Shakespeare lived during a period of great transition when the feudal system began to disintegrate and the emerging bourgeoisie began to rise. At that time, the obscurantist ideas represented by religious theology in the Middle Ages were declining, the bourgeoisie's individualism-centered worldview became increasingly popular, and humanism began to occupy a dominant position in social and cultural trends of thought. Shakespeare used his plays to boldly criticize the cruel darkness of the feudal system and the imprisonment of human nature. It strongly reflected the emerging bourgeoisie's desire to establish new social relations and ethical thoughts, and set the stage for the development of humanism in Britain and Europe. Communication has played a huge role. Many of Shakespeare's plays have been lost, and only thirty-seven have been handed down. Researchers divide his creation into three periods according to the development of thought and art:
1. Historical drama and comedy period: (1590-1600)
In the first ten years of Shakespeare's drama creation, he created nine historical plays. Among these plays, except "King John" (1589), which describes the internal battles of the feudal dynasty in the 13th century, the other plays constitute two connected tetralogy: "Henry VI" Part I, Middle and Part II ( 1590-1591) and "Richard III" (1592); "Richard II" (1595), "Henry IV" Parts 1 and 2 (1597-1598) and "Henry V" (1599).
The artistic achievements of these scripts vary, and the most talked about are "Richard III", "Henry IV" and "Henry V". Richard III was a famous tyrant in British history. With great anger, Shakespeare described in the play how the insidious and cunning nobleman Richard used bloody means to squeeze out six legal heirs and ascend to the throne. , exposed and condemned his cruelty, cruelty and ignorance, and created an image of a hypocritical, cunning, cruel and ruthless tyrant. "Henry V" describes Henry V who was unwilling to accept the rigid life in the palace when he was the prince. He hung out in the lower class society and associated with gangsters. After he came to the throne, he corrected his evil ways and became a wise and ideal monarch. These two plays reflect Shakespeare's humanistic thoughts from both positive and negative aspects: he denounced the civil strife caused by the feudal nobles' struggle for power in the country, and believed that through moral improvement, an enlightened monarch can be produced, top-down reforms can be implemented, and harmonious social relations can be established. and ideal social system.
While Shakespeare's historical plays were very popular, he also created ten comedies: "The Comedy of Errors" (1592), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1593), "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" ( 1594), "Love's Labour's Labour" (1594), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1596), "The Merchant of Venice" (1597), "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1598), "Much Ado About Nothing" (1599), "As You Like It" "(1600), "Twelfth Night" (1600). Among them, the last three works best express Shakespeare's comedy creation style, and are known as "the charming and bright comedy trilogy". Most of these scripts take love, friendship, and marriage as themes, but the plots are extremely vivid and rich, and are extraordinary. The author uses humorous, cheerful writing and picturesque lyricism to reveal people's emotional conflicts and contradictions in real life. In particular, he has created a group of heroines who are courageous, persistent, funny, witty and gentle. They pursue their right to love freely, fight unyieldingly against various evil forces, and radiate dazzling light on the drama stage.
The Merchant of Venice is known for its strong satirical and critical attitude towards society. Shakespeare successfully created the image of Shylock, a vivid, complex, extremely self-interested loan shark. At the same time, through Shylock, Shakespeare protested against all Jews who were discriminated against by nationality and religion, embodying the stance of bourgeois humanitarianism. The play uses vivid court confrontation scenes to raise economic issues such as overseas trade and loan sharking, which makes people feel the author's superb ability to control the material.
"Romeo and Juliet" (1594), written during this period, is a poetic tragedy that reflects the conflict between humanist love, ideals and feudal oppression. Although the plot is a tragedy, it is also full of the love for life, the yearning for happiness and the confidence in the future found in comedy works. The Qian drama is permeated with a positive atmosphere of optimism and is actually a hymn to youth and love.
Although the protagonist paid the price with his life, the barriers were eliminated, love and ideals finally won, and Romeo and Juliet became immortal models in world literature. The play is full of strong lyricism, such as Juliet's beautiful monologue as she waits for Romeo to come for her date:
Come, night! Come, Romeo! Come, you day in the night! For you will sleep on the wings of night, whiter than the new snow on a crow's back. Come, soft night! Come, dear night, give me my Romeo; when he is dead, take him with you, scatter him into countless stars, and decorate the sky so beautifully that the whole world will love the night no more. Worship the dazzling sun.
Researchers divide his creation into three periods according to the development of thought and art:
2. Tragic Period (1601-1608)
This period is the stage of maturity and deepening of Shakespeare's thought and art. At the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the relationship between the royal power and the bourgeoisie began to become tense, and the life of the court aristocrats became increasingly decadent. Shakespeare had seen the insurmountable gap between ideals and reality, but he attributed these to the moral conflicts between good and evil. He opposed violence, emphasized the role of reason, and created a number of brilliant, yet depressive and angry tragic plays. It exposes the social evils and bourgeois egoism that have begun to appear in the period of primitive accumulation of capitalism, and shows the contradiction between the beautiful ideals of humanism and the cruel reality. The romanticism in the play is getting weaker and weaker, and the realistic description is becoming more and more prominent. The main content of its tragedy is the conflict between people and society, people and people, and people's innermost feelings. It is called a model of "tragedy of character" and "tragedy of society".
"Hamlet" (1601) is Shakespeare's most important work. This tragedy is the richest in terms of its social content and philosophical connotation. It uses exquisite artistic form and broad ideological content to show the protagonist's disillusionment with humanistic ideals, and reflects the author's exploration of the value and meaning of life. As early as the 12th century, the story of a Danish prince avenging his father has been circulating. Playwrights in England and France have written medieval scripts centered on blood revenge based on the plot. In 1601, Shakespeare adapted it into an outstanding tragedy that profoundly reflected the times and contained fierce conflicts, giving this revenge story a wide range of social significance.
"King Lear" (1605) is based on the historical legend of ancient Britain: the old and dim King Lear divided the kingdom between his hypocritical eldest daughter Regan and his second daughter Gonerly, but left the honest The youngest daughter Cordylisa, whose frankness would not please her father, was banished abroad. Lear himself only retained the title of king and a hundred attendants, and planned to take turns living in the homes of his two daughters to enjoy his old age. Unexpectedly, after the two eldest daughters achieved their goal, their true colors were revealed and they drove their father out of the house. King Lear suffered from displacement. On a stormy night with thunder and lightning, King Lear, who was driven mad, ran towards the wilderness, shouting his grief, anger and helplessness to the sky. King Lear's long monologue to the sky under the violent storm not only shows us a painful soul, but also reveals the awakening process of humanity of this king who was alienated by power. The youngest daughter learned what happened to King Lear and raised an army to attack her two sisters. Unfortunately, she was killed. King Lear also died of grief and madness. Shakespeare stood from the standpoint of a humanist, and through the civil strife in the royal family and the ups and downs of King Lear, he criticized the hypocritical human relations in capitalist society and affirmed the moral principles of sympathy and fraternity.
Shakespeare lived during a period of great transition when the feudal system began to disintegrate and the emerging bourgeoisie began to rise. At that time, the obscurantist ideas represented by religious theology in the Middle Ages were declining, the bourgeoisie's individualism-centered worldview became increasingly popular, and humanism began to occupy a dominant position in social and cultural trends of thought. Shakespeare used his plays to boldly criticize the cruel darkness of the feudal system and the imprisonment of human nature. It strongly reflected the emerging bourgeoisie's desire to establish new social relations and ethical thoughts, and set the stage for the development of humanism in Britain and Europe. Communication has played a huge role. Many of Shakespeare's plays have been lost, and only thirty-seven have been handed down. Researchers divide his creation into three periods according to the development of thought and art:
"Macbeth" (1605) It is a masterpiece of psychological description in Shakespeare's plays.
The Scottish general Macbeth returned triumphantly from the battlefield. On the way, he listened to the witch's prophecy that he could become king. Driven by ambition and instigated by his wife, he took advantage of King Duncan's visit to his home to kill the king and usurp the throne. In the end, everyone rebelled. He was defeated and killed; his wife also died of schizophrenia. The whole play is filled with a sinister and terrifying atmosphere. Shakespeare criticized the corrosive effect of ambition on conscience by describing the process of Macbeth, a hero who once made many extraordinary achievements, and became a cruel tyrant. Due to the bewitchment of the witch and the influence of his wife, Macbeth, who has a good nature, wants to do something big, and his ambition turns into ambition. The realization of ambition leads to a series of new crimes, and the result is reversal and inevitable death. In the atmosphere of superstition, sin, and terror, the author often asks the sinners he writes to think deeply, reflect, and analyze their hearts. The psychological changes of Macbeth and his wife before and after the regicide appear to be distinct, which further increases the depth of the tragedy.
The above four plays are called Shakespeare's "four major tragedies". In these plays, Shakespeare saw the inherent contradictions in the emerging capitalist social relations, attacked the evil nature of the capitalist interest principle, and showed the pain that class oppression brought to the working people. But he attributed social struggles to abstract moral issues of good and evil, only saw the power of ideas and the role of individuals, and ignored the masses of the people. Therefore, in the face of a cold and sin-filled society, single-handed individualistic heroes They are often beaten to death, pessimistic, confused, and disillusioned, and fall into inextricable inner conflicts and tragic endings. At the end of the tragedy, no protagonist can escape the fate of death, so that later generations call the fifth act at the end of Shakespeare's play the "death bed." But the terrible ending of the common death also shows the playwright's hope for the human world: outstanding people die, and careerists who use tricks for personal interests cannot escape the fate of death, but justice has won a moral victory. Justice The good and the good will be remembered for centuries, but the evil will be despised by others and will be in disgrace for thousands of years. They are still looking forward to the heroes who will rebuild the country. Its sharp critical edge, profound revelation of human nature, and high summary of the spirit of the times and social life make Shakespeare's tragedies still have shocking power and become monuments in the history of drama.
In addition to the "Four Great Tragedies", during this period Shakespeare also wrote "Julius Caesar" (1601) and "Athens" based on Plutarch's "Lives of the Greeks and Romans". Timon" (1605), "Antony and Cleopatra" (1607), and "Coriolanus" (1607) are a series of tragedies. "Timon of Athens" writes that the Athenian nobleman Timon was generous and hospitable, good at charity, squandering money like water, and having many guests at home every day. Although he helped many people get out of trouble, he couldn't distinguish between flatterers and friends, and most of his money was still spent on villains and parasites. Once all his gold was gone and creditors flooded the house, they sent people to ask for help from senators, nobles and those who had received his favors. However, those villains who had welcomed him in every possible way were afraid of him as if they were avoiding the plague, which made him cry every day. If you don't respond, it will cause the earth to become inoperable. Timon left the crowd sadly and lived alone in a cave outside the city. One day, while he was digging tree roots to satisfy his hunger, he accidentally discovered a large pile of gold. Having experienced the hardships of the world, Timon, who had seen through the hypocrisy of the world, could not help but curse angrily. :
Gold! Yellow, shiny, precious gold... Just a little bit of this stuff is enough to reverse right and wrong, turn the ugly into beautiful, the wrong into right, the humble into noble, the old into a young man, and the coward into a coward. Become a warrior... This yellow slave can make pagan alliances, divide countries, bless sinners; lepers are treated as lovers; with him in the Senate, robbers can be crowned officials and be worshiped by people. , praise; with him, the yellow-skinned chicken-faced widow can become a bride again.
The exposure of the money principle of capitalism is really penetrating! Marx quoted this passage in "Capitalism" to explain the nature of money. Athens in the play was later besieged, and the nobles and senators came to find Timon, who was once brave and good at fighting, and gave him money, power, and status, but Timon's heart had become cold, and in the end he became a misanthrope, harboring evil intentions. He left this world with hatred for hypocritical human beings.
3. Romance Period (1609-1613) Shakespeare's late creations showed a tendency to break away from reality and turn to the dream world, using fantasy to resolve the contradiction with reality. The style also changed, full of fairy tale imagination, full of liveliness rhythm.
His works include "Cymbeline" (1609), "The Winter's Tale" (1610), "The Tempest" (1611), etc. The plots of these scripts are similar. The protagonists first encounter disasters and misfortunes, and then get a chance to turn the danger around, or even get a blessing in disguise. Although the dark reality is exposed, the spirit of forgiveness and understanding runs throughout the play, advocating the use of love to heal old wounds, and emphasizing that repentance and reform can generate new hope. The characters and background of the script are extremely legendary, the motivations of the characters are almost absurd, and a large number of coincidences and accidental events are prominently used.
The important work of this period is "The Tempest". Mysterious fantasy, magnificent descriptions, vivid images, and poetic background make this play a representative of Shakespeare's late dramatic art.
Shakespeare’s plays are unattainable peaks in the history of Western dramatic art. In his plays, such a broad picture of life is unfolded: from the princes and nobles to the poor people living at the bottom of society, characters from all walks of life dance in the play, and everyone has their own likes and dislikes. , sadness and joy, everyone has distinct personality characteristics. Macbeth and Iago are both insidious, cunning and extremely selfish. They both have the courage to sacrifice themselves for ideals and justice. Othello and Hamlet are different. Different characters live in their own typical environments.
Shakespeare is an unparalleled master of dramatic structure. Although his plays can be divided into tragedy and comedy, he breaks the boundaries between tragedy and comedy in the actual creation, and is not restricted by strict traditional genre divisions. Thus showing a richer and fuller human nature and the spiritual world of the characters. He is good at describing several parallel and intertwined clues to promote the development of vivid and complex plots. In terms of writing skills, it shows a wonderful sense of dramatic urgency. The gradually accelerating pace of plot development often has a kind of magical touch that makes the audience amazed.
The language of Shakespeare's plays is completely poetic. It is as gentle as flowing water and as turbulent as the waves crashing on the shore, which is endlessly memorable. According to statistics from later generations, Shakespeare used more than 15,000 words, and was good at using metaphors, metaphors, and puns. Many of the languages ????in Shakespeare's plays have become idioms and allusions in English, which greatly enriched the English vocabulary. . The language form is mainly blank verse, but also mixed with ancient poetry, ballads, slang and light and funny prose dialogues. It can be described as diverse, rich and vivid, and has become the basic material that constitutes the building of Shakespeare's dramatic art.
Shakespeare also created one hundred and fifty-four sonnets, which are generally believed to have been completed in the six years from 1592 to 1598. One to one hundred and twenty-six sonnets were about the poet and a nobleman. The ups and downs of youth's friendship, poems 127 to 152, reveal the poet's love for a "dark-skinned woman". They are vivid and rhythmic, expressing the humanists' commitment to truth and goodness. , the understanding and ideal of beauty.
Shakespeare did not enjoy too much honor during his lifetime, and he did not receive universal recognition in the two hundred years after his death. By the middle of the 19th century, people rediscovered Shakespeare and formed a new discipline - Shakespeare studies. However, because Shakespeare was born as a commoner, did not receive higher education, and his life information was too scarce, some people doubted his drama creation career, and even went to great lengths to find the "real" author of Shakespeare's plays. In fact, there is not enough evidence and material to overturn Shakespeare's authorship. Shakespeare's status as a generation of literary giants and great dramatists cannot be shaken.