Shakespeare’s history plays (historical chronicles) Richard III

The historical chronicles form another group of plays written by Sh in the 1^st period (Richard III, king Henry IV and others). Historical chronicles are plays written on subjects taken from history. Sh’s chronicles cover a period of more than 300 years and deal with the most crucial and dramatic moments of English history. The main subject of the chronicles are history and the development of the country.

Shakespeare was interested in history, as it helped to understand the present and foretell the future. The necessity of a strong royal power was the basic idea of all his history plays. But on the other hand he posed the moral problem of what kind of kings had the right to power. He created a gallery of royal characters. Some of them are usurpers who resorted to violence in order to seize the throne and thus created a precedent (so we may say they gave the right to dethrone themselves one day, as they did not take the throne by right. And their supporters considered it their right to dethrone such a usurper if he failed to comply with their demands.) We could remember the moral from the Bible: Violence begets violence. Some of the kings portrayed by Shakespeare were weak-willed, influenced by their courtiers, and were bad politicians.

"Richard III" is the most staged historical chronicle nowadays. This play completes the tetralogy, the first three parts of which were the three parts of " HenгуVI". The tetralogy tells about the 40 year long war of the White and Red Roses (between two branches of the Royal family - the branch of York and the branch of Lancaster). In the play we see the defeat of the branch of Yorks to which Richard III belonged, and the beginning of the Tudor mоnaгсhу .In the centre of the play is Richard of Gloucester, who after the death of King Edward IV does his best to remove all the rivals and to come to power. He orders to kill his own brother Clarence, he murders two little nephews, he does away with many of his supporters, he compels Ann - the widow of one of his opponents - to marry him, and does many other mean crimes.

On the eve of the decisive battle with his enemies he sees the ghosts of all those whom he has murdered. And the ghosts foretell his defeat. The next day he is killed by Henry, Earl of Richmond - the first Tudor king in the future, Henry VII.

«A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse» (словакороляРичарда)!

The play opens with Richard's words:

Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by the sun of York.

(The first line will be used by Steinbeck for the title of his novel in the 20^th century - "The Winter of Our Discontent" - "Зиматревогинашей").

By "the sun of York" Richard means the dying king Edward and his words speak for his hypocrisy (лицемерие), because this deformed man (изуродованный, калека - былгорбатым) is looking forward the king's death and is ready to remove anyone who will stay on his way to the throne. Through his deformity he has his inferiority complex, which he tries to compensate by being ruthless (cruel) to others. Richard III is an ambitious and blood-thirsty, bald and clever, subtle (хитрый, тонкий) and hypocritical politician. But he is also brave, purposeful. And we may say that he is a balanced man (цельнаянатура), as a result he does not have any qualms (укорысовести) about killing other people.

In a word Shakespeare created one of the most villainous (злодейский) characters in old literature. A lot of famous actors played this part (it is a kind of honour, as the personage is the incarnation of evil).

7. Shakespeare’s tragedies. Hamlet.Prince of Denmark. Romeo & Juliet

2) 1601-1608 (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth). The tragedies reflect the deep contradictions of life, injustice and tyranny existing in society. They show people who perish in the struggle against Evil. The tragedies, like the chronicles, are also based on real events, but there is a considerable difference between the 2 genres. The playwright raised great problems of good and evil in both. But in the chronicles they are mostly linked with political themes. In the tragedies which are cantered round the life of one man, Sh touched on the moral problems of universal significance – honesty, cruelty, love, kindness, vanity. That’s why they are of great interest to every new generation

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career.Romeo and Juliet, also written in the 1590s, show a change in the playwright’s outlook, which become more pessimistic. It is about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their quarreling families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays.

Hamlet is one of the greatest of Sh’s masterpieces. The tragedy tells of the struggle between Hamlet, the embodiment of the Renaissance ideals, on the one hand, and the evil, false world of kings and countries, on the other.

Hamlet, the student of the univ of Wittenberg, hears of the sudden death of his father. He comes to the castle and learns that his mother, queen Gertrude, in less than 2 months after her husband’s death has married his brother Claudius. Hamlet is very much grieved by the death of his father. And he is still more shocked by the hasty marriage of his mother.

Hamlet is told that his father died because a serpent stung him while he was asleep in the garden. Hamplet does not believe this strange story and suspects another cause of his death. One night the ghost of hamlet’s father appears and thells hamlet the true story of his death. Hamlet learns that his father was poisoned by Claudius.

From now on Hamlet thinks only of revenge. But he understands that Claudius is not the only source of evil, that the whole world is corrupt and evil should be fought everywhere.

Hamlet is well aware that the task is difficult and dangerous. Evil is strong and he has to fight it alone. If he perishes in the struggle, there will be nobody to carry out the task. This thought makes him melancholic and irresolute. But hamlet is unable to tolerate the evil. To gain time and lull the king’s suspicion he pretends to be insane. The king and Polonius (a courtier) conclude that the strangeness of hamlet’s behavior and speech are due to his love to Ophelia (Polonius’s daughter). It’s true that hamlet loved Ophelia dearly but now he neglects her. Ophelia believes he has really lost his mind.

While hamlet is still irresolute about how to exact revenge, a company of actors whose performances he used to enjoy comes to the castle. Hamlet decides they should stage the murder of his father. During the performance hamlet and Horatio (Hamlet’s friend) watch the reaction of the king hoping he will give himself away. The king can’t bear the scene and leaves the hall. Now for Hamlet there is no doubt that the murder of his father is Claudius. And Claudius, too, comes to understand that Hamlet has some suspicions about him. He begins to fear Hamlet and thinks of a plan to get rid of him

The queen asks hamlet to come to her room. She wants to tell him that his behavior displeases the king. Claudius orders Polonius to hide himself in the queen’s room to overhear their talk. Hamlet reproaches the queen for her marriage. When she, frightened by his words, utters to cry, Polonius stars crying out. And hamlet thinking that it’s Claudius, draws his sward and kills the hidden person.

The death of polonius gives the king grounds for sending hamlet out of the kindom. Hamlet sails to England with his fellow students, Rosencratz& Guildenstern. They are given letters to the English court which read that Hamlet should be put to death as soon as he lands in England. Hamlet suspecting dome treachery secretly gets the letters and changes his name for the name of courtiers. Soon after that their ship is attacked by pirates and hamlet is taken prisoner but then he is set free. When hamlet gets home the first he sees is the funeral of Ophelia. She lost her mind after her father’s death and drowned herself.

On learning of hamlet’s return the king thinks of a plan to do away with him. He persuades Laertes (Polonius’s son) to challenge hamlet to a fencing duel and advises Laertes to prepare a poisoned weapon. Laertes inflicts on hamlet a mortal wound. And then quite a chance, the 2 men exchange their swords and hamlet wounds Laertes with the latter’s poisoned weapon. At that moment the queen who is also present at the duel cries out that she is poisoned. She has drunk from a glass of poisoned wine which is king prepared for Hamlet. The queen dies. Hamlet thinks upon his uncle who is the cause of all the misfortunes and kills him. Hamlet’s last words are addressed to his friend Horatio whom he asks to tell his story to the world.