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English > Shakespeare > Flashcards

Shakespeare Flashcards

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1
Q

Shakespeare’s life

A
  • born on April 23rd in 1564 at Stratford-upon-Avon
  • family was poor and he was unable to finish grammar school and so we hardly find traces of imitation of the classics
  • married Anne Hathaway and moved to London in 1584
  • during the Black Death he was forced to find a private patron to whom he dedicated many sonnets, Earl of Southampton and after he became a shareholder of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men
  • 1599 he built the Globe Theatre
  • died at 52
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2
Q

Form

A
  • sonnets were published in 1609 but were probably written in the 1590s
  • there 154 sonnets in decasyllables formed of 3 quatrains and 1 rhyming couplet
  • he used the two poem Petrarchan structure as there is a turning point at the ninth line
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3
Q

Themes and addresses

A

-the sonnets can be divided into 2 sections:
1) addressed to a fair youth (Earl of Southampton):
1-17 poet urges the young man to marry and to preserve his virtues
18-126 poet warns about the destructive power of time and moral weakness, time is an active antagonist
78-86 he is concerned with a rival poet
2) from 127 to the end they are addressed to a dark lady, who is physically unattractive yet irresistibly desirable
-the choice to address the poems breaks the Petrarchan courting protocol

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4
Q

Style

A
  • rich and vivid descriptive language
  • use of rhyme
  • adaptation of stress to the movement of emotions
  • multitude of cultural references
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5
Q

Shall i compare thee

A

sonnet 18

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6
Q

The expense of spirit

A

sonnet 129

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7
Q

in the old age black was not counted fair

A

sonnet 127

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8
Q

My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun

A

sonnet 130

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9
Q

A woman’s face..

A

sonnet 20

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10
Q

That time of year thou mayest in me

A

sonnet 73

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11
Q

Romeo and Juliet

A
  • probably written in 1595 and printed in 1597
  • play begins with a sonnet, spoken as prologue, where the private emotional experience of the lovers is explored in isolation and in relation to their social context and ideas of love
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12
Q

First Act Plot R and J

A
  • covers a whole day the first of five in which the play takes place and it opens in a Verona street
  • composed of a series of dialogues about the courtly concept of love, linked to melancholy, holy devotion and idealization of the object of desire
  • ends with the scene of the masque and the meeting of the lovers
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13
Q

Second Act Plot R and J

A
  • concentrated on the development of the relationship
  • dialogue deals with the theme of love in a way that avoids the features of courtly convention
  • act ends with their marriage
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14
Q

Third Act Plot R and J

A
  • central act where the pace of events increases

- longest one and can be divided into 2 parts: public events in the first scene and the given overt to private events

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15
Q

Fourth Act Plot R and J

A
  • preparatory act to the final tragedy
  • ineffectual communication and the deviation of information have divided the characters into two groups each living their own story: only Friar Lawrence and Juliet share both
  • shortest act covers Tuesday afternoon and Wed morning
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16
Q

Fifth Act Plot R and J

A
  • consists of three scenes
  • the first breaks the unity of place moving to Mantua
  • in the last scene there in an explanation but unlike most Shakespearian heroes R and J will never know the truth
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17
Q

Tragedy of communication

A
  • the plot depends crucially on messages

- pattern of action is marked by simple gestures

18
Q

Themes

A
  • two fundamental themes: lack of knowledge and reflection upon language
  • lack of knowledge derives from bad communication
  • tragedy of unawareness and not knowing
  • comedy because of the theme of equivocation
  • tragedy because of the tragic role of chance despite the absence of an actual antagonist
  • speed is the medium of fate
19
Q

Midsummer Date and Sources

A
  • ca 1595
  • probably written for private performance during a wedding festivity and only afterwards it was adapted for the theatre
  • sources can be found in the translation of Plutarch’s works by Thomas North (1579), Spencer’s Epithalamion (1595), Ovid’s Metamorphosis and Apuleius’s The Golden Ass
20
Q

Midsummer Plot

A
  • consists of four plots and four groups of characters
  • Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons whose marriage provides the frame for the entire play
  • four Athenian lovers
  • the fairies, mythological figures in the celebration of nuptials who become real characters
  • Athenian workmen who rehearse the play Pyramus and Thisbe which they will perform at the wedding
21
Q

First Act Midsummer

A
  • opens in the palace of Theseus who is about to marry Hippolyta
  • Egeus goes to the Duke to ask for advice about the behaviour of his daughter Hermia who wants to marry Lysander, but he gave his consent to Demetrius to marry her
  • Helena, Hermia’s friend, loves Demetrius
  • Hermia and Lysander plan to meet in the woods and secretly marry
  • Demetrius follows them and Hermia follows him
22
Q

Second Act Midsummer

A
  • act is set in the woods
  • Oberon and Titania have just quarrelled because she insists of keeping one of his pages
  • Oberon send Robin Goodfellow to fetch flower that has the magic love filter and Oberon decides to charm her by putting the filter on her eyelids and he tells Puck to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena
  • Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and so Lysander falls in love with Helena
23
Q

Third Act Midsummer

A
  • theatre company is rehearsing Pyramus and Thisbe
  • one of the the actors, Bottom, has an ass head placed on his shoulders by Puck
  • Bottom’s song wakes Titania who falls in love with him
24
Q

Fourth Act Midsummer

A
  • Oberon tells Puck to put a magic herb on Titania’s eyelids so that the spell can be broken
  • Oberon puts all the other human beings who are in the wood to restore everything to normal
  • lovers are awakened by Egeus, Hippolyta and Theseus who forgive them
  • Bottom also returns to normal
25
Q

Fifth Act Midsummer

A
  • Theseus’s palace again
  • marriage between Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Lysander, and Demetrius and Helena
  • during the ceremony the play is performed
26
Q

The world of fairies

A
  • comedy is a sort of dream because most of the action takes place at night, characters fall asleep often, all the characters are under the influence of enchantment
  • play is pervaded with superstition: 24th of June herbs were supposed to have special virtues and fairies were more powerful; Eve of May Day magic was supposed to be practised
  • the fairies are used in an original way: they are mixed with mortals and responsible for wonderful complications
  • fairies are immortal, can change appearance/vanish at will, can move without constraints of time/space, their moods influence weather, especially associated with flowers (Peasblossom, Mustard-seed, Cobweb, Moth), their presence links the three plots
27
Q

Midsummer: theme of love

A
  • love is seen as unpredictable
  • love is the result of enchantment not passion/affection
  • romance is enhanced by moon
28
Q

Structure midsummer

A
  • blending of seemingly unrelated plots
  • Theseus and Hippolyta: blank verse
  • lovers: rhyming couplet
  • fairies: rhymed verse, blank verse where they quarrel
  • actors: prose
  • songs are intertwined giving an enchanting atmosphere
  • play in another play: tradition of the masque the actor can comment on the dramatic art
29
Q

Critical Review 1

A
  • two-fold strife
  • hate
  • conflicts of love
  • infatuation vs true love
  • love vs sex
  • Juliet’s youth and vulnerability
  • tragedy
  • malign influence of fate
30
Q

Critical Review 2

A
  • gathering speed
  • ironic contrast
  • dangers of all-consuming passion
  • ominous signs
  • lyricism of the balcony scene
  • images of light
  • hate
31
Q

Critical Review 3

A
  • speed towards disaster
  • Juliet’s character
  • Mercutio’s death
  • Romeo’s despair
  • the feud
32
Q

Critical Review 4

A
  • dramatic focus on Juliet
  • discrepant awareness
  • irony is deepened
33
Q

Critical Review 5

A
  • cruel irony
  • causes:
    1) Romeo’s challenge
    2) accident and chance
    3) social cause
  • performance
34
Q

Julius Caesar date and sources

A
  • first performed in 1599
  • opens the period of the problem plays involving a moral, social issue and it witnesses the maturity reached by Shakespeare
  • historical sources are Plutarch’s Lives, translated by North in 1579 he follows this source faithfully
35
Q

First Act JC

A
  • set in a street in 44 BC
  • Romans applaud Caesar because of his victory over Pompey’s sons
  • Antony offers Caesar the crown 3 times but he refuses
  • a terrible storm breaks out during the night during which supernatural things happen
  • Cassius speaks to Casca and Cinna, two conspirators and they decide to draw Brutus over to their side
36
Q

Second Act JC

A
  • Brutus is alone is his orchard and meditates over the state of things
  • Caesar’s despotism is the main theme of the 1 act, Brutus’s republican ideology emerges in the 2nd
  • Notwithstanding many doubts Brutus decides to kill Caesar
37
Q

Third Act JC

A
  • most important act
  • conspirators kill Caesar and the confusion that follows gives an atmosphere of civil war
  • Romans want answers and conspirators decide Brutus will speak
  • Antony gives his funeral oration and succeeds in stirring the plebeians to mutiny and rage
38
Q

Fourth Act JC

A
  • Octavius enters Rome and the conspirators flee
  • military dictatorship follows and the three triumvirs (Octavius, Antony and Lepidus) make a list of those that need to be killed
39
Q

Fifth Act JC

A
  • battle between conspirators and Octavius and Antony at Philippi
  • Brutus and Cassius commit suicide
  • Caesar’s ghost is placated
  • Antony pronounces noble words of praise over Brutus’s corpse
40
Q

Themes JC

A
  • tragedy based on the rhetoric of politics
  • rhetoric is the maker of history
  • two microcosms (irony and rhetoric forms) work together to form the play
  • can still be considered a Senecan tragedy because of the presence of ghosts and the revenge-motif
  • one of the main themes is reality: it is elusive and can be considered from a thousand points of view
  • every human thing is precarious: fortune changes so do the destinies of people
  • nature of ambition and the problem of goodness and honesty in people with public roles are also examined
  • what is virtue in a private man may ruin a public man: Brutus is unable to judge people because he is too honest
41
Q

Characters JC

A
  • Brutus, Caesar and Antony are the protagonists
  • Brutus stands for the man of the Renaissance still attached to a disappearing world and attracted by new ideas he doesn’t completely understand; he is torn between past and future and is a preparatory sketch for Hamlet; stand for reason but lacks passion
  • Julius Caesar represents the past. embodies a great antithesis: the human and the symbol of power
  • conspirators is the future and the desire of freedom
  • Antony is more charming, more practical than Brutus and with a subtler political mentality; he has the power of words and he is able to transform the conspiracy from and act committed in the name of freedom into a murderous crime

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