HAN'S THE SHOWTIME...

「The Natures of Tragedy are Expressed in the Great Works of William Shakespeare.」

Shakespeare is renowned as the English playwright and poet whose body of works is considered the greatest in the history of English literature. Since the 18 century, Shakespeareana has been studied by students, scholars, and dramatists. And also, it has been the subject of comprehension criticism principles, and was to be the only door to the play world of dramatic companies.

I will briefly introduce Shakespeare's biography. During the period of Queen Elizabeth I, which was the climax of England Renaissance, he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. His father was a farmer, a merchant, and at one time, held public office. His mother was daughter of farmer. Shakespeare was the eldest son. When his father had worked for public office, his family was wealthy, so he could study at good education facilities. But, when he was 13 years ago, his family was declared bankrupt, so he could not advance to University. At age 18, he married Anne Hathaway, who was a local farmer's daughter eight years his senior. Their first daughter (Susanna) was born six months later, and twins, Judith and Hamnet, were born in 1585, but they died at early ages.

The life of Shakespeare can be divided into three periods. For the first 20 years were season of staying in his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon, which include his schooling, early marriage, and fatherhood. The next 25 years, he worked as an actor and playwright in London, and the last five years were retirement period . He came back to Stratford where he enjoyed moderate wealth gained from his theatrical successes. For about 20 years from 1590, he concentrated his whole mind upon writing plays, and showed 37 works on stage 37 works. After 1608, the power of his pen declined, so he went to hometown, enjoyed in comfort for the rest of his days. Finally, William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church where he had been baptized exactly 52 years earlier.

Shakespeare's works can be divided into four periods. The beginning period is with what is referred to as an experimental period starting around 1591 and ending around 1593. The works of the first period were Titus Andronicus, Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew. The second period, which was ended around 1601, marked the establishment of Shakespeare and included the tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, several comedies, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor and the history plays, Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V, Richard II, King John and Julius Caesar. The third period marked perhaps the apex of Shakespeare's works with the 4 great tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear but also comedies such as Twelfth Night, All's Well that Ends Well and the Roman epic history play, Antony and Cleopatra. The final period ended around 1611. Cymbeline, Henry VIII and romances such as The Tempest and The Winter's Tale were that period's works.

HAMLET

The characteristic of Hamlet is leaving problems that can not be solve forever. This person's characteristic holds an important position in the history of literature. Since the 19th century, Hamlet's characteristic has been compared with Don Quixote's action styles. According to Goethe and Coleridge's comments, Hamlet is pure, introspective, and melancholy man. This view was main stream at that time, but it is quite different from criticism from the early part of this century. Many Shakespearian critics have explicated Hamlet's new characteristics and described him as being a cynical, aggressive, and strong man. One more reason for the appeal of Hamlet, which Hamlet made a deep impression me, is the great lines with his music and imagery.
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited?The rest is silence.
The last line of Hamlet before he died, leaves deep impression of as calmness and sublimity on the reader. And soon, our soul is soaring to the heaven.

OTHELLO

The case of Othello is different from Hamlet's, the point of 솟 tragedy which befalls him is that it is true for him. Despite a big of racial and cultural gap, he married Desdemona secretly, but their happiness was gone soon. Thans, he plays into Iago's hands. In addition, he is a warlike, simple-minded, and innocent man. So, he mistrusts wife's faithfulness and strangles her to death. Later, Othello realizes his foolishness, but there is no way to break the process of self-destruction. True love should be protected by love. If it has weak points, the shield will be broke. But Othello does not die. In the hopelessness, different from Macbeth, his soul can be relieved from darkness. At result, his soul is revived.

KING LEAR

Among Shakespeare's tragedies, King Lear is the saddest play. In this play, the points of focus are love, devotion, and trust in the family. King Lear's characters have universality. Kent, Gloucester, and Cordelia are loyal and noble people. They illustrate the conversion of consciousness which beats wickedness. Goneril, Regan, and Edmund, who are ungrateful and immoral people, descend into ruin. In King Lear, both types of characters have a tragic end. Shakespeare created new types of tragedy. They are marked by a lack of wisdom called darkness. Lear loses everything, but gains eternity. After craziness, he knows true. Humanity's greatness and high ideas can be gain through bearing hardships and divine test. Shakespeare shows human development galvanized by desperation through King Lear's death.

MACBETH

Macbeth is my favorite works among all of Shakespeare's tragedies.
This play has a tragic focus. Originally a loyal and honest man, Macbeth descent into murder and betrayal is the tale of how ambition can tarnish even the purest of souls. Driven by loyalty to King Duncan, his own "Vaulting ambition," leads to him killing King Duncan to secure his own destiny. The man at the end of play is one we would barely recognize from the loyal Macbeth we meet at the beginning.
"As a man sows, so he shall reap." This play's topic is it.
Greed leads to ruin. Finally, Macbeth can not control his really garganthan ambitions. Only the way to escape is death. In this play, Lady Macbeth is an interesting character who is a "Femme Fatal." She lures Macbeth into an evil world, and also falls into darkness. Lady Macbeth's ambition for power leads her into an unnatural, phantasmagoric realm of witchcraft, insomnia and madness. But while Macbeth responds to the prophecies of the play's famous trio of witches, Lady Macbeth goes even further by figuratively transforming herself into an unnatural, desexualized evil spirit. The current trend of critical opinion is toward an upward reevaluation of Lady Macbeth, who is said to be rehumanized by her insanity and her suicide.