Shakespeare Essay
alsudays
william_shakespeare_1564-1616.pptWilliam Shakespeare 1564-1616
Biography and Context
- Stratford-Upon-Avon
- Anne Hathaway
- A Favorite of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625)
- The King’s Men
Biography Cont’d
- Other Shakespeares: Francis Bacon, The Earl of Oxford, and Christopher Marlowe
- 37 Plays, 154 Sonnets
The Globe Theatre
The Globe
The Tempest
- First Performed in 1610-1611 at the Court of King James
- Performed again in 1612-1613 in celebration of the marriage of Elizabeth, James’daughter
- Likely Shakespeare’s last play, but the only one other than Love’s Labours Lost that is entirely original
The Tempest
- The play draws on travel literature of its time—most notably the accounts of a tempest off the Bermudas that separated and nearly wrecked a fleet of colonial ships sailing from Plymouth to Virginia.
- The extraordinary flexibility of Shakespeare’s stage is given particular prominence in The Tempest. Stages of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period were for the most part bare and simple. There was little on-stage scenery, and the possibilities for artificial lighting were limited. The King’s Men in 1612 were performing both at the outdoor Globe Theatre and the indoor Blackfriars Theatre and their plays would have had to work in either venue.
Themes
Power
Class
Magic
Justice
Water
Reading the Text
-Gonzalo: “I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows” (I.i.25–27).
-The Boatswain: “What cares these roarers,” he asks, referring to the booming thunder, “for the name of king?” (I.i.15–16).
Reading the Text
Caliban: You taught me language, and my profit on’t; Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language! (I.ii.366–368).
Bermuda
Bermuda
