SHAKESPEARE:

Shakespeare: William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English
playwright, poet, and actor. He wrote 39 plays (with about half of them considered comedies)
and two long poems in his lifetime. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England.
His plays are still performed today.
By 1594 he was an actor in The Chamberlain's Men acting company.
His plays are of different kinds, or genres. There are histories, tragedies and comedies. These
plays are among the best known in English literature and are studied in schools around the
world. Shakespeare wrote his works between about 1590 and 1613. He is considered the first
writer who wrote a tragicomedy. (A tragicomedy is a play that mixes comedy and tragedy, with a
happy ending.)
Shakespeare's plays are written in poetic language. Many of the plays are set in strange, distant
places and times. They are still popular today. The stories are often exciting, very funny (in the
comedies), or very sad (in the tragedies) and make people want to know what happens to his
characters. He says much about things that are still important today, like love, sadness, hope,
pride, hatred, jealousy, and foolishness.
Shakespeare added new words and phrases to the English language. He also made some
words more popular. He created over 1,700 English words.

Most famous comedies:

Characteristics of his comedies:

● A struggle of young lovers to overcome problems, often the result
of the interference of their elders
● There is some element of separation and reunification
● Mistaken identities, often involving disguise
● A clever servant
● Family tensions that are usually resolved in the end
● Complex, interwoven plot-lines
● Frequent use of puns and other styles of comedy
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events
surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta (the former queen of the Amazons).
There include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the
mechanicals) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the
play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed
across the world.
Themes and motifs:

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