Summary and characteristics of the most important Shakespeare's masterpieces, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Summary and characteristics of the most important Shakespeare's masterpieces e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE TEMPEST Introduction The Tempest was performed for the first time in 1611 and at the wedding of Elizabeth, (daughter of James I) and of Prince Frederick. Shakespeare was inspired by: pamphlets about voyages in America, fairy tales of human monsters (from which he took inspiration for the character of Caliban, son of the witch Sycorax) or by magic stories. Plot The play begins with a tempest near the enchanted island. Because of that, the King of Naples (Alonso), Prince Ferdinand and the Duke of Milan (Antonio) are shipwrecked on the island. This happens because of Prospero, a magician who lives on the island with his daughter Miranda, to whom he explains that he was the Duke of Milan, but was deposed because he was more interested in magic and philosophy than in state affairs. Antonio made sure that Prospero and Miranda ended up adrift on a boat. When they arrived on the island, it was already inhabited by the witch Sycorax, her son Caliban (a monster) and Ariel (a gentle spirit of the air that the witch had imprisoned). Prospero sets Ariel free and makes him his agent. King Alonso is desperate because he thinks his son Ferdinand has drowned, but in reality he is wandering around the island, moved by Ariel’s singing. He meets Miranda and immediately falls in love with her. Prospero wants to test Ferdinand by making him perform menial tasks. Caliban meets Trinculo (the king's jester) and Stephano (the butler). They want to kill Prospero, but Ariel hears them and goes to tell him. Meanwhile, Prospero thinks about how he could reward and punish those who deserve it. However, the play ends with the theme of reconciliation: Miranda and Ferdinand get married, Prospero forgives Antonio and returns to Milan to take back his dukedom, Caliban was left alone on the island and Ariel is made totally free to go wherever he wants. Themes One of the fundamental themes of the play is forgiveness: everything ends in peace and reconciliation. Miranda is not a suffering character, like Juliet's, but she represents feminine perfection through her beauty and innocence. Then there is the wild setting, the relationship between natives and invaders, liquor trafficking and forced labor. The main theme, however, is that of magic. There are two types of magic in the play: that of the witch Sycorax, which is evil because she harms her victims and was the result of a pact with the devil; and Prospero's magic, which comes from study and is used for beneficial purposes. An exploration of the nature of the theatre The Tempest is one of the most difficult works to stage, as it requires so many special effects that only the theater can provide. Thanks to this, it is possible to see the nature of the theater and everything it can do to create the atmosphere and illusions. Prospero's world is an illusion, because with reconciliation it gives life to a world full of peace and love, when reality is different. In fact, when he gives up his powers it is as if he returns to that reality. A warning against the dangers of colonialism Prospero can also be considered the symbol of European colonial power, as he went to an unknown island, then he organized a life for himself by making local inhabitants work for him. He manages to keep power by making promises of freedom, which are ultimately kept, but in reality not always. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM The play is set in Athens and opens in the palace of Theseus, who is about to marry Hyppolyta. Egeus goes to the duke to ask for advice about the behavior of his daughter Hermia. She is in love with Lysander but it is Demetrius who must marry her. Helena (a friend of Hermia), on the other hand, loves Demetrius. In the woods near Athens the two couples meet and appear Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies. They are fighting because the queen insists on keeping one of his paiges. Oberon then plans to enchant the queen and sends the spirits Puck and Robin to get the flower that contains the juice of love. Oberon puts it in the eyes of the queen while she sleeps and tells Puck to do the same with Demetrius to make him fall in love with Helena, but Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and therefore Hermia falls in love with Lysander who loves Helena who loves Demetrius who loves Hermia. Meanwhile a theater company is rehearsing Pyramus and Thisbe, a love story which has to be staged at Theseus' wedding. Bottom, a bad actor, sings and wakes Titania, who falls in love with him because of the juice of love. Oberon decides to bring everything back to normal and tells Puck to put an herb on Titania's eyelids to break the spell. He also makes Demetrius, Helena, Hermia and Lysander fall asleep in the woods to do the same. They are awakened by Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus. The play has a good ending: Demetrius marries Helena, Hermia marries Lysander, and the theater company stages Pyramus and Thisbe at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. HAMLET The tragedy of revenge In the Elizabethan age “revenge” wasn’t accepted because it was a symptom of madness, but all enjoyed seeing it in the plays. Tragedies of revenge derive from the Greeks and are usually based on a crime that is committed against a member of the hero's family, a crime that cannot be punished by laws and justice for various reasons. Other elements are the appearance of a ghost, the avenger who has a very close relationship to the audience using soliloquies and his madness that develops over the course of the play. Main Themes The themes in Hamlet are: family relationships (mother and son, father and son) and others such as youth, death and life, madness, the existence of god, the meaning of theater and the complex nature of man. Another important theme is honor, which makes it clear that every action, whether good or bad, must be planned and not done on instinct. Hamlet’s ambiguity Hamlet has an ambiguous language which explains his strange behavior within the play. Anything he says can be turned into a metaphor, a simile or a play of words (PUN). A play within the play The play within the play is wanted by Hamlet to expose the death of his father to unmask King Claudius. By doing this, there are two types of audiences: the real one that is watching Hamlet and the actors themselves watching "The murder of Gonzago". It is a technique that makes the audience ask if the play has an end.