内容

I. Life of W. Shakespeare

II. Sonnets written by Shakespeare

III. Dramatic works by Shakespeare

IV. Writing features of W. Shakespeare

V. Appreciation of Sonnet 18

Module 3 unit 3 William Shakespeare PPT

1.Life 1

http://www.flickrhivemind.net

2.Life 2

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/14559/William-Shakespeares-house-Stratford-upon-Avon-Warwickshire-England

3.Sonnets 1

http://www.utdid.com/history/html/0000218.html

4.Sonnets 2

http://www.vez.me/tag/%E7%94%9F%E5%A6%82%E5%A4%8F%E8%8A%B1/

5.Dramatic works 1

http://www.slideshare,net

6.Dramatic works 3

http://www.pathguy.com/hamlet.htm

7.Dramatic works 5

http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list.php?m=a&s=tu&aid=2269

8.Writing features 1

http://qing.blog.sina.com.cn/tj/4d7316d533002d13.html

9.Writing features 2

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/31752022

讲义

William Shakespeare

I. Life

It is commonly accepted that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564 and died on April 23, 1616.

In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. They had three children. But the only son did not survive after birth.

In about 1586 he arrived in London. At that time, drama was gaining popularity among the people. In one way or another he became acquainted with theatrical companies. By 1592 Shakespeare attained success both as an actor and playwright.

The publication of his two narrative poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) and of his Sonnets (1609) established his reputation as a gifted and popular poet at his time.

II. sonnets

Altogether Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets (1593-1599). And the themes of the sonnets center on time, love and friendship.

He employs distinctive language in most of these sonnets with great economy and intensity.

He also created a new form in producing the sonnets (later called Shakespearean form). That is, 3 quatrains + 1 couplet. The rhyming scheme is abab   cdcd   efef   gg.

Both in theme and in literary form, Shakespeare's sonnets are superior to those of other poets of the Elizabethan England.

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath too short a date;

III. Dramatic works

William Shakespeare has 37 plays to his credit.

Apprentice Period (1590-1594)

(1) Histories

 Richard III

 Henry VI

(2) Romantic tragedies

 Titus Andronicus

 Julius Caesar

 Romeo and Juliet

(3) Experimental comedies

 Love's Labour Lost

 The Comedy of Errors

 The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Period of Romantic Comedies (1595-1600)

Four great comedies

The Merchant of Venice -- Portia

As You Like It -- Rosalind

Much Ado About Nothing -- Beatrice

Twelfth Night – Viola

Other works of this period

Merry Wives of Windsor

The Taming of the Shrew

Midsummer Night's Dream

Richard II

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.

Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

（ by Portia from The Merchant of Venice . ）

The play is most remembered for its dramatic scenes. Also notable is Portia 's speech about the “quality of mercy”.

Mature Period (1601-1609)

This is the period of tragedies.

Four great tragedies:

Othello

King Lear

Hamlet

Macbeth

Hamlet

To be or not to be, -- that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die, -- to sleep, --

No more; and, by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, -- ‘tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, -- to sleep; --

To sleep! perchance to dream:-- ay, there's the rub…

Last Period (1609-12)

This is the period of tragicomedies. The last period of Shakespeare's dramatic career include chiefly the last three tragicomedies:

Cymbeline

The Winter's Tale

The Tempest

IV. Writing features of W. Shakespeare

•  Shakespeare shows his masterful characterization.

Diverse types of characters appear in the plays;

Psychological analysis is frequently used to show the intricate thinking process of the heroes and heroines;

Besides Monologues are admirably managed by Shakespeare to give greater depth and breadth to the thoughts and feelings of the characters;

Disguise and irony also achieve special effect.

•  Shakespeare successfully wields the blank verse.  

•  P lot-construction is very impressive: 3 or 4 threads of story run through the play with the main stream, which is made entertaining and instructive; it is hard to predict the end of a story.

•  Shakespeare is a master of language. He not only uses a very large vocabulary (about 16,000 different words), but is also good at coining new and striking expressions, which shows his great freedom and ease in the use of language.

•  The themes of the plays are of progressive significance.

•  He prefers effective and powerful prose style without too much decoration.

V. Appreciation

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath too short a date;

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st --

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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Features of Shakespeare's dramatic works

Shakespeare is a realist. He is one of the founders of realism in English literature. His plays are mirrors of his age, reflecting the major contradictions of that time. He described the decaying of the feudal society and the rising of the bourgeois spirit. His comedies reflect life of the young men and women who just freed themselves from the fetters of feudalism and who were striving for individual emancipation. His comedies lay emphasis on emancipation ( 解放 )of women, which played a very important role in anti-feudalism. In his great tragedies, Shakespeare depicted the life and death struggle between the humanists, who represented the newly emerging forces, and the corrupted King and his feudal followers, who represented the dark power of that time.

In his plays, Shakespeare also clearly reflected the contradictions between the rich and the poor. He showed his sympathy to the poor people and disclosed the greed and cruelty of the upper class. In his plays, Shakespeare also revealed the emergence of the early colonization and racial problem arising with capitalism. He fully reflected the omnipotent ( 全能的 ) power of money in the age of growing capitalism. He was far-sighted into money, capitalist accumulation and its effect.

The stories of Shakespeare's plays often took place in other countries or in the past instead of in England or in his own age. The characters are clothed in foreign dresses, yet their thought and feelings and their attitude towards life belong to the age of Shakespeare. In fact, his characters are representatives of the people of his time.

Shakespeare's main characters are depicted in typical situations. They are typical characters. Their fundamental traits are revealed in their conflicts with their surroundings, in their relations with their fellowmen. (such as Hamlet, whose character is depicted through his relations with his father, mother, uncle, his friend Horatio, his lover Ophelia, etc.) Each of his characters is a representative of a group of men. (such as Hamlet representing the humanists; Shylock the usurer ( 放高利贷者 ); Falstaff the relic ( 衣钵 ) of chivalry.)

Shakespeare's dramatic form fits the content of his plays very well. His plays are not controlled by the rules of the classical unities of time, place and action. The action moves from place to place. A play covers several days or years.

In order to reproduce the manifold images of life, Shakespeare used peculiar combination in his drama: combination of majestic ( 庄严 ) and funny, of poetic and prosaic, of tragic and comic.

Shakespeare was a great master of English language. The language of each of his characters fits his position in society and reveals the peculiarities of his character.

He commanded a vocabulary larger than any other English writers. He loved to play with words, or make puns with them. Sometimes we find it's very difficult to understand him. Shakespeare also created a lot of new words and expressions, thus enriching English language (e.g. “Brevity is the soul of wit”; “More matter, with less art”; “cudgel one's brains” 绞尽脑汁 ; “to be or not to be”)

Shakespeare is also a great poet. He was skilled in many poetic forms. He could write songs, lyrics, sonnets, couplets, quatrains, and blank verse. Blank verse is the principle form of his dramas.

Each of Shakespeare's plays consists of three parts:

--dialogues or soliloquies ( 独白 ) in prose

--dialogues or soliloquies in blank verse

--lyrics, songs, dirges ( 挽歌 ), madrigals ( 短的情歌 ), etc.