Shakespeare Lit

SHAKESPEARE!

which shakespeare will you read?"

And why should it matter?!

the businessman! We don’t remember him in this way." But Shakespeare ! started out as an actor, who later became part owner of his theater company, The King’s Men.!

political skill! At that time, few playwrights or actors had such an arrangement.! He was the most popular playwright of his time, and because of his part ownership, likely the most financially successful.!

deep question! Were the plots of his plays were driven more by economic forces than by the desire to create great literature?!

his Audiences! Parts of his plays seem tailored different audiences:! Nobles - Poetry, Philosophy, and Allusion! Fops - Commerce and Common sense.! Pennystinkers: ! Bawd and Blood!

the cost of clothing! In Shakespeare’s day, the first items anyone left behind in their Last Will and Testament would be their finest clothes.! Fine clothing, SEWN BY HAND, would be far more expensive than housing.!

SHAKESPEARE’s PHILOSOPHY"

Presaging the Modern Human Being!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! For centuries, scholars have been unable to glean Shakespeare’s actual beliefs on anything he wrote about - or whether he even had beliefs! We can however, ascertain the beliefs and mores of Shakespeare’s characters.!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! Shakespeare’s greatest characters were not static like those of other playwrights at the time, or like those of his predecessors.! Shakespeare, at his best, created characters who were mentally and emotionally dynamic.!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! For this reason, we can recognize ourselves in them. They seem like us; they change their mind as often as we do.! It is important to understand that before Shakespeare, character was typically seen as unchanging.!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! Furthermore, in Shakespeare’s plays, we see that characters foil one another on the basis of their philosophies--and not just their desires or actions.! Examples: ! Romeo and Mercutio Hamlet and himself!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! While Shakespeare was writing, discoveries in science and technology, combined with the rediscovery of the great Latin and Greek texts of antiquity, led to new forms of thinking and perceiving the world.!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! Examples:! The Scientific Method! Colonialism! The Protestant Reformation! Heliocentrism! Kepler’s Laws of Motion!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! Examples:! Elizabeth, and her “marriage” to England! Political Unrest: Espionage and Treason! All of these served as a profound source of anxiety as well as creativity.!

PHILOSOPHY DRAMATIZED! Consider this:! By the end of Shakespeare’s life (1616), most of the educated class saw the world far more like we do than at the beginning (1564)."

shakespeare: the baddest rapper ever"

He got game, coz.!

innovations in verse! Shakespeare is revered for the density and profundity of his metaphors.! Like as the waves make to the pebbled shore! So do our moments hasten to their end:! Each changing place with that which goes before,! In sequent toil all forwards do contend.!

- Sonnet 60!

poetry in thought! Shakespeare’s poetry gains effect from the fact that his characters actually speak or think his writing. ! 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.! HHamlet!

are there more shakespeares to be discovered?"

In this class, your task! is to discover yours!

homework! Find the Ocean! Read Sonnet 60! Watch the waves! Read it again! and again! and again!