William
Shakespeare Overview
Prepared by Skylar Hamilton Burris
Biography | Histories | Comedies
| Tragedies | Poetry
Authorship Controversy | Paper:
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Last Revised: Sunday January 09, 2005 06:13 PM -0500
Julius Caesar
King John - John Lackland who, along with Richard I, was son of Henry II became King in 1199. His son, prince Henry, Arthur, his nephew, Philip the Bastard, and Philip King of France are characters in the play.
Richard II- Richard II is called in Henry IV "that sweet lovely rose." He was a grandson of Edward III, and he ruled from 1377-1399, when Henry IV (Bullingbrooke), another grandson of Edward III, became king. The play reveals the downfall of the weak yet poetic young king at the hands of Bullingbrooke. In the play, John of Gaunt, Bullingbrooke's father, dies. Bullingbrooke, exiled to France, returns to claim his inheritance while Richard II is in Ireland fighting. Bullingbrooke forces him to abdicate and then has him killed in prison. The Bishop of Carlisle prophecies: "If you crown him [Henry IV] . . . the blood of England shall manure the ground." Richard is one of the most interesting of all the monarchs in Shakespeare's tetrology. The play leaves little room for doubt: Richard is a terrible king. Yet his poetic soul makes him both sympathetic and attractive; he has a sense of the sacred which his rival lacks. Some of Shakespeare's most amazing and moving lines can be found in the mouth of this king, who suffers, it seems, from a sort of Christ-complex.
King Henry IV Part 1 & 2 then focuses on the civil war and rebellions under Henry IV, who ruled 1399-1413. Mortimer was supposed to be King if Richard II died. He is captured, and Henry IV will not ransom him. Hotspur, Mortimer's brother-in-law, therefore refuses to turn over his prisoners to the king. The plays introduce Prince Hal and Falstaff and culminate in the Battle of Shrewbury in 1403.
King Henry V focuses on the military triumphs of Prince Hal as king, who ruled from 1413-1422, and the conquest of France at the Battle of Agincourt.
King Henry VI (Part 1, 2 & 3) -- Henry VI became King in 1422. In 1455 the War of the Roses (Lancaster vs. York) began. Henry VI was deposed in 1471 and Edward IV (of the House of York) reigned sole King.
King Henry VII
Richard III - In 1461 Edward IV became king. In 1483 he died, and Edward V (House of York) became King, but the same year Richard III, Crookback, Duke of Gloucester, brother of Edward IV, had Edward V murdered and became king. In 1485, just two years latter, Richard III died in the battle of Bosworth, and the War of the Roses ended as the Earl of Richmond (house of Tudor-) married a daughter of Edward and became King Henry VII.
"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this Son of York.....
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty..."
Love's Labour's Lost
The Comedy of Errors
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Twelfth Night
The Taming of the Shrew
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Plot: Lysander loves Hermia and Hermia loves Lysander, but Demetrius also loves Hermia and Helena loves Demetrius. Other characters include Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies, and Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, who is betrothed to Thesesus, the Duke of Athens.
The Merchant of Venice
Plot: Bassanio needs money to go to Belmont to court Portia, so Antonio (a merchant of Venice) takes out a bond for his friend from Shylock, a usurer. Their agreement stipulates that if Antonio does not repay the bond, Shylock may have a pound of his flesh. Portia's father has died, and his will stipulates that only the man who picks the right casket (gold, silver, or led) can marry his daughter. Bassanio wins the girl and his friend Lorenzo elopes with Jessica, Shylock's daughter. His other friend Gratiano marries Nerissa, Portia's friend. Antonio's vessels are shipwrecked, and Shylock demands his pound of flesh. But Portia disguises herself as a doctor of laws and resolves the situation, which terminates in Shylock loosing half his goods and converting to Christianity.
Review: This is one of Shakespeare's better plotted comedies. It explores some of the same profound issues that are central to Measure for Measure, although it does not probe them as deeply (justice and law verses mercy and grace). The lottery of the caskets presents a Christian moral in an interesting way (i.e. "he who would save his life must lose it" as he who would gain Portia must "risk and hazard all"). Shylock remains one of Shakespeare's most fascinating characters, at once a villain and a victim. However, the rather obvious anti-Semitism of the play, which is only moderately tempered by Shylock's humanness, will no doubt be uncomfortable for modern readers.
Quote: . . . He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what is his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? 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?
Much Ado About Nothing
Plot: After the men have returned from the wars, romance ensues. Claudio courts Hero, but Don John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro, wishes to cause any mischief he can. He is able to deceive Claudio's "very eyes," so that the young soldier believes Hero has betrayed him. He shames her before the public when they are to be married. A helpful friar then proposes they pretend she has died, and the clown Dogberry and his inept watchmen somehow manage to discover Don John's plot. Ultimately, Hero and Claudio are married. A second, more interesting plot centers around Benedick (friend to Claudio) and Beatrice (cousin to Hero). The two are engaged in a war of wits, but Don Pedro and company trick each into believing the other is in love with him or her, and they are eventually forced to admit that they really are in love.
Review: Much Ado is probably the best of all of Shakespeare's comedies. Beatrice is one of Shakespeare's most intelligent and witty female characters. The dialogue is brilliant, and the banter exchanged between the two main characters is hilarious.
As You Like It
Plot: The British fascination with cross-dressing in comedy is nothing new; only, in Shakespeare's day, it was women dressing as men that threw the audience into laughter. As You Like It is one of Shakespeare's many cross-dressing comedies. This time it is Rosalind who turns male as Ganymede and convinces her lover, Orlando (who thinks she is Ganymede) to pretend she is Rosalind and court her. Here's the plot in a nutshell: Frederick usurps his brother as duke, who then lives in banishment in the Forest of Arden. His daughter Rosalind remains at court with her cousin Celia (Frederick's daughter). She falls in love with Orlando when she sees him in a wrestling match, but Frederick hates him because he is the son of one loyal to the old duke. Rosalind is banished, disguises herself as a boy, and sets out with Celia and the jester Touchstone. Orlando leaves because of his brother Oliver's attempt to kill him and joins up with the banished duke. Phoebe, a shepherdess loved by Silvius, falls in love with the disguised Rosalind. William loves Audrey, a country wench, who marries Touchstone, the jester. Orlando saves Oliver's life, which reconciles them, and Cecilia falls for Oliver.
Quote:
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.
All's Well That Ends Well
Plot: Helena is a counterfoil to Parolles, who follows and goads Bertram. She loves Bertram and by helping the King earns him for a husband, but he rejects her and goes off. She gets his ring and his child by a bed trick, and ends up with him.
Plot: In the play, Mariana is betrothed to Angelo, who is serving for the absent Duke. He is a strict legalist and insists on executing Claudio for fornication. His sister, Isabella, begs for mercy, and Angelo desires her. He says he will show mercy on Claudio if she sleeps with him. Through a bed trick, Angelo ends up sleeping with Mariana instead. In the end, all are forgiven.
Review: One of Shakespeare's lesser read and lesser performed plays, Measure for Measure profoundly explores the themes of justice and mercy. This exploration compensates for the defects of the play: the unbelievable resolution, the Duke's refusal to interfere early on (which causes pain to the characters), the inconsistency in the application of morality (Isabella considers it wrong for the betrothed Claudio and Juliet to have sex but justifies--and even helps to arrange--it between Angelo and Mariana), and the unexpected suddenness of the Duke's proposal to Isabella. The play seriously weighs the concerns of justice and mercy, and although it ultimately favors mercy, it recognizes the complexity of the issue. How can one practice mercy and yet restrain vice? How can one "hate the sin" yet "love the sinner?" Mercy seems to be the necessary choice over justice because man is too fallen to bear the brunt of justice. "Judge not lest ye be judged. For with what measure you mete," said Christ, "it shall be measured unto you." If you hold a high standard for others (as does Angelo for Claudio) and yet fall short of it yourself, you will be judged by the same standard. Since we seem destined to fall short of righteousness, it is best to practice forgiveness, so that we too may be judged lightly. And yet there is a concern that such practice of forgiveness will lead to a laxity that permits vice to flourish (which is the reason the Duke leaves Angelo in charge in the first place). Though mercy and forgiveness are favored, the arguments in favor of justice are not simply dismissed.
Quotes:
Angelo--"Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault's condemned ere it be done.
Mine were the very cipher of a function,
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor." (II.ii.38-42)Claudio--"Aye, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become a kneaded clod....
The weariest and most loathed world life...
can lay on nature is a paradise
To what we fear of death."
Antony and Cleopatra
Plot: Cleopatra was Queen of Egypt and wife of her brother and joint ruler, Ptolemy Dionysius. She was reinstated to the throne in 47 B.C. by Julius Caesar, by whom she had a son. In 41, Mark Antony fell in love with her and repudiated his wife Octavia, sister to Caesar Octavius. Defeated at Actium by Octavius, he committed suicide, and Cleopatra then killed herself with an asp bite. In the play, Antony is led to believe Cleopatra has committed suicide, and it is this that inspires him to kill himself.
Titus Andronicus
Trolius and Cressida
Plot: Trolius was one of the sons of Priam, King of Troy. He was killed by Achilles in the Trojan war. Paris, another son of Priam, carried off Helen, wife of Menelaus. Agamemnon was brother to Menelaus. In the play Trolius pledges his love to Cressida, daughter of a Trojan priest who sides with the Greeks. He gives her his sleeve. Diomed gives up three princes to get Cressida back from war. She vows to remain true to Trolius, but end us giving into Diomed and bidding him to wear the sleeve of Trolius.
Quote:
As false.....
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,
As fox to lambs, as wolf to heifer's calf,
Pard to the hind....
"Yea," let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
"As false as Cressid."
Timon of Athens - a 5th century misanthrope.
Epitaph:
Here lies a wretched corpse...
Here lie I, Timon; who alive, all living men did hate:
Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
MacBeth
Plot: Duncan is King of Scotland, Macbeth and Banquo are his generals, and MacDuff is a nobleman of Scotland. MacBeth, persuaded by his wife, becomes king through murder, and is eventually, as the witches prophecy, defeated by MacDuff, who was "not of woman born" because his mother had a C-section. Quote: "Life is . . . a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Coriolanus
Review: This is one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays, and it has never been among the critics' favorites. But it is an excellent drama with some compelling dialogue, and it possesses a great tragic hero. I might have enjoyed it more if I had not suffered through a college English class analysis of it, birth canal imagery and all. (Coriolanus had blood on him because he was coming back from war, not because Shakespeare wanted to say that men are jealous of women because they can't have babies.)
Plot: Caius Marcius Coriolanus is a general, Menenius Agrippa is his friend, Volumnia his mother, and Virgillia his wife. He ends up being a hero and then banished from his own city. In the end they say:
"bear from hence his body;
And mourn you for him: let him be regarded
As the most noble corse that ever herald
Did follow to his urn."
"....My rage is gone...take him up....
Beat thou the drum....
Though in this city he hath
Widowed and unchiled many a one....
Yet he shall have a noble memory."
Pericles, Prince of Tyre -
"In Antiochus and his daughter you have heard
Of monstrous lust the due and just reward,
In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen....
For wicked Cleon, and his wife, when fame
Had spread their cursed deed, and honor'd name
Of Pericles, to rage the city turn
That him and his they in his palace burn..."
Cymbelline -
"Laud we the gods;
And let not our crooked smoke climb to their nostrils
From our blest altars. Publish we this peace...
Let a Roman and a British ensign wave
Friendly together....
Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace."
The Tempest -
Prospero--
"Now my charms are all o'erthrown
And what strength I have's mine own
Which is most faint...
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free...."
The Winter's Tale-
"But, O thou tyrant,
Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
Than all they woes can stir...
A thousand knees,
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert." (III.ii.205-212)
"But how, is to be question'd; for I swear,
As I thought, dead, and have in vain said many
A prayer upon her grave....
Good Paulina, lead us form hence, where we may
Leisurely each one demand an answer....Romeo and Juliet -
Review: Romeo and Juliet tells the fate of two "star-crossed" lovers. The play contains more rhymed lines than most of Shakespeare's others, and this can have the tendency to make the play appear less realistic. But it also makes the lines very pleasing to the ear. The pure endurance of Romeo and Juliet's story line attests to its greatness. My favorite character is Mercutio, whose energy and witticism make the play worth reading. I also appreciated the friar, who serves as a foil to Romeo's excessiveness and offers tempering words of wisdom. The play is quite bawdy at times and the double meanings are numerous.
Quotes:
"O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love I feel, that feel no love in this.""What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.""Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow."
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Venus and Adonis - long poem - Venus, the Roman goddess of beauty and sensual love, wife of Vulcan and mother of Aenead, loved Adonis. He was killed by a boar while hunting. The rose, once white, was colored red by the blood of Venus, who was pricked by a thorn when she rushed to help the fallen Adonis; it is also said that the red color arose from the hunter's blood:
"Even as the sun with the purple-colored face
Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn....
Thus weary of the world, away she hies,
And yokes her silver doves; by whose swift aid
Their mistress mounted through the empty skies
In her light chariot quickly is convey'd
Holding their course to Pahos, where their queen
Means to immune herself and not be seen.
The Rape of Lucrece - about Tarquinius Sextus, the son of the seventh and last King of Rome, who raped Lucrece, and who was in revenge expelled from Rome, after which the Republic was established:
"From the besieged Ardea all in past,
Borne by the trustless wings of false desire
Lust-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman host..."
"To show her bleeding body through Rome,
And so to publish Tarquin's foul offense:
...To Tarquin's everlasting banishment."The Passionate Pilgrim
Sonnets
A Lover's Complaint
The Phoenix and the Turtle
It is said that more is known about William Shakespeare than any other playwright of his time, with the exception of Ben Jonson. Actual documented facts we have about Shakespeare are outlined below in chronological order.
It is generally assumed that Shakespeare attended Stratford Grammar School, although the school's records for that period no longer exist.
William Shakespeare of Stratford Upon Avon is generally accepted, by most scholars, as the true author of the plays attributed to him. But some scholars have proposed alternative theories of authorship, ranging from Francis Bacon to The Earl of Oxford. These scholars argue that the true author of the plays used "Shakespeare" as a pseudonym, and that the playwright's works (either accidentally or through a deliberate hoax) came to be attributed to Shakespeare of Stratford Upon Avon. People who propose such theories find it curious that the Shakespeare of Stratford Upon Avon:
The most plausible alternative proposed to Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon is Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. Claims for Oxfordian authorship are based on:
The primary problem with the Oxfordian argument is that Oxford died in 1604, and many of Shakespeare's plays were not produced until after that date. (In turn, Oxfordians argue that the plays were written before 1604 and were simply produced after Oxford's death.) Also, the theory must assume an elaborate, deliberate hoax on the part of Oxford and the English literary community.
If you are interested in this debate, you may wish to visit the website below.
Quiz
on the Controversy
This is a quiz I contributed to FunTrivia.com.
The
Shakespearean Mystery
This Frontline website explores the authorship debate. Although skewed in favor
of the Oxfordian argument, the site does contain rebuttals from Stratfordians. It has
links to several articles and features updates on both sides of the argument.
Shakespeare Authorship Page
This website is dedicated to the proposition that Shakespeare really did write
Shakespeare.
Books
By and About Shakespeare
Listings, pricing, and further information
Mr. William
Shakespeare and the Internet
This site aims to provide a complete resource to all Shakespeare material available on the
web. It also contains some original material, such as a thorough timeline.
See the Authorship Controversy section for related websites.
Suggest a site. E-mail ssburris@msn.com.