Shakespeare Flashcards
All’s Well that Ends Well
Problem Play (maybe comedy?) Setting Florence Bertram, Count of Roussillon Helena The King of France
Helena, the low-born ward of a Spanish countess, is in love with the countess’s son Bertram, who is indifferent to her. Bertram goes to Paris to replace his late father as attendant to the ailing King of France. Helena, the daughter of a recently deceased doctor, follows Bertram, ostensibly to offer the King her services as a healer. The King is skeptical, and she guarantees the cure with her life: if he dies, she will be put to death, but if he lives, she may choose a husband from the court. The King is cured and Helena chooses Bertram, who rejects her, owing to her poverty and low status. The King forces him to marry her, but after the ceremony Bertram immediately goes to war in Italy without so much as a goodbye kiss. He says that he will only marry her after she has borne his child and wears his family ring. In Italy, Bertram is a successful warrior and also a successful seducer of local virgins. Helena follows him to Italy, befriends Diana, a virgin with whom Bertram is infatuated, and they arrange for Helena to take Diana’s place in bed. Diana obtains Bertram’s ring in exchange for one of Helena’s. In this way Helena, without Bertram’s knowledge, consummates their marriage and wears his ring. Helena returns to the Spanish countess, who is horrified at what her son has done, and claims Helena as her child in Bertram’s place. Helena fakes her death, and Bertram, thinking he is free of her, comes home. He tries to marry a local lord’s daughter, but Diana shows up and breaks up the engagement. Helena appears and explains the ring swap, announcing that she has fulfilled Bertram’s challenge; Bertram, impressed by all she has done to win him, swears his love to her. Thus all ends well. There is a subplot about Parolles, a disloyal associate of Bertram’s. A recurring theme throughout the play is the similarity between love and war – conquering/seducing/betraying/outmaneuvering.
Antony and Cleopatra
Setting: Egypt “I am dying, Egypt, dying” (Mark Antony)
Mark Antony (commits Suicide)
Cleopatra (commits suicide with the bite of an asp)
Octavius
The plot is based on Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Sicilian revolt to Cleopatra’s suicide during the Final War of the Roman Republic. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony’s fellow triumviri of the Second Triumvirate and the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus Caesar. The tragedy is set in Rome and Egypt, characterised by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers, alternating between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and the more pragmatic, austere Rome.
Many consider the role of Cleopatra in this play one of the most complex female roles in Shakespeare’s body of work.[3]:p.45 She is frequently vain and histrionic, provoking an audience almost to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare’s efforts invest both her and Antony with tragic grandeur. These contradictory features have led to famously divided critical responses.[4] It is difficult to put Antony and Cleopatra in a single genre. It can be classified as a history play (though it does not completely adhere to historical account), tragedy (though not completely in Aristotelian terms), comedy, and romance.
As You Like It
Setting: The Forest of Arden Oliver Orlando Rosalind Duke Frederick Jacques the jester
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy . As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle’s court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy traveller Jaques who speaks many of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches (such as “All the world’s a stage” and “A fool! A fool! I met a fool in the forest”). Jaques provides a sharp contrast to the other characters in the play, always observing and disputing the hardships of life in the country. Historically, critical response has varied, with some critics finding the work of lesser quality than other Shakespearean works and some finding the play a work of great merit.
The play features one of Shakespeare’s most famous and oft-quoted speeches, “All the world’s a stage”, and is the origin of the phrase “too much of a good thing”. The play remains a favourite among audiences and has been adapted for radio, film, and musical theatre. The piece has been a favorite for famous actors on stage and screen, notably Vanessa Redgrave, Juliet Stevenson, and Patti LuPone in the role of Rosalind and Alan Rickman, Stephen Spinella, Kevin Kline and Stephen Dillane in the role of Jaques.
Comedy of Errors
(Shakespeare’s Shortest Play)
Aegean
Antipholus (twins with the same name)
Dromio (two servants with the same name)
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare’s early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors (along with The Tempest) is one of only two of Shakespeare’s plays to observe the classical unities. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre.
The Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins that were accidentally separated at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities lead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus, and false accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession.
Hamlet
Longest Play
Setting: Denmark (Elsinore Castle)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother, poisoned with drink meant for Hamlet)
King Claudius (Hamlet’s uncle, kills Hamlet’s father, killed by Hamlet)
Horatio (Hamlet’s friend)
Polonius (killed by Hamlet)
Laertes (Polonius’ son, stabbed by Hamlet)
Ophelia (Polonius’ daughter, goes mad and drowns in a river)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Hamlet’s dead friend, dug up by the gravedigger: Yorick
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet is a tragedy Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet’s father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother’s widow, Hamlet’s mother Gertrude.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch]
The story of Hamlet ultimately derives from the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier (hypothetical) Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet, though some scholars believe he himself wrote the Ur-Hamlet, later revising it to create the version of Hamlet we now have. He almost certainly created the title role for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare’s time
Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto (Q1, 1603), the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604), and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines, and even entire scenes, missing from the others.
Henry V
King Henry V (wins the Battle of Agincourt)
The Dauphin of France
Princess Katherine of France (courted by Henry)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, It tells the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt (1415) during the Hundred Years’ War.
The play is the final part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. The original audiences would thus have already been familiar with the title character, who was depicted in the Henry IV plays as a wild, undisciplined lad known as “Prince Harry” and by Falstaff as “Hal”. In Henry V, the young prince has become a mature man and embarks on a successful conquest of France
Henry VIII
(Last play performed in the Globe) Henry VIII Catherine of Aragon (divorced by Henry) Anne Boleyn Cardinal Wolsey Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
Henry VIII is a history play . An alternative title, All is True, Stylistic evidence indicates that individual scenes were written by either Shakespeare or his collaborator and successor, John Fletcher.
During a performance of Henry VIII at the Globe Theatre in 1613, a cannon shot employed for special effects ignited the theatre’s thatched roof (and the beams), burning the original building to the ground
Julius Caear
Julius Caesar
Brutus and Cassius (they kill Julius Caesar and commit suicide in the end)
Mark Antony
Octavius (Caesar’s nephew)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare,1] It is one of several plays written by Shakespeare based on true events from Roman history, which also include Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra.
Although the title is Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar is not the most visible character in its action; he appears in only five scenes. Marcus Brutus speaks more than four times as many lines and the central psychological drama is his struggle between the conflicting demands of honour, patriotism and friendship.
Love’s Labours Lost
FerdinanLove’s Labour’s Lost is one of William Shakespeare’s early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to forswear the company of women for three years of study and fasting, and their subsequent infatuation with the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies. In an untraditional ending for a comedy, the play closes with the death of the Princess’s father, and all weddings are delayed for a year. The play draws on themes of masculine love and desire, reckoning and rationalization, and reality versus fantasy.d, the king of Navarre
The princess of France
Macbeth
The Scottish Play
Macbeth, The Thane of Glamis Lady Macbeth King Duncan (killed by Macbeth) Macduff (kills Macbeth in battle) Malcolm (becomes king upon the death of Macbeth) The three witches
Setting: Scotland
Castle: Dunsinane
The Merchant of Venice
Antonio (the merchant of Venice, borrows money from Shylock)
Shylock (the moneylender)
Portia
Antonio – a merchant of Venice
Bassanio – Antonio’s friend; suitor to Portia
Gratiano, Solanio, Salerio – friends of Antonio and Bassanio
Lorenzo – friend of Antonio and Bassanio, in love with Jessica
Portia – a rich heiress
Nerissa – Portia’s waiting maid - in love with Gratiano
Balthazar – Portia’s servant, who Portia later disguises herself as
Stephano – Nerissa’s disguise as Balthazar’s law clerk.
Shylock – a rich Jew, moneylender, father of Jessica
T
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Character: Falstaff (he appears in three of Shakespeare’s plays)q
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Theseus, the Duke of Athens Hippolyta (Queen of the Amazons) Oberon (King of the fairies) Titania (Oberon’s wife) Puck (the fairy) Setting: Athens
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (mechanicals), who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare’s most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
Othello
Othello the Moor
Desdemona (Othello’s wife)
Iago and Cassio (Othello’s lieutenants)
Setting: Cyprus and Venice
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedywritten in approximately 1603, and based on the short story Un Capitano Moro (“A Moorish Captain”) by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. The work revolves around four central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his beloved wife, Desdemona; his loyal lieutenant, Cassio; and his trusted but unfaithful ensign, Iago. Because of its varied and current themes of racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance, Othello is still often performed in professional and community theatres alike and has been the basis for numerous operatic, film, and literary adaptations.
Richard 3
Richard III (of the House of York)
King Edward IV (of the House of Lancaster)
Edward and Richard (King Edward’s sons)
Setting: 15th century England
Battle: The Battle of Bosworth Field
Richard III is a historical playbelieved to have been written in approximately 1592. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. Richard III concludes Shakespeare’s first tetralogy (also containing Henry VI parts 1–3).
It is the second longest play in the canon after Hamlet
