Quotes about Shakespeare

• He is of no age — nor, I may add, of any religion, or party, or profession. The body and substance of his works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Vol. II (1835), p. 301.
• But my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.
• Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to Theo van Gogh (July 1880) as translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger
• He was not of an age, but for all time!
• Ben Jonson, To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare (1623)
• Shakespeare has united the powers of exciting laughter and sorrow not only in one mind but in one composition. Almost all his plays are divided between serious and Ludicrous characters and they sometimes produce sorrow and sometimes laughter.
  That this is a practice contrary to the rules of criticism will be readily allowed; but there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature.
• Samuel Johnson, The plays of William Shakespeare, Vol. I (1765), Preface.
• When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder
  That such trivial people should muse and thunder
  In such lovely language.
• D. H. Lawrence, "When I read Shakespeare," from Pansies (1929).
• Shakespeare led a life of Allegory; his works are the comments on it.
• John Keats, in a letter to George and Georgiana Keats (19 February 1819).
• Shakespeare — the nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.
• Laurence Olivier, quoted in Kenneth Harris, "Sir Laurence Olivier," from Kenneth Harris Talking To... (1971).
• The shape of the Globe gives words power, but you're the wordsmith! The one true genius; the only one clever enough to do it. … Trust yourself. When you're locked away in your room, the words just come, don't they, like magic. Words, the right sound, the right shape, the right rhythm, words that last forever. That's what you do, Will. You choose perfect words. Do it. Improvise!
• Gareth Roberts, The tenth incarnation of The Doctor in The Shakespeare Code episode of Doctor Who

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life. 

New words

Machiavellian - "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct".




Irascible - having a tendency to anger easily


Patriarchal - a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line.


Sedition - conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.


Credulous -

having or showing too great a readiness to believe things.


Fratricide - the killing of one's brother or sister.


Farcical - relating to or resembling farce, especially because of absurd or ridiculous aspects.


Farce - a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.


Elision - the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I'm, let's ).

Discovering Caliban

• Caliban interacts with all characters
• Portrayed as different, deformed and as other - Act 1 Scene 2 line 233
• Initially treated well - sort of like a pet
• Caliban instinctive and self centred
• Prospero rules through magic and threats
• Finds out that  Stephano and Trinculo aren't equal with Prospero - Act 5 Scene 1 line 292-95
• Seen as a novelty or a monster in Shakespeare's time
• Seen as a primitive degenerate figure who is lustful and greedy - as imagined by Europeans to justify colonisation
• Implacable spirit - never totally subjugated (because of his implacable spirit)
• Noble savage - not as civilised but has indomitable spirit
• Complex
• Caliban is angry
• Often isn't logical - until later on when he becomes manipulative as he becomes civilised

Different style of language

• If language is power Caliban isn't equal
• Communicates in insults - Miranda calls it "gabble"
• Sometimes able to talk coherently like in the speech about sweet airs
• Shows his complexity
• Develops ability to think and speak intelligently

Caliban' place in society

• Fits into the hierarchical and patriarchal society
• Perhaps Caliban has the ability to move across all elements in the play because he is not in society
• Caliban discovers a lot from his interactions with other characters
• Discovers humanity?
• Doesn't find complete humanity - can't go back into a civilised world as Prospero does
• "this thing of darkness!" - contrasts to Miranda's white
• "Whelp" "Demi devil" "Poor credulous monster" "hag seed"

Sympathy

• Treatment from Prospero
• Interactions with the 'civilised' Stephano and Trinculo

Act 5, Scene 1 - Deneument

Section 1

• Ariel asks for mercy and Prospero gives up his magic
• Purpose - for us to like Prospero more? - development of character
• Sad regretful Prospero - adds melancholy to the moment

Section 2

• Enchanted arrival and Prospero attacking and forgiving them in their trance and then speaking with them
• Ferdinand and Miranda are revealed playing chess - important - game about power
• Change in tone towards happy ending
• Boatswain arrives
• Stephano and Trinculo ridiculed

Oh brave new world that has such people in't

• Going to be freed
• Fear for Miranda in her innocence and naivety - sadness and concern

Setting Ariel free

• Sadness, melancholy - worn out
• Ariel isn't sad
• In production Ariel didn't even look at Prospero

Epilogue

• The audience and Prospero emotionally connected
• Play can't end without the audience - power
• Ends with a direct address
• Says I can't be free unless you applaud
• Moves audience back from fiction to reality
• Conventional - a natural way of ending the play and getting applause
• Realise that in a play about power it is the audience that has it

Act 3, Scene 3 - the harpy speech

The Climax - direct conflict of good versus evil

Staging

• Often above the other characters - judging, position of power, godlike/divine
• Scary/imposing/loud

Quotable lines


"I have made you mad"


"You are three men of sin"

• Declarative - not subjective, blunt

"Your swords are now to massy for your strength"

• Powerlessness - a visual representation

"You fools"

• Mocking tone

Theme

• Revenge and punishment
• What happens to sinners
• The sinful characters are forgiven
• Punishment and forgiveness

Divine justice

• Strongly Christian
• Represented by Ariel
• Can't get away with sin
• Concept of fate/destiny - a predetermined course of events

Ferdinand and Meranda

• In blank verse
• Hyperbole of love and passion
• Dramatic convention (how would expect it to be)
• Figurative expression - metaphors, similes...
• Emotional exclamation - heightened emotions
• Pronoun use - Changes from thee/thou to you - You expresses a closeness - Thee/thou respectful

Writing about language

Everything is crafted for effect


When quoting a line it is worth mentioning the dramatic conventions and why

Dialogue
Idiolect - a character's particular way of speaking - evidenced in dialogue


Blank verse - rhythm to it - regular rhythm - pentameter (often Iambic)
'Blank' because it is non rhyming
Prose - no syllable count just to the end of the page

• Conventionally/often high ranking characters would speak in blank verse
• Lower characters and comedy would be in prose
• Caliban is an exception - most of time prose - but at times (when reflecting) in blank verse - gives a more considered tone

Length of turns
Long turn purpose

• Fill in backstory, exposition
• Thinking aloud
• Pace

Short turns purpose

• Conflict, argument
• Humour (often similar to an argument)
• Faster pace

Shakespeare switches the pace to keep the audience engage


The difference between a monologue and a soliloquy

• If just a character is thinking out loud alone to no one other than the audience it is a soliloquy
• If other characters a re there to hear it is a monologue