‘Shakespeare’s plays reflect not life but art.’ Make use of this remark in writing an essay on Shakespeare’s use of Metadrama.
Shakespeare constantly plays with metadrama and the perception of his plays as theatre and not life with the complications inherent that in life we all play roles and perceive life in different ways. The play has recognition of its existence as theatre, which has relevance to a contemporary world that is increasingly aware of precisely how its values and practices are constructed and legitimised through perceptions of reality.
Critic Mark Currie posits that metadrama allows its readers a better understanding of the fundamental structures of narrative
…show more content…
This essay examines the various metadramatic constructions that Shakespeare used to achieve this and examines the effect of these dramatic constructs for the audience.
Dramatic constructions were written to be presented and understood in performance. The nature of these constructions lies in how they are assembled. How the words work with and against each other – ambiguity, paradox, pun, literary and cultural reference. Some aspects of the works are conscious, some unconscious but the playwright’s intentions do not matter as we the audience view the art first and then the artist.
There are certain conventions used in Elizabethan theatre. The audience needs to know how these conventions work before they can accept them. As there were only two or three professional theatre groups operating at the time Shakespeare knew his audience and there is evidence to suggest that he wrote specifically for these people who no doubt kept returning because they enjoyed the way he wrote and the experience of the play.
One convention which foregrounds the theatrical is the ‘aside’ where for example Hamlet speaks very loudly so that the audience who may be ten meters away can hear him clearly and yet another person on the stage only three meters away cannot hear a word. The audience accepts this as a known
I will show understanding of the plot, character and themes and Shakesperes use of language and dramatic devices within the play.
William Shakespeare is the world’s pre-eminent dramatist whose plays range from tragedies to tragic comedies, etc. His general style of writing is often comparable to several of his contemporaries, like Romeo and Juliet is based on Arthur Brooke’s narrative poem, “The tragical history of Romeo and Juliet”. But Shakespeare’s works express a different range of human experience where his characters command the sympathy of audiences and also are complex as well as human in nature. Shakespeare makes the protagonist’s character development central to the plot.
The use of descriptive language is important for the writer to entertain, persuade and teleport the reader into their work. Descriptive use and imagery allow the reader to experience the setting, sound, taste, and mood as if they can live through it. Which takes us to Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Not only does he use exceptional details and imagery throughout the play between the characters, but the way he uses word allows us to put ourselves into the play as if we can feel what they feel. It also allows us to experience and go through the play as if we are in it also. So in this paper, I would like to focus on a few major moments where I believe Shakespeare descriptive language is the strongest.
Shakespeare is so old-school. That is what most people think, but many do not know how some versions of Shakespeare's work can become more relevant to the audience. Each version may have their own unique way to show it can be relevant. That is great because some people may be more interested in only one version. Some people find comedy more amusing than others, while some would rather just see the original with the time period it should take place in.
Imagery is a very important aspect of literature. Many different types of imagery exist and there is at least one dramatic purpose for each image. By analyzing William Shakespeare's
In Ben Johnson’s “To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us”, Johnson dictates a dramatically sycophantic poem in honor of the late William Shakespeare. With his superficial, dramatic style, Johnson unveils his own envious attitude within the unbegotten admiration he appoints throughout the poem. By complimenting Shakespeare through this ironic voice, Johnson insincerely praises Shakespeare’s legacy in a clever attempt to highlight Shakespeare’s minute but mentionable flaws. Throughout the commemorational poem, Johnson cleverly praises Shakespeare’s seemingly incomparable success as a poet by incorporating other famous poets as a belittling contrast. While meant as a friendly coup de grâce, Johnson’s assessment of Shakespeare is Johnson’s ultimate attempt to align himself with Shakespeare, bearing praise unto himself as well. In a poem meant to highlight and enunciate Shakespeare’s unparalleled skill and talent, Johnson instead attempts to expose his faults in hopes of bringing Shakespeare closer to himself.
Last Spring when I performed in one of William Shakespeare's classics 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Shakespeare felt to me like a mystery of words jumbled up together in a beautiful poem. In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ I learned the true meaning of Shakespeare's genius writing. A technique of writing William Shakespeare often uses in his plays like ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is juxtaposition. This technique puts two unlike things next to each other. Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to show the irony, drama, and the different views between characters to give his story's depth.
William Shakespeare lived and wrote over 400 years ago, but his wonderful plays continue to entertain and influence the audiences of the Twenty-First Century. Despite the outdated content and language of his works, Shakespeare’s plays remain popular with modern readers and play watchers for another reason. In all of his works, including William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he uses countless literary devices and techniques to affect the mood of the audience and enhance their enjoyment. He utilizes puns and juxtaposition to create a comical or light hearted mood. He also uses dramatic irony and oxymorons for a dramatic or serious mood. Although Shakespeare’s work does not include modern language or modern situations, the literary devices that he uses work to keep an audience of any time feeling involved
There is no denying that Shakespeare is a definitive playwright. He has presented us with classic works that have set the precedent for drama and the theatre. Among Shakespeare’s more notable plays are his tragedies. In the tragedy his protagonists are often given flaws in their character and hence, are suitably named tragic heroes. The downfall of these protagonists is often a result of their own character flaws and unfortunately, they suffer a doomed and unhappy ending. While the tragic hero is flawed they must also be honorable and worthy of the audience’s understanding and sympathy. On a quest for righteousness the tragic hero often goes through immense suffering which is why the audience can feel bad for him. For the most
In William Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” there are various literary devices displayed throughout the play, in particular Act 2 Scene 1. Many pictures, quotes and short descriptions are able to depict these attributes and are displayed within the collage.
In the dramatic play of, “ The Tragedy of Macbeth,” written by William Shakespeare, the tragedy is set around the 11th Century, in Scotland and England, where a young nobleman, named Macbeth, is foreshadowed to be a king, and soon becomes a reality by going on a hunt for power and control in his kingdom. Shakespeare creates the play using various forms of literary elements, which benefit in impacting the reader with the theme of the play. Many forms that are used throughout the play include, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and Macbeth’s aside’s and soliloquys that are spoken through his fateful journey for king.
Dramatic techniques play significant roles in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, allowing for the idealistic perception of the historical audience to develop into a further empathy with the characters in Macbeth. Shakespeare achieves this by playing on beliefs held in that era, such as the Great Chain of Being, and interweaves them to bring further emphasis to his themes of ambition, masculinity and the conflicting moralities/idealisms in fair and foul actions/in what can be defined as fair or foul.
Shakespeare’s work is among the hardest to read because of its supposed complexity and sophistication. The language used in the Early Modern Era is different than that of the Post Modern Era. Audiences that saw the performances were aural learners and were able to pinpoint certain tones and facial expressions that readers may not detect through words. Watching the plays performed provided better feedback than readings do (Palfrey 10-11). Metaphors, implicit or explicit, are figures of speech that help compare two unlike things and are not designed for literal intake. Yet, with Shakespeare’s work, metaphors should be taken literally. According to George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, however, this technique of comparison allows metaphors to simultaneously highlight and hide certain attributes and/or qualities about the thing(s) being compared to (12-13). The highlighting and hiding of metaphors gives readers more insight into what Shakespeare may have meant at the time or even more so in what context did the people of the Elizabethan Age use language (Palfrey 11). Two important components of metaphors that do the highlighting and hiding are the vehicle and the tenor; each can be implicit or explicit as well. The metaphor in question emphasizes both the importance and unimportance of Lavinia’s character.
One of the functions of Shakespeare’s poetry is to communicate to the audience in an imaginative manner. Through his vivid language he is able to create, the setting, portray the character and the emotional atmosphere of the scene. The Elizabethan audience believed deeply in the supernatural and superstition. They hungered for it. The use of unnatural events had a significant topical interest for the Elizabethan audience.
In a genre that contradicts a novelist's affluence of narrative explication, the language in its purest form becomes Shakespeare's powerful instrument, wherein he controls it with the unusual combination of force, subtlety, and exactitude”