The Elizabethan era is the epoch in English
history marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
from 1558 to 1603.
It's a time of political stability and great material
and cultural prosperity. English Renaissance reached
its height during these period.
Queen Elizabeth established a strong, centralized,
well-organized, and effective government.
• With the strong leadership, she successfully
resolved some serious religious conflicts.
• England defeated the Spanish Armada.无敌舰队
• England grew powerful and rich.
At the same time, the general peace and prosperity
allowed the flowering of poetry, music and literature.
In English history.
• For the first time, the English people felt confident
about their life, and they believed they were master
of themselves.
• “Man is the measure of all things.”人是万物的
尺度。
The most distinguished feature of
Elizabethan Age:
The Age of Confidence
Renaissance—
a cultural and artistic movement
the late 15th to the early 17th century
What does Renaissance mean?
1. Meaning rebirth (or revival of letters)
2. Marking the transition from the medieval to
the modern world
3. Encouraging a rebirth of human spirit人类精神
4. Bringing about a flourish in science and art
• 文艺复兴原意指重生或复活，实际上是由一系列历史事
件引发的一场运动，这一系列历史事件包括古代罗马与
希腊文化的重现、地理（西半球的发现）与天文领域的
新发现、宗教改革与经济扩张等。
• 因此，文艺复兴实质上是欧洲人文主义思想
家和学者致力于铲除中世纪欧洲陈旧的封
建思想，引进新观念，表达新兴的资产经
济利益，摒弃罗马天主教会的腐败，恢复
早期教会纯洁的历史时期。
• 文艺复兴促进了自然科学、哲学、文学艺术的发展，使
欧洲文化达到了古希腊罗马文化以后的第二个高峰。
Two features:
a. a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature;
b. keen interest in the activities of humanity.
Humanism is the keynote of Renaissance.
◆ Humanism
The humanists believed in man’s
capability of self perfection and
emphasized the importance of
personal worth and the joy of the
present life.现世生活的乐趣 (refer to
P9)
Renaissance Literature
Renaissance marks a peak of English literary
accomplishment.
He is often called England's national
poet and the "Bard of Avon"艾芬河畔的
吟游诗人.
Comment
•“He was not of an age, but for all
time.”他不属于一个时代，而属于所有
世纪。
•
---Ben Jonson
In death, he left a final piece of verse as his epitaph:
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
看在耶稣的份上，好友，切勿挖掘这黄土下的
灵柩；让我安息者将得到上帝的祝福，迁我尸
骨者定遭亡灵的诅咒。《泰坦尼亚》
Achievements
Major works: 38 plays,
2 long poems,
154 sonnets
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Plays:
•
History
King John
Richard II
Henry IV (1-2)
Henry V
Henry VI, Part 1 +Part
2+Part 3
•Comedy:
As You Like It
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Twelfth Night
The Merchant of Venice
His comedies were not necessarily funny, but
had happy endings.
– Although the comedies had happy endings,
they all included sadness and tragedy.
– The theme of the comedies is overcoming the
obstacle of love.克服爱情的障碍
Tragedy:
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Elizabethan Drama
Tragedies are Shakespeare's most popular and
famous works.
– Shakespeare used lots of soliloquies in
his tragedies.
– This category explores the faults/weaknesses
of humans.
Shakespeare’s play writing
• -- Objective of Plays= give pleasure
– Fanciful奇特的, imaginative富有想像力的
plays
– Audience = everyday people,
uneducated, wanted to escape
– Wrote in verse=free use of words
•Shakespeare’s originality: Shakespeare
drew most of his materials from sources
that were known to his audience; some
from Roman dramas, some from the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle编年史, and
some from other writers’ plays. But his
plays are original because he instilled
into the old materials a new spirit that
gives new life to his plays.
Famous quotations from
Shakespeare’s plays
What's done is done.”木已成舟（做过了就做
过了）
------- Macbeth
Jealousy, the green-eyed monster."
------Othello
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the
mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted
blind. 而是用心体会的，因此丘比特的眼睛总
是蒙着的。
------ A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Text study of soliloquy
“To be or not to be”
Soliloquy内心独白
•a dramatic speech delivered by one
character speaking aloud while under
the impression of being alone. The
soliloquist自语者 thus reveals his or
her inner thoughts and feelings to the
audience, either in supposed selfcommunion假定的自我交流 or in a
consciously direct address有意识的直
接讲话. It is also known as interior
monologue.
Argumentative Structure议论文结构
•question raised---resons given and choice
made---choice rejected---suspended
•(Everybody is faced with a dilemma.)
•1. To die or not to die:
•2. To die: death---sleep---dream(unreal)
•3. Not to die: world of the dead
• unknown
•4. Undecided
understanding the soliloquy
•1. read lines 55-59. how could you
summarize Hamlet’s problem?
•2. read “to sleep…so long life” (lines 6468).
•The problem is not dying but…
understanding the soliloquy
•3. read “For who… bare bodkin” .(lines
69--75). Rewrite Hamlet’s list in the gap.
•Who would put up with________ when
he can put an end to it all by killing
himself?
•4. what does Hamlet mean by “Thus
conscience does make cowards of us all”
(line 82)
“If there are a thousand readers,
there will be a thousand Hamlets.
The famous person Goethe in the 18
century expressed his opinion: “a
career load on a person who can no
be qualified.” (weak ,incompetent
Oedipus complex, in psychoanalytic theory, a desire
for sexual involvement关系 with the parent of the
opposite sex and a concomitant 伴随的事物sense of
rivalry with the parent of the same sex; a crucial关键的
stage in the normal developmental process.
Sigmund Freud introduced the concept in his
Interpretation of Dreams (1899).
Once there was a King named Liyicsi in Thebe. He and the Queen
Locasta had a son named Oedipus. God warned that this child would
be the murderer of his father. So Oedipus was abandoned as soon as
he was born. Luckily, the child was saved by others, and then became the
prince of the neighboring country. He suspected his birth and went to
search help from God. God warned him that he must leave his
country, because he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother.
So he decided toleave. One day he was on the way toThebe he met the
King Liyicsi, his real father, and killed Liyicsi unconsciously during a
sudden quarrel. Then he came to Thebe and answered the puzzle of
Sphinx. The citizens in Thebe supported him as a leader
out of grate. Afterwards, he married Locasta, his real mother, as his wife,
and he became the King of Thebe.
Locasta even bore two sons and two daughters for
him. Finally, a terrible plague瘟疫 spread
quickly. The citizens turned to God
for help again. When the envoy brought the
message that the criminal who
killed the old king should be expelled from
Thebe. Thus the plague can be
controlled in the end. The citizens never thought
that their King was just the
criminal they found. In the end, he knew
everything that had happened. He
was shocked by his crime that he
committed unconsciously. So he blinded his two
eyes and left his country.
At last, the message really became true.
“frailty,thy name is woman.”
the suddendeath of his father,his mother’s
remarriage, and the royalty lost. His biggest
sorrow is neither his father’s death nor the lost
of royalty, but his mother’s remarriage.
“What a piece of work is a man , how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how
express and admirable in action, how like an angel in
apprehension, how like a god; the beauty of the
world;” (William Shakespeare, 2001:320).人类是一件
多么了不得的杰作！多么高贵的理性！多么伟大的
能力！多么优美的仪表！多么文雅的举动！在行为
上多么像一个天使！在智慧上多么像一个天神！宇
宙的精华！万物的灵长！
he believed in the Christian beliefs deeply
feared the life after death,
being terrified by the unknown world.
Christian beliefs encouraged people to forg
others’ guilt. He thought people should
forgive the criminal who prayed for his gui
Appreciating the soliloquy
•1. what is Hamlet’s understanding of
death?
•2. use your own words to describe
Hamlet.
•3. what is the theme of the soliloquy?
character
•
contemplative, 好沉思
的 meditative, 沉思的
indecisive, 优柔寡断
的
• a humanist,
philosophical, 哲学的
thoughtful, 深思熟虑
的melancholy, 忧郁的
discontented with the
state of affairs,
intelligent, hesitant
Chinese translation（独白）
•生存还是毁灭，这是一个值得考虑的问题；
默然忍受命运的暴虐的毒箭，或是挺身反
抗人世的无涯的苦难，通过斗争把它们扫
清。这两种行为，哪一种更高贵?死了；
睡着了；什么都完了；要是在这一种睡眠
之中，我们心头的创痛，以及其他无数血
肉之躯所不能避免的打击，都可以从此消
失，那正是我们求之不得的结局。死了；
睡着了；睡着了也许还会做梦；
•嗯，阻碍就在这儿：因为当我们摆脱了这一具
朽腐的皮囊以后，在那死的睡眠里，究竟将要
做些什么梦，那不能不使我们踌躇顾虑。
•人们甘心久困于患难之中，也就是为了这个缘
故；谁愿意忍受人世的鞭挞和讥嘲、压迫者的
凌辱、傲慢者的冷眼、被轻蔑的爱情的惨痛、
法律的迁延、官吏的横暴和费尽辛勤所换来的
小人的鄙视，要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子，
就可以清算他自己的一生?
•谁愿意负着这样的重担，在烦劳的生命的压迫
下呻吟流汗，倘不是因为惧怕不可知的死后，
惧怕那从来不曾有一个旅人回来过的神秘之国，
是它迷惑了我们的意志，使我们宁愿忍受目前
的折磨，不敢向我们所不知道的痛苦飞去?这
样，重重的顾虑使我们全变成了懦夫，决心的
赤（炽）热的光彩，被审慎的思维盖上了一层
灰色，伟大的事业在这一种考虑之下，也会逆
流而退，失去了行动的意义。
Theme
•Shakespeare retained保留 the revenge
subject and the subject of struggle for the
throne within the court, but the main purpose
was for the revelation of something more
profound and realistic: contradiction
between humanist ideals and the reality.
He took the story of revenge but
transformed it into a realistic reflection
反映 of the time and made Hamlet the
representative of humanism.