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William Shakespeare's Sonnets!

Author: Jennet

Perhaps the greatest writer who ever put words from pen to paper, William Shakespeare has been parsed and dissected and studied in ways that could pluck the joy out of anyone. But Shakespeare wrote to entertain the common people of Elizabethan England, as well as the cultured elite. And he had a matchless ability to touch the hearts of his audience-often making them laugh and cry at the same time.

Yet Shakespeare wrote not to hide his meaning under lofty phrases, but to share his wisdom with those around him, in ways that were playful as well as profound. We see in his plays as well as his poetry that he can reorder words and their conventional arrangements almost at will, achieving a matchless expression of ideas. In his sonnets, though some arrangements stem from needing a rhyme to fit the patter, the result is some of the loveliest verses known to English literature.

The sonnet was a popular form of poetry in Elizabethan times throughout Europe. Shakespeare's choice of the English form of sonnet allowed him an almost limitless flexibility of expression. This chosen form let him resolve or continue his themes as the mood (or the dictates of iambic pentameter) struck him, and he often continued his thoughts through the quatrain division. Still, most modern editor use the sonnet form to guide their choice of modernized punctuation, reasoning that each quatrain usually marks the end of a completed thought.

Most commonly, sonnets reflected a wretched lover, agonizing over the conflicting emotions of lust and idealized love. Shakespeare's sonnets often convey larger contradictions as well, showing a contrast between beauty and cold reality, hope and despair. The structured form required discipline and creativity, but from these conflicts Shakespeare the Sonneteer could explore his innermost self, in much the same way that the soliloquy of an actor would reveal the soul of a character on the stage. Yet Shakespeare the Artist was often hidden between the lines of his verses, and despite the temptation of modern scholars, we know too little about the man himself to drawn any firm conclusions from the lines of his poetry.

Despite the speculation of modern scholars, it is doubtful that the author intended them to form a unified narrative. Narrative was more suitable for his plays and narrative poems, and he probably regarded his sonnets simply as short poems. It is likely that he composed them simply as inspiration struck, or to pass the time between other projects and pursuits. If so, then imposing a theme or narrative thread on the entire collection is simply the product of our own imagination, and an attempt to find order in the chaos of existence. Since the author was als a successful businessman and playwright and businessman, it is unlikely that he would have conceived of the collection with any overarching theme when he was writing. And he probably wrote his sonnets when the mood struck him-or a patrons request moved him to write. Still, the vulnerability and range of emotions that the sonnets convey hints that many of them were also deeply personal, perhaps reflecting real events or personal relationships in his own life that are now lost to time. Many seem aimed at his own innermost soul, letting us catch tantalizing glimpses of the artist in his most private, most vulnerable moments.

Shakespeare's sonnets are hardly his meatiest works, but in many ways they are his most accessible. Gaining an appreciating of these short, tender verses can only help the modern reader develop a richer understanding of Shakespeare the Artist-and provide a bridge to his meatier works, where he explores other, often darker, facets of human existence.

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About the Author:

When Jennet isn't writing, she's playing video games and participating in environmental NGO activities.

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Shakespeare is rightly considered the world's greatest playwright for thesoaring beauty of his language, for his profound insight into human nature, for the truths he dramatized and for the realism of the characters he created. He was, and remains, a superb entertainer. These BBC and Time-Life film productions feature some of Britain's most distinguished theatrical talent (Anthony Hopkins, Sir John Gielgud, Patrick Stewart, Derek Jacobi, Claire Bloom and more), these DVD's now are the number-one choice for continuing personal enjoyment. This special Drama DVD Giftbox Set contains 5 of Shakespeare's most popular tragedies: *Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet,  Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Othello The Plays contain sub-titles in English that can be turned on or off.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1966)

Author: Sadeer Nasser

Author: Sadeer Nasser

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1966)
Reviewed by: Sadeer Nasser
Rating:
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, and Paul Sorvino.
Director: Baz Lurhmann
Running Time: 115 minutes

And here is yet another re-make of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by director Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom). But this time the film encompasses ‘sword 9mm’ guns and helicopters as well as castles and the all-important catholic churches.
The film has an excellent start with a newsreader reading the prologue, which immediately switches with chaotic images that one would not normally associate with William Shakespeare. The prologue with its serious toned voiceover commands our attention almost suddenly with a statement of a problem. The newsreader tells the audience a great deal in people’s attitudes towards one another. It is seen that citizens of a town ought to be civil; that is they ought to show respect for one another and get along. But too often they aren’t hence ‘3rd CIVIL BRAWL’ headline. This sets the scene for the audience telling us that instead they choose to engage in civil wars and shed ‘civil blood’.
The paradoxical situation exists in ‘Fair Verona’. To Shakespearean and Elizabethan audiences, Verona was thought as a hot, sexy, violent Catholic country. There this unusual adaptation was filmed in Mexico, bringing in the violence and the importance of religion to full effect.
The prologue also tells us of how the problem is solved, the plot of the play, and what kind of play it is e.g. ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…’ the star-crossed lovers being Leonardo DiCaprio (Growing Pains) as Romeo and Claire Danes (My so called life) as Juliet.
There are many ways Luhrmann uses text, shot types, images and music in order to set the scene for the viewer. The newspaper articles with their bold headlines almost tell the story themselves, e.g. ‘3rd Civil Brawl’ and ‘Montague vs. Capulet’.
The voiceover for the prologue is emotionally powerful. The newsreader is a real anchorperson which has a great effect of realism for the audience, this adds to the effects given by the images displayed whilst the prologue is being read.
The ‘strife’ between both families is automatically shown in the images introducing the most important characters. This is shown by the looks upon each of the families’ faces. One of the main images brought across is to do with the importance of religion, this is captured by some of the fast chaotic shots is also seen whilst the prologue is being ‘broadcast’. Most of the shots are of the statue of the Virgin Mary and large catholic churches.
You would think this all very traditional for the likes of Shakespeare, but then you see how different the approach is to filming a traditional Shakespearean tragedy. The true rivalry and the difference between this adaptation and any other is definitely shown when you see both sides with Tybalt (a Capulet) and Benvolio (a Montague) battling it out, surrounded by armed troops and hovering helicopters!
The film is unlike any other in its category and definitely beats any other filmed attempt of Romeo + Juliet at originality, but what makes watching this unusual adaptation incredibly worth while? The modern theme is carried out throughout the film, although the characters do speak the actual dialogue written by Shakespeare. The modern theme allows the two families to be portrayed very well. The Montagues are portrayed as more laid back than the grandness of the Capulets. The Montagues (Romeo, his cousins and friends) still ‘hang out’ on street corners, wear Hawaiian shirts and smoke their cigarettes. Where as the Capulets have their large mansion complete with swimming pools and gardens as well as their overly expensive cars and accessories.

Also the film consists of some of Hollywood’s finest actors and actresses. A few are the likes of John Leguizamo as Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, Pete Postlethwaite as Father Laurence, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as I have already mentioned.
The film is a must see blockbuster as it is definitely among the best starring well-known award winning actors and successfully scores high on points for originality!

Author: Sadeer Nasser

About the Author:

Sadeer Nasser (C) 2008.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1966)

 

The World of Shakespeare: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library) By William Shakespeare Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmiller, General Editors Amazon.com Exclusive The Pelican Shakespeare is available in hardcover for the first time in one complete collection only at Amazon.com. For anyone with an abiding love of the Bard and his to all of Shakepeares singular contributiOn to English literature, this complete library combines enduring beauty with the scholarship and authority demanded by modern readers. Easier to read and enjoy than massive, single-volume editions, these individual volumes feature authori tative text, essays on how the plays would have been performed in Shakespeare's day, and notes valuable for general readers, teachers, students, and theater professionals. Here, in 38 truly stunning heirloom volumes, are William Shakespeare's classic plays and sonnets in the only complete, individually-bound set of Shakespeare's works currently available. The tragedies, comedies, histories, and poetry, so beloved by millions of readers and theater-goers, are reproduced here in luxurious, linen-bound hardcovers, enhanced by silver stamping on the covers and spines, and sewn-in, satin ribbon markers. The distinguished Pelican Shakespeare editions have sold five million copies. Since the series debuted more than forty years ago, developments in scholarship have revolutionized our understanding of William Shakespeare, his time, and his works. The general editors of the Pelican Shakespeare, Stephen Orgel of Stanford University and A. R. Braunmiller of UCLA, have assembled a team of six eminent scholars who, along with the general editors themselves, have prepared new introductions and note * Authoritative and meticulously researched texts * Illuminating new introductions and notes by distinguished authors * Essays on Shakespeare's life, the theatrical world of his time, and the selection of texts * A handsome new design inside and out * Deluxe packaging, including a full-linen case with silver stamping, ribbon marker, printed endpapers, and acid-free paper * Line numbers marking every tenth line and footnote references * Both glossorial and explanatory notes appearing conveniently at the foot of the page Included are: Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Histories Henry IV, Part I Henry IV, Part II Henry V Henry VI, Part I Henry VI, Part II Henry VI, Part III Henry VIII King John Richard II Richard III Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labor's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives of Windsor The Merchant of Venice A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter's Tale Poetry The Sonnets

‘hamlet’ by William Shakespeare

Author: Olivia Hunt

Hamlet has inspired more critical speculation and comment from critics and scholars than any other play by any dramatist in English literature, including Shakespeare himself. The play has become a cultural icon of our times. The first performance of Hamlet was in all probability within 1601 to 1602. Shakespeare put together the story of Hamlet on the basis of his familiarity of Ur-Hamlet, which in turn was based on an account of Hamlet in Belleforest and Saxo. But Shakespeare’s play was still distinct from the original Hamlet.

Hamlet is a revenge play. Revenge as an aspect of plot structure of the plays appears in many plays of Shakespeare, for example, in the “Richard II,” and “Tempest.” Hamlet has not one but four revenge plots. Hamlet commits himself to avenge his father’s death at the hands of Claudius, his uncle, who also marries his mother and usurps the throne of Denmark. Another son, Laertes, vows to take revenge for the killing of his father by Hamlet. Fortinbras invades the kingdom of Denmark to avenge his father’s death at the hands of old King Hamlet. And there is yet another son who vows “revenge” in Hamlet: Pyrhhus slaughters Priam, whose son had killed Pyrhuss’s father. Each plot of Shakespeare’s revenge play followed a structure, beginning with an “exposition” followed by “anticipation” and “confrontation” and “delay” leading to “fulfillment” or “completion” of the revenge. But what makes Shakespeare’s Hamlet a different and superior work is that even though, Hamlet is a revenge play, the focus of the play is on higher principles of life and living. The great poetic richness of the play raises it to a higher plane of enriched creativity and distances it away from the average revenge play and their insistent focus on blood, violence and amoral and villainous unthinking protagonists. Hamlet is less of a revenge play than a play about revenge.

Theatre is a theme in Hamlet. The play within the play is the central action of the play and is the key to the very mystery of the plot. Hamlet is full of references to the language of theater, like “ play,” “ perform,” “ applaud,” “prologue,” “part,” etc. the play contains numerous private jokes, as if, shared between the actors of the play, such as the comment in act III by the actor playing Polonius: “ I did enact Julius Caesar.” All the characters in the play have an obsessive compulsion to act a role. In the play, no opportunity is missed to exploit the potential of a theatrical situation: eight deaths, high pitched rhetorical speeches, the play-within-play, the fencing match, the graveyard scene, the duel between Laertes and Hamlet and numerous rhetorical speeches including Hamlet’s own soliloquies.

In the end, Hamlet turns out to be a great tragedy rather than a mere revenge play. In Hamlet, the extra human agency takes the form of the ghost and the tragic disaster occurs on account of Hamlet’s acts of commission or omission. Hamlet also is a religious play. The Christian element so predominates the play that Hamlet comes across as concerning himself with the theological questions of sin, damnation and salvation. Elizabethans had an obsessive concern with afterlife and believed in heaven, hell and purgatory.

In conclusion Hamlet has been treated as a study in melancholia and madness, as a study in ambition and political manipulation, as a philosophy can inquiry into a number of issues that feature in the writings of Montaigne, of even as a study the back part of characterization.

About the Author:

The article was produced by the writer of Essay-Paper.net. Olivia Hunt is a 4-years experienced freelance writer of Essay Writing Service. Visit our website to learn more about essay help and film review writing tips.

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Grade 9 Up--The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare offers listeners the first-ever audio set of all 38 of William Shakespeare's plays, unabridged and fully-dramatized. Using a cast of almost 400 actors, most of whom trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company, this set offers Shakespeare in a manner that provides the best of both worlds: the convenient mobility of the audio format and classic, dramatic readings by skilled Shakespearean actors that are reminiscent of Sir Laurence Olivier's Shakespearean performances.

14 Shakespeare Quotes to Celebrate the Birth of a Literary Genius

Author: Noel Jameson

Shakespeare's birthday is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate the birth of this literary genius than with some thought-provoking and soul-stirring Shakespeare quotes? For all of you Shakespeare fans out there, these 14 quotes from some of his most famous works go out to you...

1. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

2. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."

3. "To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,or to take arms against a sea of troubles."

4. "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!"

5. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it."

6. "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once."

7. "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

8. "Why then the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open."

9. "All that glisters is not gold, often have you heard that told. Many a man his life hath sold, but my outside to behold gilded tombs do worms enfold."

10. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

11. "The course of true love never did run smooth."

12. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones -- so let it be with Caesar."

13. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

14. "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits here hope is coldest, and despair most fits."

It takes a cultured and educated individual to appreciate the works of Shakespeare. As we celebrate the anniversary of his birth this month, let these 14 Shakespeare quotes serve as a remembrance of how brilliant his works and his imagination really were.

About the Author:

For more famous Shakespeare quotes, check out the popular famous quotes section of Famous-Quotes-And-Quotations.com, a website that specializes in 'Top 10' lists of quotations in dozens of categories.

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Expect big, big laughs when funnyman Danny DeVito (TWINS, RUTHLESS PEOPLE) joins forces with talened director Penny Marshall (A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, BIG) to deliver a lively five-star comedy you're going to love! DeVito plays a down-on-his-luck businessman who desperately takes the only job offered -- a teaching position in the U.S. Army. His mission: keep a ragtag bunch of underachieving misfits from flunking out of basic training! Be on alert for laughter as this unlikely new teacher and his underdog class unexpectedly inspire one another to be all that they can be!