While William Shakespeare is the most notable name for writers from Elizabethan England, he was by far not the only one. A great many dramatists came from this era, most of who were friends and conspirators with Shakespeare. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists strives to bring recognition to these names, as well as their relationship with Shakespeare. In this paper, a few of these fellow writers will be discussed, as well as their possible influence on Shakespeare
Displays of Violence in Kane's Blasted, Bond's Lear and Pinter's The Homecoming In Sarah Kane's Blasted, a woman and a man are raped on stage, eyeballs and dead babies are consumed and a man shoots himself through the head. In Edward Bond's Lear, several men and women are shot, a man is severly beaten and another is blinded, and the body of a woman is disected on stage. Both Kane and Bond claim that the use of violence on stage is vital for the message they want to get across. Harold Pinter
Renaissance Drama and Staging Margaret Jane Kidnie states “an area significantly impacted by William Shakespeare, Renaissance Theater developed into an influential period of drama deviating upon various elements of perception in each performance” (456-473). Many scholars wrote responses about renaissance drama and staging. There was a diversity of focus portrayed throughout each presentation, therefore resulting in differentiation between performances. Jealousy, gender, and spectatorship were
It all began with the travesty that is it bubonic plague. Transported by fleas on rodents, thousands of people’s lives were lost before it was all over. After the plague, Western Europe went through a period of “rebirth”- called the Renaissance. This time period was ruled by the esteemed Queen Elizabeth I and is also called the Elizabethan Era. As the Elizabethan Era was an age of great chance, much advancement was made in the fields of science and mathematics, exploration, industry, culture, and
critical history, beginning with Marvin Rosenberg's 1961 book The Masks of Othello (a book documenting the nineteenth-century tendency toward representing Othello as light-skinned), and continuing through to Jack D'Amico's 1991 book The Moor in English Renaissance Drama. According to Vaughan herself, "The effect of Othello depends . . . on the essential fact of the hero's darkness, the visual signifier of his Otherness" (51). Arthur L. Little, Jr., in his article "'An essence that's not seen': The Primal
Woman’s Part, “patriarchal order takes different forms and is portrayed with varying degrees of emphasis throughout the Shakespearean canon” (5). In the midst of this patriarchy, where do women stand? What social assumptions guided the pen of the great English poet and playwright as he wrote The Tempest? Lenz discusses that “In the comedies women are most often nurturing and powerful; as their values educate the men, mutuality between the sexes may be achieved” (6). However, “in tragedy…their roles are
Era was a significant epoch in the United Kingdom’s history. Ranging from 1558 to 1603, this was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Elizabethan Era, also known as the Elizabethan Age or Elizabethan Period, is said to be the golden age of English history, with a quite diversified public life, a rise in the fine arts, and numerous advancements in many technological and scientific fields. To begin with, the highlighted topic of almost all historic accounts of the Elizabethan Age was the lives
Mortimer's work, Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England , was written as a travel guide for the time traveler. Mortimer used the concept of time travel to achieve many things. He visits a time era from the past and compares it to our modern ideas. By applying the concept of time travel to tell a story; he makes it a unique and thought provoking read. Mortimer takes common misconceptions head on and gives an in-depth analysis of life in Elizabethan England.these range from the politics of
The Elizabethan age became known as a golden age throughout the English Renaissance which led to resurgence in all aspects of daily life, few of those being the English Theatre and English literature. Even throughout the Elizabethan era, some aspects have never changed since it was first developed, only either modified or added. One of these aspects includes superstitions during the Elizabethan era. Superstitions have been an integral part of society that existed before the Elizabethan era in England
The elizabethan era began in the mid fifthteenth century and marked a very important moment in time, history, and dramatic literature. During the beginning of this time known as the Shakespearean age, Catholicism was the predominant faith of England which began to change when King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church. After this event, the two major and dominantly chosen religions of England became the Catholic and Protestant faiths. Due to Protestantism originating from the Catholic faith
The Shakespearean era started when William Shakespeare started his writing. This coincided with the Elizabethan Age. Both of these eras display many of the same characteristics and themes. The exception being the Shakespearean era ended in 1613 when he wrote his last play, The Two Noble Kinsmen, rather than 1603 when the Elizabethan Age ended. When Hamlet was written, 1599-1601, both eras were still going on. This paper is going to approach the themes of the Shakespearean era, and explain them through
The Elizabethan era was during the 16th century when Queen Elizabeth ruled England. It was considered a golden age because of the prosperous time, it inspired pride but also saw an expansion of ideas, innovation, literature, and music. The 1980s in the United States was characterized by the end of the cold war which America was directly involved in. President Ronald Reagan was at the forefront of politics and the decade is often remembered for its never before seen level of materialism and consumerism
Manipulation of Lyrics in As You Like It While it is a comedy of the turmoil of love and the experimentation with gender roles and identity, William Shakespeare's As you Like It is a historical preservation of Renaissance music. The play is fraught with spontaneous song and poetry, yet Shakespeare strategically manipulates these musical elements. Specifically, the lyrics and poetry of the play function to establish a soundtrack and a direct appeal to their Elizabethan audience, while providing
Homoeroticism focuses on the proceeding of the prohibitions of women on the English stage, as young pubescent boys played female characters. (Bullion, L. 2010:7) According to Smith (1994:48); “Historical records, however, the laws were hardly rigorously enforced and cases in which a man was executed for violating the law.” Orgel
Mr. Novak British Literature H 22 March 2014 The English Renaissance The English Renaissance is one of the most important time periods in literature history due to its historical background, stunning authors, inspirational literature, and its use of literary devices. The English Renaissance dated from the late fifteenth century to the early seventeenth century. The English Renaissance was a cultural movement that affected all forms of art such as literature, painting, and music. The later sixteenth
Roles of Women During the Renaissance as Seen in Shakespeare's Henry IV The plays of Shakespeare can be used as a window upon Renaissance society. However, if one looks through this window and does not leave behind the ideals of a modern society, the view may become distorted and not be as pleasing as it was for Shakespeare's contemporaries. In I Henry IV, the characters of the women are not equally developed as the male characters; but their interaction, or lack thereof, depicts the changing
consisting of a fixed number of list able items. Consequently, the same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times. For example, Latin poets categorized the elegy mainly in terms of its meter, while poets during the English Renaissance regarded the subject matter and tone to be determinate of form. History and culture play a role in the ever changing status of genres, which are difficult to define because the concept encompasses so many different literary qualities and conventions
art, literature and culture sparked a surge in scholarly learning in not only the aristocracy, but the newly emerging politicians of the upper middle class. This fascination and surge of enthusiasm for learning is more commonly referred to as the renaissance. Furthermore, the people of England had found themselves facing a situation that never been seen in the country’s history. This being, a female monarch who was not only a sovereign in her own right, but without the guidance of a husband or an heir
Was there ever a time when people did not break the law? The Elizabethan Era was one of the most known periods of English history. Being known for its great success in change and discovery, it was also remembered for its violent and brutal times. A subject that many people were interested in from this era was the crime and punishment. As people looked back the crime and punishment of the era, there were three factors that stood out from the construction of its history. They were: the crimes that
In the beginning of the 17th century a group known as the Elizabethan society was spreading throughout Europe. Elizabethans were avid thinkers and developers of new concepts and ideas pertaining life and it’s makings. Elizabethans were quite interested in the universe and believed there was a hierarchical ladder that all divisions of life fall on to. An image taken from the Elizabethan time era physically shows a flight of stairs in which each step is labeled with a Latin word that points to an angel