William Shakespeare

Introduction

William Shakespeare was a great English playwright, dramatist and poet who lived from 1564 to
1616. Shakespeare is no doubt the greatest playwright of all time. No other writer's plays have
been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries as his. Ben Jonson,
Shakespeare’s well-known contemporary playwright, poet and actor calls Shakespeare “not of an
age but for all time.” He produced 37 plays during his time and penned 154 sonnets with two epic
poems. His characters have continued to be not just theatrical realities but social realities over four
centuries as the characters like Romeo, Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Julius Cesar, Shylock
etc. are still very much alive irrespective of socio- cultural, political and geographical differences.

He was born in Stratford on Avon to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. Shakespeare received
little formal education and never went to university. Shakespeare was at least as literate as most of
his contemporaries.

Shakespeare and Renaissance

Shakespeare lived in England during the renaissance era and during the rule of Queen Elizabeth I.
He began his career in literature during 1558 to 1603, which is known as the Elizabethan Age.
When Shakespeare was working in the theater, the Renaissance movement in the arts was peaking
in England. The new openness and humanism are reflected in Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare
updated the simplistic, two-dimensional writing style of pre-Renaissance drama. He focused on
creating human characters with psychological complexity. Hamlet is perhaps the most famous
example of this. Shakespeare used Greek and Roman classics, which were suppressed by the
Catholic Church, in his plays that enhanced his brilliance. The disturbance in social order permitted
Shakespeare to discover the complexity and humanity of every character, irrespective of their
societal position. Even monarchs were portrayed as having human emotions and were capable of
making terrible mistakes. Such as the characters King Lear or Macbeth.

Writing Style of Shakespeare

Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed both the nobles and the commoners. He not only produced
them but performed them as well. He had a unique and characteristic style of writing for. For his era, he
had mastery over his medium like no other craftsman ever had. Shakespeare experimented with the
English language and created many expressions, phrases and words that enrich the English language. For
many years he produced comedies and historical plays until he found he true love; writing tragedies and
dark dramas such as Macbeth and Hamlet. Shakespeare gradually developed and changed his writing
style from the traditional form to a more self-expressive style. He, with time, used his metaphors and
tropes to the desires of the melodrama itself. The depth of character is the most eminent feature in his
writings. Shakespeare wrote about people who seemed real instead of using stock characters as was
common in the theater during his days and in the generations that came before it. This literary device
allowed him to make characters like MacBeth or Hamlet compassionate even though they did some
awful things throughout the course of the play. It is because the Bard made them seem real and human,
but flawed. Furthermore, Shakespeare’s work departed from that of his contemporaries in that he

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wrote for every sort of person who came to the theater or read poems, not just for the upper class as
was common in those days. Romeo and Juliet show Shakespeare’s humorous writing style and his
imaginative mastery. At this point in his life (around 1595), he favored a more theatrical structure, such
as changing between comedy and tragedy to surge suspense. He expanded minor characters and
developed sub-plots to intensify the story. Shakespeare also associated various poetic styles to different
characters, occasionally evolving the style as the character developed.

Shakespeare’s Four Writing Periods

Scholars generally allocate each of his plays to one of four periods, depending on
the quality and maturity of the writing and characterization. Textbooks classify these
as the Early Period, the Balanced Period, the Overflowing Period, and the Final
Period. Although many scholars do not agree upon which play belongs to which
period but these periods help us understand his writing patterns more extensively.
Following is a listing of the plays according to their periods:

Early Period

The following plays were produced in the early period:

The Comedy of Errors, King John, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard
II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, The Two Gentlemen
of Verona.

The style in general was stern and rigid but the plots were generally organized. The early
characterization is shallow compared with the characterization in later plays. Romeo and Juliet, in
which characterization is strong, is an exception.

Balanced Period

The following plays were written in the balanced period:

All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, Hamlet, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Henry V,
Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much
Ado About Nothing, Othello, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night.

The overall writing style shifts during this time as Shakespeare loses the rigid structure and adopts
a more creative vision. Shakespeare demonstrates his range by writing outstanding works in three
genres: comedy (As You Like It, Twelfth Night), tragedy (Hamlet, Julius Caesar) and history
(Henry IV Part I, Henry V). In addition, he presents a highly tragic character, Shylock, in a comedy
(The Merchant of Venice). Shakespeare also uses the soliloquy as more than a device to disclose
the direction of the plot.

Overflowing Period

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The following dramas were created in this period:

King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens.

The plays produced in this era were highly creative; overflowing with vision. Shakespeare ignores
many rules to allow his genius to "overflow." The plots of this period sometimes twist and turn,
challenging the reader with their complexity.

Final Period

In this period, Shakespeare had attained complete mastery and firm grip on drama. Shakespeare
had just the right mix of technical skill, creativity, and wisdom while exhibiting hope for imperfect
humanity. Shakespeare tends to prefer times and places far removed from Elizabethan England.
The Winter's Tale, and Cymbeline introduce characters who suffer loss, then recover what they
have lost. The following plays were penned in his final days:

Cymbeline, Henry VIII, Pericles, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale.

Conclusion

It was not until after 1750,150 years after his death, that Shakespeare’s work began to be a major
influence upon world drama. Since then his reputation has soared: internationally, his plays have
been produced more often than those of any other dramatist, and in many countries more often
than plays of native dramatists, even though with the difficulty of translating his rich, idiomatic
Elizabethan Language.

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