Shakespeare is a poet and playwright that lived in the late sixteenth century and was known for writing well received plays. Even now in the twenty-first century, his plays are well known around the world. People may ask, why would a playwright from the sixteenth century still be the centre of attention in the twenty-first century? Many attributes of Shakespeare’s plays contribute to this enduring nature. One possible reason is the large spread of interpretations possible in Shakespeare’s plays. Another possible reason is the plays Shakespeare write focus on emotions that are universal to the human race.
The characters in Shakespeare’s plays have very complex personalities and have a variety of interpretation. The combinations of these reasons are why Shakespeare is still popular in the current time. The plays written by Shakespeare are open to very broad interpretation mainly due to the lack of things that would be considered essential in theatre in current time [1]. These things include lighting, clothing and proper casting of roles. Lighting allows for a more understanding sense of mood in a play, allowing the audience to feel the mood of the characters in the play.
Clothing shows the different rankings of hierarchy in a play as well as a sense of the mood of the character that is wearing the clothes. Proper casting of rules makes the emotions and thoughts of the character easier to recognise because the audience can use stereotypes of the actors’ personalities to determine the personality of the characters they are portraying. The broad interpretations keep the interest of the audience as they can imagine the different motives and thoughts untold going through the minds of the characters.
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An example of the different interpretations possible in Shakespeare’s plays can be seen in how people interpret Macbeth, a famous play by Shakespeare. The monarchist reading of the play shows King Duncan, the ruler of Scotland at the time as being saintly, where all of his actions were correct and any action taken against him was considered evil [2]. Macbeth was considered a sinner destined to die from the moment he committed the grave sin of killing King Duncan in order to gain kingship.
In contrast, the institutional reading puts the blame on to the system of monarchy itself, stating that it promotes the killing of higher positions in order to gain the position for the individual committing the act. The institutional reading shows the actions of Macbeth to be expected of a person teased to an extent where temptation overtakes them. The broad interpretations are one of the reasons Shakespeare is still respected in the current time. The main focuses of Shakespeare’s plays are usually universally understandable emotions that people feel [1].
These emotions include love, hate, jealousy, passion and fear. Love and hate are two emotions that exist commonly in the world. Both usually contain large amounts of interest in a person and can end up with quite extreme results in some circumstances. In Shakespeare’s plays, these emotions usually cause the death of characters. Jealousy is similar to hate but different in terms of motive. In contrast to this, Shakespeare’s plays usually have jealousy and hate hand in hand and together, cause murder and other misfortune to characters.
Fear causes characters in Shakespeare’s plays to act without much prior thought or motive and can cause damage to the character along with characters that surround said character. As these emotions can be easily related to the majority of the audience, it catches and keeps the interest. An example of the universal emotions in Shakespeare’s play can be seen in the play, Macbeth. In Macbeth, the majority of the primary characters face one or more of these emotions to an extent where they commit murder or some other act of treason. An example of this is the killing of Banquo.
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KING JAMES OF GREAT BRITAIN (And the design of Macbeth for his approval.) The late 16th century was a time of massive change for England, as old traditions were being discarded and new concepts discovered; in science, commerce, religion, technology – and perhaps most prominently, the arts. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the major instigator of this change, died. James I, who until then had reigned ...
This is an example of the emotion of fear, as his death was not one that necessarily had to happen, making it a quick judgement without much prior thinking. Macbeth ordered assassins to kill Banquo and his son in order to keep the witches’ prophecy to himself so no one suspects him of murdering King Duncan. Whether this would have affected his secret is unknown, but the deed causes Macbeth to be very guilt-ridden and eventually causes his defeat at the end of the play. Characters in Shakespeare’s plays usually have very complex personalities implied through the strange variety of their actions [1].
Characters in Shakespeare can be easily influenced by events around them. These events are normally quite traumatic to the character and cause the character to think in ways that contrast their old way of thinking. This results in actions initially unpredictable via the old characters personality. An example of this in Shakespeare’s play is shown in the play, Macbeth. In Macbeth, the protagonist Macbeth is told his future by the witches where they state that he will quickly progress through social ranks. After hearing the prophecy, Macbeth’s mindset changes and he eventually kills King Duncan in order to achieve kingship.
This violent change in personality would not have been expected initially as he was introduced as a loyal servant of the King. Some readings of the play suggest that the idea of murdering the King was always in his heart and the sudden position change to Thane of Crawdor along with the witches’ prophecy simply brought up what was already in his heart. Another example of a complex character in Macbeth is Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is initially shown as a woman with a man-like personality through her monologue where she states that she would rip a baby from her breast and dash its brains out if she needed to.
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Macbeth Literary Analysis Krystal Macbeth Literary Analysis Essay, Research Paper Krystal Abbott Pat Patterson English IV Friday, December 03, 1999 Macbeth In Shakespeare? s lifetime he wrote many plays. Many of them were critically acclaimed and others cast aside. The crowd always wanted to be more thoroughly entertained and Shakespeare always tried to keep up with the people? s needs. In 1605, ...
In the play, she convinces Macbeth to perform the deed of killing King Duncan and after the deed is done, says how she would have done the deed herself if only the king did not look similar to her father. Later throughout the play, she keeps acting stranger as the guilt of the deed finally faces her. By the end of the play, she had committed suicide, unable to handle the deed she had assisted in performing. The complex characters in Shakespeare’s plays are one of the reasons that Shakespeare is still famous in the twenty-first century.
In this time and day, Shakespeare is still a famous playwright whose plays are known to many. The reasons why include the diversity of interpretations of the various characters and meanings throughout the plays, the universally understandable emotions that the majority of the audience can relate to and the complexity of the many characters in the plays of Shakespeare. To this day, and in the future as well, his works will still be respected as the magnificent efforts they are. Bibliography Anon. , 2010. Shakespeare’s Enduring Nature. [Online]
Available at: http://shakespeareanscribblings. wordpress. com/2010/08/30/shakespeares-enduring-nature/ [Accessed 30 April 2013]. Jamieson, L. , n. d. Macbeth Character Analysis. [Online] Available at: http://shakespeare. about. com/od/macbeth/a/Macbeth_Character_Analysis. htm [Accessed 30 April 2013]. Mabillard, A. , 2012. Amanda Mabillard. [Online] Available at: http://www. shakespeare-online. com/biography/whystudyshakespeare. html [Accessed 30 April 2013]. White, R. S. , 1995. Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In: Horizon studies in literature. South Melbourne: Sydney University Press, pp. 8-9.
