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... rings love, and siblings love. The theme of light: The light in Shakespeare's plays is presented in so many ways and contexts. The light for Shakespeare can be the light of beauty, love, goodness, or truth. The theme of time: Just like all writers in the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare paid a lot of attention to the theme of time, its power, un abundance, and effect.
The theme of revenge: In Shakespeare plays, every action has a reaction. If a father, brother, or friend of any of the characters happens to be endangered or killed, revenge might very much be in order. The theme of supernaturalism: Magic, magic spells, fortune telling, fairies, angels, witches, and all sorts of supernatural phenomena were presented in many of Shakespeare's plays. This proves the special and unique imagination abilities Shakespeare owned.
The theme of race: Some racist ideas were presented in Shakespeare's plays. Racism against Negroes in Othello and Jews in The Merchant of Venice are clear examples. The theme of blindness: In his plays, Shakespeare's characters were sometimes blind in one sense or the other. They might be blinded by love, anger, hate, desires, or magic.
The theme of appearance and reality: Appearance versus reality, this was a topic often discussed by Shakespeare. He had always been interested in showing how appearances can be misleading. This was very clear in Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth was described as a snake that hides beneath the appearance of a flower. The theme of violence: Violence is dealt with in many plays of Shakespeare's. Even in Romeo and Juliet, violence is represented in the fight between the two families that lead at the end to the misfortune of the two lovers. The theme of injustice: Court injustice, love injustice, father-child injustice were all discussed by Shakespeare.
In King Lear for example, King Lear starts by doing injustice to his daughter Cordelia and ends up to be insane from the great injustice done to him by his two other daughters, her sisters Gonerill and Regan. The theme of chaos: Wrong people doing wrong things to the wrong people at the wrong time was not something very far from the pattern of the Shakespearean play, a familiar thing, to be fair. Chaos was present in many of Shakespeare's plays as a result of magic, love, or simply misfortune. Theatre: The plays of Shakespeare during his lifetime were performed on stages in private theatres, provincial theatres, and playhouses. The Globe is certainly the most well known of all the Renaissance stages associated with Shakespeare and is rightfully the primary focus of discussion.
Brief History of Playhouses: During the Elizabethan era in England, plays were very popular. Actors set up platforms, props, and curtains in streets or anywhere possible - people came from all over. Only men were allowed to perform - not women. The most common place to see a play was in a hotel, where the guests would watch the actors from balconies. (The hotels were round and resembled O's. ). The first playhouse built (1576) - The Theatre - had gentlemen's rooms that cost 3 pence, and - the highest - the lords' rooms - that cost 6 pence a seat. Up to 3, 000 people could be squeezed into the Globe at a time.
It was very hard to devise a floor plan because mere descriptions are never enough. Due to the open roof, Globe was only open during Summers. The first play performed in The Globe was Julius Ceasar (1599). Shakespeare wrote and performed in many plays in the Globe. His plays were successful for many years - and apparently, they still are. During performance of Henry VIII in 1613 a spark from the cannon set the thatched roof on fire.
It took less than an hour for the Globe to burn down. Luckily no one was hurt or killed. Tiled (2 nd) Globe: Immediately after the accident, the Globe Theatre was rebuilt where the first one used to be. It was better than the first; the roof was made of non-flammable tile. All the other characteristics of the Globe, including its popularity, remained.
William Shakespeare died in 1616, but the Globe continued until 1642 when the Puritans closed all the playhouses in London. In 1643 the Globe was demolished for public housing. The New (3 rd) Globe: A little over 300 years later, San Wanamaker decided to rebuild the Globe. In 1970 he established the "Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse Trust" and began designing plans for the new building. Since there were no drawings or records of Globe's architecture, experts had to study drawings, letters and documents from Shakespeare's time to recreate the Globe. Although constructions began in 1987, pieces of the Globes original foundation were found in Oct. 1989 (almost 200 yards away from the construction site).
With the help of the 5 % of the recovered foundation, the experts made a Globe as much like the original as possible. Heavens were painted and the rest of the decorations were made. The Globe was a 20 -sided polygon. In 1993 Wanamaker died before seeing his Globe completed. The Globe was officially finished in 1994. First play in the New Globe was Henry V on June 12; 1997.
Queen Elizabeth II attended the opening of the New Globe. Films: Some films were adapted from Shakespeare's plays, Over 300 adaptations dating from as early as the 1930 s have been recorded as being adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. Recently Hamlet, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice have been successfully adapted to films. His Best works: His plays are known by everyone, his heroes and heroines are even more famous than the political figures of their time.
With 37 plays under his belt, it is hard to place some plays above others. Nonetheless, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer's Nights Dream, King Henry V, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello and Antony and Cleopatra are said to be Shakespeare's most recognizable, and hence, most popular plays. Most academics would argue that Hamlet is Shakespeare's greatest and most famous work. In popular culture, it would probably be considered Romeo and Juliet.
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Research essay sample on Romeo And Juliet Merchant Of Venice
