Literary Terms Shakespearean Drama, Sonnet, Sonnet Themes & Comedy Characteristics
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Drama Features
Introduction
Shakespeare is known as the ‘Father of English Drama’. He is known as England’s national poet, and the “Bard of Avon”. His works, including collaborations, consist of 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and some other verses, some of the uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other dramatist.
Characteristics
- Shakespeare wrote 37 plays in about 24 years. His plays were written for performance.
- His dramas can be divided into histories, tragedies and comedies.
- The protagonists in the early plays are historical figures, including rulers of England.
- His play "Hamlet" is considered to be the epitome of the Renaissance in which the protagonist achieves his perfection only after death.
- His play Richard-III is the epitome of Machiavellian evil in which Shakespeare balances between the role of the king and the role of the man.
- As the dramatist of the Renaissance Age, Shakespearean plays focus on the man, exploring his weaknesses, depravities, flows etc.
- All the characters ranging from soldiers to king speak English.
- His plays have been divided into five acts. However, the division was imposed on the Shakespearean play by Nicholas Rowe; one of the first editors of Shakespeare.
- Most of the Shakespearean plays are problem plays in which the playwright do not provide any solutions and audience are supposed to decide.
- Shakespeare, in his plays, goes into the depth of human behaviour and redefines the geography of the human soul.
- His final plays move against the wave of Jacobean Theatre that focused on blood tragedy and social comedy.
- One finds the traces of colonialism in his plays. e.g. In The Tempest Prospero enslaves Caliban who is the native of that island.
Characteristics of a Sonnet
Introduction
Sonnet, a fourteen-line poem, was introduced in Italy by Petrarch during the 14th Century. He used it as love poetry having rhyming verses in it.
Later, it was adopted in England, France, Spain and Germany during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Sonnet, a lyric poem, revolves around the themes of courtly love affairs, sexual intimacies, politics and religious beliefs.
(1) The Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet: It comprises of an octave containing eight lines and a sestet of six lines. The rhyming scheme of an octave is abbaabba while sestet rhymes as cdecde or cdcdcd.
(2) The English or Shakespearean Sonnet: It comprises of three quatrains followed by a couplet in the end. The rhyming scheme of this sonnet is ababcdcdefefgg.
Analysis
The sonnets composed by Shakespeare became the most popular genre in English literature widely read and acknowledged by the readers across the globe. Shakespeare had composed around 154 sonnets during the years 1592-1598.
The sonnets of Shakespeare were published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. Shakespeare's sonnets comprise three quatrains and a final couplet with a regular rhyming scheme of ababcdcdefefgg.
Each quatrain in Shakespearean sonnet revolves around a different image or idea to express the main theme of the sonnet. Shakespeare's sonnets can be divided into two broad categories owing to their themes and subject matters.
His earlier sonnets (from 1 to 126) are written about a young man whom the poet loves and admires with all his heart.
The first seventeen sonnets of this category are composed to convince the young man to marry and have children in order to lead a happy and satisfied life while the remaining sonnets are written by Shakespeare to narrate the power of pure love and poetry in defeating and destroying death?
Shakespeare's final sonnets (from 127 to 154) address a promiscuous lady known as the "dark lady."
These sonnets describe the sinful obsession of the poet and the young man with the temptress. Unlike his earlier sonnets, the tone and mood of these sonnets are depressing and distressing dealing with the uncontrollable desires and sinful acts.
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?Conclusion
Although Shakespeare has established his reputation as a playwright, his sonnets are regarded as one of the most beautifully composed poems in the history of English Literature.
Revolving around the themes of unrequited love, ill desires and sensuous acts, Shakespearean sonnet remains successful in leaving its mark on the minds and hearts of its readers.
Written in a simple language, Shakespeare's sonnets are widely read and appreciated by the readers of English poetry even in the modern era long after the death of the great poet.
Sonnet Themes
Shakespeare has written sonnets mostly on conventional topics such as love and beauty, time and mutability. He treats these themes in his own distinctive fashion like addressing the poem on love and praise on a young man rather than a maiden and by including the second subject of passion a woman not so attractive and with questionable virtue.
Critics have discussed Shakespeare’s paradoxical representation of love in the sonnets and that Shakespeare has also tried to immortalize the young man’s beauty by defying the destructive nature of time.
The eroticism of the sonnets has elicited various responses. Some say that the two men had an asexual relationship whereas others say that they had a sexual relationship.
It is due to the slow involvement in the sonnets and the change in the emotions in the sonnets that one realizes that it is about the history of love which anyone might have known, mortal or immortal love that lovers at any time must have experienced or are still experiencing.
We should not forget that it is an unconventional love which was rare during the Elizabethan period than it is now. It is this unconditional love that forces us to question the meaning of the word love.
Since the lyrics are so intense, emotionally vivid and passionate that many readers and commentators assume that it must be autobiographical but there is no what degree Shakespeare’s personal experiences are reflected in his sonnets or if the evidence that it is so.
There has always been a lot of speculation on finding out the people on which the sonnets were based. The fact remains that no one knows to imagination and understanding of human heart and relationship.
Characters are solely imaginary and a product of Shakespeare’s observation, Shakespeare’s sonnets did not resemble anything that was written in the early 1600s. It was his choice to write on a young man than writing about a beautiful lady.
Characteristics of Comedy
Introduction
Apart from histories and tragedies, comedies were the three main forms that Shakespeare wrote. Comedy of present-day is quite different from a Shakespearean comedy which had humor, light-hearted play some immensely gripping drama.
Characteristically it has marriage as a happy ending. Every Shakespearean comedy has a range of human emotions and experiences from joy to sadness, darkness to lightheartedness, etc.
Comedy for all time and age
Satire was the highest form of comedy and enjoyed moral superiority over other kinds of comedy. However, Shakespearean humor rejected this insistence on ridiculing human follies and intended to amuse people and enlighten their minds.
That is why romance and love form the quintessence of Shakespearean comedy. Example: The Merchant of Venice etc.
Characteristics
Here are the main characteristics:
Themes
The dominant theme is of love, distance and union especially of separation lovers who overcome obstacles and reunite in harmony. There is a clear conflict between the values of reason and control (Apollonian) and values like freedom and lust, (Dionysian).
These are often scripted in terms of frequent clashes between characters. The Shakespearean comedies had several thematic elements and almost always ended with a marriage.
Marriages constituted the achievement of happiness and the promise of continued happiness. Example: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night.
Another thematic tool was a misconception, especially between lovers. This was the prime force behind humor. Example: In Much Ado about Nothing etc.
Another element to add irony in comedy was the use of disguise particularly the women disguised as young men. Of course, this had an element of the inevitability of circumstance as at the time all women characters were played by young male actors.
Shakespeare just leveraged the circumstances and used gender and sexual identities to embellish his work. Example: As You Like It etc. The use of sexual politics is seen in comedies like The Taming of the Shrew, etc.
Structure
His comedies had enmeshment of humor and tragedy. They provided a harmonious blend of the two. Even the same character showed great interchange of tragic and comic strands.
In a very artistic transfusion comedy was used to brings relief from the sorrow or pain and create a level of resolution and reconciliation along. Much like the comic release in his tragedies, his comedies have a severe and grave undertone or dark background.
Humour is used to assure that human life is not always delight or despair, often it is both. In Comedy, the characters exhibit a certain internal weakness for each other as comedy demands action and counter-action. Unlike tragedy, the reconciliation is not death but a comic and happy solution like a marriage.
Plot
The plot typically began with the introduction of the main character/s. This gave way to some form of conflict or tragic event followed by a tumultuous journey of self-discovery.
After much introspection and reflection, some form of reconciliation was reached. Finally, the conflict was resolved in a happy ending. The third act usually had the climax and the final scene had some form of celebration of love and togetherness like marriage etc.
The scenes are not located in life-like things and usually transport the audiences to an elysian or dream-like reality. Another trademark of Shakespearean Comedy is the interweaving of sub-plots in the main plot
Characters
There were some recurring characters in the comedies like the drunk, the fool, the clever servant and young lovers. They were often stereotypical caricatures to offer enough latitude for the audiences to laugh at their expense.
Tools and Devices
His comedies contain a wealth of imagination and poetry but also a touch of realism. Verbal antagonism and verbal humor were appreciated in the same. Use of allusions, metaphors, insults, and puns was also profuse in Shakespearean comedies like As You Like It.
The playwright also used fantastic and supernatural elements to amuse the audiences and bore an underlying philosophical theme.
Vocal and instrumental music was used to illuminate and foreshadow the characters, provide momentum to the plot and sheer entertainment. The use of popular songs and ballads is also seen.
