William Shakespeare
1. Works: 154 sonnets, 38 plays, 2 long poems
Comedy :Merchant of Venice.
2. 4 great tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
Each portrays some noble hero, who face the injustice of human fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation, each hero has his weakness of nature. Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind: Othello’s inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force; the old King Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suffer, from treachery and infidelity; Macbeth’s lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to incessant crime.
3 Merchant of Venice
In this play, Shakespeare has created tension: ambiguity, a self conscious and self-delighting artifice that is at once intellectually existing and emotionally engaging . The sophistication derives in part from the play between high, outstanding romance and dark faces of negating and hate the traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty , wit and loyalty, and to explore insuitable greed and brutality of the Jew.
4 Hamlet.
The play has the qualities of a “blood-and-thunder” thriller and a philosophical exploration of life of life and death, the timeless appeal of his mighty drama lies in its combination of injustice, emotional conflict and searching philosophic melancholy. Hamlet is obliged to inhabit a shadow world , to live suspended between fact and fiction, language and action. His life is one of the constant role-playing examining the nature of acting only to deny its possibility. For such a figure, soliloquy is a natural medium, a necessary release of his anguish; and some of his questioning monologue posses surpassing power and insight. By revealing the power-seeking, the jostling for place , the hidden motives, the courteous superficialities that veil lust and guilty, Shakespeare condemns the hypocrisy and treachery and general religious corrupting at the royal count.
A. 创作生涯及作品
a. Apprenticeship period. b. Highly individualized period. c. Greatest tragedies and dark comedies period. d. Romantic tragicomedies period.
B. 作品主题
a. Shakespeare’s history plays are mainly written under the principle that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity.
b. In his romantic comedies, Shakespeare takes an optimistic attitude toward love and youth, and the romantic elements are brought into full play .
c. The tragedies: The play, though a tragedy, is permeated with optimistic spirit.
C. 四大悲剧(常考)
A). The common features:
Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies are: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. They have some characteristics in common. Each portrays some noble hero, who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation.
B). The realistic spirits .
Along with the portrayal of the weakness or bias of the hero, we see the sharp conflicts between the individual and the evil force in the society, which shows that Shakespeare is a great realist in the true sense.
D. 艺术成就
A). The characters:
a. Shakespeare’s major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones.
b. By applying a psycho-analytical approach, Shakespeare succeeds in exploring the characters’ inner mind.
c. Shakespeare also portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters.
B). Construction:
a. Shakespeare’s plays are well-known for their adroit plot construction. He borrows them from some old plays or storybooks, or from ancient Greek and Roman sources.
b. He would shorten the time and intensify the story. There are usually several threads running through the play.
C). Language and style:
a. Irony is a good means of dramatic presentation. Disguise is also an important device to create dramatic irony, usually with woman disguised as man.
b. He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom. His influence on later writers is immeasurable. Almost all English writers after him have been influenced by him either in artistic point of view, in literary form or in language.