him away, scatter him into countless stars, decorate the sky so beautifully that the whole world will fall in love with the night and stop worshipping the dazzling sun. ……"

2 Mid-term (160 1- 1607) tragic period

This is a period when Shakespeare's ideology and art are maturing and deepening. At this time, the "enclosure movement" in the English countryside is accelerating, the temporary alliance between the kingship and the bourgeoisie and new noble is disintegrating, social contradictions are deepening and reuniting, and the political and economic situation is deteriorating. After James I succeeded to the throne, the people are suffering more and more, and resistance is breaking out. In this case, Shakespeare deeply felt that humanism was ideal and realistic.