Shakespeare
MURDER
LOVE
MIX-UPS
MYSTERY
BETRAYAL
FRIENDSHIP
Three Types of Plays We’ll Focus On
Comedies
•Laugh at human nature
•Obstacles to love
•Happy endings
•Tragic Flaw
•Fate
•Death, chaos
•Extreme
circumstances
•Malice, greed,
evil, prejudice
Tragedies
Histories
•Historical Characters
•Power, greed, political corruption
•Royalty
Comedies
A Shakespearean comedy is one that
has a happy ending, usually involving
marriage for all the unmarried
characters, and a tone and style that
is more lighthearted than
Shakespeare's other plays.
Comedies
Patterns in the comedies include both internal and
external conflicts, and a tension between
Apollonian and Dionysian (light vs. dark) values.
Shakespearean comedies also tend to have:
 A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty that is
often presented by elders
 Separation and unification
 Mistaken identities
 A clever servant
 Heightened tensions, often within a family
 Multiple, intertwining plots
 Frequent use of puns
Tragedies
The protagonist must be:
 an admirable but flawed character, whom the audience
is able to understand and sympathize with.
 capable of both good and evil.
The playwright always insists on the
doctrine of free will:
 the (anti)hero is always able to back
out, to redeem himself. But, the author
dictates, he must move unheedingly to
his doom.
Tragedies
Love tragedies--These tragedies differ from
the other tragedies in that:
 the lovers are not doomed through any fault of
their own, but because of some barrier in the
world around them.
 death is almost a kind of consummation of their
love -- as if love can not properly succeed in a
tragic world.
Histories
The source for most of these plays is the well
known Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle of
English history. Shakespeare's plays focus on
only a small part of the characters' lives and
frequently omit significant events for
dramatic purposes.
Histories
Shakespeare was living under the reign of Elizabeth
I, the last monarch of the house of Tudor, and his
history plays are often regarded as Tudor
propaganda because they:
 show
the dangers of civil war.
 celebrate
the founders of the Tudor dynasty.
 illustrate
the spectacular decline of the medieval
world and how it came to its end when opportunism*
infiltrated its politics.
* a political style of aiming to increase one's political influence at almost any
price, or a political style which involves seizing every and any opportunity to
extend one's political influence, whenever such opportunities arise.
Three Types of Plays We’ll Focus On
Comedies
•Laugh at human nature
•Obstacles to love
•Happy endings
•Tragic Flaw
•Fate
•Death, chaos
•Extreme
circumstances
•Malice, greed,
evil, prejudice
Tragedies
Histories
•Historical Characters
•Power, greed, political corruption
•Royalty
YOUR TASK
You will be shown several summaries of
Shakespeare plays. For each play you
will:
1. Predict
2. Upon
how the play will end.
discovering the ending, determine
whether it is a comedy, tragedy, or
history.
Love’s Labours Lost
A king and his buddies make an oath to ignore women for school work for
three years
➢
A Princess of France and her ladies show up to talk to the king.
➢
The King and his buddies fall in love with the girls and break their oath.
➢
The boys send love letters that are not delivered to the correct ladies
➢
The Ladies play tricks on the boys
➢
The Princess learns her dad is dead
➢
The Princess and her ladies leave the men so she can rule her country.
➢
Hamlet
Hamlet returns home form school to find his father dead, and his uncle
married to his mother.
Claudius, the new king, persuades Hamlet to stay home from school.
Hamlet meets his father's ghost and is told to discover his murderer.
Hamlet and Ophelia get together, then he drops her and makes her go
insane.
Hamlet tries to get his mother off Claudius' side and ends up killing Polonius.
Ophelia is drowned
Laertes, Polonius' son, decides he must avenge his father's death by killing
Hamlet in a dueling competition.
Hamlet poisons the King's wine. The queen drinks it first and dies.
Hamlet and Laertes are both touched with a poisoned sword, but before
Hamlet dies, he makes Claudius confess, stabs him, and makes him drink the
poison wine, Claudius dies and Hamlet soon follows.
King John

John is the weak son of King Henry II and brother of the late King Richard the
Lion Heart.

Queen Elinor is the mother of John and Prince Henry is John's son.

Arthur is the son of Richard the Lion Heart.

Arthur's mother, Constance enters into a power struggle. Aligning herself to the
French king so that she can claim the throne for her son.

The countries go to war and there is religious conflicts

Arthur is believed to be dead.

Constance kills herself, after going mad.

Queen Elinor dies.

Arthur is not dead, but tires to escape imprisonment and falls onto rocks and
dies.

King John is poisoned.

Cardinal Pandulph forges a peace agreement between England and France.

John’s son Henry becomes king.
Macbeth
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During a battle, Macbeth mutilated/maimed a traitor and King Duncan decides to
honour him.
The witches 'tempt' Macbeth with the idea of being king and they make lots of
confusing predictions
Duncan names his son, Malcolm, the Prince of Cumberland and goes to Macbeth's
for arrest
Lady Macbeth asks the witches to help her be more manly so she can help her
husband kill Duncan.
Macbeth tries to back out, Lady M. talks him back into it, they get Duncan's
servants drunk, Lord M. has an insane floating dagger moment, kills the king,
Lady M. smears blood on the servants, they're blamed and executed by
Macbeth's order.
Macbeth is now king, but he think Banquo may know something so he hires 2
thugs to kill them; Banquo is killed, but his son escapes.
Macbeth has a banquet, the bloody ghost of Banquo appears, Macbeth is the only
one who can see it, and he's looked at as insane.
Macbeth visits the witches to get some answers and learns of his own death and
destruction.
He decides to wipe out Macduff and he kills Macduff's family.
Lady M. goes mad from guilt and dies.
In battle, Macbeth faces Macduff and Macduff whacks his head off and carries it
into Malcolm.
Twelfth Night
➢
Viola is shipwrecked and separated from her twin brother.
➢
She sees Olivia and decides to help her get her man, Duke Orsino.
➢
Viola dresses like a boy so she can get in close to the Duke.
➢
Olivia falls for Cesario (Viola's alias)
➢
Sebastian shows up and falls for Olivia.
➢
Olivia thinks he is Cesario and marries him.
➢
Sebastian and Viola reunite when the Duke comes to see Olivia.
➢
Viola reveals she's a girl
➢
She gets together with the Duke
Titus Andronicus

The emperor dies and his tow sons, Bassianus ans Saturninus, want the throne.

Marcus, Titus' brother, wants him to take the throne.

Titus says 'no' and supports Saturninus.

Saturn takes Tamora, the queen of the Goths to be his queen and Bass takes Lavinia.

Titus kills his own son, felling he was dishonored and his sons denounce him for
killing Mutius.

There are a lot of fights between families.

Aaron, a bad guy, and Tamora get together, plot with her sons to kill Bass and maim
Lavinia an put the blame on Titus' son

Titus pleads for them and he cuts off his hand as requested by Aaron, but this sons
are executed anyway.

Titus tells his last son, Lucius, to raise an army of Goths against the emperor.

Lucius find Aaron, forces him to reveal the entire plot, goes to a banquet where Titus
kills Tamora's sons and does unthinkable things with them afterward.

The bloodbath continues until the only one living is Lucius who is asked to be the
new Emperor.
The Tempest

Prospero reigns over an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda.

He uses magic to create a tempest to make a ship wreck

The guys on the boat took Prospero's dukedom 12 years earlier

Ferdinand, one of those shipwrecked, is washed up alone on a deserted part
of the island

He discovers Miranda and they fall in love.

Those shipwrecked are tricked by Ariel, an invisible sprite who works for
Prospero

Prospero meets up with them and is really mean.

Alonso, Prospero's brother, is happy for Ferdinand and restores the dukedom
to his brother.
Henry V

England wars with France

Henry V and his forces meet resistance from France

England is united under his leadership and win Harfleur

Wins the Battle of Agincourt and the French King Surrenders

French King offers Henry the hand of his daughter, Katherine, to marriage,
uniting England and France

Peace rules, until Henry V died.

Henry VI comes into power and war looms again
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Titania and Oberon both want the same little boy.
Oberon has Puck put a love spell on Titania to be mean.
Titania wakes up and falls for Bottom.
Titania’s love spell wears off and she gets mad at Oberon
Titania and Oberon make up.
Hermia wants Lysander.
Helena wants Demetrius.
Athenian Craftsmen rehearse a play in the forest.
Demetrius wants Hermia.
Bottom is cursed by Puck and grows a donkey’s head.
They all go into the forest.
Bottom loses his donkey head
Love spells are mistaken
The actors perform at the Duke’s Wedding.
and fixed.
The girls get who they want.
Taming of the Shrew

Katherine, a mean chic, hates that her sister is getting all the male attention

Petruccio comes to town.

Bianca's 'boys' tempt Petruccio to marry Kate for her money.
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Petruccio is all about wealth.
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He 'woos' Kate in a day.
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Petruccio shows up on Sunday to marry her dressed like
an idiot.
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He takes her to his home and treats her horribly.

She decides to at nice so she can visit her home again.

They live wealthy bliss ever after.

Bianca likes all the male attention.

The 'boys' disguise themselves so they can get close to her.

She falls for Lucentio

She marries him, but turns into a wenchy wife.
The Comedy of Errors

A set of twins, both named Antipholus, are separated as infants.

Antipholus of Syracuse goes to Ephesus to find his brother.

Antipholus of Syracuse takes his servant, Dromio, also one in a set of
separated twins.

The two sets of twins are unknowingly in the same town.

There is a lot of mistaken identity and chaos.

The brothers are reunited with each other and their long lost parents.
King Lear

King Lear wants to give up his throne and divide his kingdom between his
three girls

They had to butter him up somehow, but Cordelia doesn't want to war with
her sisters.

Lear disinherits her and separates her inheritance between her two bad
sisters and their husbands.

He goes to live with his daughters for a month and both are horrible to him.
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Lear goes crazy and he finds Cordelia who helps him.
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In a war, Edmund captures Cordelia and Lear

Lear's madness lefts and he's happy to be with Cordelia.

Edmund tires to save Lear and Cordlia, but is too late; Cordelia is hanged.

The show ends with Lear carrying Cordelia's corpse an then dying himself of
grief.
The Merchant of Venice

Bassanio wants to go to Venice to date Portia, but has no money.
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Antonio loans him money that he borrowed form Shylock the Jew.
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Bassanio wins and marries Portia.
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Shylock demands a pound of flesh from Antonio for breach of contract.

Bassanio hears Antonio can’t pay Shylock back so he goes to help him.
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Portia an Nerissa, her maid, dress up like a lawyer and clerk to help Antonio.
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Portia wins the case against Antonio
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Portia and Nerissa play a mean trick on their husbands.
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Everyone but Shylock lives happily ever after.
Timon of Athens

Timon, a wealthy Athenian, is generous and soon poor.

Timon asks the government and those who received gifts from him to help,
but they all refuse.
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He gives one last banquet, invites all the ungratefuls, serves them warm
water and throws stones at them.
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He decides to become a hermit and exile himself from Athens.

While digging for food, he finds gold an people come asking for handouts

Timon announces he's planning to die soon.

When a captain invades Athens, he sends a messenger to Timon asking for
help, but discovers that hi is already dead.

The senators agree to the captain's terms and surrender the city to him.

He promises not to kill anyone except for those who opposed him and Timon
Measure For Measure

The Duke decides to appoint Angelo to rule while he watches in
disguise.

Claudio gets his fiancée pregnant before getting married and was
jailed by Angelo.

Isabella, Claudio's sister and almost a nun plead for her brother’s life.

Angelo decides that if Isabella will sleep with him, he’ll let Claudio go.

Isabella tells Claudio about the proposition, and he tells her to go
through with it

The Duke overhears and decides to trap Angelo by substituting
another condemned man for Claudio and sending another women in
to him.

They trick Angelo, who goes ahead with the killing anyway.

The duke reveals himself, Isabella accuses Angelo of being bad, and
Claudio shows he’s alive.

The duke makes Claudio marry Juliet, Angelo marry Mariana, and he
marries Isabella
Romeo and Juliet

Romeo gets dumped by Rosaline and crashes a Capulet party that
Juliet just happens to be at.

Romeo sees Juliet and falls instantly in love and vice versa.
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Unfortunately, the two families are involved in an ancient feud.

The young couple has a whirlwind courtship in secret.
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They get help from Friar Lawrence and her nurse to get married.
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Romeo tries to stop a Capulet/Montague fight and Mercutio, Romeo's
kinsman gets killed.
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Romeo fights back and kills Tybalt, Juliet's cousin
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He leaves to escape punishment.
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The Capulet parents arrange for Paris to marry Juliet.
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Juliet gets Friar Lawrence's help to make her appear dead for 48 hours.
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Romeo hears she's dead, sees her in the tomb, takes poison he had gotten
from an apothecary, and dies.
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She wakes up, find him dead, and uses his dagger to kill herself.
Shakespeare’s Comedies
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Loves Labour's Lost
Twelfth Night
Much Ado About Nothing
The Merchant of Venice
The Comedy of Errors
The Tempest
The Winter’s Tale
All’s Well That Ends Well
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Midsummer Night’s Dream
Merry Wives of Windsor
Two Gentlemen of Verona
As You Like It
Taming of the Shrew
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Cymbeline
Measure for Measure
Trolius and Cressida
Shakespeare’s Tragedies
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Hamlet
Macbeth
Timon of Athens
Romeo and Juliet
Othello
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Julius Caesar
King Lear
Titus Andronicus
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Histories
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Richard II
Richard III
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry V
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Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VIII
King John