Shakespeare

Does he deserve his reputation?

Reputation

• In the UK, Shakespeare has to be taught at every key stage

• Prince Charles argued that teaching Shakespeare would improve the behaviour of youth

• Harold Bloom argued that Shakespeare invented the ‘human character’

Bardolatry• Made up of two words:"bard" and

"idolatry

• The term "Bardolatry" was coined by George Bernard Shaw

• Shaw disliked Shakespeare as a thinker and philosopher because he did not engage with social problems

A Personal Story

• During my A Levels I quoted George Bernard Shaw during a class discussion

• My teacher’s reaction was one of outrage

• The only coherent answer I received was that Shakespeare was “the genius of the metaphor”

• I was left very dissatisfied

My Mission

• Years later I have come to agree that Shakespeare is the great genius of English literature

• Over lunch I am going to explain to you why I think that Shakespeare is so special and to try to show why he remains relevant today

The Unknown Man

• Born in Stratford Upon Avon, April 23rd 1616

• At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, Three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith

• Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613

• Shakespeare the person remains more or less unknown.

• This element of mystery means that it is very hard to say what Shakespeare believed

Shakespeare: the rule breaker• Mixes the high and low, comedy and tragedy

• Shakespeare speaks the language of the countryside and knows the language of the city

• Shakespeare uses ancient dramatic traditions, especially the Mediaeval Mystery plays

• Shakespeare did not go to university, he was despised by many scholars in his day

Othello

• The story of how a Moorish General is destroyed by his servant, Iago

• Othello is a magnificent and noble character

• Iago is a stage devil who speaks directly to the audience and shows us the pleasure he feels

• Unlike previous stage devils, he is a fully developed character

Brannagh and Fishburne

In the following clip:

• Iago brilliantly infers that Cassio has had the chance of getting close to Desdemona who is Othello’s wife

• He is laying the seeds of jealously and his method is brilliant and subtle

Innovator

• Iago is a disturbingly believable character but he shows many of the features of earlier drama

• Shakespeare shows a willingness to introduce dark comedy into tragedy

• The tragedy does not teach us obvious moral lessons

• Modern critics are especially interested in the fact that Shakespeare’s plays often have endings that show no pattern to life

A New Form of Characterisation

• Hamlet is perhaps the most complex of Shakespeare’s characters

• Sinks beneath the task of avenging his dead father

• In his agony, Shakespeare produces a new form of characterisation

• The soliloquies present a character’s mind in real time

Hamlet: Background• Father dies and mother almost immediately

marries his uncle, who becomes king

• The play opens with Hamlet visited by his father’s ghost which claims that was murdered

• He demands that Hamlet avenge him

• The play concerns the twists and turns in Hamlet’s quest for vengeance

O, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, A scullion!

Freud and Shakespeare• Freud was inspired by Hamlet when he

hypothesised the Oedipus Complex

• According to him, the secret of Hamlet’s rage and inability to kill the king was his incestuous love of his mother

• This has become an influential reading of the play that influenced performances by Lawrence Olivier, Richard Burton and Kenneth Brannagh

Brannagh’s Hamlet

• In the following scene Hamlet smashes his way into the Queen’s bedroom• He kills Polonius, the kings servant • Then begs his wife to stop sleeping

with his uncle

Shakespeare’s Women

• There were no females on the stage so Shakespeare had to make do with boys

• In spite of this he created a number of female roles that actresses today fight to perform

• In an age when opportunities for women were restricted, Shakespeare's woman have agency, ambition and anger

Lady Macbeth• One of the greatest ball breaker’s in literature

• Totally dominant over her husband

• Ingenious plotter whose sweet manner disguises the heart o a tiger

• In the following scene she asks the spirits to take away all feminine softness so that she can become a heartless killer

Complexity of World View• There were no Jews in England• The Church taught that the Jews had

murdered Jesus Christ• The propaganda in Elizabethan was worthy of

the Nazis• In this climate Shakespeare created Shylock,

the Jewish money-lender in The Merchant of Venice

Al Pacino at his Best

• In the following scene Shylock refuses to change his mind pound of flesh from a man

• He speaks passionately about his ill treatment

• His words are extra-ordinarily powerful, especially in light of the Holocaust

Shakespeare our Contemporary

• Some literature dates but, putting the language aside, Shakespeare plots and themes remain relevant today

• Shakespeare if often filmed in numerous languages

• Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the finest examples of using a contemporary setting for a Shakespeare play

Magnificent Mercutio

• Mercutio is the crazy party boy of the play

• Luhrman chooses to play him as a 6 foot 3 black guy he loves going around in drag

• The Queen Mab speech is challenging to understand; Luhrman does it by having Mercutio take ecstasy

Shakespeare’s Greatness

Psychological depth

Flexibility with genre

Diversity of audience

Intellectual uncertainty

Linguistic experimentation

Withnail and I

• Drunken failed actor• In the end when it is apparent that Withnail is

finished we are not given Withnail’s words, but instead, those Hamlet

• The disillusionment of Hamlet, the sense that in spite of man’s achievements, there is ultimately neither rhyme nor reason to life, have never been equalled