William Shakespeare

Nationality: UK

Place of birth: Stratford, Warwickshire, England

Date of birth:1April 23, 564

Date of death:1665438+April 23, 2006.

Occupation: playwright, poet, actor

Representative Works: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.

Family introduction

Jone Shakespeare Jon Shakespeare's father, the glove craftsman.

Mary Arden Mary Arden's mother was born in a landlord family and died in 1608.

Anne Hathaway's wife has always opposed Shakespeare's career.

Susanna Susanna's eldest daughter and son-in-law: John Hall.

Elizabeth Elizabeth's granddaughter has no children.

Hamnet shakespeare hamnet shakespeare's youngest son is dead.

Judith Sadler Judith Sadler's youngest daughter and son-in-law: Mas Queenie.

Unknown? My sister passed away.

Joan John's sister has a son.

Gilbert Shakespeare Gilbert Shakespeare's younger brother died in 16 12, leaving no heir.

Richard Shakespeare's younger brother, Richard Shakespeare, died in 16 13, with no heir.

Edmund Shakespeare's younger brother Edmund Shakespeare died in 1607, with no heir.

Rumor of William Davenant's illegitimate child in William Davenant and its claim.

Shakespeare's family has no heir.

Creative stage

Shakespeare has written thirty-seven plays (thirty-eight, if you add two aristocratic relatives co-written with Fletcher), two narrative poems Venus and adonis, The Humiliation of Lucretius and one hundred and fifty-four sonnets in more than twenty years. His plays are mostly based on historical records, novels, folklore and old plays, which reflect the historical reality of the transition from feudal society to capitalist society and publicize the humanitarian thought and human nature view of the emerging bourgeoisie. On the one hand, he borrowed extensively from ancient drama, English medieval drama and emerging culture and art in Europe, on the other hand, he deeply observed life, understood society and grasped the pulse of the times, which enabled Shakespeare to create many vivid characters and paint a broad and colorful picture of social life, and was famous for his blending of sadness and joy, poetic and picturesque, unity in contradiction and change, philosophy of life and critical spirit. Generally speaking, Shakespeare's drama creation can be divided into the following three periods:

first stage

From 1590 to 1600, he mainly wrote historical dramas and comedies, including 9 historical dramas, 2 comedies and 2 tragedies. Mcpace

Of the nine historical dramas, except King John, which tells the history of England at the beginning of the 65438+3rd century, the other eight are all two tetralogy: the first, middle and last three of Henry VI and Richard III; Richard II, Henry IV (known as the most successful historical drama) and Henry V. In fact, Henry VI is Shakespeare's first play. At first, the first part was written by another playwright. 1590, Shakespeare took over and continued to complete the second part. The first part was revised at 159 1. These historical dramas summed up the turmoil in British history for more than 100 years, shaped a series of positive and negative monarchies, and reflected Shakespeare's humanistic political and moral ideals of opposing feudal separatism, supporting centralization, condemning tyrants and tyranny, and demanding enlightened monarchies to carry out top-down reforms and establish harmonious social relations. 10 Most comedies, The Wrong Comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The futility of love, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much ado about nothing, All Happy and Twelfth Night, are all about it. Praise progress and beautiful new features, but also gently expose and ridicule the decay and ugliness of old things, such as the wrong correction of asceticism, the hypocrisy of Puritans and the greed of usurers. The basic tone of Shakespeare's drama creation in this period is optimistic and clear, full of confidence in solving social contradictions with humanistic ideals, so that the tragicomedy Romeo and Juliet written in this period is also full of comedy atmosphere. Although the hero died of double suicide, the ideal of love overcame death and got the reconciliation of feudal feud. However, the mature comedy The Merchant of Venice in the later period of this period contains melancholy and tragic factors. While advocating kindness, friendship and sincere love, it reflects the class oppression and racial discrimination of the law of the jungle in Christian society, indicating that the author has gradually realized that there is an intractable contradiction between ideal and reality. Works of this period: 1590 the second and third parts of king Henry VI 159 1 the first part of king Henry VI of Henry VI 1592 Richard iii. The Life and Death of King Richard III. Wrong Comedy 1593 Titus Andlau Knicks Tames the Shrew 1594 Two Gentlemen of Verona T. A gentleman in Verona, the futility of love/the futility of love Romeo and Juliet 1595 Richard II, The Life and Death of King Richard II, A Midsummer Night's Dream 1596 King John, The Life and Death of King John of Venice 1597 Henry IV, Henry IV/Kloc Windsor's S Henry V King Henry V 1599 Julius Caesar's life and death are happy as you wish 1600 Twelfth night, or, as you wish.

The second period

160 1 ~ 1607 focuses on tragedies, writing three Roman dramas, five tragedies and three "black comedies" or "problem dramas". The Roman plays Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Cory Ollanu are historical plays adapted from Plutarch's biographies of Greek and Roman heroes. These four tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Timon of Athens, mark the author's deep thinking about the times and life, and strive to shape some tragic protagonists in the new era: they woke up from the imprisonment and ignorance of the Middle Ages and developed or improved themselves ambitiously under the dawn of modern times, but they could not overcome the limitations of the times and themselves, and finally found themselves in the same environment and inner hostile forces. In order to avenge his father, Hamlet found that "the whole era was out of tenon" and decided to take on the responsibility of "rectifying Gankun". As a result, he was too ambitious to return to heaven. Othello is honest and simple, and people hate him. He killed his wife at the mercy of traitors, and was punished for pursuing perfection. King Lear lost his nature in the honor, pride and self-confidence brought by power. He could be as great as ordinary people without being king, so he suffered a lot. Macbeth is a hero with meritorious service, and there are goodness and beauty in his character. Driven by the temptation and ambition of the throne, he degenerated into a "bloody to bloody" sinner and regretted the world. The tragedies of these characters profoundly reveal all kinds of social ugliness and bourgeois egoism that began to appear in primitive accumulation of capital period, and show the irreconcilable contradiction between humanistic ideal and cruel reality, which has a high degree of generalization significance. Due to the enhancement of the ideological depth and realism depth of dramas in this period, comedies such as troilus, Cressida, All ends well, and Tit for Tit also showed a dark side, shrouded in the evil shadow of treachery and conspiracy, so they were called "problem dramas" or "black comedies". The works of this period: 160 1 hamlet, Danish prince 1602 Troilus and Cresida Troilus and Cresida are all the traditions of ending well 1604 tit for tat in Othello, otero, Venetian Moore 1605 King Lear Macbeth. Io lanus Timons 1608 Prince Perikles of Tyre in Athens.

tertiary

1608 ~ 16 13 tragicomedy or legendary drama inclined to compromise and fantasy. His main works are four tragicomedy or legendary dramas, Prince Searle's Perikles, cymbeline, Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Most of these works are about separation, reunion, framing and revenge. Although we still adhere to the ideal of humanism and expose the dark reality, the solution of contradictions mainly depends on magic, fantasy, coincidence and accidental events, and ends with preaching forgiveness, tolerance, compromise and reconciliation. Shakespeare also collaborated with Fletcher to write the historical drama Henry VIII and the legendary drama Two Noble Relatives, which has been included in the existing Shakespeare plays in recent years. 1590 to 1600 is the early period of Shakespeare's creation, also known as the historical drama and comedy period. During this period, Shakespeare's humanistic thought and artistic style gradually formed. At that time, Britain was in the heyday of Queen Elizabeth's rule, with stable and unified kingship and prosperous economy. Shakespeare is full of confidence in realizing humanistic ideals in the real society, and his works are full of optimism and clarity. During this period, he wrote nine historical plays, including Richard III (1592), Henry IV (parts I and II) (1597- 1598) and Henry V (10). The basic theme of the script is to support the central kingship, condemn the feudal tyrant and praise the enlightened monarch. For example, "Henry IV" shows the picture of the turbulent domestic situation. The nobles United against the king, but the rebellion was finally quelled; The prince lived a dissolute life earlier, but later he made a mistake and made great contributions to quelling civil strife. In the play, historical facts and artistic fiction are highly unified. Falstaff is one of the most vivid characters. He is selfish, lazy and timid, but he is alert, intelligent and optimistic, which makes people laugh. Shakespeare's comedies during this period.

Including the poetic A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), The Merchant of Venice (1597), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1598), Much ado about nothing (65438+), which reflects citizens' living habits and customs, and advocates chastity. The basic themes of these plays are love, marriage and friendship, which are full of lyrical colors and show Shakespeare's ideal of humanistic life. At the same time, he also wrote three tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet (1595). Although the work has a sad side, the basic spirit is the same as comedy. Shakespeare also wrote the long poems Venus and adonis (1592- 1593), The Shame of Lucretius (1593- 1594) and 154 sonnets. /kloc-At the beginning of the 0/7th century, the regime of Queen Elizabeth I and James I alternated, the social contradictions in Britain intensified, and the social ugliness became increasingly exposed. During this period, Shakespeare's thought and art became mature, and the humanistic ideal collided fiercely with social reality. He felt that his ideal was difficult to realize, and his creation turned from praising humanistic ideals in the early days to exposing and criticizing social darkness. The second period of Shakespeare's creation (1601-1607) is also called the tragic period. He has written Hamlet (160 1), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606), Macbeth (1606) and Ty of Athens. In Othello, Desdemona, who was born in a noble family, married Othello the Moor privately despite the opposition of her father and society, showing the theme of opposing racial prejudice. The reason for their tragedy is not only Othello's jealousy, but also the powerful evil forces represented by Iago. Othello's sobriety before his death contains the victory of human reason. King Lear shows a broken society. King Lear paid the price of his life because of his stubbornness, and also brought great disaster to the country and people. The protagonist has changed from a feudal monarch with absolute authority to a homeless old man with nothing, and the fate and character of the characters have undergone tremendous changes, which is the most distinctive in Shakespeare's works. In Macbeth, a hero became a personal careerist and tyrant because of his inner ambition and external instigation. Its tragic significance lies in that personal ambition and egoism can destroy a person who is not evil. Generally speaking, these tragedies profoundly exposed the decay of feudal nobles, appalling egoism, the evil of money relations and the suffering of working people; Stylistically, it reduces the atmosphere of romance and joy, increases the mood of melancholy and indignation, and makes the image fuller and the language more proficient. After 1608, Shakespeare entered the last period of his creation. At this time, Shakespeare saw that the ideal of humanism could not be realized in the real society, so he turned from writing tragedies to writing legendary dramas, from exposing and criticizing the darkness of the real society to writing dream worlds. Therefore, this period is also called Shakespeare's legendary drama period. During this period, his works often solved the contradiction between ideal and reality through myth and fantasy and supernatural power; The works are permeated with the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. There is no joy in the early stage and no gloom in the middle stage. But full of beautiful life fantasies and rich romantic feelings. The Tempest (16 1 1) best represents the style of this period and is called "a will written in poetry". In addition, he also wrote three legendary dramas, such as cymbeline and The Story of Winter, and the historical drama Henry VIII. Shakespeare's works, starting from the truth of life, profoundly reflect the characteristics of the times and social essence. In his view, drama "seems to give nature a mirror: show its face to virtue, show its posture to absurdity, and show its image and imprint to the times and society". Marx and Engels praised Shakespeare as a classic writer of realism, and proposed that drama creation should be more "Shakespearean". This is a creative principle put forward in view of the disadvantages of "turning the individual into a simple mouthpiece of the spirit of the times" in drama creation. The so-called "Shakespearization" means that the writer, like Shakespeare, is good at starting from the truth of life, showing a broad social background and providing a typical environment with the characteristics of the times for the characters and events in his works; The plot of the work should be vivid and rich, and the characters should have distinctive personality and typical significance; The realistic depiction and romantic atmosphere in the works should be skillfully combined; Language should be rich and expressive; The writer's tendency should be hidden and naturally revealed in the plot and character description. Works of this period: 1609 cymbeline cymbeline, king of England (a drama based on Boccaccio's story) 16 10 Winter Story 65438+ 06 12 The Life of Henry VIII: Two Narrative Poems: 65438+ 0592.