Shakespeare’s prolific dramatic output has hugely influenced drama, both in England and elsewhere in the world. Shakespeare created some of the world’s greatest plays (such as King Lear, Macbeth, and so on). In the process, he also transformed the face of drama in England by redefining the ideas of characterization, plot, language, and genre.
Shakespeare innovated the idea of integrating characterization with plot in a way that if the protagonist were different in any way, the entire plot would have to be changed. Consider Hamlet as a classic case in point in this regard.
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare went out on a limb and mixed tragedy with comedy to create an altogether new romantic tragedy genre (something that was unheard of up till that point). And through his soliloquies, Shakespeare demonstrated he was a man way ahead of his time. He deployed the literary technique of interiority through his soliloquies to explore a character’s inner motivations, feelings, and conflicts. Today, this would be would be considered a Modern idea.
In his comedy plays, Shakespeare didn’t always stick to the formulae du jour. Thus, we find, that even in his comedies, sorrow manages to creep in, and harshness and cruelty play bit, yet significant, parts in the overall scheme of things. Consider the ending of The Merchant of Venice, where we find that even as all the couples rejoice in their happiness, Shakespeare ever-so-briefly dwells on Shylock’s sorrow at his forced conversion.
When it came to his tragedy plays, while all the playwrights of his time, and the ones that preceded him, tightly abided by Aristotle’s precept that drama should observe the unities of action, time, and space, Shakespeare played fast and loose with convention. In Shakespeare’s plays, locales shift, times change, and non-major characters have their own sub-narratives and plots. Finally, death in Shakespeare’s tragedy plays are grandiose affairs: some of his plays end in the death of not just one character (say, the protagonist or the heroine), but sometimes of entire families, the stage riddled with corpses. In his tragedy dramas, Shakespeare brings the audience up close and personal with the uncomfortable quality of death. Not for him, the clinical precision and a gentle, kindly death. In his plays, characters died gory deaths, tortured and mutilated. Just like the way death, sometimes, is in reality too.
His radical experimentation with form, characterization, plotlines, and sub-narratives have influenced generations of writers and artistes since, and that influence is abiding and felt even today (for example, in cinema).
Shakespeare innovated the idea of integrating characterization with plot in a way that if the protagonist were different in any way, the entire plot would have to be changed. Consider Hamlet as a classic case in point in this regard.
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare went out on a limb and mixed tragedy with comedy to create an altogether new romantic tragedy genre (something that was unheard of up till that point). And through his soliloquies, Shakespeare demonstrated he was a man way ahead of his time. He deployed the literary technique of interiority through his soliloquies to explore a character’s inner motivations, feelings, and conflicts. Today, this would be would be considered a Modern idea.
In his comedy plays, Shakespeare didn’t always stick to the formulae du jour. Thus, we find, that even in his comedies, sorrow manages to creep in, and harshness and cruelty play bit, yet significant, parts in the overall scheme of things. Consider the ending of The Merchant of Venice, where we find that even as all the couples rejoice in their happiness, Shakespeare ever-so-briefly dwells on Shylock’s sorrow at his forced conversion.
When it came to his tragedy plays, while all the playwrights of his time, and the ones that preceded him, tightly abided by Aristotle’s precept that drama should observe the unities of action, time, and space, Shakespeare played fast and loose with convention. In Shakespeare’s plays, locales shift, times change, and non-major characters have their own sub-narratives and plots. Finally, death in Shakespeare’s tragedy plays are grandiose affairs: some of his plays end in the death of not just one character (say, the protagonist or the heroine), but sometimes of entire families, the stage riddled with corpses. In his tragedy dramas, Shakespeare brings the audience up close and personal with the uncomfortable quality of death. Not for him, the clinical precision and a gentle, kindly death. In his plays, characters died gory deaths, tortured and mutilated. Just like the way death, sometimes, is in reality too.
His radical experimentation with form, characterization, plotlines, and sub-narratives have influenced generations of writers and artistes since, and that influence is abiding and felt even today (for example, in cinema).
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