Shakespeare's and His Time: Most Representative Works

Introduction to Shakespeare's Era

Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stanford-Upon-Avon in England and died in 1616. This life coincides with the long reign of the last Tudor who live on the English throne, Elizabeth I, and of the first Stuart, James I (James VI of Scotland).

The first part of this paper will include a description of the political, economic, and social reality of the Tudor age. Further on, different kinds of Literature of the period will be described, starting with poetry and prose and ending with the Elizabethan drama.

Also, reference is made to how this topic can be worked on in class following the pedagogical principles reflected in Article 6 of Decree 102/2023. Moreover, literature has been important within Royal Decree 217/2022, such as learning the historical background of cultural works to understand 1how historic events can influence writing and to develop the specific competences 1, 2, and 4, which are written comprehension, written expression, and written mediation, respectively.

Finally, Shakespeare's life and work and three of his plays will be presented in detail.

Shakespeare's Times

Political and Social Background of Shakespeare's Era

Shakespeare's time coincided with Queen Elizabeth I at the throne, who became queen of England in 1558 and ruled until 1603. Her reign brought stability to the country, which eventually lead to prosperity in the following decades. However, this stability was not always present, as prior to Elizabeth's reign, insecurity and conflict was present in the country.

Elizabeth's grandfather, Henry Tudor, became King Henry VII in 1485. His accession and subsequent marriage to Elizabeth of York ended the civil wars which had raged in England for almost a hundred years. However, he was succeeded, in 1509, by his son, Henry VIII, who married a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon. This marriage did not produce a male heir, which caused Henry to divorce her. However, divorce was not permitted by the Catholic Church, which caused a division between Henry VIII and the Pope. Henry died in 1547 and, at that time, England was largely Catholic, though the spiritual authority of the Pope had been challenged, causing thousands of Protestant reformers to spread their ideology throughout the country.

After Henry VIII passed away, his 9-year-old son, Edward, born to his third wife, became king. However, Edward died early and without an heir. This meant that Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, was next in line. She attempted to restore Catholicism to England, executing over 300 protestants, including bishops, an act that earned her the name of Bloody Mary. However, she died childless and was succeeded in 1558 by her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth I. At that time (1588), the most famous military achievement of the time was the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Elizabeth also successfully overcame the threats to her position from the Stuart dynasty in the person of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Mary Stuart represented the interests of Catholics who might wish it recover influence in Britain but was also the mother of James, who was chosen to inherit Elizabeth's throne. Elizabeth had Mary imprisoned and executed.

The Elizabethan's period is known as the Golden Age because the country was economically healthy, and saw the flourishing of music and literature, it was an age of exploration and colonial 2expansion: The English Renaissance. On the other wise, James I of England and VI of Scotland made possible the union of Scotland and English and Ireland: King of Great Britain and Ireland. During this period, known as the Jacobean, it appeared in the translation of the Bible 'The Authorised Verison of the Bible' (1611).

Economic Background of Shakespeare's Time

Significant changes in the economy and the society included consolidation of land under the ownership of the man in each district, called enclosure. England was manufacturing and exporting huge amounts of cloth and the feudal order began to decline, as knights became obsolete. The standards of living were improving for those who could afford buying bigger houses with more furniture.

The Golden Age of Literature

A period of experimentation and literature was influenced mainly by Italy and to a lesser degree by France and Spain. One of the most splendid periods of English literature. The Elizabethan age saw the flourishing of poetry (the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, dramatic blank verse), was a golden age of drama (especially for the plays of Shakespeare) and inspired a wide variety of splendid prose (from historical chronicles, versions of the Holy Scriptures, pamphlets, and literary criticism to the first English novels). From about the beginning of the 17th century, a sudden darkening of tone became noticeable in most forms of literary expression, especially in drama, and the change more or less coincided with the death of Elizabeth. English literature from 1603 to 1625 is properly called Jacobean, after the new monarch, James I.

Poetry in the Golden Age

It was based on romantic ideas and melodramas, expression of poet's own thoughts and feelings. Also, imagination and intense emotion. This new phase started with poets and playwrights like Thomas Wyatt who took subject matter from Petrarch's sonnets but not from his rhyme and this was the beginning of English sonnet. Edmund Spenser, with The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty. Sir Philip Sidney, an English poet, courtier and soldier is remembered as one of the most prominent of the Elizabethan Age. His works include Astrophel and Stella or The Defence of Poetry. Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and Shakespeare also wrote poetry, but they were brilliant in drama.

Drama in the Golden Age

During Elizabeth reign, some playwrights were able to make a comfortable living by receiving royal patronage. There was a great deal of theatrical activity at Court, and many public theatres were also built on the outskirts of London. Theatre was popular pastime, and people of all walks of life attended part of the audience. The theatre also drew many unsavory characters, including pickpockets, corpuses, and prostitutes. Because of the perceived bad influence of the theatres, the Puritans were vocally opposed to them and succeeded in shutting them down in 1642.

The earliest Elizabethan plays include Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. Highly popular and influential in its time, established a new genre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of its characters a personification of Revenge. This period plays were: Miracle Plays presenting stories from the Bible and lives of saints; and Morality plays which taught lesson. By the time Elizabeth died there were more than 20 theatres in London.

New topics started to appear. The plays were about human beings doing good and bad things, loving, murdering, stealing, cheating, like the audience itself. William Shakespeare stands out in this period both by poet and playwright. He wrote plays in a variety of genres, including histories, tragedies, comedies and the late romances, or tragicomedies. Christopher Marlowe's subject matter is different from Shakespeare's as it focusses more on the moral drama of the Renaissance man. Doctor Faustus about a scientist and magician who, obsessed with the thirst for knowledge and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits, sells his soul to the Devil. Ben Johnson popularized the comedy of humour. He is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour, Volpone.

The First Theatres

As the Renaissance gathered force, Roman Drama began to be revived in the schools, comedies, and the Inns of Court, tragedies. The noblemen of the time were beginning to attend the public theatres, and their tastes demanded a better class of play. Plots and conventions were borrowed from classical drama. The theatre was round or hexagonal and had such main parts as the stage, a gallery, a pit, and a roof. The stage was a platform with a movable curtain and two doors. The gallery included the seats for the aristocracy and the rich. The pit was located just in front of the stage and was used by the lowest classes. Only the gallery was covered by the roof. Rich costumes, tapestries, and curtains contrasted with simple stage props. Machines were used for descends (ghost appearances, for instance) and traps for the exit of actors. Women were not allowed to act and young males in disguise would usually take their parts. Playhouses were run by 4entrepreneur and their activities hat to bring profits. This created a special relationship between them and the playwrights (well exemplified in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love).

Shakespeare: Life, Works and Style

Shakespeare's Life

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon but when he became an actor and a professional playwright, he left for London. He mainly worked for the Globe and the Blackfriars playhouses. He was notable among other things for his use of language, which appealed to all kinds of audiences, and which adapted itself to the necessities of such varied plays as the poetic Romeo and Juliet or the linguistically abrupt King Lear. Many of the phases from his plays became commonly known and used, for example, 'To be or not to be' from Hamlet.

Shakespeare's Work and Style

Shakespeare wrote more than 38 plays, out of which a great variety of genres can be distinguished. He was very well-known for his tragedies and comedies, although he also wrote historic plays. However, some of his plays can be fitted into more than one category. Sonnets in Shakespeare are called English or Shakespearian sonnets, which contain three quatrains and one heroic couplet at the end, with an: "abab cdcd efef gg" rhyme scheme. The turn of the thematic development comes near line 13, marking the ending couplet as quick and dramatic.

The verse form he uses is blank verse, it contains no rhyme. The pattern most favored by Shakespeare is iambic pentameter which is defined as a ten-syllable line with the accent on every other syllable, beginning with the second one.

Shakespeare wrote in 5 different periods of his life and can be classified as:

1. Phase 1 (1590-95): Shakespeare was in the workshop learning his craft. Quite naturally, these early plays are characterized by much crudity and immaturity. Very superficiality in theme, treatment, and characterization. There is too much use of puns and end-stopped blank verse. The use of rhyme is excessive but there is vivacity, cleverness, delight in beauty, and a remarkable zest for life. As has been well said, in Love's Labour Lost we see the fascinating spectacle of the young Shakespeare attaining to manic. Here, his tragicomedy Romeo and Juliet stood out.
2. Phase 2 (1595-1600): includes comedies like The Merchant of Venice, in which we can see that religion played a very important role in society, everything followed a universal order and harmony, and the stars and the planets were in accordance with the divine plan set by 5