SHAKESPEARE
Identification: Shakespeare’s identification: He was inspired from other classical origins, used
lots of sources such as myths, legends, books or other plays; and adopted names, characters, plots
or ideas. His originality and ability is to bring them up together. For example, his tragedy play
Hamlet, used sources from History of Denmark, the old norse word (Amleth means mod) and
Thomas Kyd’s play Ur-Hamlet.
Shakespeare’s comedy characteristic / conventions:
1. Marriage: His plays end with marriage this characteristic enables to no conflict,
entertainment, happens on stage. It is achievement of happiness and promise of
regeneration.
2. Misunderstandings: Much Fun Arises in his comedies. Audience knows the reality and
the confusion this causes dramatic irony in the play. Puck’s mistakes, in AMND, is source
of laughter.
3. Disguise /Gender: Characters are mistaken or impersonate as somebody else. Disguise
cause the theme of appearance vs. reality in the play.
4. Reason vs. Emotion: Shakespeare was this convention to show the dilemma on our body.
In AMND, eyes are repented many times. It represents emotion. Mind is the opposite; it
represents reason.
5. Fate and Fantastical: Shakespeare enriches his plays with magical things, his comedies
are invaded by supernatural elements, for example in AMND, Puck, Fairy Queen and
king are magical characters. They can control the human beings that human beings cannot
control themselves, and it causes plot change.
6. Setting: Shakespeare’s settings are timeless and foreign locations. He was idyllic settings
which are pastoral heaven, and most of the things happen in there. For example, in
AMND, in the forest near Athens, lots of unusual developments happen in there and the
characters assume that they are in a dream. Forest causes inexplicable things.
Contrary to tragedy, what is found in tragedy?
In Shakespeare’s comedy, sometimes the play doesn’t end happily, or it has tragic elements. This
type of plays is named as problem plays -or tragicomedy and The Wintus Tale, Cymbeline,
Pericles and The Tempest are counted as tragicomedy. The feeling at the end of the play is
neither joy nor misery. It has no clear definition, but they have the qualities of both comedy and
tragedy.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
● The themes of the play:
Love and marriage: The play is about love, all the actions like elope with the lovers to
the forest or love potion show the main theme. With love potion, characters cannot
control themselves and fall into the abyss of love, it creates unpredictability. Love creates
imbalance, disorder and motivate to trespass social and sensual borders. Also, imbalance
in the play causes the laughter it shows that love brings chaos.
Order vs Disorder: Theseus and Egeus are the characters who preserve the order and
laws. As the king of Athens, Theseus is more reasonable, and he has lows and rules. Or
the other hand, to control their future, Hermia and Lysander escape to the worlds. Because
woods/forest represents disorders. It does not have the same rules as Athens. So, the
irrational things happen in the woods.
Appearance vs Reality: The characters are tricked by the magical characters. They
spend a night in the forest and witness magical events. They cannot make sense of it, and
they think that they have dream. The appearance of events is dream but the reality is, with
the help of love potion, they fall in love the first person they see. It seems to them
unbelievable.
MOTİFS:
Moon: the idea of love is limited with moon. Moon is portrayed as madness and lunary.
And the characters like Theseus and Egeus think the love makes people mad. In
moonlight, people cannot see everything clearly, it is unclear/ambiguous. Also in the
forest, lots of unusual things happen. Therefore, moon is related with the forest side.
Words: Words can be functionalized as potion. People might be deceived by some words.
For example, Egeus tells that Lysander bewitched his daughter with the poetry, words;
For this reason, Hermia could not act by reason.
Potion: The love potion is used as the unreliability of our senses. With the love potion.
Love becomes irrational and unpredictable.
DİFFERENCE of Realms: The play has three different realms: fairies, workers and
high-class society. All of them are affected by each other and a chain of events occurs.
Actors go to woods, Puck plays trick with Bottom and makes him an ass-headed man,
Puck anoints the potion to Titania, and she falls in love with Bottom.
In Shakespeare’s tragedies, what does play within the play show?
Play within the play is important, regarding to show the different perspectives of the characters
and events. It could show us the possible meaning of the play. In Hamlet, Play Within the play
shows how the king Hamlet is killed. This happening does not show in the play. It creates
Flashback for the readers and audience with the help of play within the play, we can easily
understand. Also in the play, Hamlet proves that his father is killed by Claudius. Because
Claudius's sudden reaction shows him guilty.
Explain Hamlet as a tragic hero:
A tragic hero has noble origin, Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. A tragic hero has downfall and
hamartia. Hamlet's hamartia is his inability to act and his indecisiveness to kill Claudius. A tragic
hero's external and internal struggles pave the way for his death. Tragic hero dies along with the
antagonist of the play. In Hamlet, he dies with the other characters at the end.
What is Hamlet's action of magnitude?
Action of magnitude is about action’s seriousness. In Hamlet, Hamlet's action of magnitude is to
have the responsibility to take revenge of his father’s murder, He is reasonable, mature and strong
enough to kill Claudius.
Hamlet’s approach to existence:
The play has the biggest dilemmas, the meaning of existence and death. Hamlet is a reasonable
character; he is not a man of action; he is the man of thoughts. Also, he is hesitant. For this
reason, Hamlet thinks too much about the afterlife, death and revenge. His promise to the ghost,
taking revenge, becomes the main purpose of his life. Sometimes, he thinks killing so is a heavy
burden and he thinks suicidal. But the ghost’s words about afterlife, retains him from death. In act
3 scene 1, his soliloquy shows his misery, pan and existential crisis.
Is Hamlet a round character, why?
To be a round character, the character should have inner conflict and character development. In
Hamlet, we can see both. At the beginning, Hamlet is very unhappy, and he is isolated within his
own grief. After the dialogue with the ghost, his mood changes and swears to take revenge. These
shows his character development. Also, sometimes he thinks the revenge is a heavy task for him,
and his hesitations between kill him and spare his life show his inner conflict.
The theme of appearance vs reality:
Almost in every scene of the play, there is the theme of appearance versus reality. His mad-like
acting is the appearance; and the reality is to keep others from knowing what he is really
planning, thus, nobody will suspect him.
Fortinbras vs Hamlet:
They are similar regarding that they want to seek revenge for their fathers. Fortinbras is decisive,
and has the will to achieve what he wants. He is a man of action. Unlike Fortinbras, Hamlet is
hesitant, doubtful and lacking conviction. He impresses to the motivation of Fortinbras for Weless
land.
Who seeks revenge?
Hamlet, Leartes, Fortinbras, all of them seek their father’s revenge.
Alexander the Great:
Towards the end of the play, in the graveyard scene, Hamlet states that, even Alexander the Great
died, buried and turned into dust, like all people. Death is an equalizer; after death, it isn't important
who you are. Everyone would turn into dust.
The theme of death:
In the play there are two forms of death: first, literal death. It is about King Hamlet's death which
we learn from the play. Second for of death is philosophical consideration of death. Throughout
the play, Hamlet thinks about death. Death is the reason of him seeking revenge. Death is both an
equalizer and moralizer. It brings justice, everyone becomes equal and turns into dust.
The theme of surveillance:
In the play, characters do not leave the stage; They hide and watch the others. For that, Hamlet acts
like a mad person. Thus, other characters believe him, and Hamlet can keep his plan. Nobody
would suspect him.