Shakespeare There are three categories of Shakespearean plays: tragedies, comedies, and histories. Sometimes there is a fourth category either grouped with comedy or on its own: romance. Histories look at the Tudor ascension, in favour of the Tudors. _ Tragedy Comedy/Romance “+ Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, King Lear. + The protagonist must be heroic, have greater than normal human qualities, but one tragic flaw that brings about their downfall (Hamlet: procrastination, Macbeth: ambition, King Lear: pride and egotism) + The audience must be able to sympathize with the hero, if not their motives + The hero's tragic flaw throws off the balance of the natural world and only with their death can it be corrected (Hamlet's inaction results in delayed revenge against a wrongful death) + In love-tragedies (Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello) the hero does not have tragic flaw: it is the working of the world against them that causes their downfall. With their deaths the world order can be righted + The deaths in love-tragedies are considered consummations of their love: their love cannot live in this world but it lives on in the next The Tempest, Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night. Light and playful in tone, celebrations of nature Ends happily, no one dies Ends in the marriage of all the unmarried people Includes elements of the supernatural in positive ways (faeries, gods, and goddesses) Pastoral scenes (scenes set in idyllic countryside) Plots usually include mistaken identity (Twelfth Night), conflict with the natural world (Much Ado About Nothing), young lovers who struggle against elders (Midsummer Night's Dream), separation and re-unification (Comedy of Errors), multiple plots (Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice) All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure mix genres (both tragedy and comedy)O he Gestion af A Gities: Good or Evil? Elizabethans were extremely superstitious. So much so it effected their every day life. One aspect of their superstition were fairies, However, the fairies the Elizabethans believed in and the fairies Shakespeare created were two totally different creatures. Elizabethan Fairies: life size malicious fiendish make milk sour, livestock sick lead unwary travelers astray replace human babies with changeling fairy babies (usually deformed, hideous, or mentally retarded) hostile river fairies lured sailors to their death fairy aristocrats who spent their days hunting and dancing includes goblins, giants, and ogres because they fairies could be mean and vicious, Elizabethans took precautions against fairies which included: charms, conjurations, obedience, flattery, food and drink sustenance was supposed to be the most effective so most Elizabethan | households put a bowl of cream outside every night talking to fairies ensured certain doom so Elizabethans took extreme. precautions not to talk to them Shakespearean F. tiny associated with flowers benevolent and kind attendants to mortals, especially mortal rulers