Intro to Shakespeare

Question 1

Born when?

Answer 1

April 23-26, 1564

Question 2

Died when?

Answer 2

April 23, 1616 and left nothing in will to wife

Question 3

From where?

Answer 3

A small town called Stratford-upon-Avon which has been preserved to be exactly like when he was born. It is about 2 hours northwest of london.

Question 4

Parents?

Answer 4

mary- daughter of a wealthy landowner
John- glovemaker and local politician

Question 5

School?

Answer 5

Grew up when education was prominent, and Elizebeth
had made 160 new schools. Was taught at King’s new school from 6 am- 5 pm, where he learned about Rhetoric, Logic, History, and Latin until his dad lost his fortune and pulled him from school at 14. For fun they performed plays.

Question 6

Married and kids

Answer 6

Anne Hathaway in 1582
1 kid named Susanna when married and twins 3 years later named Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died of the plauge at 11

Question 7

the lost years

Answer 7

1583 - 1592
19 - 28 years old
moved to London and started working in theater sometime between these years

Question 8

Theater Shakespeare invested in?

Answer 8

the globe theater which burned down in 1613 during a play performed by his famous acting group: The King’s men

Question 9

Number of plays + breakdown across genre

Answer 9

38 plays: 14 com, 10 hist, 10 tragedy, 4 rom
ALthough only 2 of his plays were original plots
(Rom and Jul was based off Pyramus and Thisbe) by Ovid

Question 10

number of sonnets

Answer 10

154 sonnets
sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summers day)

Question 11

Buried where?

Answer 11

In holy trinity church with a grave stone claiming that anyone who messes with his tomb will be cursed for life

Question 12

What language does he write in?

Answer 12

EME or early modern English
He invented 1700 words and coined important phrases like “vanished into thin air” and “one fell swoop”
the fascinating part about his diction is that he wrote to be understood by peasants and nobles.

Question 13

Religion in his upbringing

Answer 13

It was a very controversial time because the national religion switched from cath to port to cath in 12 years
this meant that he was taught by teachers with diff religions and his father actually got fired because of his religion.

Question 14

What writer inspired Romeo and Juliet with what myth
+ more about original plots

Answer 14

Romeo and Juliet was inspired by Pyramus and Thisbe, written by Shakespeare’s favorite writer: Ovid
Only 2 of his plays had original plot lines.

Question 15

WHY ARE PEOPLE STILL FASCINATED WITH SHAKESPEARE?

Answer 15

He was able to capture what made people tick and got the essence of the most important human emotions through his writing. He also wrote about topics that were important to people like Money, power, war, love and more.

Question 16

What was London like during Shakespeare life?

Answer 16

There were major contrasts between wealth in London from the richest to the poorest. The only thing that united people was playgoing, filled with romance and poetry.

Question 17

What are groundlings?

Answer 17

In the globe theater, people who sat in front of the stage were the groundlings, there were no covers over them and they spread disease easily

Question 18

Why were plays only performed in the day?

Answer 18

There was no lighting so they relied on sunlight to set the stage.

Question 19

What helped bring life to his plays?

Answer 19

COSTUMES!
Back when nobody could afford to dress in anything other than bleak black and white clothes costumes stood out and were able to inform wether a character was of high stature or not.

Question 20

How did government officials feel about the plays?

Answer 20

London officials hated the plays because they attracted prostitutes, pickpocketers, and crime in general. On top of this, the place wasn’t very clean so it facilitated the spread of disease.

Question 21

Women’s role in and out of the theater

Answer 21

It was considered immoral to have women on stage, so the women’s roles were played by men. Outside of theater, women couldn’t be lawyers, doctors, or teachers, so their primary job was to marry well and benefit her family.

Question 22

Queen Elizabeth
+being single

Answer 22

She had been on the throne for 40 years In 1593 and loved to attend the plays. Without her devotion to these plays, they most likely would not have run.
She was single and didn’t marry because she used being single as a way to get what she wanted in foreign policy
(taunting marriage) then taking it away.

Question 23

sonnets structure

Answer 23

3 quatrains: each quatrain 4 line: each line written in Iambic pentameter
all of that is followed by a couplet composed of 2 lines in Iambic pentameter that brings an end to the story in the sonnet or adds a twist.

Question 24

sonnets rhyme scheme

Answer 24

Quatrain 1: A B A B
Quatrain 2: C D C D
Quatrain 3: E F E F
Couplet: G G

Question 25

Sonnet 18

Answer 25

shall I compare thee to a summers day…
This sonnet is written to a lover thought to be a boy in which Shakspeare compares the lover to a summer’s day.
But the couplet at the end says the only thing retaining the beauty of the boy is the poetry. As in, without people to read the writing, the lover is no longer beautiful.
A lot of topics in the poems have to do with the mortality of humans and the immortality of poetry itself

Question 26

Who made sonnets popular?

Answer 26

Sonnets were popularized in the 13th century by Francesco Petrarca who wrote mostly about his love life (Laura). (Francesco Petrarca also started the French revolution)

Question 27

What we don’t know about the sonnets

Answer 27

• Shakespeare wrote his 154 sonnets that we have around 1590 (we don’t have a specific date)
• the sonnets are presumably mostly written about his personal life and not from the eyes of an Imagined figure but we don’t know for sure
• Although Historians are unsure whether there are more unpublished sonnets, Shakespeare didn’t appear to be private about his work, so we assume he left nothing unpublished
• We are also unsure if the sonnets were published in the order they were written

Question 28

Why did Shakespeare write in Iambic Pentameter

Answer 28

Iambic pentameter actually reflected normal human speech at the time, and we speak this way sometimes as well without knowing it

Question 29

Poetry vs. prose

Answer 29

concentrated language produced through rhythm and sound
also known as verse

Ordinary everyday speech

He used both in his writing

Question 30

What is Iambic Pentameter

Answer 30

A meter is the use of a regular rhythmic pattern
and Penta means 5, so pentameter means 5 of the same pattern back to back
An Iam is a unit of speech that contains one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable

Unrhymed Iambic pentameter was also known as blank verse

Question 31

properties of lines in Iambic pentameter

Answer 31

lines written in Iambic pentameter are composed of 10 syllables split into 5 Iams of 2 syllables

Question 32

Pyramus and Thisbe characters and plot

Answer 32

Thisbe - fairest maiden
Pyramus - handsome boy
The two were neighbors in Babylonia and fell in love through a crack in the wall. Their parents forbade them from marrying, but their love only grew through their separation. One day they decided to marry despite their parent’s wishes beneath a mulberry tree at night. Thisbe arrives first and is scared into some nearby bushes by a lion. The lion’s bloodied jaw grabs hold of thisbe’s veil and bloodies it. Pryamus arriving later sees the bloody veil and stabs himself on the spot, shortly after, Thisbe comes out of the bushes only to find her lover dead. She stabs herself and they are united finally in heaven, but as a tribute to their sacrifice, the gods make the mulberry colored red(previously white).

Question 33

Pyramus and Thisbe’s conflicts and themes

Answer 33

The conflict is their love being prohibited by their parents, who keep them separated by a wall. It is resolved when both characters die, eternally bonding in the afterlife, and binding their blood in the mulberry.
the theme:
This story encompasses the idea of true love, and that if two people truly love each other, their love will overcome any obstacle to be together in the end. This is made clear by the unending amounts of obstacles that their love encounters like their parents, the wall, the bear, and death.
symbols include;
The wall, which symbolizes the obstacle of their love keeping them apart despite their desire for each other
The berry symbolizes their true love for each other overcome obstacles and forever binding each other

Question 34

Inversion

Answer 34

In his writing, Shakespeare reorganized the modern word order to create more emphasis on a particular word. He changed the word order from subj + V + obj to obj + subj + verb

Question 35

Ommision

Answer 35

To shorten the line, or to create rhymes sheakspeare sometimes ommits words from common phrases
“Have you heard the news” to “heard the news”

Question 36

biblical and classical allusion

Answer 36

These are lines where sheakspeare will reference the bible or mythology in order to make more accurate comparisons

Question 37

Petrarchan love

Answer 37

Inspired by petrarchs love for laura, this describes an unquenchable love for someone.
It involves the lover being paralyzed by their love
language describing the lover as perfect
the only fault being that she is mortal
and the lover being depressed because they cannot win over someone so beautiful, (their love is not returned)

Question 38

Archaic language

Answer 38

Archaic language is the words of which whose meaning has changed. As in it used to mean something different but similar back in the time when Shakespeare was writing

Question 39

Pun

Answer 39

A pun is a play on words, or in this case it is playing with the sounds of words to achieve particular effects

Question 40

paradox

Answer 40

A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement, that when deeply thought about actually makes sense