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Shakespeare The Dirty Old English Man and His Times (1564 – 1616). Shakespearean Myth. Despite the vicious rumors started by hateful and spite-filled students, Shakespeare writes in Modern English. Beowulf Canterbury Tales. Shakespearean Myth Busting.
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Shakespeare The Dirty Old English Man and His Times(1564 – 1616)
Shakespearean Myth Despite the vicious rumors started by hateful and spite-filled students, Shakespeare writes in Modern English. Beowulf Canterbury Tales
Shakespearean Myth Busting The difficulty in Shakespeare’s language is not that he writes in a different language, but that he uses a lot of idioms, colloquialisms, andallusions specific to his time period. Just like you!
Shakespeare’s Society • Middle Age Class systems • Royalty • Nobility • Peasant • Church = State • Kings/Queens = authority from God.
Shakespeare is a puzzle and his published plays are comprised (put together) by editors using their best judgment after analyzing multiple versions
5 Reasons Why • Brain workout to capture meaning because of text difficulty. • Universal themes with relevance today. • Master of language manipulation, rhetorical devices, and weaving plots together. Allows the strongest readers and weakest readers to work at a level that challenges them. • Make your life easier next year. • Frequently alluded to in all areas (TV, Movies, books, etc.) of Western society. Just Fun!
Characteristics of Plays • Uses MANY layered of plots. • Make-up = artificial beauty/corruption • Little/No Scenery • Inspired by social issues
Alternate Word Meanings • “Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?” • “But what is your affair in Elisnore?” (1.2.174) • “Ay, marry, is’t” (1.4.13) (Yes, indeed it is.) Be sure to write down words like these that are defined for you because they will only be defined the first time they appear.
Syntax Differences • “And sure I am two men there is not living to whom he more adheres.” (2.2.20-21) • “Mad call I it, for, to define true madness what is’t but to be nothing else but mad?” (2.2.93-94)
Dashes “We have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras – Who impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew’s purpose – to suppress His further gait herein, in that the levies, The lists, and full proportions are all made Out of his subject” (1.2.27-33)
Dashes “Why, she – O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason Would have mourned longer! – married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules.” (1.2.149-153)
Royal “We” “Now our Queen, Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state, have we…taken to wife. (1.2.8-10,14)
Major Hamlet Gertrude Claudius Polonius Laertes Ophelia Horatio Rosencrantz Guildenstern Minor Ghost Reynaldo Voltemand Cornelius Barnardo Francisco Marcellus Characters