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What makes a good william shakespeare essay topic.

When it comes to crafting an exceptional essay on the works of William Shakespeare, the choice of topic is paramount. The right topic can breathe life into your essay, making it captivating, unique, and unforgettable. Here are some innovative tips to help you brainstorm and select an essay topic that will mesmerize your readers:

- Research and Immerse Yourself: Begin by immersing yourself in the vast repertoire of William Shakespeare's works. Dive into his plays, poems, and sonnets. This deep exploration will provide you with invaluable insights into his themes, characters, and writing style.

- Personal Passion: Opt for a topic that ignites a genuine spark of interest within you. When you are truly passionate about the subject matter, it will shine through in your writing, captivating your readers and making your essay more compelling.

- Unveiling the Unexplored: Seek out uncharted territory and lesser-known aspects of Shakespeare's works. Instead of treading the well-worn path of common themes or characters, venture into the hidden gems that lie within his literature.

- Contemporary Connections: Explore the relevance of Shakespeare's works in today's society and connect them to modern-day issues. Examining the timeless themes and their impact on the present can render your essay thought-provoking and engaging.

- Characters and Relationships Under the Microscope: Shakespeare's characters are multifaceted and intricate. Choose a topic that allows you to analyze their motivations, relationships, or character development within his plays.

- Comparative Analysis: Engage in a comparative exploration of Shakespeare's works alongside other literary pieces, historical events, or even contemporary movies or plays. This fresh perspective will make your essay stand out from the crowd.

- Social and Cultural Context: Delve into the social and cultural milieu that shaped Shakespeare's plays. Discuss how his works were influenced by the Elizabethan era and how they mirror the society of that time.

- Unveiling Symbolism and Imagery: Shakespeare's works are a treasure trove of symbolism and vivid imagery. Select a topic that allows you to analyze and interpret these literary devices, offering profound insights into the text.

- Controversial Contemplations: Shakespeare fearlessly explored contentious themes such as power, love, and morality. Choose a topic that tackles these provocative issues, sparking a lively debate among your readers.

- Unconventional Interpretations: Present a fresh and unconventional interpretation of a particular play, scene, or character. Challenge conventional ideas and encourage critical thinking with your unique perspective.

Remember, a remarkable Shakespeare essay topic should be captivating, original, and thought-provoking. By considering these recommendations, you will be able to select a topic that will enrapture your readers and showcase your exceptional analytical skills.

Essay Topic Ideas for William Shakespeare

Prepare to be dazzled by these outstanding essay topics on William Shakespeare:

• The Empowerment of Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies
• Fate and Its Grip on Romeo and Juliet
• The Fine Line Between Madness and Sanity in Hamlet
• Love's Intricacies and Deception in Much Ado About Nothing
• Unraveling the Allure of Power and Ambition in Macbeth
• Exploring the Dark Depths of Evil in Othello
• Shakespeare's Brave Confrontation of Racism in The Merchant of Venice
• The Mighty Influence of Language and Wordplay in A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Revenge and Justice Collide in Titus Andronicus
• The Greek Mythology Odyssey within Shakespeare's Plays
• The Symbolic Tapestry of Nature in King Lear
• Gender Roles and Identity in Twelfth Night
• Time's Elusive Spell in The Tempest
• The Supernatural's Sinister Dance in Macbeth
• The Illusion of Appearance versus the Reality of Truth in Measure for Measure
• The Complexities of Love's Dominion in Antony and Cleopatra
• The Intricate Weaving of Politics in Julius Caesar
• Jealousy's Venomous Touch in Othello
• The Struggle between Duty and Desire in Hamlet
• A Profound Exploration of Human Nature in Troilus and Cressida

Provocative Questions for Your William Shakespeare Essay

Prepare to embark on an intellectual journey with these thought-provoking essay questions on William Shakespeare:

• How does Shakespeare challenge traditional gender roles in his plays?
• What is the significance of the supernatural elements in Macbeth?
• How does Shakespeare explore the theme of power and its corrupting influence in his tragedies?
• Analyze the portrayal of love and relationships in Shakespeare's comedies.
• To what extent does fate play a role in Romeo and Juliet, and are the characters responsible for their own destinies?
• Discuss the concept of madness and its impact on the characters in Hamlet.
• How does Shakespeare employ symbolism and imagery to convey his themes in The Tempest?
• Analyze the role of loyalty and betrayal in Julius Caesar.
• How does Othello's race affect the outcome of the play?
• Discuss the portrayal of revenge in Shakespeare's plays.

Creative William Shakespeare Essay Prompts

Ignite your creativity with these captivating essay prompts on William Shakespeare:

• Imagine you are a director staging a modern adaptation of one of Shakespeare's plays. How would you interpret the setting, costumes, and overall production to make it relevant to a contemporary audience?
• Write a heartfelt letter from one of Shakespeare's characters to another, expressing their deepest desires, fears, or regrets.
• Create a powerful monologue from the perspective of a minor character in any of Shakespeare's plays, unveiling their untold story or hidden emotions.
• Write a riveting dialogue between Shakespeare and a modern-day playwright, discussing the enduring appeal and relevance of his works.
• Imagine you are a literary critic tasked with analyzing a previously undiscovered Shakespearean sonnet. Interpret its meaning and discuss its significance within the context of his other works.

William Shakespeare Essay FAQ

Q: How should I begin my essay on William Shakespeare?

A: Commence with a captivating introduction that sets the stage for your essay and introduces your thesis statement. You can start with a compelling quote, an intriguing fact, or a thought-provoking question.

Q: Can I choose a lesser-known play by Shakespeare as my essay topic?

A: Absolutely! Exploring lesser-known plays can provide a fresh perspective, allowing you to delve into unexplored themes and characters. Just ensure that you provide enough context and background information for your readers.

Q: Should I include direct quotes from Shakespeare's works in my essay?

A: Including quotes can enhance your analysis and provide evidence to support your arguments. However, make sure to seamlessly integrate and analyze the quotes, rather than using them as mere filler.

Q: Can I incorporate modern examples or references in my essay on Shakespeare?

A: Yes, incorporating modern examples or references can help readers connect with the themes and relevance of Shakespeare's works. Just ensure that the examples are relevant and enhance your analysis, rather than overshadowing it.

Q: How can I make my Shakespeare essay stand out from others?

A: To make your essay shine, choose a unique and thought-provoking topic, offer fresh interpretations, and employ engaging language and writing style. Support your arguments with evidence and provide a well-structured analysis.

Remember, writing a Shakespeare essay is an opportunity to showcase your critical thinking and analytical skills. Embark on a thrilling journey through the world of Shakespeare and let your creativity illuminate your writing!

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April 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom - April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Playwright, Poet, Actor

English Renaissance

Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing,Twelfth Night, Macbeth, etc.

William Shakespeare, widely regarded as one of the greatest playwrights in history, possessed a unique and influential style of writing. His works demonstrate a mastery of language, poetic devices, and dramatic techniques that continue to captivate audiences centuries later. Shakespeare's writing style can be characterized by several distinctive features. Firstly, his use of language is rich and vibrant. He employed a vast vocabulary and crafted elaborate sentences, often employing complex wordplay and puns to create layers of meaning. Shakespeare's writing is renowned for its poetic beauty, rhythmic verse, and memorable lines that have become ingrained in the English language. Secondly, Shakespeare excelled in character development. His characters are multidimensional, with complex emotions and motivations. Through their soliloquies and dialogues, he explores the depths of human nature, delving into themes of love, jealousy, ambition, and morality. Each character's speech and mannerisms reflect their unique personality, contributing to the depth and realism of his plays. Lastly, Shakespeare's dramatic structure and storytelling techniques are unparalleled. He skillfully weaves together intricate plots, incorporating elements of comedy, tragedy, romance, and history. His plays feature dramatic tension, unexpected twists, and powerful climaxes that keep audiences engaged and emotionally invested.

One of Shakespeare's major contributions was his ability to delve into the depths of human emotions and the complexities of the human condition. Through his plays, he explored themes such as love, jealousy, ambition, revenge, and moral dilemmas, offering profound insights into the human psyche. His characters, like Hamlet, Macbeth, Juliet, and Othello, are iconic and have become archetypes in literature. Shakespeare's language and wordplay revolutionized English literature. He introduced new words, phrases, and expressions that have become an integral part of the English lexicon. His plays are a testament to his mastery of language, employing poetic techniques such as metaphors, similes, alliteration, and iambic pentameter to create rhythm, beauty, and depth in his writing. Moreover, Shakespeare's plays transcended the boundaries of time and place, showcasing universal themes and resonating with audiences across cultures and generations. His works continue to be performed and adapted in various forms, including stage productions, films, and literary adaptations, further solidifying his contribution to the world of literature.

Film Adaptations: Many of Shakespeare's plays have been adapted into films, bringing his stories to life on the silver screen. Notable examples include Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" (1968), Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V" (1989), and Baz Luhrmann's modernized version of "Romeo + Juliet" (1996). TV Series and Episodes: Shakespeare's works have been featured in TV series and episodes, either through direct adaptations or by incorporating his themes and characters. For instance, the popular TV show "The Simpsons" has parodied Shakespeare in episodes like "A Midsummer's Nice Dream" and "Tales from the Public Domain." Shakespearean-Inspired Films: Some films draw inspiration from Shakespeare's works without being direct adaptations. Examples include "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), which explores the fictionalized romance between Shakespeare and a noblewoman, and "10 Things I Hate About You" (1999), a modern-day adaptation of "The Taming of the Shrew." Literary References: Shakespeare is often referenced in literature, showcasing his enduring influence. For instance, Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel "Brave New World" features characters who quote Shakespeare, and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" includes a clandestine resistance group called "Mayday," derived from "May Day" in Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

1. Shakespeare is known for writing 39 plays, including tragedies like "Hamlet," comedies like "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and histories like "Henry V." 2. Shakespeare is credited with introducing over 1,700 words to the English language, including popular terms such as "eyeball," "fashionable," and "lonely." 3. Shakespeare's works have been translated into more than 80 languages, making him one of the most widely translated playwrights in history. 4. Shakespeare's plays continue to be performed and studied worldwide, with an estimated 17,000 performances of his works every year. 5. Despite his literary fame, little is known about Shakespeare's personal life. There are gaps and uncertainties surrounding his birthdate, education, and even the authorship of his works. 6. The Globe Theatre: Shakespeare's plays were performed at the famous Globe Theatre in London, which he co-owned. The reconstructed Globe Theatre stands in London today and offers modern audiences a glimpse into the world of Elizabethan theatre. 7. In addition to his plays, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, which are celebrated for their lyrical beauty and exploration of themes such as love, time, and mortality.

William Shakespeare is an essential topic for essay writing due to his immense significance in the world of literature and his enduring influence on various aspects of human culture. Exploring Shakespeare's works provides a rich opportunity to delve into themes of love, tragedy, power, and human nature. His plays and sonnets continue to captivate readers and audiences with their universal themes and timeless relevance. Studying Shakespeare allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the English language itself, as he contributed numerous words and phrases that are still in use today. Additionally, his innovative use of language, poetic techniques, and complex characterizations showcase his unparalleled mastery as a playwright. Furthermore, Shakespeare's impact extends beyond literature. His works have been adapted into numerous films, theater productions, and other art forms, making him a cultural icon. His plays also provide a valuable lens through which to analyze historical and social contexts, as they reflect the values, beliefs, and conflicts of the Elizabethan era.

"All that glitters is not gold." "By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks!" In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, "to be, or not to be, that is the question." In the 21st century, "to code, or not to code, that is the challenge.

1. Shakespeare, W., Shakespeare, W., & Kaplan, M. L. (2002). The merchant of Venice (pp. 25-120). Palgrave Macmillan US. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-137-07784-4_2) 2. Shakespeare, W. (2019). The tempest. In One-Hour Shakespeare (pp. 137-194). Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429262647-9/tempest-william-shakespeare) 3. Johnson, S. (2020). The Preface to The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765). In Samuel Johnson (pp. 423-462). Yale University Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300258004-040/html?lang=de) 4. Denvir, J. (1986). William Shakespeare and the Jurisprudence of Comedy. Stan. L. Rev., 39, 825. (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/stflr39&div=38&id=&page=) 5. Demmen, J. (2020). Issues and challenges in compiling a corpus of early modern English plays for comparison with those of William Shakespeare. ICAME Journal, 44(1), 37-68. (https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/icame-2020-0002) 6. Liu, X., Xu, A., Liu, Z., Guo, Y., & Akkiraju, R. (2019, May). Cognitive learning: How to become william shakespeare. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3290607.3312844) 7. Xu, W., Ritter, A., Dolan, W. B., Grishman, R., & Cherry, C. (2012, December). Paraphrasing for style. In Proceedings of COLING 2012 (pp. 2899-2914). (https://aclanthology.org/C12-1177.pdf) 8. Craig, H. (2012). George Chapman, John Davies of Hereford, William Shakespeare, and" A Lover's Complaint". Shakespeare Quarterly, 63(2), 147-174. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41679745) 9. Zhao, Y., & Zobel, J. (2007, January). Searching with style: Authorship attribution in classic literature. In Proceedings of the thirtieth Australasian conference on Computer science-Volume 62 (pp. 59-68). (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=3973ff27eb173412ce532c8684b950f4cd9b0dc8)

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 19, 2019 • ( 5 )

Few dramatists can lay claim to the universal reputation achieved by William Shakespeare. His plays have been translated into many languages and performed on amateur and professional stages throughout the world. Radio, television, and film versions of the plays in English, German, Russian, French, and Japanese have been heard and seen by millions of people. The plays have been revived and reworked by many prominent producers and playwrights, and they have directly influenced the work of others. Novelists and dramatists such as Charles Dickens , Bertolt Brecht , William Faulkner , and Tom Stoppard , inspired by Shakespeare’s plots, characters, and poetry, have composed works that attempt to re-create the spirit and style of the originals and to interpret the plays in the light of their own ages. A large and flourishing Shakespeare industry exists in England, America, Japan, and Germany, giving evidence of the playwright’s popularity among scholars and the general public alike.

Evidence of the widespread and deep effect of Shakespeare’s plays on English and American culture can be found in the number of words and phrases from them that have become embedded in everyday usage: Expressions such as “star-crossed lovers” are used by speakers of English with no consciousness of their Shakespearean source. It is difficult to imagine what the landscape of the English language would be like without the mountain of neologisms and aphorisms contributed by the playwright.Writing at a time when English was quite pliable, Shakespeare’s linguistic facility and poetic sense transformed English into a richly metaphoric tongue.

Working as a popular playwright, Shakespeare was also instrumental in fusing the materials of native and classical drama in his work. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark , with its revenge theme, its ghost, and its bombastic set speeches, appears to be a tragedy based on the style of the Roman playwright Seneca, who lived in the first century c.e. Yet the hero’s struggle with his conscience and his deep concern over the disposition of his soul reveal the play’s roots in the native soil of English miracle and mystery dramas, which grew out of Christian rituals and depicted Christian legends. The product of this fusion is a tragedy that compels spectators and readers to examine their own deepest emotions as they ponder the effects of treacherous murder on individuals and the state. Except for Christopher Marlowe, the predecessor to whom Shakespeare owes a considerable debt, no other Elizabethan playwright was so successful in combining native and classical strains.

Shakespearean characters, many of whom are hybrids, are so vividly realized that they seem to have achieved a life independent of the worlds they inhabit. Hamlet stands as the symbol of a man who, in the words of the famous actor Sir Laurence Olivier, “could not make up his mind.” Hamlet’s name has become synonymous with excessive rationalizing and idealism. Othello’s jealousy, Lear’s madness, Macbeth’s ambition, Romeo and Juliet’s star-crossed love, Shylock’s flinty heart—all of these psychic states and the characters who represent them have become familiar landmarks in Western culture. Their lifelikeness can be attributed to Shakespeare’s talent for creating the illusion of reality in mannerisms and styles of speech. His use of the soliloquy is especially important in fashioning this illusion; the characters are made to seem fully rounded human beings in the representation of their inner as well as outer nature. Shakespeare’s keen ear for conversational rhythms and his ability to reproduce believable speech between figures of high and low social rank also contribute to the liveliness of action and characters.

In addition, Shakespeare excels in the art of grasping the essence of relationships between husbands and wives, lovers, parents and children, and friends. Innocence and youthful exuberance are aptly represented in the fatal love of Romeo and Juliet; the destructive spirit of mature and intensely emotional love is caught in the affair between Antony and Cleopatra. Other relationships reveal the psychic control of one person by another (of Macbeth by Lady Macbeth), the corrupt soul of a seducer (Angelo in Measure for Measure ), the twisted mind of a vengeful officer (Iago in Othello ), and the warm fellowship of simple men (Bottom and his followers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream ). The range of emotional states manifested in Shakespeare’s characters has never been equaled by succeeding dramatists.

These memorable characters have also been given memorable poetry to speak. In fact, one of the main strengths of Shakespearean drama is its synthesis of action and poetry. Although Shakespeare’s poetic style is marked by the bombast and hyperbole that characterize much of Elizabethan drama, it also has a richness and concreteness that make it memorable and quotable. One need think only of Hamlet’s “sea of troubles” or Macbeth’s daggers “unmannerly breech’d with gore” to substantiate the imagistic power of Shakespearean verse. Such images are also worked into compelling patterns in the major plays, giving them greater structural unity than the plots alone provide. Disease imagery in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark , repeated references to blood in Macbeth , and allusions to myths of children devouring parents in King Lear represent only a few of the many instances of what has been called “reiterated imagery” in Shakespearean drama.Wordplay, puns, songs, and a variety of verse forms, from blank verse to tetrameter couplets—these features, too, contribute to the “movable feast” of Shakespeare’s style.

In a more general sense, Shakespeare’s achievement can be traced to the skill with which he used his medium—the stage. He created certain characters to fit the abilities of certain actors, as the role of Falstaff in the Henry IV and Henry V plays so vividly demonstrates. He made use of every facet of the physical stage—the trapdoor, the second level, the inner stage, the “heavens”—to create special effects or illusions. He kept always before him the purpose of entertaining his audience, staying one step ahead of changes in taste among theatergoers. That both kings and tinkers were able to find in a Shakespearean play something to delight and instruct them is testimony to the wide appeal of the playwright. No doubt the universality of his themes and his deep understanding of human nature combined to make his plays so popular. These same strengths generate the magnetic power that brings large audiences into theaters to see the plays today.

Analysis of Shakespearean Plays

The two portraits of Shakespeare portray the two parts of his nature. On one hand, he possessed immense intellectual curiosity about the motives and actions of people. This curiosity, plus his facility with language, enabled him to write his masterpieces and to create characters who are better known than some important figures in world history. On the other hand, reflecting his middle-class background, Shakespeare was himself motivated by strictly bourgeois instincts; he was more concerned with acquiring property and cementing his social position in Stratford than he was with preserving his plays for posterity. If his partners had not published the First Folio, there would be no Shakespeare as he is known today: still acted and enjoyed, the most widely studied and translated writer, the greatest poet and dramatist in the English and perhaps any language.

Besides his ability to create a variety of unforgettable characters, there are at least two other qualities that account for Shakespeare’s achievement. One of these is his love of play with language, ranging from the lowest pun to some of the world’s best poetry. His love of language sometimes makes him difficult to read, particularly for young students, but frequently the meaning becomes clear in a well-acted version. The second quality is his openness, his lack of any restrictive point of view, ideology, or morality. Shakespeare was able to embrace, identify with, and depict an enormous range of human behavior, from the good to the bad to the indifferent. The capaciousness of his language and vision thus help account for the universality of his appeal.

Shakespeare’s lack of commitment to any didactic point of view has often been deplored. Yet he is not entirely uncommitted; rather, he is committed to what is human. Underlying his broad outlook is Renaissance Humanism, a synthesis of Christianity and classicism that is perhaps the best development of the Western mind and finds its best expression in his work. This same generous outlook was apparently expressed in Shakespeare’s personality, which, like his bourgeois instincts, defies the Romantic myth of the artist. He was often praised by his fellows, but friendly rival and ferocious satirist Ben Jonson said it best: “He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature,” and “He was not of an age, but for all time.”

The History Plays

William Shakespeare began his career as a playwright by experimenting with plays in the three genres—comedy, history, and tragedy—that he would perfect as his career matured. The genre that dominated his attention throughout his early career, however, was history. Interest in the subject as proper stuff for drama was no doubt aroused by England’s startling victory over Spain’s vaunted navy, the Armada, in 1588. This victory fed the growing popular desire to see depictions of the critical intrigues and battles that had shaped England’s destiny as the foremost Protestant power in Europe.

This position of power had been buttressed by the shrewd and ambitious Elizabeth I, England’s “Virgin Queen,” who, in the popular view, was the flower of the Tudor line. Many critics believe that Shakespeare composed the histories to trace the course of destiny that had led to the emergence of the Tudors as England’s greatest kings and queens. The strength of character and patriotic spirit exhibited by Elizabeth seem to be foreshadowed by the personality of Henry V, the Lancastrian monarch who was instrumental in building an English empire in France. Because the Tudors traced their line back to the Lancastrians, it was an easy step for Shakespeare to flatter his monarch and please his audiences with nationalistic spectacles that reinforced the belief that England was a promised land.

Whatever his reasons for composing the history plays, Shakespeare certainly must be seen as an innovator of the form, for which there was no model in classical or medieval drama. Undoubtedly, he learned much from his immediate predecessors, however— most notably from Christopher Marlowe, whose Edward II (pr. c. 1592) treated the subject of a weak king nearly destroying the kingdom through his selfish and indulgent behavior. From Marlowe, Shakespeare also inherited the idea that the purpose of the history play was to vivify the moral dilemmas of power politics and to apply those lessons to contemporary government. Such lessons were heeded by contemporaries, as is amply illustrated by Elizabeth’s remark on reading about the life of one of her predecessors: “I am Richard II.”

Shakespeare’s contribution to the history-play genre is represented by two tetralogies (that is, two series of four plays), each covering a period of English history. He wrote two other plays dealing with English kings, King John and Henry VIII, but they are not specifically connected to the tetralogies in theme or structure. Edward III, written sometime between 1589 and 1595, is, on the other hand, closely related to the second tetralogy in theme, structure, and history. Edward III is the grandfather of Richard II, and his victories in France are repeated by Henry V. Muriel Bradbrook has pointed out the structural similarities between Edward III and Henry V. Like the second tetralogy as a whole, Edward III deals with the education of the prince. King Edward, like Prince Hal, at first neglects his duties and endangers the realm by placing personal pleasure above his country’s needs. The Countess of Salisbury begins his education in responsibility, and Queen Philippa completes the process by teaching him compassion. By the end of the play, Edward has become what Shakespeare callsHenry V, “the mirror of all Christian kings.”

Henry VI, Part I

The first tetralogy concerns the period from the death of Henry V in 1422 to the death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Although he probably began this ambitious project in 1588, Shakespeare apparently did not compose the plays according to a strict chronological schedule. Henry VI , Part I is generally considered to have been written after the second and third parts of the Henry story; it may also have been a revision of another play. Using details from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577) and Edward Hall’s The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York (1548)—his chief chronicle sources for the plays in both tetralogies—Shakespeare created in Henry VI, Part I an episodic story of the adventures of Lord Talbot, the patriotic soldier who fought bravely to retain England’s empire in France. Talbot fails and is defeated primarily because of a combination of intrigues by men such as the Bishop of Winchester and the indecisiveness of young King Henry VI.

Here, as in the other history plays, England appears as the central victim of these human actions, betrayed and abandoned by men attempting to satisfy personal desires at the expense of the kingdom. The characters are generally two-dimensional, and their speeches reveal the excesses of Senecan bombast and hyperbole. Although a few of the scenes involving Talbot and Joan of Arc—as well as Talbot’s death scene, in which his demise is made more painful by his having to witness a procession bearing his son’s corpse—aspire to the level of high drama, the play’s characters lack psychological depth, and the plot fails to demonstrate the unity of design that would mark Shakespeare’s later history plays. Joan’s nature as a strumpet-witch signals the role of other women characters in this tetralogy; Margaret, who will become England’s queen, helps to solidify the victory that Joan cleverly achieves at the close of Henry VI, Part I . Henry V’s French empire is in ruins and England’s very soul seems threatened.

Henry VI, Part II

Henry VI, Part II represents that threat in the form of what might be called “civil-war clouds.” The play focuses on the further degeneration of rule under Henry, whose ill-considered marriage to the French Margaret precipitates a power struggle involving the two houses of York and Lancaster. By eliminating wise Duke Humphrey as the chief protector of the king, Margaret in effect seizes control of the throne. In the meantime, however, a rebellion is broached by Jack Cade, the leader of a group of anarchist commoners.

This rebellion lends occasion for action and spectacle of the kind that is lacking in Henry VI, Part I . It also teaches a favorite Shakespearean lesson: The kingdom’s “children” cannot be expected to behave when their “parents” do not. Scenes involving witchcraft, a false miracle, and single combat seem to prove that the country is reverting to a primitive, chaotic state. Though the uprising is finally put down, it provides the excuse for Richard, duke of York, and his ambitious sons to seize power. York precipitates a vengeful struggle with young Clifford by killing his father; in response, Clifford murders York’s youngest son, the earl of Rutland. These murders introduce the theme of familial destruction, of fathers killing sons and sons killing fathers, which culminates in the brutal assassination of Prince Edward.

Henry VI, Part III

As Henry VI, Part III begins, England’s hopes for a strong successor to weak King Henry are dashed on the rocks of ambition and civil war. When Henry himself is murdered, one witnesses the birth of one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating villain-heroes, Richard, duke of Gloucester. Although Richard’s brother Edward becomes king and restores an uneasy peace, Shakespeare makes it clear that Richard will emerge as the political force of the future. Richard’s driving ambition also appears to characterize the Yorkist cause, which, by contrast with the Lancastrian, can be described as self-destructive on the biblical model of the Cain and Abel story. While one is made to see Richard’s wolfish disposition, however, Shakespeare also gives him a superior intellect and wit, which help to attract one’s attention and interest. Displaying touches of the irony and cruelty that will mark his behavior in Richard III, Richard declares at the close of Henry VI, Part III : “See how my sword weeps for the poor king’s death.”

Richard III

In order to present Richard as an arch-villain, Shakespeare was obliged to follow a description of him that was based on a strongly prejudiced biographical portrait written by Sir ThomasMore.More painted Richard as a hunchback with fangs, a beast so cruel that he did not flinch at the prospect of murdering the young princes. To More—and to Shakespeare—Richard must be viewed as another Herod; the imagery of the play also regularly compares him to a boar or hedgehog, beasts that know no restraint. Despite these repulsive features, Richard proves to be a consummate actor, outwitting and outperforming those whom he regards as victims. The most theatrical scene in the play is his wooing of the Lady Anne, who is drawn to him despite the knowledge that he has killed her husband (Prince Edward) and fatherin- law, whose corpse she is in the process of accompanying to its grave. Many of the audacious wooing tricks used in this scene suggest that one of the sources for Richard’s character is the Vice figure from medieval drama.

Richard III documents the breakneck pace and mounting viciousness of Richard’s course to the throne. (Steeplechase imagery recurs throughout, culminating in the picture of Richard as an unseated rider trying desperately to find a mount.) He arranges for the murder of his brother Clarence, turns on former supporters such as Hastings and Buckingham, whom he seemed to be grooming for office, and eventually destroys the innocent princes standing in his path. This latter act of barbarism qualifies as a turning point, since Richard’s victories, which have been numerous and easily won, now begin to evaporate at almost the same rate of speed.

While Richard moves with freedom and abandon from one bloody deed to another, he is hounded by the former Queen Margaret, who delivers curses and prophecies against him in the hope of satisfying her vengeful desires. She plays the role of a Senecan fury, even though her words prove feeble against her Machiavellian foe. Retribution finally comes, however, in the character of the Lancastrian Earl of Richmond, who defeats Richard at Bosworth Field. On the eve of the battle, Richard’s victims visit his sleep to announce his fall, and for the first time in the play, he experiences a twinge of conscience. Unable to respond by confessing and asking forgiveness, Richard fights fiercely, dying like a wounded animal that is finally cornered. With Richmond’s marriage to Elizabeth York, theWars of the Roses end, and England looks forward to a prosperous and peaceful future under Henry Richmond, founder of the Tudor line.

Whether Shakespeare wrote King John in the period between the first and second tetralogies is not known, but there is considerable support for the theory that he did. In the play, he depicts the career of a monarch who reigned into the thirteenth century and who defied papal authority, behavior that made him into something of a Protestant hero for Elizabethans. Shakespeare’s John, however, lacks both the dynamism and the charisma of Henry V; he is also guilty of usurping the throne and arranging for the death of the true heir, Arthur.

This clouded picture complicates the action and transforms John into a man plagued by guilt. Despite his desire to strengthen England and challenge the supremacy of Rome, John does not achieve either the dimensions of a tragic hero or the sinister quality of a consummate villain; indeed, his death seems anticlimactic. The strongest personality in the play belongs to Faulconbridge the Bastard, whose satiric commentary on the king’s maneuvering gives way to patriotic speeches at the close. Faulconbridge speaks out for Anglo-Saxon pride in the face of foreign challenge, but he has also played the part of satirist-onstage throughout much of the action. Something of the same complexity of character will be seen in Prince Hal, the model fighter and king of the second tetralogy.

In King John, Shakespeare managed only this one touch of brilliant characterization in an otherwise uninteresting and poorly constructed play. He may have been attempting an adaptation of an earlier chronicle drama.

Shakespeare began writing the second tetralogy, which covers the historical period from 1398 to 1422, in 1595. The first play in this group was Richard II , a drama which, like the Henry VI series, recounts the follies of a weak king and the consequences of these actions for England. Unlike Henry, however, Richard is a personage with tragic potential; he speaks the language of a poet and possesses a self-dramatizing talent. Richard invites his fall—the fall of princes, or de casibus virorum illustrium , being a favorite Elizabethan topic that was well represented in the popular A Mirror for Magistrates (first published under Elizabeth I in 1559, although printed earlier under Queen Mary)—by seizing the land of the deceased John of Gaunt to pay for his war preparations against Ireland. This dubious act brings Henry Bolingbroke, Gaunt’s son, rushing back from France, where he had been exiled by Richard, for a confrontation with the king. The result of their meeting is Richard’s sudden deposition—he gives up the crown almost before he is asked for it—and eventual death, which is so movingly rendered that many critics have been led to describe this as a tragedy rather than a political play.

Such a reading must overlook the self-pitying quality in Richard; his actions rarely correspond to the quality of his speech. Yet there has been little disagreement about Shakespeare’s achievement in advancing the history-play form by forging a world in which two personalities, one vacillating, the other resourceful, oppose each other in open conflict. Richard II likewise qualifies as the first play in which Shakespeare realizes the theme of the fall by means of repeated images comparing England to a garden. Richard, the gardener-king, has failed to attend to pruning; rebels, like choking weeds, grow tall and threaten to blot out the sun. Because Bolingbroke usurps the crown and later arranges for Richard’s death, however, he is guilty of watering the garden with the blood of England’s rightful—if foolish—ruler. The result must inevitably be civil war, which is stirringly prophesied by the Bishop of Carlisle as the play draws to a close: “The blood of English shall manure the ground,/ And future ages groan for this foul act.”

Henry IV, Part I

The civil strife that Carlisle predicted escalates in Henry IV, Part I. Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV, is planning a crusade in the midst of a serious battle involving rebels in the north and west of Britain. This obliviousness to responsibility is clearly motivated by Henry’s guilt over the seizing of the crown and Richard’s murder. It will take the courage and ingenuity of his son, Prince Hal, the future Henry V, to save England and to restore the order of succession that Shakespeare and his contemporaries saw as the only guarantee of peaceful rule. Thus, Henry IV, Part I is really a study of the rise of Hal, who in the opening of the play appears to be a carefree time waster, content with drinking, gambling, and carousing with a motley group of thieves and braggarts led by the infamous coward Sir John Falstaff. Using a kind of Aristotelian mode of characterization, Shakespeare reveals Hal as a balanced hero who possesses the wit and humanity of Falstaff, without the debilitating drunkenness and ego, and the physical courage and ambition of Henry Hotspur, the son of the earl of Northumberland and chief rebel, without his destructive choler and impatience.

The plot of Henry IV, Part I advances by means of comparison and contrast of the court, tavern, and rebel worlds, all of which are shown to be in states of disorder. Hal leaves the tavern world at the end of the second act with an explicit rejection of Falstaff’s fleshly indulgence; he rejoins his true father and leads the army in battle against the rebels, who are unable to organize the English,Welsh, and Scottish factions of which they are formed. They seem to be leaderless—and “fatherless.” Above all, Hal proves capable of surprising both his own family and the rebels, using his reputation as a madcap to fullest advantage until he is ready to throw off his disguise and defeat the bold but foolish Hotspur at Shrewsbury. This emergence is nicely depicted in imagery associated by Hal himself with the sun (punning on “son”) breaking through the clouds when least suspected. Falstaff demonstrates consistency of character in the battle by feigning death; even though Hal allows his old friend to claim the prize of Hotspur’s body, one can see the utter bankruptcy of the Falstaffian philosophy of selfpreservation.

Henry IV, Part II

In Henry IV, Part II, the struggle against the rebels continues. Northumberland, who failed to appear for the Battle of Shrewsbury because of illness, proves unable to call up the spirit of courage demonstrated by his dead son. Glendower, too, seems to fade quickly from the picture, like a dying patient. The main portion of the drama concerns what appears to be a replay of Prince Hal’s reformation. Apparently Shakespeare meant to depict Hal’s acquisition of honor and valor at the close of Henry IV, Part I, while Part II traces his education in the virtues of justice and rule. Falstaff is again the humorous but negative example, although he lacks the robustness in sin that marked his character in Part I. The positive example or model is the Lord Chief Justice, whose sobriety and sense of responsibility eventually attract Hal to his side.

As in Part I, Shakespeare adopts the structure of a medieval morality play to depict the rejection of the “bad” angel (or false father) and the embracing of the “good” one (or spiritual father) by the hero. The banishment of Falstaff and his corrupt code takes place during the coronation procession. It is a particularly poignant moment—to which many critics object, since Hal’s harshness seems so uncharacteristic and overdone— but this scene is well prepared for by Hal’s promise, at the end of act 2 in Part I, that he would renounce the world and the flesh at the proper time. The example of Hal’s father, whose crown Hal rashly takes from his pillow before his death, demonstrates that for the king there can be no escape from care, no freedom to enjoy the fruits of life. With the Lord Chief Justice at his side, Hal prepares to enter the almost monklike role that the kingship requires him to play.

It is this strong and isolated figure that dominates Henry V , the play that may have been written for the opening of the Globe Theatre. Appropriately enough, the Chorus speaker who opens the play asks if “this wooden O” can “hold the vasty fields of France,” the scene of much of the epic and episodic action. Hal shows himself to be an astute politician—he outwits and traps the rebels Scroop, Cambridge, and Grey—and a heroic leader of men in the battle scenes. His rejection of Falstaff, whose death is recounted here in tragicomic fashion by Mistress Quickly, has transformed Hal’s character into something cold and unattractive. There is little or no humor in the play. Yet when Hal moves among his troops on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, he reveals a depth of understanding and compassion that helps to humanize his character. His speeches are masterpieces of political rhetoric, even though Pistol, the braggart soldier, tries to parody them. “Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more . . .” introduces one of the best-known prebattle scenes in the language.

With the defeat of the French at Agincourt, Hal wins an empire for England, strengthening the kingdom that had been so sorely threatened by the weakness of Richard II. Both tetralogies depict in sharp outline the pattern of suffering and destruction that results from ineffective leadership. In Henry VII and Henry V, one sees the promise of peace and empire realized through the force of their strong, patriotic identities. At the close of Henry V , the hero’s wooing of Katherine of France, with its comic touches resulting from her inability to speak English, promises a wedding that will take place in a new garden from which it is hoped humankind will not again fall. The lesson for the audience seems to be that under Elizabeth, the last Tudor monarch, England has achieved stability and glory, and that this role of European power was foreshadowed by the victories of these earlier heroes. Another clear lesson is that England cannot afford another civil war; some capable and clearly designated successor to Elizabeth must be chosen.

Shakespeare’s last drama dealing with English history, a probable collaboration with Henry Fletcher, is Henry VIII, which is normally classed with romances such as The Tempest and Cymbeline. It features none of the military battles typical of earlier history plays, turning instead for its material to the intrigues of Henry’s court. The play traces the falls of three famous personages, the duke of Buckingham, Katherine of Aragon, and Cardinal Wolsey. Both Buckingham and Queen Katherine are innocent victims of fortune, while Wolsey proves to be an ambitious man whose scheming is justly punished. Henry seems blind and self-satisfied through much of the play, which is dominated by pageantry and spectacle, but in his judgment against Wolsey and his salvation of Cranmer, he emerges as something of a force for divine justice. The plot ends with the christening of Elizabeth and a prophecy about England’s glorious future under her reign. Shakespeare’s audience knew, however, that those atop Fortune’s wheel at the close—Cranmer and Anne Bullen, in particular—would soon be brought down like the others. This last of Shakespeare’s English history plays, then, sounds a patriotic but also an ironic note.

The Comedies

Of the plays that are wholly or partly attributed to Shakespeare, nearly half have been classified as comedies. In addition, many scenes in plays such as Henry IV, Part I and Romeo and Juliet feature comic characters and situations. Even in the major tragedies, one finds scenes of comic relief: the Porter scene in Macbeth , the encounters between the Fool and Lear in King Lear, Hamlet’s inventive punning and lugubrious satire. There can be little doubt that Shakespeare enjoyed creating comic situations and characters and that audiences came to expect such fare on a regular basis from the playwright. The

Comedy of Errors

In his first attempt in the form, The Comedy of Errors , Shakespeare turned to a source—Plautus, the Roman playwright—with which he would have become familiar at Stratford’s grammar school. Based on Plautus’s Menaechmi ( The Twin Menaechmi, 1595), the comedy depicts the misadventures of twins who, after several incidents involving mistaken identity, finally meet and are reunited. The twin brothers are attended by twin servants, compounding the possibilities for humor growing out of mistaken identity.

Considerable buffoonery and slapstick characterize the main action involving the twins—both named Antipholus—and their servants. In one hilarious scene, Antipholus of Ephesus is turned away from his own house by a wife who believes he is an impostor. This somewhat frivolous mood is tempered by the presence of the twins’ father in the opening and closing scenes. At the play’s opening, Egeon is sentenced to death by the Duke of Ephesus; the sentence will be carried out unless someone can pay a ransom set at one thousand marks. Egeon believes that his wife and sons are dead, which casts him deep into the pit of despair. By the play’s close, Egeon has been saved from the duke’s sentence and has been reunited with his wife, who has spent the many years of their separation as an abbess. This happy scene of reunion and regeneration strikes a note that will come to typify the resolutions of later Shakespearean comedy. Providence appears to smile on those who suffer yet remain true to the principle of family.

Shakespeare also unites the act of unmasking with the concept of winning a new life in the fifth act of The Comedy of Errors . Both Antipholus of Syracuse, who in marrying Luciana is transformed into a “new man,” and Dromio of Ephesus, who is freed to find a new life, acquire new identities at the conclusion. The characters are, however, largely interchangeable and lacking in individualizing traits. Types rather than fullblown human beings people the world of the play, thus underscoring the theme of supposing or masking.

Shakespeare offers a gallery of familiar figures—young lovers, a pedantic doctor, a kitchen maid, merchants, and a courtesan—all of whom are identified by external traits. They are comic because they behave in predictably mechanical ways. Dr. Pinch, the mountebank based on Plautus’s medicus type, is a good example of this puppetlike caricaturing. The verse is designed to suit the speaker and occasion, but it also reveals Shakespeare’s range of styles; blank verse, prose, rhymed stanzas, and alternating rhymed lines can be found throughout the play. This first effort in dramatic comedy was an experiment using numerous Plautine elements, but it also reveals, in the characters Egeon and Emilia, the playwright’s talent for humanizing even the most typical of characters and for creating life and vigor in stock situations.

The Taming of the Shrew

In The Taming of the Shrew , Shakespeare turned to another favorite source for the theme of transformation: Ovid’s Metamorphoses (c. 8 c.e.; English translation, 1567). He had already used this collection for his erotic poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece ; now he plundered it for stories about pairs of lovers and the changes effected in their natures by the power of love. In The Taming of the Shrew, he was also improving on an earlier play that dealt with the theme of taming as a means of modifying human behavior.

Petruchio changes Kate’s conduct by regularly praising her “pleasant, gamesome” nature. By the end of the play, she has been tamed into behaving like a dutiful wife. (Her sister Bianca, on the other hand, has many suitors, but her father will not allow Bianca to marry until Kate has found a husband.) The process of taming sometimes involves rough and boisterous treatment—Petruchio withholds food from his pupil, for example—as well as feigned madness: Petruchio whisks his bride away from the wedding site as if she were a damsel in distress and he were playing the role of her rescuer. In the end, Kate turns out to be more pliant than her sister, suggesting that an ideal wife, like a bird trained for the hunt, must be instructed in the rules of the game.

Shakespeare reinforces the theme of transformation by fashioning a subplot featuring a drunken tinker named Christopher Sly, who believes he has been made into a lord during a ruse performed by a fun-loving noble and his fellows. The Sly episode is not resolved because this interlude ends with the play’s first scene, yet by employing this framing device, Shakespeare invites a comparison between Kate and Sly, both of whom are urged to be “better” than they thought they were.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Two Gentlemen of Verona takes a comic tack that depends less on supposing than on actual disguise. Employing a device he would later perfect in As You Like It and Twelfth Night , Shakespeare put his heroine Julia in a page’s outfit in order to woo her beloved Proteus.

The main theme of the comedy is the rocky nature of love as revealed in male friendship and romantic contest. Valentine, Proteus’s friend, finds him to be fickle and untrue to the courtly code when Proteus tries to force his affections on Silvia, Valentine’s love. Although Proteus deserves worse punishment than he receives, he is allowed to find in Julia the true source of the romantic love that he has been seeking throughout the play. These pairs of lovers and their clownish servants, who engage in frequent bouts of punning and of horseplay, perform their rituals—anatomizing lovers, trusting false companions—in a forest world that seems to work its magic on them by bringing about a happy ending.

As in the other festive comedies, The Two Gentlemen of Verona concludes with multiple marriages and a mood of inclusiveness that gives even the clowns their proper place in the celebration. The passion of love has led Proteus (whose name, signifying “changeable,” symbolizes fickleness) to break oaths and threaten friendships, but in the end, it has also forged a constant love.

Love’s Labour’s Lost

After this experiment in romantic or festive (as opposed to bourgeois) comedy, Shakespeare next turned his hand to themes and characters that reflect the madness and magic of love. Love’s Labour’s Lost pokes fun at florid poetry, the “taffeta phrases [and] silken terms precise” that typified Elizabethan love verses. There is also a satiric strain in this play, which depicts the foiled attempt of male characters to create a Platonic utopia free of women. The King of Navarre and his court appear ludicrous as, one by one, they violate their vows of abstinence in conceits that gush with sentiment. Even Berowne, the skeptic-onstage, proves unable to resist the temptations of Cupid.

As if to underscore the foolishness of their betters, the clowns and fops of this comic world produce an interlude featuring the NineWorthies, all of whom overdo or distort their roles in the same way as the lover-courtiers have distorted theirs. (This interlude was also the playwright’s first attempt at a play-within-a-play.) When every Jack presumes to claim his Jill at the close, however, Shakespeare deputizes the princess to postpone the weddings for one year while the men do penance for breaking their vows. The women here are victorious over the men, but only for the purpose of forcing them to recognize the seriousness of their contracts. Presumably the marriages to come will prove constant and fulfilling, but at the end of this otherwise lighthearted piece, Shakespeare interjects a surprising note of qualification. Perhaps this note represents his commentary on the weight of words, which the courtiers have so carelessly— and sometimes badly—handled.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Shakespeare demonstrates consummate skill in the use of words to create illusion and dreams. Although he again presents pairs of young lovers whose fickleness causes them to fall out of, and then back into, love, these characters display human dimensions that are missing in the character types found in the earlier comedies. The multiple plots concern not only the lovers’ misadventures but also the marriage of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta, the quarrel between Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairy band, and the bumbling rehearsal and performance of the play-within-a-play Pyramus and Thisbe by Bottom and his companions. All of these actions illustrate the themes of love’s errant course and of the power of illusion to deceive the senses.

The main action, as in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, takes place in a wood, this time outside Athens and at night. The fairy powers are given free rein to deceive the mortals who chase one another there. Puck, Oberon’s servant, effects deception of the lovers by mistakenly pouring a potion in the wrong Athenian’s eyes. By the end of the play, however, the young lovers have found their proper partners, Oberon and Titania have patched up their quarrel, and Bottom, whose head was changed into that of an ass and who was wooed by the enchanted Titania while he was under this spell, rejoins his fellows to perform their tragic and comic interlude at the wedding reception. This afterpiece is a burlesque rendition of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, whose tale of misfortune bears a striking resemblance to that of Romeo and Juliet . Through the device of the badly acted play-within-the-play, Shakespeare instructs his audience in the absurdity of lovers’ Petrarchan vows and in the power of imagination to transform the bestial or the godlike into human form. In design and execution, A Midsummer Night’s Dream , with its variety of plots and range of rhyme and blank verse, stands out as Shakespeare’s most sophisticated early comedy.

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice shares bourgeois features with The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona , but it has a much darker, neartragic side, too. Shylock’s attempt to carve a pound of flesh from the merchant Antonio’s heart has all the ingredients of tragedy: deception, hate, ingenuity, and revenge. His scheme is frustrated only by the superior wit of the heroine Portia during a trial scene in which she is disguised as a young boy judge. Requiring Shylock to take nothing more than is specified in his bond, while at the same time lecturing him on the quality of mercy, Portia’s speeches create the elements of tension and confrontation that will come to epitomize the playwright’s mature tragedies.With the defeat and conversion of Shylock, the pairs of lovers can escape the threatening world of Venice and hope for uninterrupted happiness in Belmont, Portia’s home.

Venice, the scene of business, materialism, and religious hatred, is contrasted with Belmont (or “beautiful world”), the fairy-tale kingdom to which Bassanio, Antonio’s friend, has come to win a fair bride and fortune by entering into a game of choice involving golden, silver, and leaden caskets. Though the settings are contrasted and the action of the play alternates between the two societies, Shakespeare makes his audience realize that Portia, like Antonio, is bound to a contract (set by her dead father) which threatens to destroy her happiness. When Bassanio chooses the leaden casket, she is freed to marry the man whom she would have chosen for her own. Thus “converted” (a metaphor that refers one back to Shylock’s conversion), Portia then elects to help Antonio, placing herself in jeopardy once again. Portia emerges as Shakespeare’s first major heroine-in-disguise, a character-type central to his most stageworthy and mature comedies , Twelfth Night and As You Like It.

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing likewise has a dark side. The main plot represents the love of Claudio and Hero. Hero’s reputation is sullied by the melodramatic villain Don Juan. Claudio confronts his supposedly unfaithful partner in the middle of their wedding ceremony, his tirade causing her to faint and apparently expire. The lovers are later reunited, however, after Claudio recognizes his error. This plot is paralleled by one involving Beatrice and Benedick, two witty characters who in the play’s beginning are set against each other in verbal combat. Like Claudio and Hero, they are converted into lovers who overcome selfishness and pride to gain a degree of freedom in their new relationships. The comedy ends with the marriage of Claudio and Hero and the promise of union between Beatrice and Benedick.

A central comic figure in the play is Dogberry, the watchman whose blundering contributes to Don Juan’s plot but is also the instrument by which his villainy is revealed. His behavior, especially his hilariously inept handling of legal language, is funny in itself, but it also illustrates a favorite Shakespearean theme: Clownish errors often lead to happy consequences. Like Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Dogberry and his men are made an important part of the newly transformed society at the end of the play.

As You Like It

As You Like It and Twelfth Night are widely recognized as Shakespeare’s wittiest and most stageworthy comedies; they also qualify as masterpieces of design and construction. In As You Like It, the action shifts from the court of Duke Frederick, a usurper, to the forest world of Arden, the new “court” of ousted Duke Senior. His daughter Rosalind enters the forest world in disguise, along with her friend Celia, to woo and win the young hero Orlando, forced to wander by his brother Oliver, another usurping figure. Although his florid verses expressing undying love for Rosalind are the object of considerable ridicule, Orlando earns the title of true lover worthy of Rosalind’s hand. She proves successful in winning the support of the audience by means of her clever manipulation of Orlando from behind her mask. His inept poetry and her witty commentary can be taken “as we like it,” as can the improbable conversions of Oliver and Duke Frederick that allow for a happy ending.

Two characters—Touchstone, the clown, and Jacques (pronounced JAYK weez), the cynical courtier—represent extreme attitudes on the subjects of love and human nature. Touchstone serves as Rosalind’s protector and as a sentimental observer, commenting wistfully and sometimes wittily on his own early days as a lover of milkmaids. Jacques, the trenchant commentator on the “Seven Ages of Man,” sees all this foolery as further evidence, along with political corruption and ambition, of humankind’s fallen state. He remains outside the circle of happy couples at the end of the play, a poignant, melancholy figure. His state of self-centeredness, it might be argued, is also “as we like it” when our moods do not identify so strongly with youthful exuberance.

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night also deals with the themes of love and self-knowledge. Like As You Like It, it features a disguised woman, Viola, as its central figure. Motifs from other earlier Shakespearean comedies are also evident in Twelfth Night . Viola and Sebastian are twins (a motif found in The Comedy of Errors ) who have been separated in a shipwreck but, unknown to each other, have landed in the same country, Illyria. From The Two Gentlemen of Verona , Shakespeare took the motif of the disguised figure serving as page to the man she loves (Duke Orsino) and even playing the wooer’s role with the woman (Olivia) whom the duke wishes to marry. Complications arise when Olivia falls in love with Viola, and the dilemma is brought to a head when Orsino threatens to kill his page in a fit of revenge. Sebastian provides the ready solution to this dilemma, but Shakespeare holds off introducing the twins to each other until the last possible moment, creating effective comic tension.

The play’s subplot involves an ambitious and vain steward, Malvolio, who, by means of a counterfeited letter (the work of a clever servant named Maria), is made to believe that Olivia loves him. The scene in which Malvolio finds the letter and responds to its hints, while being observed not only by the theater audience but also by an audience onstage, is one of the funniest stretches of comic pantomime in drama. When Malvolio attempts to woo his mistress, he is thought mad and is cast in prison. Although he is finally released (not before being tormented by Feste the clown in disguise), Malvolio does not join the circle of lovers in the close, vowing instead to be revenged on all those who deceived him. In fact, both Feste and Malvolio stand apart from the happy company, representing the dark, somewhat melancholy clouds that cannot be dispelled in actual human experience. By this stage in his career, Shakespeare had acquired a vision of comedy crowded by elements and characters that would be fully developed in the tragedies.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor was probably composed before Shakespeare reached the level of maturity reflected in As You Like It and Twelfth Night . Legend suggests that he interrupted his work on the second history cycle to compose the play in two weeks for Queen Elizabeth, who wished to see Falstaff (by then familiar from the history plays) portrayed as a lover. What Shakespeare ended up writing was not a romantic but instead a bourgeois comedy that depicts Falstaff attempting to seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, both wives of Windsor citizens. He fails, but in failing he manages to entertain the audience with his bragging and his boldness. Shakespeare may have been reworking an old play based on a Plautine model; in one of Plautus’s plays, there is a subplot in which a clever young man (Fenton) and his beloved manage to deceive her parents in order to get married. This is the only strain of romance in the comedy, whose major event is the punishment of Falstaff: He is tossed into the river, then singed with candles and pinched by citizens disguised as fairies. Critics who see Falstaff as the embodiment of Vice argue that this punishment has symbolic weight; his attempted seduction of honest citizens’ wives makes him a threat to orderly society. Regardless of whether this act has a ritual purpose, the character of Falstaff, and the characters of Bardolph, Pistol, and Justice Shallow, bear little resemblance to the comic band of Henry IV, Part I. In fact, T he Merry Wives of Windsor might be legitimately seen as an interlude rather than a fully developed comedy, and it is a long distance from the more serious, probing dramas Shakespeare would soon create.

All’s Well That Ends Well

All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure were composed during a period when Shakespeare was also writing his major tragedies. Because they pose questions about sin and guilt that are not satisfactorily resolved, many critics have used the terms “dark comedies” or “problem plays” to describe them. All’s Well That Ends Well features the familiar disguised heroine (Helena) who pursues the man she loves (Bertram) with skill and determination.

The play differs from the earlier romantic comedies, however, because the hero rejects the heroine, preferring instead to win honor and fame in battle. Even though Helena is “awarded” the prize of Bertram by the King of France, whom she has cured of a near-fatal disease, she must don her disguise and pursue him while undergoing considerable suffering and hardship. In order to trap him, moreover, she must resort to a “bed trick,” substituting her body for that of another woman whom Bertram plans to seduce. When Bertram finally assents to the union he bears little resemblance to comic heroes such as Orlando or Sebastian; he could be seen in fact as more a villain (or perhaps a cad) than a deserving lover. The forced resolution makes the play a “problem” for many critics, but for Shakespeare and his audience, the ingenuity ofHelena and the multiple marriages at the close probably satisfied the demands of romantic comedy.

Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure has at the center of its plot another bed trick, by which a patient and determined woman (Mariana) manages to capture the man she desires. That man, Angelo, is put in the position of deputy by Duke Vincentio at the opening of the action.He determines to punish a sinful Vienna by strictly enforcing its laws against fornication; his first act is to arrest Claudio for impregnating his betrothed Juliet. When Isabella, Claudio’s sister, who is about to take vows as a nun, comes to plead for his life, Angelo attempts to seduce her. He asks for a measure of her body in return for a measure of mercy for her brother. Isabella strongly resists Angelo’s advances, although her principled behavior most certainly means her brother will die. Aided by Vincentio, disguised as a holy father, Isabella arranges for Mariana to take her place, since this woman is in fact Angelo’s promised partner. Thus, Angelo commits the deed that he would punish Claudio for performing. (Instead of freeing Claudio, moreover, he sends word to have him killed even after seducing his “sister.”)

Through another substitution, however, Claudio is saved. In an elaborate judgment scene, in which Vincentio plays both duke and holy father, Angelo is forgiven— Isabella being required by the duke to beg for Angelo’s life—and marries Mariana. Here, as in All’s Well That Ends Well , the hero proves to be an unpunished scoundrel who seems to be in fact rewarded for his sin, but the biblical “Judge not lest ye be judged” motivates much of the action, with characters finding themselves in the place of those who would judge them and being forced to display mercy. Some critics have argued that this interpretation transforms Duke Vincentio into a Christ figure, curing the sins of the people while disguised as one of them. Whether or not this interpretation is valid, Measure for Measure compels its audience to explore serious questions concerning moral conduct; practically no touches of humor in the play are untainted by satire and irony.

The Tragedies

For about four years following the writing of Measure for Measure , Shakespeare was busy producing his major tragedies. It is probably accurate to say that the problem comedies were, to a degree, testing grounds for the situations and characters he would perfect in the tragedies. These tragedies include the famous Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark , Othello, the Moor of Venice , King Lear, and Antony and Cleopatra . His earliest—and clumsiest—attempt at tragedy was Titus Andronicus .

Titus Andronicus

The plot of Titus Andronicus no doubt came from the Roman poet Ovid, a school subject and one of the playwright’s favorite Roman authors. From Seneca, the Roman playwright whose ten plays had been translated into English in 1559, Shakespeare took the theme of revenge: The inflexible, honor-bound hero seeks satisfaction against a queen who has murdered or maimed his children. She was acting in retaliation, however, because Titus had killed her son. Titus’s rage, which is exacerbated by the rape and mutilation of his daughter Lavinia, helps to classify him as a typical Senecan tragic hero. He and the wicked queen Tamora are oversimplified characters who declaim set speeches rather than engaging in realistic dialogue. Tamora’s lover and accomplice, the Moor Aaron, is the prototype of the Machiavellian practitioner that Shakespeare would perfect in such villains as Iago and Edmund. While this caricature proves intriguing, and while the play’s structure is more balanced and coherent than those of the early history plays, Titus’s character lacks the kind of agonizing introspection shown by the heroes of the major tragedies. He never comes to terms with the destructive code of honor that convulses his personal life and that of Rome.

Romeo and Juliet

With Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare reached a level of success in characterization and design far above the bombastic and chaotic world of Titus Andronicus . Based on a long narrative and heavily moralized poem by Arthur Brooke, this tragedy of “star-crossed lovers” excites the imagination by depicting the fatal consequences of a feud between the Veronese families of Montague and Capulet. Distinguished by some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful poetry, the style bears a strong resemblance to that of the sonnets: elaborate conceits, classical allusions, witty paradoxes, and observations on the sad consequences of sudden changes of fortune. Some critics have in fact faulted the tragedy because its plot lacks the integrity of its poetry; Romeo and Juliet come to their fates by a series of accidents and coincidences that strain credulity. The play also features abundant comic touches provided by the remarks of Romeo’s bawdy, quick-witted friendMercutio and the sage but humorous observations of Juliet’s nurse. Both of these “humor” characters (character types whose personalities are determined by one trait, or “humor”) remark frequently, and often bawdily, on the innocent lovers’ dreamy pronouncements about their passion for each other.

With the accidental murder of Mercutio, whose last words are “A plague on both your houses!” (referring to the feuding families), the plot accelerates rapidly toward the catastrophe, showing no further touches of humor or satire. The tireless Friar Lawrence attempts, through the use of a potion, to save Juliet from marrying Paris, the nobleman to whom she is betrothed, but the friar proves powerless against the force of fate that seems to be working against the lovers. Although it lacks the compelling power of the mature tragedies, whose heroes are clearly responsible for their fate, Romeo and Juliet remains a popular play on the subject of youthful love. The success of various film versions, including Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 feature film, with its teenage hero and heroine and its romantically moving score, proved that the play has a timeless appeal.

Julius Caesar

At least three years passed before Shakespeare again turned his attention to the tragic form. Instead of treating the subject of fatal love, however, he explored Roman history for a political story centering on the tragic dilemma of one man. In Julius Caesar, he could have dealt with the tale of the assassination of Caesar, taken from Plutarch’s Bioi paralleloi (c. 105-115 c.e.; Parallel Lives , 1579), as he did with material from English history in the chronicle dramas he had been writing in the 1590’s. That is, he might have presented the issue of the republic versus the monarchy as a purely political question, portraying Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, and Antony as pawns in a predestined game. Instead, Shakespeare chose to explore the character of Brutus in detail, revealing the workings of his conscience through moving and incisive soliloquies. By depicting his hero as a man who believes his terrible act is in the best interest of the country, Shakespeare establishes the precedent for later tragic heroes who likewise justify their destructive deeds as having righteous purposes.

The tragic plot is developed by means of irony and contrast. Cassius, jealous of Caesar’s achievements, seduces Brutus into taking part in the conspiracy by appealing to his idealism. This political naiveté stands in sharp contrast to Antony’s Machiavellianism, which is so brilliantly demonstrated in his crowd-swaying funeral oration (“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears . . .”). Antony’s transformation from playboy to power broker displays Shakespeare’s belief that the historical moment shapes the natures of great men. Caesar appears to be a superstitious, somewhat petty figure, but in typical fashion, Shakespeare makes his audience see that, just as the conspirators are not free of personal motives such as jealousy, so Caesar is not the cold and uncompromising tyrant they claim he is. With the visit by Caesar’s ghost to Brutus’s tent on the eve of the final battle at Philippi, Shakespeare foreshadows the ultimate revenge of Caesar in the character of his grandson, Octavius, who emerges as a strong personality at the close of the play. Brutus and Cassius quarrel before the end, but they nevertheless achieve a kind of nobility by committing suicide in the Roman tradition. For Brutus, the events following the assassination demonstrate the flaw in his idealism; he could not destroy the spirit of Caesar, nor could he build a republic on the shifting sand of the populace. In Julius Caesar , one witnesses a tragedy that is both politically compelling and morally complex.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Although the revenge theme is an important part of Julius Caesar , it dominates the action of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark . Learning from his father’s ghost that Claudius, the new king, is a brother-murderer and a usurper, the hero sets out passionately to fulfill his personal duty by destroying the villain-king. Like Brutus, however, Hamlet is a reflective man, given to “saucy doubts” about the veracity of the ghost, about the effect on his soul of committing regicide, and about the final disposition of Claudius’s soul. As a result, Hamlet delays his revenge—a delay that has preoccupied audiences, readers, and critics for centuries.

Numerous reasons have been proposed for the delay: Hamlet is melancholic; his morality does not condone murder; he is a coward; he is secretly envious of Claudius for murdering his “rival” for his mother’s affections. These explanations, while appealing, tend to shift attention away from other, equally significant elements in the play. Hamlet’s soliloquies illustrate the range of Shakespearean blank verse and provide the means for exploring character in detail. The play’s trap motif can be seen to represent effectively the doomed, claustrophobic atmosphere of the play. Indeed, those who deliberatively set traps in the play—Polonius, Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet—find that those traps snap back to catch the “inventor.” Hamlet’s relationships with Ophelia and with Gertrude amply reveal his self-destructive belief that his mother’s marriage to Claudius has tainted his own flesh and transformed all women into strumpets.

Throughout the action as well, one becomes aware that Shakespeare is using the theatrical metaphor “All the world’s a stage” to illustrate the way in which deceit and corruption can be masked. In another sense, Hamlet’s behavior is that of a bad actor, one who either misses his cues (as in the accidental murder of Polonius) or fails to perform when the audience expects action (as in his behavior following the play-withinthe- play). There is a good deal of reflection on death and disease in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark as well; the hero’s preoccupation with these images seems to mirror the sickness of the state and of his own enterprise. When Hamlet finally acts, however, he does so in the role of an avenger and scourge. He murders Claudius after the king has arranged for Laertes to slay him in a duel and after the queen has fallen dead from a poisoned drink intended for Hamlet. With Hamlet’s death, the kingdom reverts to the control of young Fortinbras, whose father Hamlet’s father had killed in another duel. Though Fortinbras stands as a heroic figure, one cannot help but observe the irony of a situation in which the son, without a struggle, inherits what his father was denied.

Troilus and Cressida

In Troilus and Cressida , one encounters another kind of irony: satire. This strange play, which may have been composed for a select audience, possibly of lawyers, was placed between the histories and tragedies in the First Folio. The dual plot concerns the political machinations among the Greeks during their siege of Troy and the tortured love affair between Troilus and the unfaithful Cressida.

There are no epic battles in the play; indeed, the murder of Hector by a band of Achilles’ followers might easily be viewed as cowardly or ignominious at best. Much of the political action consists of debates: Hector argues eloquently that Helen should be sent back to Menelaus; Ulysses produces many pithy arguments urging the reluctant Achilles to fight. Many of these scenes, moreover, end in anticlimax, and action is often frustrated. Throughout, Thersites, the satirist-onstage, bitterly attacks the warring and lecherous instincts of men; even the love affair between Troilus and Cressida seems tainted by the general atmosphere of disillusion. Although the two lovers share genuine affection for each other, one cannot ignore the truth that they are brought together by Pandarus and that their passion has a distinctly physical quality.

When Cressida proves unable to resist the advances of Diomedes, Troilus becomes a cuckold like Menelaus; his bitterness and misogyny push one toward Thersites’ assessment that the “argument” of the war “is a whore and a cuckold.” Still it is possible to see tragic dimensions in the characters of both Hector and Troilus—one the victim of treachery in war, the other the victim of treachery in love.

Timon of Athens

Although probably written after the other major tragedies, Timon of Athens shares a number of similarities with Troilus and Cressida . Here again is an ironic vision of humanity, this time in a social rather than martial setting. That vision is expanded by the trenchant comments, usually in the form of references to sexual disease, of Apemantus, another cynical choric commentator.

Timon appears to be a tragic rather than misanthropic figure only if one sees him as the victim of his idealistic reading of humankind. When those on whom he has lavishly bestowed gifts and money consistently refuse to return the favor, Timon then becomes a bitter cynic and outspoken satirist. This exploding of a naïve philosophy or political idea, with its attendant destructive effect on the believer, would seem to be the basis for tragedy in a character such as Brutus or Hamlet, but even Hamlet fails to achieve the degree of misanthropy that typifies Timon’s outlook. Although he is loyally followed to the end by his servant Flavius, he dies alone and not as a result of someone else’s direct attack. One cannot say that the hero acquires a larger view of humanity or of himself as the result of his experience; he simply seems to swing from one extreme view to its opposite.

A comparison of Timon with more sympathetic “railers” such as Hamlet and Lear shows how narrow and shallow are his character and the dimensions of the play. The fragmented nature of the text has led some critics to question Shakespeare’s authorship, but it is probably closer to the truth to say that this was an experiment that failed.

Othello, the Moor of Venice

An experiment that clearly succeeded is Othello, the Moor of Venice , an intense and powerful domestic tragedy. Based on an Italian tale by Giambattista Giraldi Cinthio, the story concerns a Moor, a black man who is made to believe by a treacherous, vengeful ensign that his new Venetian bride has cuckolded him with one of his lieutenants, Cassio. In a rage, theMoor suffocates his bride, only to discover too late that his jealousy was unfounded. Rather than face the torture of a trial and his own conscience, he commits suicide as he bitterly accuses himself of blindness.

In its simple outline, this story has the appearance of a crude melodrama, but Shakespeare brilliantly complicates the play’s texture through skillful manipulation of scenes, characters, and language. He also creates a world with two distinct symbolic settings: Venice and Cyprus. In Venice, Othello shows himself to be a cool, rational captain, deserving of the respect he receives from the senators who send him to Cyprus to defend it from the Turks. Once Othello is on the island, however, Iago begins to chip away at the hero’s veneer of self-control until he transforms him into a terrifyingly destructive force.

Iago’s success depends not only on his close contact with Othello on the island but also on the generally held opinion that he, Iago, is an “honest man.” He is thus able to manipulate all the central characters as if he were a puppeteer. These characters share information with Iago that he later uses to ensnare them in his web, as when Desdemona begs him to find some way to reinstate Cassio in Othello’s favor. Iago is especially adept at using the handkerchief Othello gave to Desdemona but which she dropped while trying to ease her husband’s headache. When Iago’s wife Emilia dutifully hands her husband this handkerchief, he easily makes Othello believe that Desdemona gave it to Cassio as a love token. Although some critics have ridiculed Shakespeare for depending so heavily on one prop to resolve the plot, they fail to note the degree of psychological insight Shakespeare has displayed in using it. The handkerchief represents Othello’s wife’s honor and his own. She has given both away, in Othello’s mind, as if they were trifles.

This play features a hero whose reason is overwhelmed by the passion of jealousy— “the green-eyed monster,” in Iago’s words. This theme is realized through numerous sea images, by which Shakespeare likens Othello’s violent reaction to a storm or tidal wave that drowns everything in its path. Like Shakespeare’s other great villains, Iago is a supreme individualist, acknowledging no authority or power beyond himself. That this attitude was a copy of the fallen angel Satan’s would not have escaped the attention of Shakespeare’s audience, which no doubt interpreted the plot as a replay of the Fall of Man. It may be especially important to perceive Iago as another Satan, since commentators have suspected the sufficiency of his motive (he says he wants revenge because Othello passed over him in appointing Cassio as his lieutenant). The extreme evilness of Iago’s nature and the extreme purity of Desdemona’s have led others to claim that Shakespeare was simply intent on fashioning a contemporary morality play for his audience. Such a reading tends to simplify what is in fact a thoroughgoing study of the emotions that both elevate and destroy humankind. As Othello discovers before his suicide, he was one “who loved not wisely but too well”; one might observe ironically that it was Iago, and not Desdemona, whom he loved “too well.”

If Othello’s tragedy results from the corrosive disease of jealousy, the hero of King Lear suffers from the debilitating effects of pride and self-pity. When the play opens, he is in the process of retiring from the kingship by dividing his kingdom into three parts, basing his assignment of land on the degree of affection mouthed by each of the three daughters to whom he plans to assign a part. Cordelia, his youngest and favorite, refuses to enter into this hollow ceremony, and Lear responds by suddenly and violently banishing her. Left in the hands of his evil and ambitious daughters Goneril and Regan, Lear quickly discovers that they plan to pare away any remaining symbols of his power and bring him entirely under their rule.

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s King Lear

This theme of children controlling, even destroying, their parents is echoed in a fully developed subplot involving old Gloucester and his two sons, Edmund and Edgar. With Cordelia and Edgar cast out—the former to live in France, the latter in disguise as Poor Tom—Lear and Gloucester suffer the punishing consequences of their sins. Lear runs mad into a terrible storm, accompanied by the Fool, a witty and poignant commentator on the unnaturalness of his master’s decision. There, Lear goes through a “dark night of the soul” in which he sees for the first time the suffering of others whom he has never regarded. Gloucester, who is also lacking insight into the true natures of his sons, is cruelly blinded by Regan and her husband and cast out from his own house to journey to Dover. On the way, he is joined by his disguised son, who helps Gloucester undergo a regeneration of faith before he expires. Cordelia performs a similar task for Lear, whose recovery can be only partial, because of his madness. After Cordelia is captured and killed by the forces of Edmund, whose brother conquers him in single combat, Lear, too, expires while holding the dead Cordelia in his arms.

This wrenching ending, with its nihilistic overtones, is only one of the elements that places this play among the richest and most complex tragedies in English. Lear’s blindness, which is expertly represented in image clusters dealing with sight and insight, leads to cataclysmic suffering for his family and the state. More than any other Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear also succeeds in dramatizing the relationship between the microcosm, or little world of humankind, and the macrocosm, or larger world. One sees how the breakdown of the king’s reason and control leads to the breakdown of control in the state and in nature. At the moment when Lear bursts into tears, a frightening storm breaks out, and civil war soon follows. Images of human suffering and torture likewise crowd the action, the most compelling of which is the representation of the hero tied to a “wheel of fire” and scalded by his own tears as the wheel turns.

The Wheel of Fortune emblem is clearly evoked by this image, revealing Shakespeare’s purpose of depicting the king as another fallen prince brought low by his own mistakes and by the caprice of the goddess. That Lear has created the circumstances of his own fall is underscored by the antic remarks of his companion the Fool, the choric speaker who early in the play tries to keep Lear’s mind from cracking as he comes to realize how wrong was the banishment of Cordelia. The Fool speaks in riddles and uses barnyard analogies to make the point that Lear has placed the whip in the child’s hand and lowered his own breeches. Gloucester must learn a similar lesson, although his dilemma involves a crisis of faith. Lear must strip away the coverings of civilization to discover “unaccommodated man,” a discovery he begins to make too late. Just as he realizes that Cordelia represents those qualities of truth and compassion that he has been lacking, she is suddenly and violently taken from him.

Macbeth treats the de casibus theme of the fall of princes, but from a different perspective. Unlike Lear, Macbeth is a usurper who is driven to kill King Duncan by the witches’ prophecy, by his own ambition, and by his wife’s prompting. Once that deed is done, Macbeth finds himself unable to sleep, a victim of conscience and guilt. Although Lady Macbeth tries to control his fears, she proves unsuccessful, and her influence wanes rapidly. Evidence of this loss of power is Macbeth’s plot to kill Banquo, his fellow general, to whom the witches announced that he would be the father of kings. During the climactic banquet scene, Duncan’s ghost enters, invisible to the other guests, to take Macbeth’s place at the table; when the host reacts by raging and throwing his cup at the specter, the celebration is broken up and the guests scatter. Immediately, Macbeth rushes to the witches to seek proof that he is invincible. They tell him that he will not be conquered until BirnamWood comes to Dunsinane and that no man born of woman can kill him. They also show him a procession of eight childkings, all of whom represent Banquo’s descendants, including the last king, who is meant to be James I. (This procession has helped many critics to conclude that Macbeth was written as an occasional play to honor James, who became the company’s protector in 1603.)

Seeking to tighten his control of Scotland and to quiet his conscience, Macbeth launches a reign of terror during which his henchmen kill Lady Macduff and her children. Macduff, exiled in England with Duncan’s son Malcolm, learns of this vicious deed and spearheads an army that returns to Scotland to destroy the tyrant. In the final battle, which commences with the attacking army tearing down branches from trees in Birnam Wood to camouflage its advance, Macbeth discovers that his nemesis, Macduff, “was from his mother’s womb/ Untimely ripped.” Thus standing alone (Lady Macbeth commits suicide) and defeated, Macbeth represents himself as a “poor player” who has had his moment onstage and is quickly gone. This use of the theatrical metaphor looks back to the world of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark at the same time that it underscores the villain-hero’s role as an impostor king.

Macbeth is also depicted as a Herod figure (recalling Richard III) when he murders the innocent children of Macduff in an obsessive fit brought on by the realization that he is childless and heirless. Two strains of imagery reinforce this perception, featuring recurring references to blood and to children. When Macbeth kills Duncan, he describes his blood as “gilding” his flesh, suggesting that the king is God’s anointed representative on earth. Shakespeare also depicts Macbeth’s nemesis as a bloody child; this image hints at the strength-in-innocence theme that dominates the latter part of the play. That is, as Macbeth grows into the “man” that Lady Macbeth claimed he should be, he becomes more destructive and less humane, the caricature of a man. Macduff, on the other hand, in tears over the brutal murder of his wife and children, emerges as a stronger and more compassionate man because he has shown himself capable of deep feeling. The bloody-babe image might also be defined as a Christ emblem, with the attendant suggestion that Macduff comes to free the land from a tyrant’s grasp by spreading a philosophy of goodness and mercy. If the play was written to honor James I, it might also be argued that the comparison between his reign and that of Christ was intended. Whatever the intention of these image patterns, they help one to trace the transformation in Macbeth’s character from battlefield hero to usurping tyrant, a transformation brought about by the powerful motive of ambition.

Antony and Cleopatra

Written soon after Macbeth , Antony and Cleopatra again traces the complex psychological patterns of a male-female relationship. Like Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra appears to control and direct the behavior of her man, Antony, but as the play progresses, she, too, begins to lose power. Unlike Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra outlasts her love, gaining from Antony’s death the spirit and stature of rule that was not evident throughout much of the play. Indeed, most of the action involves quarrels between these two mature but jealous and petulant lovers as they struggle to escape the harsh political world created by Octavius Caesar, Antony’s rival.

Angered by Antony’s reveling in Egypt and later by his desertion of Caesar’s sister Octavia, whom Antony married only to buy time and an unsteady truce, Octavius begins to move against Antony with a powerful army and navy. During a first encounter between the two forces, in which Antony foolishly decides to fight at sea and also depends on Cleopatra’s untested ships, Antony leaves the field in pursuit of the retiring Cleopatra. Angered by her withdrawal and his own alacrity in following her, Antony rages against his “serpent of old Nile” and vows to have nothing further to do with her, but Cleopatra’s pull is magnetic, and Antony joins forces with her for a second battle with Caesar. When a similar retreat occurs and Antony finds Cleopatra apparently arranging a separate peace with one of Caesar’s representatives, he has the messenger beaten and sent back to Octavius with a challenge to single combat. These wild and desperate moves are commented on by Enobarbus, associate of Antony and choric voice. After the threat of single combat, Enobarbus leaves his master to join forces with Octavius. (Overcome by remorse, however, Enobarbus dies on the eve of battle.)

Believing that Cleopatra has killed herself, Antony decides to commit suicide and calls on his servant Eros to hold his sword so that he can run himself on it. Instead, Eros kills himself, and Antony must strike the blow himself. Still alive, he is carried to the monument where Cleopatra has decided to take up residence. There, Antony expires, “a Roman, by a Roman/ Valiantly vanquished.” Almost immediately, Cleopatra’s character seems to change into that of a noble partner; her elegant speeches on Antony’s heroic proportions are some of the most powerful blank verse in the play. It is also clear that she intends to escape Octavius’s grasp, knowing that he intends to parade her and her children before a jeering Roman crowd. Putting on her royal robes and applying the poison asps to her breast, Cleopatra hurries off to join her lover in eternity.

This complicated story is brilliantly organized by means of placing in balance the two worlds of Rome and Egypt. While Rome is presented as a cold, calculating place, reflective of the character of Octavius, Egypt stands out as a lush paradise in which the pursuit of pleasure is the main business of the inhabitants. This contrast is particularly telling because Antony’s status as a tragic hero depends on one’s seeing him as caught between the two worlds, at home in neither, master of neither. Water and serpent imagery dominate the play, creating a picture of Cleopatra as a Circe figure or a spontaneously generated creature that has seduced the once heroic Antony. Although this is the Roman view of the “gypsy” queen, Shakespeare requires his audience to appreciate her infinite variety. She is beautiful and playful, demanding and witty, cool and explosive. On the other hand, the assessment of Octavius as a puritanical, unfeeling man of destiny is also oversimplified; his reaction to Antony’s death reveals genuine emotion. At the close of the play, one realizes that Antony and Cleopatra’s vast empire has been reduced to the size of her monument—Caesar must attend a while longer to make this discovery himself. Antony and Cleopatra, however, have found a world of love that Octavius could never enter, and the tragedy is as much concerned with tracing the boundaries of that empire as it is with marking the triumphs of Octavius.

While reading the story of Antony and Cleopatra in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives , to which the play reveals a number of similarities, Shakespeare found another Roman figure whose career he saw as appropriate matter for tragedy: Coriolanus. Composed in the period between 1607 and 1608, Coriolanus dramatizes the career of a general in Republican Rome. He proves to be a superhuman figure in battle, earning his name by single-handedly subduing the town of Corioles and emerging from its gates covered in blood. (This birth image has a mixed meaning, since the blood is that of his victims.)

Unfortunately, Coriolanus refuses to humble himself before the Roman plebeians, whom he despises, as a requirement for holding the office of consul. Indeed, many of his bitter comments about the fickleness and cowardice of the populace remind one of characters such as Thersites and Apemantus. Such contempt and condescension make it hard to identify with Coriolanus, even though one is made aware that the Roman crowd is set against him by the jealous and ambitious tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius. Driven by his pride and anger, Coriolanus challenges the citizens’ rights and is subsequently banished. He then joins forces with his former enemy Aufidius, and the two of them lead an army to the very gates of Rome. Coriolanus’s mother comes out to plead with her son to spare Rome—and his family—in the most emotional scene of the play. Deeply moved by his mother’s arguments, Coriolanus relents and urges his companion to make peace with their enemy.

Aufidius agrees but awaits his opportunity to ambush his partner, whom he regards as a lifelong enemy. In a masterstroke of irony, Coriolanus is brought down by the citizens of the very town—Corioles—that he conquered in acquiring his name. Because the play is so heavily laden with swatches of Coriolanus’s vitriol and instances of irony such as the final one, it is difficult to classify this tragedy with those in which the heroes present richly complex characters. If Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and Lear possess tragic flaws, those flaws are only a part of their complicated makeup. Coriolanus, on the other hand, can be understood only in terms of his flaw, and the character and play are therefore one-dimensional.

There is little argument, however, that Shakespeare’s tragedies constitute the major achievement of his career. These dramas continue to appeal to audiences because their stories are intriguing; because their characters are fully realized human beings, if somewhat larger than life; and because their poetic language is metaphorically rich. Shakespeare possessed a profound insight into human nature and an ability to reveal what he found there in language unequaled in its power and beauty.

The romances

In the later years of his career, Shakespeare returned to writing comedy of a special kind: tragicomedy or romance. The four plays usually referred to as “the romances” are Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest . Three of these portray situations in which fathers are separated from daughters, then are rejoined through some miraculous turn of fortune. The plays also involve travel to exotic locales by the heroes and heroines, and, except for The Tempest, they portray events which occur over a span of many years. Sharp contrasts between court and pastoral settings vivify the theme of nature as the ideal teacher of moral values. In Pericles, Cymbeline, and The Winter’s Tale , the plots move inexorably toward tragedy, but through some form of intervention by Providence—or in some cases, by the gods themselves—happiness is restored and characters are reunited. All the plays witness the power of faith as instrumental in the process of regeneration; the loyal counselor or servant is a regular character type in the plays. The general outlook of the romances is optimistic, suggesting that humankind is indeed capable of recovering from the Fall and of creating a new Paradise.

Pericles recounts the adventures of a good king who seems hounded by fortune and forced to wander through the Mediterranean. The plot is faintly reminiscent of that of The Comedy of Errors , suggesting that Shakespeare was returning to tested materials from his earliest comedies. During a storm at sea, Pericles’ wife, Thaisa, apparently dies in childbirth and is set ashore in a coffin. He then leaves his daughter Marina in the care of a scheming queen, who tries to have her murdered. Instead, Marina is captured by pirates and eventually is sold to a brothel owner. After many years of lonely sojourning, Pericles is finally reunited with his daughter; later, through the offices of a doctor figure named Cerimon, they find Thaisa in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, where she has been resting for years. Throughout, the sea represents both a threatening and a peaceful force; Marina’s name points to the theme of the sea as a great restorative power. She “cures” her father aboard a ship.

Cymbeline , set in ancient Britain, recounts the misfortunes of its characters against the background of the Roman invasion of England. The tragicomedy has strong patriotic overtones, but it does not qualify as a history play such as those in the two tetralogies. The play depicts the moral education of Posthumus, the hero, whose desire to marry Imogen, Cymbeline’s daughter, is frustrated by his low birth. While in exile in Italy, Posthumus brags to an Italian acquaintance, Iachimo, that his beloved would never consider deceiving him. Thus challenged, Iachimo visits Imogen’s room while she sleeps and, through a clever ruse involving a ring and a birthmark, convinces Posthumus that he has slept with her. As a result of numerous plot turns, one of which calls for Imogen to disguise herself as a page, the two lovers are finally reunited when Iachimo confesses his sin.

Comingled with this strain of plot is another involving two sons of Cymbeline who have been reared in the rugged world of caves and mountains by an old counselor banished by the king. (He originally kidnapped the boys to seek revenge against Cymbeline.) In a climactic scene brought about by the Roman invasion, the mountain-men heroes are reunited with their father and sister, whom all believed was dead. So complex is the plot that many readers and audiences have found the play confusing and sometimes unintentionally humorous. The characters are not fully developed, and it is difficult to determine just what is the central story. Here, too, spectacle overpowers dialogue and characterization, with little or no attention paid to plausibility. Shakespeare seems preoccupied with demonstrating the healthfulness of pastoral life, the patriotic spirit of Englishmen, and the melodramatic quality of evil. Clearly, this agenda of themes and values places one in a comic world that is distinct from the one that typifies the mature comedies.

The Winter’s Tale

In The Winter’s Tale , Shakespeare again explores the motif of the daughter separated from her father, but in this play, the father, King Leontes, must be seen as a potentially tragic figure. His jealousy leads him to accuse his wife, Hermione, of unfaithfulness with his friend and fellow king Polixenes. When Leontes confronts her, even after consultation of the oracle indicates her honesty, she faints and apparently expires. Leontes banishes the child Perdita, who is his daughter but whom he refuses to acknowledge because of his suspicions, and the third act ends with a loyal servant depositing the baby on the shore of Bohemia to be favored or destroyed by Fortune. (A bear pursues and kills the servant, thus destroying any link between Leontes’ court and the baby.)

Perdita, “the lost one,” is found and reared by a shepherd. As sixteen years pass, she grows into a kind of pastoral queen, revealing those traits of goodness and innocence that Shakespeare associates with the Golden Age. When Polixenes repeats Leontes’ sin by banishing his son Florizel for falling in love with a lowly shepherdess, the couple, with the help of a rejected servant still loyal to Leontes, returns to Sicilia to seek the aid of the now repentant king. Through a series of revelations and with the help of the old shepherd, Perdita’s identity is discovered. She and Florizel are married, and the two kings are reunited in friendship. As a final tour de force, Hermione, who has been hidden away for the whole time by another loyal servant, comes to life as a statue supposedly sculpted by a famous artist. As in the other romances, some divine force has obviously been operating in the affairs of humans to bring about this happy reunion of families, friends, and countries.

The Winter’s Tale comes closer than the earlier romances to a realistic treatment of emotion, with all of its destructive possibilities, and to a more nearly honest vision of the pastoral world. Autolycus the clown, for example, pretends to be nothing other than a successful thief, “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.”

The Tempest

The Tempest is the only romance in which father and daughter are together from the beginning. It also possesses the only plot that observes the classical unities of time and place. Many commentators believe that the play represents Shakespeare’s greatest dramatic achievement, blending together beautiful verse, richly realized characters, and the moving wonders of the imagination. There can be no question that The Tempest is a refined and elevating statement of the themes of Providence and of order and degree. Prospero, the duke of Milan, exiled by his usurping brother Antonio, vows to punish both Antonio and his chief supporter, King Alonso. The two are aboard a ship sailing near the island on which Prospero and his daughter Miranda reside. Using magical power and the aid of a spirit named Ariel, Prospero apparently wrecks the ship, saving all the voyagers but supposedly drowning Ferdinand, Alonso’s son. Once on the island, the party is tormented by disorienting music and distracting sights, especially when Prospero’s brother Antonio attempts to persuade Alonso’s brother Sebastian to kill him and seize the crown. Another rebellion is attempted by Caliban (his name an anagram for “cannibal”), the half-human, half-bestial servant of Prospero.

Both rebellions fail, but instead of punishing his victims further, Prospero, moved by the compassion displayed by Ariel, decides to give up his magic and return to civilization. The decision proves crucial, since Prospero was on the verge of becoming a kind of Faust, forgetting his identity as a man. When he acknowledges Caliban, “this thing of darkness,” as his own, one realizes that this gesture betokens an internal acceptance of the passions as a legitimate part of his nature. Instead of revenging himself on Alonso, Prospero allows Ferdinand to woo Miranda in a mood and manner that recall Eden before the Fall. It should also be noted that Prospero creates a marriage masque featuring Iris, Ceres, and Juno, at the close of which he delivers the famous “Our revels now are ended” speech. Some critics claim that Prospero’s words constitute Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage, but there is considerable evidence that he continued to write plays for at least another year.

The Two Noble Kinsmen

The Two Noble Kinsmen was probably one of the plays composed during that period. It is not included in the First Folio (published 1623). It appeared in print in 1634 and bearing a title page ascribing the comedy to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Although collaboration was common among Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights, it was not a form of composition in which Shakespeare regularly engaged. Because Henry VIII was also most likely a collaborative effort, there seems to be compelling evidence that Shakespeare was enjoying a state of semiretirement during this period. Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” (from his Canterbury Tales ) , The Two Noble Kinsmen depicts the love of Palamon and Arcite for Emilia in a polite and mannered style that can easily be identified with Fletcher’s other work. The play is similar to the other romances in its emphasis on spectacle. It opens with a magnificent wedding ceremony before the Temple of Hymen, and there are excursions to the shrines of Mars and Diana as well. However, there are no scenes of regeneration involving fathers and daughters, no emphasis on the forgiveness of sin. If this was Shakespeare’s last play, it shows him returning to old sources for oft-told tales; his interest in developing new comic forms had obviously waned.

On the whole, the romances represent a more sophisticated but less playful and inventive style than that of the character-oriented comedies, such as Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing . They are the work of a playwright at the height of his powers, and they perhaps reveal the issues with which Shakespeare came to grapple in his later years: familial relationships, faith and redemption, and the legacy of each generation to its successors.

Principal drama Henry VI, Part I, wr. 1589-1590, pr. 1592, pb. 1623; Edward III, pr. c. 1589-1595, pb. 1596; Henry VI, Part II, pr. c. 1590-1591, pb. 1594; Henry VI, Part III, pr. c. 1590-1591, pb. 1595; Richard III, pr. c. 1592-1593, pb. 1597; The Comedy of Errors, pr. c. 1592-1594, pb. 1623; The Taming of the Shrew, pr. c. 1593-1594, pb. 1623; Titus Andronicus, pr., pb. 1594; The Two Gentlemen of Verona, pr. c. 1594-1595, pb. 1623; Love’s Labour’s Lost, pr. c. 1594-1595 (revised 1597 for court performance), pb. 1598; Romeo and Juliet, pr. c. 1595-1596, pb. 1597; Richard II, pr. c. 1595-1596, pb. 1600; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, pr. c. 1595-1596, pb. 1600; King John, pr. c. 1596-1597, pb. 1623; The Merchant of Venice, pr. c. 1596-1597, pb. 1600; Henry IV, Part I, pr. c. 1597-1598, pb. 1598; The Merry Wives of Windsor, pr. 1597 (revised c. 1600-1601), pb. 1602; Henry IV, Part II, pr. 1598, pb. 1600; Much Ado About Nothing, pr. c. 1598-1599, pb. 1600; Henry V, pr. c. 1598-1599, pb. 1600; Julius Caesar, pr. c. 1599-1600, pb. 1623; As You Like It, pr. c. 1599-1600, pb. 1623; Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, pr. c. 1600-1601, pb. 1603; Twelfth Night: Or, What You Will, pr. c. 1600-1602, pb. 1623; Troilus and Cressida, pr. c. 1601- 1602, pb. 1609; All’s Well That Ends Well, pr. c. 1602-1603, pb. 1623; Othello, the Moor of Venice, pr. 1604, pb. 1622 (revised 1623); Measure for Measure, pr. 1604, pb. 1623; King Lear, pr. c. 1605-1606, pb. 1608; Macbeth, pr. 1606, pb. 1623; Antony and Cleopatra, pr. c. 1606-1607, pb. 1623; Coriolanus, pr. c. 1607-1608, pb. 1623; Timon of Athens, pr. c. 1607- 1608, pb. 1623; Pericles, Prince of Tyre, pr. c. 1607-1608, pb. 1609; Cymbeline, pr. c. 1609- 1610, pb. 1623; The Winter’s Tale, pr. c. 1610-1611, pb. 1623; The Tempest, pr. 1611, pb. 1623; The Two Noble Kinsmen, pr. c. 1612-1613, pb. 1634 (with John Fletcher); Henry VIII, pr. 1613, pb. 1623 (with Fletcher).

Other major works Poetry: Venus and Adonis, 1593; The Rape of Lucrece, 1594; The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599 (miscellany with poems by Shakespeare and others); The Phoenix and the Turtle, 1601; A Lover’s Complaint, 1609; Sonnets, 1609.

Bibliography Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead, 1998. Brown, John Russell. Shakespeare: The Tragedies. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Danson, Lawrence. Shakespeare’s Dramatic Genres. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. De Grazia, Margreta, and Stanley Wells, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Dobson, Michael, and StanleyWells, eds. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001. Draper, Ronald P. Shakespeare, the Comedies. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Duncan-Jones, Katherine. Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes from His Life. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2001. Holderness, Graham. Shakespeare: The Histories. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Honan, Park. Shakespeare: A Life. 1999. Kermode, Frank. Shakespeare’s Language. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2000. McConnell, Louise. Dictionary of Shakespeare. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000. McLeish, Kenneth, and Stephen Unwin. A Pocket Guide to Shakespeare’s Plays. London: Faber and Faber, 1998. Marsh, Nicholas. Shakespeare, the Tragedies. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Proudfoot, Richard. Shakespeare: Text, Stage, and Canon. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2001. Richards, Jennifer, and James Knowles, eds. Shakespeare’s Late Plays: New Readings. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999. Southworth, John. Shakespeare, the Player: A Life in the Theatre. Stroud, England: Sutton, 2000. Thomson, Peter. Shakespeare’s Professional Career. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Wells, Stanley. Shakespeare: A Life in Drama. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995. Wilson, Ian. Shakespeare: The Evidence: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Man and His Work. London: Headline, 1993.

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Essay on William Shakespeare

500 words essay on william shakespeare.

William Shakespeare was certainly a very famous writer. The man is credited with an unbelievable thirty-eight plays, two narrative poems, several other poems and a whopping one hundred fifty-four sonnets. So let us take a peek inside the life of this genius with this essay on William Shakespeare.

                                                                                                                               Essay On William Shakespeare

Early Life of William Shakespeare

Shakespeare is the world’s pre-eminent dramatist and according to many experts is the greatest writer in the English language. Furthermore, he is also called England’s National Poet and also has the nickname of the Bard of Avon. Such a worthy reputation is due to his top-notch unmatchable writing skills.

William Shakespeare was born to a successful businessman in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23rd April in the year 1564. Shakespeare’s mother was the daughter of a landlord and came from a well-to-do family. About the age of seven, William Shakespeare began attending the Stratford Grammar School.

The teachers at Stratford were strict in nature and the school timings were long. One can say that William Shakespeare’s use of nature in his writings was due to the influence of the fields and woods surrounding the Stratford Grammar School on him.

Warwickshire was an interesting place to live, especially for those who were writers. Furthermore, the river Avon ran down through the town and because of this Shakespeare later got the title ‘Bard of Avon’. At the age of eighteen, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, a woman who in age was eight years older than him.

Illustrious Career of William Shakespeare

After his education, William Shakespeare became engaged in theatrical life in London. Furthermore, it was from here that his career likely took off. Moreover, by the year 1592, the popularity of William Shakespeare had grown to be very much.

Shakespeare became a member of one of the famous theatre companies in the city. Moreover, this company was ‘the Lord Chamberlain’s Men’. Also, the theatre companies during that era were commercial organizations that were dependent upon the audience who came to watch the plays.

From the year 1594, Shakespeare became the leading member of the acting group and remained that for almost the entire rest of his career. By the year 1594, the production of at least six plays had taken place by William Shakespeare.

Evidence shows that Shakespeare became a member of a well-known travelling theatre group. After joining this theatre, Shakespeare did plays in the presence of many dignitaries in various places.

Shakespeare, throughout his life, came up with some outstanding pieces of English literature , involving memorable timeless characters with human qualities. Furthermore, the human qualities and struggles of Shakespeare’s characters are such that one can relate with them even today. Shakespeare retired from his acting profession in 1613 and became completely devoted to writing many excellent plays.

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 Conclusion of the Essay on William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is, without a doubt, one of the greatest writers of all times. Furthermore, his excellence in story writing, narrative building, and character development is of the highest order. Individuals of such a high calibre appear once in a century or are even rarer than that.

FAQs For Essay on William Shakespeare

Question 1: Why is William Shakespeare so famous?

Answer 1:  William Shakespeare’s story writing skills are of an extremely high-quality. Furthermore, his works are characterized by outstanding narrative building around the topics of jealousy, mystery, love, magic, death, murder, life, revenge, and grief. That is why William Shakespeare is so famous.

Question 2: What are some of the most famous works of William Shakespeare?

Answer 2: Some of the most famous works of William Shakespeare are as follows:

• Romeo and Juliet
• The Merchant of Venice
• Much Ado About Nothing

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Shakespeare's Plays

Summaries of william shakespeare's plays..

Shakespeare's plays portray recognisable people in situations that we can all relate to - including love, marriage, death, mourning, guilt, the need to make difficult choices, separation, reunion and reconciliation. They do so with great humanity, tolerance, and wisdom. They help us to understand what it is to be human, and to cope with the problems of being so.  

Click on a play to read a full synopsis.

All's Well That Ends Well

Antony and cleopatra, as you like it, the comedy of errors, henry iv part 1, henry iv part 2, henry vi part 1, henry vi part 2, henry vi part 3, julius caesar, love's labour's lost, measure for measure, the merchant of venice, merry wives of windsor, a midsummer night's dream, much ado about nothing, othello: the moor of venice, pericles, prince of tyre, richard iii, romeo and juliet, taming of the shrew, the tempest, timon of athens, titus andronicus, troilus and cressida, twelfth night, two gentlemen of verona, the winter's tale.

Because Shakespeare's plays are written to be acted, they are constantly fresh and can be adapted to the place and time they are performed. Their language is wonderfully expressive and powerful, and although it may sometimes seem hard to understand in reading, actors can bring it to vivid life for us. The plays provide actors with some of the most challenging and rewarding roles ever written. They are both entertaining and moving. 

In the first Folio of 1623, the earliest edition of Shakespeare's collected plays, they are divided into Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. Over time, these have been further divided into Romances which include   The Tempest ,  The Winter's Tale ,  Cymbeline , and  Pericles . The term ‘Problem Plays’ has been used to include plays as apparently diverse as  Measure for Measure ,  Hamlet ,  All's Well that Ends Well    and  Troilus and Cressida . 

In his history plays, Shakespeare sometimes had the same character appear over and over. For example, the character 'Bardolph' appears in the the most plays of any characters, including   Henry IV Part 1 ,  Henry IV Part 2 ,  Henry V , and   The Merry Wives of Windsor .

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100 Shakespeare Essay Topics for You to Reflect On

Writing your essay on Shakespeare may seem difficult to most students, which is true… until you find our list of 100 amazing essay topics that you can reflect on and choose for your future paper! Even if you already have a problem assigned by your teacher, we are sure that our guide will help you to avoid the common mistakes. We have intentionally divided Shakespeare essay topics by subject, so you can instantly head over to the one that interests you!

Contents (Clickable)

   Take a Look These Great Shakespeare Essay Topics Before You Start:

Before we leave you to look through the vast amount of topics, we have a real treat for you! Our professional English tutors have picked several unique Shakespeare essay examples from our essay database. This way you can look through the actual papers to see the structure and get an idea of how it is done to receive the best grade possible! Since the students always ask us for essay examples, we have listened to your requests, so here you go:

• Shakespeare Hamlet – This paper is an excellent example of a structure that allows you to see what essay elements have to be included and how to do it right.
• Leadership Assignment: What Makes Shakespeare’s King Henry V a Perfect Leader? – For those who like to challenge themselves in an unusual way, this paper explores the soft skills and personality of King Henry V by comparing it with the present times.
• The Symbolism of Nature in Shakespeare’s Richard II – This paper analyzes metaphors, allegories, the mood, setting and the other poetic devices that majority of English literature essays require!
• Othello: Lago’s Character Analysis – Here we have an example of a paper that focuses on a specific element of a play (the character), so if you have a task of such kind, take a closer look!
• Critiques of Sonnets: Sonnet 130 and The Theme of Pain – For the creative minds among us is the paper that compares student’s personal sonnet to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130!

Now that we have the examples to start with, let us proceed with the list of our Shakespeare essay topics, divided by subject!

Before you start with a selection of a topic that fits you, make sure that you ask your college professor or a teacher about the following:

• Your chosen topic (if allowed to choose) and your thesis statement (if you already have it!).
• Style or a type of your essay (reflective, comparative, debate, analytical, review, etc.).
• Format requirements .
• Word count limit.
• Necessity of a draft and the first deadline.

Trust us, asking about the requirements twice and sorting the possible misunderstandings out will save you the time and nerves! Now, straight to the topics!

   A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay Topics

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play. It is set on Fairyland. It talks about the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus and the former queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. The play also narrates of adventures of four Athenian lovers and six amateur actors.

• What types of love are present in the play? How is the love portrayed in the play? Enumerate scenes from the play to justify your answer.
• How is love portrayed in the context of the gender of the characters?
• Do you see any gender issues in the play? If so, cite them. Do you think that the gender issues you cited are still prevalent in today’s society? Why or why not?
• What are the behaviors of men and women in the play? Why do you think they act that way?
• What is the conflict in the play? Why do you think so?
• How did the characters develop in the play?
• Why do you think Puck is considered as the protagonist?
• Compare and contrast the characters’ perspective on love. Choose one human and one fairy character to make your comparison.
• Why is fantasy (Fairies and magic) present in A Midsummer Night’s Dream? What is its significance? Do you think that it symbolizes something? Why or why not?
• What do you think is/are the significance of the settings of the play? How do the norms differ in each of the settings?
• What are the similarities and differences between the movie version and the play?
• What is/are the themes of the play?
• What is/are the darker aspects of the play? Cite and justify your claims.
• Why is the title of the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream ?
• Read about the criticisms of the play. It can be a literary or a feminist critique. Do you agree or disagree with the critiques? Justify your answer.
• In what ways is this play considered a comedy? Cite some instances in the story.

   Julius Caesar Research Paper Topics

Julius Caesar is a historical and tragedy play. It is based on the events of the Roman civilization.

• How did Caesar rise into power? And what factors have led to his downfall?
• Do you think that ambition led to Caesar’s downfall? Do you think that he is ambitious to a fault? Justify your argument.
• Discuss the political setting/dynamics of the play. How do politics work during Caesar’s time?
• Discuss the setting of the play. You can also highlight the culture and values of the Roman Republic.
• What is/are the role of women in the play and the Roman Republic?
• What role/s do superstitions play in the story?
• What compelled Brutus to murder Caesar, his close friend? Do an analysis.
• How did Brutus and Anthony manage to sway the people’s opinion on Caesar? What were their tactics?
• How are fate and free will manifested in the play?
• Research any political assassination (Ex: Martin Luther King’s assassination ). What are the similarities or differences between your chosen political assassination to Caesar’s assassination?
• Write a comparative analysis of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Homer’s The Odyssey.
• How did Plutarch and Shakespeare portray Julius Caesar?
• Compare and contrast one character from Julius Caesar to another character from Shakespeare’s other work (s) (Ex: Othello )
• In your opinion, do you think that the death of Caesar was justified?
• If you were in Brutus’ shoes, would you kill Caesar? Why or why not? Justify your answer.
• Do you think that Brutus was a dishonorable man, considering that he is a traitor to his country and his friend? Why or why not?

   King Lear Essay Topics

King Lear is another of Shakespeare’s tragic plays. Set in ancient Britain, King Lear decides to give up his power and to divide his kingdom amongst his daughters, namely Cordelia, Regan, and Goneril. The largest land will go to the daughter who can profess her love to him the most.

• What are the themes tackled in King Lear?
• What is the significance of old age and death in the play?
• King Lear has a subplot. Discuss the role the subplot plays in the story and give examples.
• In what ways does King Lear fit the template of a tragic hero?
• Between Edmund, Gloucester, and King Lear, who is the most sympathetic character? Take note that these characters have changed as the play progresses.
• What is the role and significance of the Fool in King Lear? Cite examples from the play.
• Write a comparative analysis of King Lear and Oedipus Rex.
• In your opinion, who among the characters is the most interesting? Why?
• How does Shakespeare build tension in King Lear? Cite instances from the play.
• Relate the characters Edmund, Goneril, and Regan with Machiavelli’s principles. Which of the characters are the most Machiavellian? In what ways do Machiavelli’s principles manifest in the characters?
• How is King Lear similar to Kurosawa’s film Ran in terms of characters, plot, and the themes ?
• Discuss and analyze the parent-child relationship in King Lear.

   Macbeth Essay Topics

It is a tragedy about a Scottish general named Macbeth . The plot revolves since the moment when the three witches prophesied that he would be the King of Scotland someday.

• What instances led to Macbeth’s madness? How did he change as a person?
• What is the significance of the three witches in the play? How are they characterized?
• Enumerate the prophecies of the three witches. How were these prophecies fulfilled?
• What do ambition and power signify in the play?
• Do you think that Macbeth is misogynistic? Why or why not? Give examples.
• What do you think is the difference between kingship and tyranny?
• Blood is present in Macbeth. What do you think it symbolizes?
• What role does the weather play in Macbeth? Write down what it symbolizes.
• Are gender roles/issues present in the play? How are these roles/issues illustrated in the play?
• Compare and contrast Macbeth and Malcolm. What makes these men similar and different?
• Is Lady Macbeth or Macbeth most responsible for King Duncan’s murder? Justify.
• Give two minor characters and write how they contributed to the play.

   Othello Essay Topics

Othello is about a general (moor) in the Venetian army and Iago, his ensign. It is one of Shakespeare’s tragic plays.

• What is the role of revenge and jealousy in the play? Give examples.
• Discuss racism in the context of the play. Then, relate it to racism during the Elizabethan period.
• How do other characters portray Othello? How does Othello portray himself? Elaborate on the role of race in the play.
• In your opinion, do you think that Othello is a well-rounded character? Does he fit the template of a tragic hero?
• Do a character analysis of Desdemona.
• Do a feminist critique of Desdemona.
• How did Othello’s flaws lead to his downfall?
• Analyze Iago’s plan . Do you think that it was well-planned or were there luck and opportunity involved?
• Iago is skilled in persuasion. How did Iago manage to convince Roderigo and Brabantio?
• Discuss the role of irony in the play. How is irony used to conceal Iago and Othello’s plans?
• How is loyalty presented in the play? Discuss both its positive and negative aspects of the characters.
• Why do you think that Othello and Desdemona’s relationship was bound to fail? Why was it doomed to fail right from the beginning of the play?
• Do a cultural and historical-critical analysis of Othello.
• Interpret Othello in a Marxist perspective.

   Romeo and Juliet Essay Prompts

While almost anyone knows the plot of the play well, it is still really difficult to come up with a good essay prompt! Have no fear as we know our job! For those who have forgotten, Romeo and Juliet is a romantic tragedy play centering on Romeo and Juliet and the Capulet-Montague family feud.

• Do you agree that Friar Lawrence is to be blamed for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet?
• Why do you think that Romeo and Juliet are considered as “star-crossed lovers”?
• Do you think that the themes in the play are also present in today’s time? Why or why not?
• What is the role of fate/destiny in the play? Do you consider fate/destiny as part of the play’s theme?
• Do you consider Juliet as a feminist? Why or why not?
• How are men and women perceived in Romeo and Juliet?
• Choose one or two characters from the play and do character analysis.
• What is the role of Mercutio in the play? Do you think that he is only a supporting character? Justify your answer.
• How did Juliet develop as a character in the play? What sort of changes occurred and why did the said changes happen?
• Compare and contrast the maturity level of Romeo and Juliet. How have they matured throughout the play? Cite instances.
• How did the Montague-Capulet family feud drive the play’s plot?
• Discuss the parenting styles of Romeo and Juliet’s family. What is the impact of their parenting styles on the young couple?
• Relate the philosophy of death with the couple’s suicidal tendencies.
• Do you think that Romeo and Juliet love each other? Or is it just pure lust or infatuation? Justify your answer.
• Do you think that the couple’s suicidal tendencies are part of pure love or being addicted to love?
• Relate the Romeo and Juliet’s suicidal tendencies to young love.

   The Merchant of Venice Essay Topics

The Merchant of Venice is a romantic comedy play centered around the story of Bassanio, a young Venetian, who needs 3,000 ducats to impress the heiress Portia of Belmont. It is also about the merchant named Antonio, who is short on cash because he invested it on his ships.

• Compare and contrast Venice and Belmont. What does the difference in setting signify?
• What purpose do the three caskets serve in The Merchant of Venice? How do the caskets work as a plot device? What do the choices of Portia’s suitors signify in the play?
• How are the female characters portrayed in the play? What was the status of women in the Elizabethan era?
• What is/are the influence/s of radical feminism in The Merchant of Venice?
• Discuss racism and discrimination in the play. Cite instances to justify your argument.
• How is Portia’s life different or similar to the other characters in the play? Describe the similarities and differences.
• Discuss the friendship of Antonio and Bassanio. What does their friendship say about their personalities?
• Write about the relationship between Shylock and Jessica. In this context, do you sympathize or despise Shylock? Do you sympathize with Jessica? Why or why not?
• Do you think The Merchant of Venice is a comedy considering that it is mostly known for its dramatic scenes? Why or why not?
• Do you think that Shylock is a well-rounded character? If so, what makes him well-rounded?
• Do you sympathize with Shylock? Why or why not?
• Why do you think Shylock is justifying his revenge for Antonio? Justify your answer.
• Who is the most interesting character in the play? Why do you find him/her interesting?
• Do you see Portia as a radical feminist? Justify your answer.

There you go! Now that you have found your way through Shakespeare essay topic, prompts, and the ideas, it is always good to check up with brief biographical information that is advisable to include in your essay!

   Who Is William Shakespeare?

We may know his plays well, but most people know very little about the person behind the plays that we usually read in school!

   William Shakespeare’s Early Life

William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. However, scholars speculated and acknowledged that he was born on April 23, 1564. He was an actor, a playwright, and a poet.

On November 28, 1583, 18-year-old William married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway (Yes, that’s his wife’s name!) in Worcester, located in Canterbury province. The couple’s first child was Susanna (May 26, 1583). They had twins- Hamnet and Judith two years later. Later on, 11-year-old Hamnet died of unknown causes.

   Shakespeare’s Career, Death, and Legacy

Documents have shown that William was a managing partner in an acting company in London called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men by early 1590s. The name was changed to King’s Men when King James I was crowned in 1603.

The company was popular, and William was said to have his works sold and published. Moreover, he was known to work as an actor and playwright in London by 1592.

He dedicated his poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) to the Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley.

Out of 37 of his plays, 15 of them were already written and produced. William and his business partners built the Globe, their own theater, in 1599 located on the Thames River.

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, when he was only 52-years-old. Interestingly, he was not recognized until the 19th century, beginning from the early 1800s and until the Victorian age. Of course, William’s Shakespeare’s works are still read and studied, so the legacy lives on!

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Jeffrey R. Wilson

Essays on hamlet.

Written as the author taught Hamlet every semester for a decade, these lightning essays ask big conceptual questions about the play with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover, and answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. In doing so, Hamlet becomes a lens for life today, generating insights on everything from xenophobia, American fraternities, and religious fundamentalism to structural misogyny, suicide contagion, and toxic love.

Prioritizing close reading over historical context, these explorations are highly textual and highly theoretical, often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Readers see King Hamlet as a pre-modern villain, King Claudius as a modern villain, and Prince Hamlet as a post-modern villain. Hamlet’s feigned madness becomes a window into failed insanity defenses in legal trials. He knows he’s being watched in “To be or not to be”: the soliloquy is a satire of philosophy. Horatio emerges as Shakespeare’s authorial avatar for meta-theatrical commentary, Fortinbras as the hero of the play. Fate becomes a viable concept for modern life, and honor a source of tragedy. The metaphor of music in the play makes Ophelia Hamlet’s instrument. Shakespeare, like the modern corporation, stands against sexism, yet perpetuates it unknowingly. We hear his thoughts on single parenting, sending children off to college, and the working class, plus his advice on acting and writing, and his claims to be the next Homer or Virgil. In the context of four centuries of Hamlet hate, we hear how the text draws audiences in, how it became so famous, and why it continues to captivate audiences.

At a time when the humanities are said to be in crisis, these essays are concrete examples of the mind-altering power of literature and literary studies, unravelling the ongoing implications of the English language’s most significant artistic object of the past millennium.

Publications

Why is Hamlet the most famous English artwork of the past millennium? Is it a sexist text? Why does Hamlet speak in prose? Why must he die? Does Hamlet depict revenge, or justice? How did the death of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, transform into a story about a son dealing with the death of a father? Did Shakespeare know Aristotle’s theory of tragedy? How did our literary icon, Shakespeare, see his literary icons, Homer and Virgil? Why is there so much comedy in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy? Why is love a force of evil in the play? Did Shakespeare believe there’s a divinity that shapes our ends? How did he define virtue? What did he think about psychology? politics? philosophy? What was Shakespeare’s image of himself as an author? What can he, arguably the greatest writer of all time, teach us about our own writing? What was his theory of literature? Why do people like Hamlet ? How do the Hamlet haters of today compare to those of yesteryears? Is it dangerous for our children to read a play that’s all about suicide? 

These are some of the questions asked in this book, a collection of essays on Shakespeare’s Hamlet stemming from my time teaching the play every semester in my Why Shakespeare? course at Harvard University. During this time, I saw a series of bright young minds from wildly diverse backgrounds find their footing in Hamlet, and it taught me a lot about how Shakespeare’s tragedy works, and why it remains with us in the modern world. Beyond ghosts, revenge, and tragedy, Hamlet is a play about being in college, being in love, gender, misogyny, friendship, theater, philosophy, theology, injustice, loss, comedy, depression, death, self-doubt, mental illness, white privilege, overbearing parents, existential angst, international politics, the classics, the afterlife, and the meaning of it all. 

These essays grow from the central paradox of the play: it helps us understand the world we live in, yet we don't really understand the text itself very well. For all the attention given to Hamlet , there’s no consensus on the big questions—how it works, why it grips people so fiercely, what it’s about. These essays pose first-order questions about what happens in Hamlet and why, mobilizing answers for reflections on life, making the essays both highly textual and highly theoretical. 

Each semester that I taught the play, I would write a new essay about Hamlet . They were meant to be models for students, the sort of essay that undergrads read and write – more rigorous than the puff pieces in the popular press, but riskier than the scholarship in most academic journals. While I later added scholarly outerwear, these pieces all began just like the essays I was assigning to students – as short close readings with a reader and a text and a desire to determine meaning when faced with a puzzling question or problem. 

The turn from text to context in recent scholarly books about Hamlet is quizzical since we still don’t have a strong sense of, to quote the title of John Dover Wilson’s 1935 book, What Happens in Hamlet. Is the ghost real? Is Hamlet mad, or just faking? Why does he delay? These are the kinds of questions students love to ask, but they haven’t been – can’t be – answered by reading the play in the context of its sources (recently addressed in Laurie Johnson’s The Tain of Hamlet [2013]), its multiple texts (analyzed by Paul Menzer in The Hamlets [2008] and Zachary Lesser in Hamlet after Q1 [2015]), the Protestant reformation (the focus of Stephen Greenblatt’s Hamlet in Purgatory [2001] and John E. Curran, Jr.’s Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency [2006]), Renaissance humanism (see Rhodri Lewis, Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness [2017]), Elizabethan political theory (see Margreta de Grazia, Hamlet without Hamlet [2007]), the play’s reception history (see David Bevington, Murder Most Foul: Hamlet through the Ages [2011]), its appropriation by modern philosophers (covered in Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster’s The Hamlet Doctrine [2013] and Andrew Cutrofello’s All for Nothing: Hamlet’s Negativity [2014]), or its recent global travels (addressed, for example, in Margaret Latvian’s Hamlet’s Arab Journey [2011] and Dominic Dromgoole’s Hamlet Globe to Globe [2017]). 

Considering the context and afterlives of Hamlet is a worthy pursuit. I certainly consulted the above books for my essays, yet the confidence that comes from introducing context obscures the sharp panic we feel when confronting Shakespeare’s text itself. Even as the excellent recent book from Sonya Freeman Loftis, Allison Kellar, and Lisa Ulevich announces Hamlet has entered “an age of textual exhaustion,” there’s an odd tendency to avoid the text of Hamlet —to grasp for something more firm—when writing about it. There is a need to return to the text in a more immediate way to understand how Hamlet operates as a literary work, and how it can help us understand the world in which we live. 

That latter goal, yes, clings nostalgically to the notion that literature can help us understand life. Questions about life send us to literature in search of answers. Those of us who love literature learn to ask and answer questions about it as we become professional literary scholars. But often our answers to the questions scholars ask of literature do not connect back up with the questions about life that sent us to literature in the first place—which are often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Those first-order questions are diluted and avoided in the minutia of much scholarship, left unanswered. Thus, my goal was to pose questions about Hamlet with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover and to answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. 

In doing so, these essays challenge the conventional relationship between literature and theory. They pursue a kind of criticism where literature is not merely the recipient of philosophical ideas in the service of exegesis. Instead, the creative risks of literature provide exemplars to be theorized outward to help us understand on-going issues in life today. Beyond an occasion for the demonstration of existing theory, literature is a source for the creation of new theory.

Chapter One How Hamlet Works

Whether you love or hate Hamlet , you can acknowledge its massive popularity. So how does Hamlet work? How does it create audience enjoyment? Why is it so appealing, and to whom? Of all the available options, why Hamlet ? This chapter entertains three possible explanations for why the play is so popular in the modern world: the literary answer (as the English language’s best artwork about death—one of the very few universal human experiences in a modern world increasingly marked by cultural differences— Hamlet is timeless); the theatrical answer (with its mixture of tragedy and comedy, the role of Hamlet requires the best actor of each age, and the play’s popularity derives from the celebrity of its stars); and the philosophical answer (the play invites, encourages, facilitates, and sustains philosophical introspection and conversation from people who do not usually do such things, who find themselves doing those things with Hamlet , who sometimes feel embarrassed about doing those things, but who ultimately find the experience of having done them rewarding).

Chapter Two “It Started Like a Guilty Thing”: The Beginning of Hamlet and the Beginning of Modern Politics

King Hamlet is a tyrant and King Claudius a traitor but, because Shakespeare asked us to experience the events in Hamlet from the perspective of the young Prince Hamlet, we are much more inclined to detect and detest King Claudius’s political failings than King Hamlet’s. If so, then Shakespeare’s play Hamlet , so often seen as the birth of modern psychology, might also tell us a little bit about the beginnings of modern politics as well.

Chapter Three Horatio as Author: Storytelling and Stoic Tragedy

This chapter addresses Horatio’s emotionlessness in light of his role as a narrator, using this discussion to think about Shakespeare’s motives for writing tragedy in the wake of his son’s death. By rationalizing pain and suffering as tragedy, both Horatio and Shakespeare were able to avoid the self-destruction entailed in Hamlet’s emotional response to life’s hardships and injustices. Thus, the stoic Horatio, rather than the passionate Hamlet who repeatedly interrupts ‘The Mousetrap’, is the best authorial avatar for a Shakespeare who strategically wrote himself and his own voice out of his works. This argument then expands into a theory of ‘authorial catharsis’ and the suggestion that we can conceive of Shakespeare as a ‘poet of reason’ in contrast to a ‘poet of emotion’.

Chapter Four “To thine own self be true”: What Shakespeare Says about Sending Our Children Off to College

What does “To thine own self be true” actually mean? Be yourself? Don’t change who you are? Follow your own convictions? Don’t lie to yourself? This chapter argues that, if we understand meaning as intent, then “To thine own self be true” means, paradoxically, that “the self” does not exist. Or, more accurately, Shakespeare’s Hamlet implies that “the self” exists only as a rhetorical, philosophical, and psychological construct that we use to make sense of our experiences and actions in the world, not as anything real. If this is so, then this passage may offer us a way of thinking about Shakespeare as not just a playwright but also a moral philosopher, one who did his ethics in drama.

Chapter Five In Defense of Polonius

Your wife dies. You raise two children by yourself. You build a great career to provide for your family. You send your son off to college in another country, though you know he’s not ready. Now the prince wants to marry your daughter—that’s not easy to navigate. Then—get this—while you’re trying to save the queen’s life, the prince murders you. Your death destroys your kids. They die tragically. And what do you get for your efforts? Centuries of Shakespeare scholars dumping on you. If we see Polonius not through the eyes of his enemy, Prince Hamlet—the point of view Shakespeare’s play asks audiences to adopt—but in analogy to the common challenges of twenty-first-century parenting, Polonius is a single father struggling with work-life balance who sadly choses his career over his daughter’s well-being.

Chapter Six Sigma Alpha Elsinore: The Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Claudius likes to party—a bit too much. He frequently binge drinks, is arguably an alcoholic, but not an aberration. Hamlet says Denmark is internationally known for heavy drinking. That’s what Shakespeare would have heard in the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, English writers feared Denmark had taught their nation its drinking habits. Synthesizing criticism on alcoholism as an individual problem in Shakespeare’s texts and times with scholarship on national drinking habits in the early-modern age, this essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual, but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicted in Hamlet. One window into these early-modern cultures of drunkenness is sociological studies of American college fraternities, especially the social-learning theories that explain how one person—one culture—teaches another its habits. For Claudius’s alcoholism is both culturally learned and culturally significant. And, as in fraternities, alcoholism in Hamlet is bound up with wealth, privilege, toxic masculinity, and tragedy. Thus, alcohol imagistically reappears in the vial of “cursed hebona,” Ophelia’s liquid death, and the poisoned cup in the final scene—moments that stand out in recent performances and adaptations with alcoholic Claudiuses and Gertrudes.

Chapter Seven Tragic Foundationalism

This chapter puts the modern philosopher Alain Badiou’s theory of foundationalism into dialogue with the early-modern playwright William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . Doing so allows us to identify a new candidate for Hamlet’s traditionally hard-to-define hamartia – i.e., his “tragic mistake” – but it also allows us to consider the possibility of foundationalism as hamartia. Tragic foundationalism is the notion that fidelity to a single and substantive truth at the expense of an openness to evidence, reason, and change is an acute mistake which can lead to miscalculations of fact and virtue that create conflict and can end up in catastrophic destruction and the downfall of otherwise strong and noble people.

Chapter Eight “As a stranger give it welcome”: Shakespeare’s Advice for First-Year College Students

Encountering a new idea can be like meeting a strange person for the first time. Similarly, we dismiss new ideas before we get to know them. There is an answer to the problem of the human antipathy to strangeness in a somewhat strange place: a single line usually overlooked in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . If the ghost is “wondrous strange,” Hamlet says, invoking the ancient ethics of hospitality, “Therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” In this word, strange, and the social conventions attached to it, is both the instinctual, animalistic fear and aggression toward what is new and different (the problem) and a cultivated, humane response in hospitality and curiosity (the solution). Intellectual xenia is the answer to intellectual xenophobia.

Chapter Nine Parallels in Hamlet

Hamlet is more parallely than other texts. Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes have their fathers murdered, then seek revenge. Brothers King Hamlet and King Claudius mirror brothers Old Norway and Old Fortinbras. Hamlet and Ophelia both lose their fathers, go mad, but there’s a method in their madness, and become suicidal. King Hamlet and Polonius are both domineering fathers. Hamlet and Polonius are both scholars, actors, verbose, pedantic, detectives using indirection, spying upon others, “by indirections find directions out." King Hamlet and King Claudius are both kings who are killed. Claudius using Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet mirrors Polonius using Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. Reynaldo and Hamlet both pretend to be something other than what they are in order to spy on and detect foes. Young Fortinbras and Prince Hamlet both have their forward momentum “arrest[ed].” Pyrrhus and Hamlet are son seeking revenge but paused a “neutral to his will.” The main plot of Hamlet reappears in the play-within-the-play. The Act I duel between King Hamlet and Old Fortinbras echoes in the Act V duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Claudius and Hamlet are both king killers. Sheesh—why are there so many dang parallels in Hamlet ? Is there some detectable reason why the story of Hamlet would call for the literary device of parallelism?

Chapter Ten Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Why Hamlet Has Two Childhood Friends, Not Just One

Why have two of Hamlet’s childhood friends rather than just one? Do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have individuated personalities? First of all, by increasing the number of friends who visit Hamlet, Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of being outnumbered, of multiple enemies encroaching upon Hamlet, of Hamlet feeling that the world is against him. Second, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not interchangeable, as commonly thought. Shakespeare gave each an individuated personality. Guildenstern is friendlier with Hamlet, and their friendship collapses, while Rosencrantz is more distant and devious—a frenemy.

Chapter Eleven Shakespeare on the Classics, Shakespeare as a Classic: A Reading of Aeneas’s Tale to Dido

Of all the stories Shakespeare might have chosen, why have Hamlet ask the players to recite Aeneas’ tale to Dido of Pyrrhus’s slaughter of Priam? In this story, which comes not from Homer’s Iliad but from Virgil’s Aeneid and had already been adapted for the Elizabethan stage in Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragedy of Dido, Pyrrhus – more commonly known as Neoptolemus, the son of the famous Greek warrior Achilles – savagely slays Priam, the king of the Trojans and the father of Paris, who killed Pyrrhus’s father, Achilles, who killed Paris’s brother, Hector, who killed Achilles’s comrade, Patroclus. Clearly, the theme of revenge at work in this story would have appealed to Shakespeare as he was writing what would become the greatest revenge tragedy of all time. Moreover, Aeneas’s tale to Dido supplied Shakespeare with all of the connections he sought to make at this crucial point in his play and his career – connections between himself and Marlowe, between the start of Hamlet and the end, between Prince Hamlet and King Claudius, between epic poetry and tragic drama, and between the classical literature Shakespeare was still reading hundreds of years later and his own potential as a classic who might (and would) be read hundreds of years into the future.

Chapter Twelve How Theater Works, according to Hamlet

According to Hamlet, people who are guilty of a crime will, when seeing that crime represented on stage, “proclaim [their] malefactions”—but that simply isn’t how theater works. Guilty people sit though shows that depict their crimes all the time without being prompted to public confession. Why did Shakespeare—a remarkably observant student of theater—write this demonstrably false theory of drama into his protagonist? And why did Shakespeare then write the plot of the play to affirm that obviously inaccurate vision of theater? For Claudius is indeed stirred to confession by the play-within-the-play. Perhaps Hamlet’s theory of people proclaiming malefactions upon seeing their crimes represented onstage is not as outlandish as it first appears. Perhaps four centuries of obsession with Hamlet is the English-speaking world proclaiming its malefactions upon seeing them represented dramatically.

Chapter Thirteen “To be, or not to be”: Shakespeare Against Philosophy

This chapter hazards a new reading of the most famous passage in Western literature: “To be, or not to be” from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . With this line, Hamlet poses his personal struggle, a question of life and death, as a metaphysical problem, as a question of existence and nothingness. However, “To be, or not to be” is not what it seems to be. It seems to be a representation of tragic angst, yet a consideration of the context of the speech reveals that “To be, or not to be” is actually a satire of philosophy and Shakespeare’s representation of the theatricality of everyday life. In this chapter, a close reading of the context and meaning of this passage leads into an attempt to formulate a Shakespearean image of philosophy.

Chapter Fourteen Contagious Suicide in and Around Hamlet

As in society today, suicide is contagious in Hamlet , at least in the example of Ophelia, the only death by suicide in the play, because she only becomes suicidal after hearing Hamlet talk about his own suicidal thoughts in “To be, or not to be.” Just as there are media guidelines for reporting on suicide, there are better and worse ways of handling Hamlet . Careful suicide coverage can change public misperceptions and reduce suicide contagion. Is the same true for careful literary criticism and classroom discussion of suicide texts? How can teachers and literary critics reduce suicide contagion and increase help-seeking behavior?

Chapter Fifteen Is Hamlet a Sexist Text? Overt Misogyny vs. Unconscious Bias

Students and fans of Shakespeare’s Hamlet persistently ask a question scholars and critics of the play have not yet definitively answered: is it a sexist text? The author of this text has been described as everything from a male chauvinist pig to a trailblazing proto-feminist, but recent work on the science behind discrimination and prejudice offers a new, better vocabulary in the notion of unconscious bias. More pervasive and slippery than explicit bigotry, unconscious bias involves the subtle, often unintentional words and actions which indicate the presence of biases we may not be aware of, ones we may even fight against. The Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet exhibited an unconscious bias against women, I argue, even as he sought to critique the mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society. The evidence for this unconscious bias is not to be found in the misogynistic statements made by the characters in the play. It exists, instead, in the demonstrable preference Shakespeare showed for men over women when deciding where to deploy his literary talents. Thus, Shakespeare's Hamlet is a powerful literary example – one which speaks to, say, the modern corporation – showing that deliberate efforts for egalitarianism do not insulate one from the effects of structural inequalities that both stem from and create unconscious bias.

Chapter Sixteen Style and Purpose in Acting and Writing

Purpose and style are connected in academic writing. To answer the question of style ( How should we write academic papers? ) we must first answer the question of purpose ( Why do we write academic papers? ). We can answer these questions, I suggest, by turning to an unexpected style guide that’s more than 400 years old: the famous passage on “the purpose of playing” in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . In both acting and writing, a high style often accompanies an expressive purpose attempting to impress an elite audience yet actually alienating intellectual people, while a low style and mimetic purpose effectively engage an intellectual audience.

Chapter Seventeen 13 Ways of Looking at a Ghost

Why doesn’t Gertrude see the Ghost of King Hamlet in Act III, even though Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, Marcellus, and Prince Hamlet all saw it in Act I? It’s a bit embarrassing that Shakespeare scholars don’t have a widely agreed-upon consensus that explains this really basic question that puzzles a lot of people who read or see Hamlet .

Chapter Eighteen The Tragedy of Love in Hamlet

The word “love” appears 84 times in Shakespeare’s Hamlet . “Father” only appears 73 times, “play” 60, “think” 55, “mother” 46, “mad” 44, “soul” 40, “God" 39, “death” 38, “life” 34, “nothing” 28, “son” 26, “honor” 21, “spirit” 19, “kill” 18, “revenge” 14, and “action” 12. Love isn’t the first theme that comes to mind when we think of Hamlet , but is surprisingly prominent. But love is tragic in Hamlet . The bloody catastrophe at the end of that play is principally driven not by hatred or a longing for revenge, but by love.

Chapter Nineteen Ophelia’s Songs: Moral Agency, Manipulation, and the Metaphor of Music in Hamlet

This chapter reads Ophelia’s songs in Act IV of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the context of the meaning of music established elsewhere in the play. While the songs are usually seen as a marker of Ophelia’s madness (as a result of the death of her father) or freedom (from the constraints of patriarchy), they come – when read in light of the metaphor of music as manipulation – to symbolize her role as a pawn in Hamlet’s efforts to deceive his family. Thus, music was Shakespeare’s platform for connecting Ophelia’s story to one of the central questions in Hamlet : Do we have control over our own actions (like the musician), or are we controlled by others (like the instrument)?

Chapter Twenty A Quantitative Study of Prose and Verse in Hamlet

Why does Hamlet have so much prose? Did Shakespeare deliberately shift from verse to prose to signal something to his audiences? How would actors have handled the shifts from verse to prose? Would audiences have detected shifts from verse to prose? Is there an overarching principle that governs Shakespeare’s decision to use prose—a coherent principle that says, “If X, then use prose?”

Chapter Twenty-One The Fortunes of Fate in Hamlet : Divine Providence and Social Determinism

In Hamlet , fate is attacked from both sides: “fortune” presents a world of random happenstance, “will” a theory of efficacious human action. On this backdrop, this essay considers—irrespective of what the characters say and believe—what the structure and imagery Shakespeare wrote into Hamlet say about the possibility that some version of fate is at work in the play. I contend the world of Hamlet is governed by neither fate nor fortune, nor even the Christianized version of fate called “providence.” Yet there is a modern, secular, disenchanted form of fate at work in Hamlet—what is sometimes called “social determinism”—which calls into question the freedom of the individual will. As such, Shakespeare’s Hamlet both commented on the transformation of pagan fate into Christian providence that happened in the centuries leading up to the play, and anticipated the further transformation of fate from a theological to a sociological idea, which occurred in the centuries following Hamlet .

Chapter Twenty-Two The Working Class in Hamlet

There’s a lot for working-class folks to hate about Hamlet —not just because it’s old, dusty, difficult to understand, crammed down our throats in school, and filled with frills, tights, and those weird lace neck thingies that are just socially awkward to think about. Peak Renaissance weirdness. Claustrophobicly cloistered inside the castle of Elsinore, quaintly angsty over royal family problems, Hamlet feels like the literary epitome of elitism. “Lawless resolutes” is how the Wittenberg scholar Horatio describes the soldiers who join Fortinbras’s army in exchange “for food.” The Prince Hamlet who has never worked a day in his life denigrates Polonius as a “fishmonger”: quite the insult for a royal advisor to be called a working man. And King Claudius complains of the simplicity of "the distracted multitude.” But, in Hamlet , Shakespeare juxtaposed the nobles’ denigrations of the working class as readily available metaphors for all-things-awful with the rather valuable behavior of working-class characters themselves. When allowed to represent themselves, the working class in Hamlet are characterized as makers of things—of material goods and services like ships, graves, and plays, but also of ethical and political virtues like security, education, justice, and democracy. Meanwhile, Elsinore has a bad case of affluenza, the make-believe disease invented by an American lawyer who argued that his client's social privilege was so great that it created an obliviousness to law. While social elites rot society through the twin corrosives of political corruption and scholarly detachment, the working class keeps the machine running. They build the ships, plays, and graves society needs to function, and monitor the nuts-and-bolts of the ideals—like education and justice—that we aspire to uphold.

Chapter Twenty-Three The Honor Code at Harvard and in Hamlet

Students at Harvard College are asked, when they first join the school and several times during their years there, to affirm their awareness of and commitment to the school’s honor code. But instead of “the foundation of our community” that it is at Harvard, honor is tragic in Hamlet —a source of anxiety, blunder, and catastrophe. As this chapter shows, looking at Hamlet from our place at Harvard can bring us to see what a tangled knot honor can be, and we can start to theorize the difference between heroic and tragic honor.

Chapter Twenty-Four The Meaning of Death in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

By connecting the ways characters live their lives in Hamlet to the ways they die – on-stage or off, poisoned or stabbed, etc. – Shakespeare symbolized hamartia in catastrophe. In advancing this argument, this chapter develops two supporting ideas. First, the dissemination of tragic necessity: Shakespeare distributed the Aristotelian notion of tragic necessity – a causal relationship between a character’s hamartia (fault or error) and the catastrophe at the end of the play – from the protagonist to the other characters, such that, in Hamlet , those who are guilty must die, and those who die are guilty. Second, the spectacularity of death: there exists in Hamlet a positive correlation between the severity of a character’s hamartia (error or flaw) and the “spectacularity” of his or her death – that is, the extent to which it is presented as a visible and visceral spectacle on-stage.

Chapter Twenty-Five Tragic Excess in Hamlet

In Hamlet , Shakespeare paralleled the situations of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras (the father of each is killed, and each then seeks revenge) to promote the virtue of moderation: Hamlet moves too slowly, Laertes too swiftly – and they both die at the end of the play – but Fortinbras represents a golden mean which marries the slowness of Hamlet with the swiftness of Laertes. As argued in this essay, Shakespeare endorsed the virtue of balance by allowing Fortinbras to be one of the very few survivors of the play. In other words, excess is tragic in Hamlet .

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List of Shakespeare Plays

Read our list of Shakespeare plays below, sorted alphabetically, by date written and by word length.

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays during his lifetime, possibly more (there is at least one ‘lost’ play – Cardenio). Then there are a number of plays that most academics agree Shakespeare was involved in writing at least part of, collaborating with other writers , such as Love’s Labour’s Won, Edward III, Sir Thomas More, and The Two Noble Kinsmen.

Each list of Shakespeare plays contains links to a page on each play which contains a range of resources: plot summaries ,  character information ,  settings , famous quotes , and much more:

List of Shakespeare plays: Alphabetical

Alphabetical list of Shakespeare plays

All’s Well That Ends Well   (1602)

Antony and Cleopatra   (1606)

As You Like It   (1599)

The Comedy of Errors   (1589)

Coriolanus   (1607)

Cymbeline   (1609)

Hamlet   (1600)

Henry IV, Part I   (1597)

Henry IV, Part II   (1597)

Henry V   (1598)

Henry VI, Part I   (1591)

Henry VI, Part II   (1590)

Henry VI, Part III   (1590)

Henry VIII   (1612)

Julius Caesar   (1599)

King John   (1596)

King Lear   (1605)

Love’s Labour’s Lost   (1594)

Macbeth   (1605)

Measure for Measure   (1604)

The Merchant of Venice   (1596)

The Merry Wives of Windsor   (1600)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream   (1595)

Much Ado About Nothing   (1598)

Othello   (1604)

Pericles   (1608)

Richard II   (1595)

Richard III   (1592)

Romeo and Juliet   (1594)

The Taming of the Shrew   (1593)

The Tempest   (1611)

Timon of Athens   (1607)

Titus Andronicus   (1593)

Troilus and Cressida   (1601)

Twelfth Night   (1599)

The Two Gentlemen of Verona   (1594)

Winter’s Tale   (1610)

List of Shakespeare plays by date

List of Shakespeare plays by Length

List of Shakespeare plays by length

Hamlet – 30,557 words

Richard III – 29,278 words

Coriolanus – 27,589 words

Cymbeline – 27,565 words

Othello – 26,450 words

King Lear – 26,145 words

Henry V – 26,119 words

Troilus and Cressida – 26,089 words

Henry IV, Part II – 25,689 words

Henry VI, Part II – 25,439 words

The Winter’s Tale – 24,914 words

Antony and Cleopatra – 24,905 words

Henry VIII – 24,629 words

Henry IV, Part I – 24,579 words

Romeo and Juliet – 24,545 words

Henry VI, Part III – 24,294 words

All’s Well That Ends Well – 23,009 words

Richard II – 22,423 words

The Merry Wives of Windsor – 21,845 words

Measure for Measure – 21,780 words

As You Like It – 21,690 words

Henry VI, Part I – 21,607 words

Love’s Labour’s Lost – 21,459 words

The Merchant of Venice – 21,291 words

Much Ado About Nothing – 21,157 words

The Taming of the Shrew – 21,005 words

King John – 20,772 words

Titus Andronicus – 20743 words

Twelfth Night – 19,837 words

Julius Caesar – 19,703 words

Pericles – 18,529 words

Timon of Athens – 18,216 words

The Two Gentlemen of Verona – 17,129 words

Macbeth – 17,121 words

The Tempest – 16,633 words

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – 16,511 words

The Comedy of Errors – 14,701 words

The Bard, writing a complete list of Shakespeare plays?

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Why was his plays considered art? How/why was he famous for his plays? What is his most famous play? I am a teacher. We are learning about the Renaissance. Can someone please answer these questions? Thank You!

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Shakespeare Studies & Criticism

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Welcome to the home of Shakespeare Studies & Criticism on Oxford Academic. We hope you will enjoy this celebration of Shakespeare, and that this page will act as a springboard to new discoveries on your research journey.

Oxford Academic hosts three million journal articles, 400,000 book chapters, and two million images and multimedia. To find out how you can get access please visit our get help with access page .

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Latest posts on x, shakespeare on the oupblog.

Written in the stars: Prince Hal’s almanac

Marissa Nicosia

Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! What says th’almanac to that?

Marissa Nicosia explores the role of the almanac as a measure of time in Shakespeare’s Henry IV , and the parallels between a past and present-day fascination with astrology.

Sir Stanley Wells and the First Folio

It’s often been difficult to dispel this reverence and distinguish an actual author behind it.

For enabling many readers to accomplish that, we have to thank Sir Stanley Wells, general editor of The Oxford Shakespeare and Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Birmingham University. His diligent and common-sense scholarship has done much to de-mystify Shakespeare and reposition the plays as working documents.

OUP Archivist Martin Maw examines one scholar’s immense contribution to Shakespeare Studies.

“A tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide”: Shakespeare under attack

Robert Stagg 

Around three years into his career as a dramatist, Shakespeare’s blank verse, came under attack.  

In 1592, playwright Robert Greene described William Shakespeare’s blank verse—his unrhymed iambic pentameter—as "bombastic".

Robert Stagg explores this criticism and how Shakespeare came to fend it off over the course of his career.

Why “the all-male stage” wasn’t

Pamela Allen Brown 

Why is “the all-male stage” inadequate as shorthand for the early modern stage?

Pamela Allen Brown explores gender roles on stage, and the arrival and impact of the 'innamorata accesa' (woman inflamed with passion), the trademark of the foreign diva.

How did Shakespeare become a London playwright?

Lena Cowen Orlin

Shakespeare’s first biographer, Nicholas Rowe, wrote in 1709 that the author married “while he was yet very young.” He then fell in with a bad crowd that “made a frequent practice of deer-stealing” from Warwickshire magnate Sir Thomas Lucy.

Lena Cowen Orlin traces the key events that took the playwright from Stratford to London.

Shakespeare and the sciences of emotion

Benedict S. Robinson

What role should literature have in the interdisciplinary study of emotion? The dominant answer today seems to be “not much.”

Using Shakespeare's Hamlet , Thomas Wright’s Passions of the Mind and Aristotle's Rhetoric ’ as points of departure, Benedict S. Robinson takes a wide view of emotion and "passion" to think about how passion also shaped the rise of new empirical sciences of the mind between 1600 and 1800.

Adapting Shakespeare: shattering stereotypes of Asian women onstage and onscreen

Alexa Alice Joubin

“I should like to see Miss Wong playing Shakespeare. Why not a Chinese Ophelia?”

Alexa Alice Joubin explores the perceptions and portrayal of Ophelia by Asian actors, arguing that gender roles in Shakespeare’s plays take on new meanings when they are embodied by Asian women.

Cut out characters and cracky plots: Jacob’s Room as Shakespeare play

Emily Kopley

But there is another reason, a reason outside of the novel, that Jacob is unknowable. He is the hero of a Shakespeare play.

Emily Kopley analyses Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room as a Shakespeare play, using letters between her and her brother Thoby, as an insight into the novel.

Early Modern Literary Geographies

Influenced by the work of cultural and human geographers, literary scholars have started to attend to the ways in which early modern people constructed their senses of the world out of interactions among places, spaces, and embodied practices. Early Modern Literary Geographies features innovative and agenda-setting research monographs that partake of this spatial turn.

Series Editors: Julie Sanders and Garrett Sullivan

Oxford Shakespeare Topics

Oxford Shakespeare Topics provide students and teachers with short books on important aspects of Shakespeare criticism and scholarship. Each book is written by an authority in its field, and combines accessible style with original discussion of its subject.

General Editors: Stanley Wells, Peter Holland, and Lena Cowen Orlin

Oxford Wells Shakespeare Lectures

These Lectures are derived from the series of biennial lectures established in 2008 in honour of Professor Stanley Wells. The inaugural lectures were given by Professor David Scott Kastan and since then a series of highly respected scholars have presented and published in this series.

New Oxford Shakespeare

The New Oxford Shakespeare presents an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare's works, edited from first principles from the base-texts themselves, and drawing on the latest textual and theatrical scholarship.

The three interconnected print publications and the online edition have been created by an international, intergenerational team of scholars. The project's scope, depth, and vision provide the perfect platform for the future of Shakespeare studies.

Edited by: Gary Taylor, John Jowett, Terri Bourus, and Gabriel Egan

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race

Edited by Patricia Akhimie

Premodern critical race studies, long intertwined with Shakespeare studies, has broadened our understanding of the definitions and discourse of race and racism to include not only phenotype, but also religious and political identity, regional, national, and linguistic difference, and systems of differentiation based upon culture and custom.

Replete with fresh readings of the plays and poems, The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race brings together some of the most important scholars thinking about the subject today.

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Music

Edited by Christopher R. Wilson and Mervyn Cooke

With global coverage and an extensive survey of genres embracing music for theatre, opera, ballet, musicals, the concert hall, and film, in addition to Shakespeare's ongoing afterlives in folk music, jazz, and popular music.

The Handbook showcases the latest international research into the captivating and vast subject of the many uses of music in relation to Shakespeare's plays and poems, extending from the Bard's own time to the present day.

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance

Edited by Lynsey McCulloch and Brandon Shaw

A concise reference on dance as both an integral feature of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century culture and as a means of translating Shakespearean text into movement - a process that raises questions of authorship and authority, cross-cultural communication, semantics, embodiment, and the relationship between word and image.

From narrative ballet adaptations to dance in musicals, physical theatre adaptations, and interpretations using non-Western dance forms this Handbook explores the relationship between William Shakespeare - his life, works, and afterlife - and dance.

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Embodiment

Edited by Valerie Traub

Extending the purview of feminist criticism, over 40 chapters offer an intersectional paradigm for considering representations of gender in the context of race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and religion.

Theoretically sophisticated and elegantly written this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current debates.

Shakespeare Quarterly | Submit your research  

Shakespeare Quarterly (SQ)  is a leading journal in Shakespeare studies, publishing highly original, rigorously researched essays, notes, and book reviews. Published for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Oxford University Press, SQ is peer-reviewed and extremely selective.

Read our Author Guidelines to find out how to submit your work

Shakespeare’s Reading

Sir Stanley Wells, CBE, describes the many different sources Shakespeare drew upon in his work. Highlighting comparison passages, Wells explores Shakespeare’s relationship with the different texts he read throughout his life.

Shakespeare and Women

Julie Crawford, Mark van Doren Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, discusses Shakespeare’s portrayal of the power balance between the sexes, women’s contribution to the Elizabethan stage, and Renaissance ideas about gender. She also considers key speeches by Desdemona and Emilia in Othello .

Shakespeare and Religion

Rev. Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, explores the religious influences in Shakespeare’s work in the context of 16th century England - a time when the Church of England was given an established authority, Pope Pius V had excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I, and anti-Catholic laws were introduced.

Shakespeare and Sexuality

Sir Stanley Wells, CBE, analyses the references to sexuality in Shakespeare’s plays and poems. From his earlier comedies, such as The Two Gentleman of Verona or Much Ado About Nothing , where he is unafraid to play with this topic, to his middle and last texts where he demonstrates a deeper preoccupation with the destructive potential of sexual desire.

Shakespeare and Death

Laurie Maguire, Emeritus Professor, Magdalen College Oxford discusses the theme of death in Shakespeare's tragedies, histories, and comedies. She considers how Elizabethans encountered death on a daily basis, and how Shakespeare was clearly very familiar with the details of death, and murder.

Shakespeare and Music

Joseph M. Ortiz, Associate Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas, El Paso, explains how music was experienced and understood in Shakespeare’s time, with reference to education, the emerging music publishing industry, conflicting religious views, audiences’ expectations, and music as an instrument of political power.

Shakespeare and Race

Ayanna Thompson considers the theme of race in Shakespeare’s plays, the extent to which he would have been aware of Africans, and how he introduced them into his plays. She discusses the current debate amongst black actors about whether or not to play the part of Othello .

Shakespeare and His Collaborators

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Department of English

• ENG 4830: Early Shakespeare- The Plays on Stage, Page, and Screen

Course Information

• Course- ENG 4830: Early Shakespeare- The Plays on Stage, Page, and Screen
• Offered- TR 2:00-3:15 or TR 3:30-4:45
• Professor- Dr. Susan Staub
• Semester- Fall 2024

Course Description

English 4830 will examine a selection of Shakespeare’s early works in three different formats: as written texts, stage productions, and films. We will focus on the structure and language of the plays, their dramatic form and genre, and their relation to the social and political tensions of Shakespeare’s time and our own. Sometimes dubbed the first screen writer, Shakespeare wrote his plays for performance so as we consider his scripts, we will also look at various filmed productions (theatrical and cinematic adaptations) in order to analyze how directors transform and reinterpret them to reflect particular moments in time.