Литературное наследие Уильяма Шекспира в мировой литературе

Shakespeare’s Literary Work

Poet and playwright William Shakespeare was one of the greatest titans of Renaissance.

He wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems. Shakespeare’s plays belong to different dramatic genres: histories, tragedies, comedies and tragi-comedies.

Shakespeare’s literary work is usually divided into three periods:

The first period – when he wrote histories, comedies and sonnets.

The second period was the period of tragedies.

The third period when he wrote mostly tragi-comedies.

These three periods are sometimes called optimistic, pessimistic and romantic.

The First Period

The first period is marked by youthful optimism, great imagination and extravagance of language. Shakespeare created a brilliant cycle of comedies. The gay and witty heroes and heroines come into conflict with unfavourable circumstances and wicked people. But their love and friendship, intellect and faithfulness always win.

Shakespeare trusted man’s virtues and believed that virtue could bring happiness to mankind.

Shakespeare’s comedies were written to take the spectator away from everyday troubles, in them people lived for merriment, pleasure and love.

The best comedies of that period are:

• The Comedy of Errors (Комедияошибок)

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Сонвлетнююночь)

• Much Ado About Nothing (Многошумаизничего)

• Twelfth Night (Двенадцатая ночь)

The Second Period

Shakespeare’s dramatic genius was at its highest in the second period of his literary work. He presents great human problems. He shows the social injustice and suffering of man.

Shakespeare showed that people had to look for another and more perfect life. In Shakespeare’s tragedies the evil forces are victorious only to a certain point, in the end the good wins.

Shakespeare’s characters are personalities of great depth and unusual intellect. At the same time he has created real ordinary men.

In ancient tragedies man was helpless. Shakespeare’s man acts in a concert social and political world.

Shakespeare’s man acts in a concrete social and political world.

Shakespeare wrote the following:

• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Гамлет,принцДании)

• Othello, the Moor of Venice (Отелло,венецианскиймавр)

• King Lear (Король Лир)

• Macbeth (Макбет)

• Antony and Cleopatra (Антоний и Клеопатра)

The Third Period

During the third period of his literary career Shakespeare wrote the following plays.

Cymberline (Цимбелин), The Winter’s Tale (Зимняясказка), The Tempest (Буря), Henry VIII

These plays are called romantic dramas. There are no great problems and strong conflicts in them.

Shakespeare’s Contribution

to the World Literature

To sum up we can say that during his lifetime Shakespeare crated a variety of plays and characters. His plays have become so popular in the world because of great humanistic ideas and his realistic characters. Shakespeare did not idealize the people he portrayed. He painted them as they were in his time.

These are the central themes Shakespeare dealt with in his plays:

1. Humanism.

2. Freedom for the individual.

3. The idea of patriotism.

4. Social relations between people.

5. The themes of love and friendship.

Shakespeare achieved great skill in speech. They are some phrases that have become part of the everyday language of Englishmen.

• All’s well that ends well.

• All that glisters is not gold.

• A sea of troubles.

• Brevity is the soul of wit.

• To be or not to be, that is the question.

• Much ado about nothing.

• There is no darkness but ignorance and others.

Shakespeare’s ideas of loves, freedom, humanism and national unity are still very popular. When he speaks in his plays, we feel that he speaks for us and to us. His plays are staged by all the world’s theatres and in Russia as well.

Адрес публикации: https://www.prodlenka.org/metodicheskie-razrabotki/518437-literaturnoe-nasledie-uiljama-shekspira-v-mir