The Two Things That Make Shakespeare Worth
Reading
• The greatness of Shakespeare basically boils down to two
things:
• The emotional impact of the stories he tells.
• His use of language to convey character.
Shakespeare’s Stories
With the exception of The Tempest and Love’s Labor’s Lost all of Shakespeare’s work
has been adapted from the work of others.
• Similarities
• All deal with extremes of
human experience.
• Originals do not show
characters with complex
motivations and rich,
contradictory psychological
profiles.
• Differences
• Shakespeare was interested
in the complexities of
character and motivation
and is able to make the
emotions of these characters
seem real.
Why do people find
Shakespeare’s stories so
compelling?
People find Shakespeare’s stories compelling because
of:
• How extreme the stories are
• How real they seem
“Drama King”
• Shakespeare was attracted to stories that other writers would not even
consider.
• By pulling off these plays, Shakespeare creates plays that are unique in
their emotional impact.
Use of Language to Convey
Character
• Two basic facts:
•Virtually all dialogue
•Most of it is poetry
Fans of Shakespeare
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Ben Jonson
Alexander Pope
Samuel Johnson
Thomas Carlyle
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Shakespeare’s Goals
• Money
• Status
• His place in history
Not!
Three Mysteries of Shakespeare’s Life
• Was Shakespeare Gay?
• Did Shakespeare Hate His Wife?
• Shotgun wedding
• Long career away from
home
• Second best bed
• The tomb
• STD
Did someone else write Shakespeare’s plays?
• This teacher says no.
• Alternative authorship theories are for suckers.
• No shortage of records that factually document that he lived and wrote those
plays.
• Three “would-be” authors:
• Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
• Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550-1604)
• Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593?)
Shakespeare’s Theater
The Globe Theater
•Plays were lively, daylight events
•Everyone went to the theater
•…But not everyone approved of it
•Plays were performed on a bare stage
•All roles were played by males
•Shakespeare did more than just write plays
Shakespeare’s Language
• Metaphors
• Compares two seemingly unrelated things
» “Juliet is the sun” (R&J)
• Puns
• Play on words
» “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man”
(R&J)
• Syntax
• Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)
» “Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended” (Hamlet)
• Object-Verb-Subject (OVS)
» “Away from the light steals home my heavy son” (R&J)
• Object-Subject-Verb (OSV)
» “His soul thou canst not have” (Richard III)
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
• Iambic pentameter is a type of meter that
is used in poetry and drama.
• Iambic pentameter is made up of five pairs
of syllables, hence it is called pentameter.
• The word iambic refers to the individual
pairs of syllables.
• Each pair is made up of long and short
syllables.
Julius Caesar
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Full Title- The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
Author- William Shakespeare
Type Of Work- Play
Genre- Tragedy drama, historical drama
Time and place written- 1599, London
Narrator- None
Setting (Time)- 44 B.C.
Setting (Place)- Ancient Rome, toward the end
of the Roman republic
• Tense- Present
• Tone- Serious, proud, virtuous, enraged,
vengeful, idealistic, anguished
Julius CaesarContinued
• Themes- Fate versus free will; public self versus private self;
misinterpretations and misreading of signs; commitment to
ideals versus adaptability to compromise; allegiance and
rivalry among men
• Motifs- Omens and letters
• Symbols- Women
ENJOY READING JULIUS CAESAR!