Who is William Shakespeare?
www.oppidanlibrary.com/shakespeare.htm
The Globe Theater
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Who is William Shakespeare?
• Born in 1564 to John and Mary Arden Shakespeare
• 1582: Married to Anne• 1583: Birth of Daughter Susanna• 1585: Birth of twins: Judith and Hamnet• 1587-1592: Established in London as
actor/playwright; first work Comedy of Errors
Who is William Shakespeare?
• 1593: Begins writing sonnets (until 1597-ish)• 1594-1596: Some more famous plays
Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night’s Dream
• 1597-1608: Best known plays including the rest of the tragedies
• 1599: The Globe Theatre built • 1609: Publication of the Sonnets• April 23, 1616: Shakespeare dies
His Works
• Poetryo The Sonnetso The Rape of Lucrece
• PlaysTragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, MacbethComedies: Much Ado About NothingHistories: Richard III, Henry V
The Time Period
• Elizabethan Era• The Renaissance• Actors were men only
o Men even played female roles!
• Plays were one of the main source of entertainment
Three Classifications of Shakespearean Drama:
• COMEDY
• HISTORY
• TRAGEDY
Romeo and Juliet is a…
Tragedy
TRAGIC HERO
Qualities of a Tragic Hero:• Possesses high importance or rank• Exhibits extraordinary talents• Displays a tragic flaw—an error in
judgment or defect in character—that leads to downfall
• Faces downfall with courage and dignity
BLANK VERSE
• Written like poetry• But tells a story• More free-flowing rules
o doesn’t have a rhyme scheme or set number of lines, etc.
• Iambic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter
• Lines have a rhythm to them• 10 syllables• Pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables
He JESTS at SCARS that NEV er FELT a WOUNDBut SOFT! what LIGHT through YON der WIN dow BREAKS?
SOLILOQUY AND ASIDE
• Soliloquy - Long speech given by a character while alone on stage to reveal his or her private thoughts or intentions
• Aside - Character’s quiet remark to the audience or another character that no one else on stage is supposed to hear
DRAMATIC IRONY
• Irony—contrast between appearance and reality
• Dramatic Irony—the audience or reader knows something the character(s) does not know
Foil
• A character with qualities that are in sharp contrast to another character, thus emphasizing the qualities of each
• How is Mercutio a foil to Romeo?
Journal Entry
Write about a time when you've done something wrongand it's affected others around you.• What did you do?• How did it affect others?• What consequences did you face?• Did you resolve it?
