STORIA E LETTERATURA
INGLESE
- William Shakespeare Appunti delle lezioni della Prof.ssa Maria Pia Orlarei
Roberta Raineri
Prof.ssa Maria Pia Orlarei
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS
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ROMEO AND JULIET
This work is focused on star crossed lovers. It is a mix of comedy and tragedy. It is a comedy
because knowledge of events is not shared by everybody, while it isn’t a typical tragedy
because there is no villain.
It takes place in Verona. Shakespeare set here his stories because Italy was famous for its
corruption and extreme passions. As in a tragedy the characters belong to noble and r ich
families. The problem instead is time, which is too fast.
The work opens as a comedy because there is a merry atmosphere, characterized by balls and
social occasions. The ball takes place in Juliet’s house and here all the guests wear a mask.
The story takes place in 5 days and it is divided into 5 acts.
The first act opens in Verona and it sees the meeting of the two lovers: it is love at first sight.
At first Romeo was in love with another girl, Rosalina, but when he saw Juliet, he fell in love
with her.
Juliet was 13 years old, Romeo was 17. The day after their meeting they decided to get
married when they met again. The problem was that their families were involved in a feud
and that Juliet was already promised to a young and handsome lord, Paris. Despite all of
these problems they married secretly with the help of Lorenzo friar. Then they made a plan:
they would elope together. But Romeo was exiled and he didn’t know what Juliet had decided
with Friar Laurence. The friar sent a message to Romeo, but while the messenger was going
to Mantova , Romeo was going from Mantova to Verona and they didn’t meet. When Romeo
arrived and saw that Juliet had died he killed himself , when Juliet woke up and saw Romeo
she killed herself, too.
Two Households (Prologue)
Two households both alike in dignity
In fair Verona ( where we lay our scene)
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny.
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
The most important themes of this passage are forbidden love and the death of the two guys. It
is used to introduce the characters and the story and to point out that the story doesn’t belong to
reality. It underlines that it deals with two noble families that were in war with each other, that
the two children would fall in love, that the two families would make peace only after their
death. Here the author says also that the audience must be patient because the work wouldn’t be
perfect as it is made by common people. Moreover, there are details about the length of the
performance (2 hours) and an anticipation of the opposites Shakespeare deals with in the work:
love vs death and life vs death.
The ball
When Romeo saw Juliet, he was shocked, he immediately fell in love with her. Romeo made
a declaration of love, he had lost his wits cause of her beauty, which was outstanding.
In that period the two lovers couldn’t touch before marriage so they organized a plan.
Romeo is quite unreliable. In the morning in fact he had declared his love to Rosalina and
dealt with it with Friar Laurence. The quotation of shrine isn’t casual because in a few days
they will be dead.
Juliet is an unconventional girl. She will be the new Renaissance woman: in that period the
woman is active inside society and she is able to make decisions. Juliet is a strong character,
she decides to marry the man she loves and therefore she disobeys to her parents.
In the dialogue there is a sonnet from line 11 to line 24. It is in iambic pentameters and we
can find here the usual characteristics.
We can find here anticipations of physical love and with the kiss they broke all the
conventions, she yields to desire. She can trust him and she can rely on him.
“With a kiss I die”
It is set at night in the graveyard. Juliet has been buried there because all thought she was
really dead. She was in the chapel but she was on the coffin. Paris went to the chapel at night
but Romeo was already there. He thought that there was a thief so they fought each other
and Romeo killed him even if he didn’t want to do that.
Romeo and Juliet doesn’t have all the features of a typical tragedy. In this work falling in love
represents weakness.
Usually the tragedy is enhanced by supernatural elements. Here instead there are neither
supernatural elements nor characters except for the poison that Juliet drank.
The work arouses only pity, not fear.
The protagonists as in a traditional tragedy belong to aristocracy. They have a great moral
stature, they are noble for their nature, not only for their family. We can’t find a villain but
there are also some characters which come from low classes ( for example the nurse that has
a main role in the play).
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MACBETH
Macbeth is the darkest tragedy by Shakespeare. Bad weather conditions are one of the features
of the tragedy. In this tragedy there isn’t a villain because Macbeth himself is a villain.
At first Macbeth was one of the bravest soldiers of the king’s army (the king was Duncan).
Then his ambition, which represents the theme of the tragedy, makes him evil, a villain.
The Thane of Cawdor was an enemy of Duncan’s and Macbeth was able to win against him.
While he was coming back he met, with his friend Banquo, three witches. They said to him that
he would be the Thane of Cawdor and the king of Scotland.
When he arrived all the people welcomed him as Thane of Cawdor. Till that moment he had
been Thane of Glamis and so he had got more power and wealth. When he realized that the
three witches had told the truth, he was devoured by ambition, which made him wish to
become king of Scotland as well. So he planned with his wife to invite king Duncan to his castle
and to kill him. Duncan’s children would leave the castle to have their life safe while Macbeth
would become king and kill all the people who suspect of him (Banquo, Macduff’s wife and
children).
So here we have a sort of reversal of values that is anticipated by the three witches that say
that “ Fair is foul and foul is fair”. Macbeth should have respected his king and should have
been happy with Glamis and Cawdor. His king must be respected because he was good , he w as
a relative and he was a guest and so he should have been protected by the pact of hospitality.
There was a second prophecy of the three witches that wasn’t so clear. They said that he would
be safe until Birnam wood would move to Dunsinane castle and that “none of woman born
shall harm him”. He would be killed in fact by a man that was torn by his mother.
There are also other themes, like darkness and blood. Both the protagonists feel bad for
Duncan’s murder. The wife said that she would never be able to clean her hands from Duncan’s
blood which was sticky, doesn’t want to come away. Another theme is sleeplessness. After he
kills Duncan, Macbeth will be never able to sleep anymore.
THEMES OF THE TRAGEDY:
1.
Darkness (in the whole tragedy;)
2.
Sleeplessness
3.
Blood: many murders take place. The blood of Duncan in particular will stick on
their hands and it would be impossible to clean it away;
4.
Bad weather conditions: we can find the sun only in two scenes but it is pale.
THE FIRST SCENE
The first scene is quite unusual because it doesn’t start with the protagonist. He will appear
only later, his name is only quoted and in this way expectation is roused.
At first the three witches appear in the middle of nowhere. The first word is “when” to
introduce the problem of time. They try to make more confusion about time. Starting with a
question word is quite unusual.
Chance deprives the man of his responsibility. The man becomes so like a puppet in the hands
of fate. Everything is predetermined.
The most important characteristics of this part are:
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The frequent use of the semantic area of climate and weather;
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The three witches have the gift of foreseeing the future and they know that
something horrible will happen that will change everything. This horrible action wi ll be
the murder of the king. This won’t only change the political situation, but it will upset all
the set of values.
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All is mysterious, wild, dark, lonely.
-
Cats are mysterious animals, it’s thought that they are magic. Another magic
animal is the toad, a kind of frog that is poisonous.
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The expression “fair is foul, and foul is fair” is really important. It means that
nothing would be the same after the death of the king.
-
The three witches introduce everything, put everything into motion.
DUNCAN’S MURDER
Macbeth kills Duncan only because his wife spurs him. He is a weak character, he is a good
soldier, reliable, faithful with the king, but he has to demonstrate his virility to his wife so he has
to show how brave he is. At the beginning his wife is much more strong and determined than
him. After he has committed the murder, he will repent.
The most important characteristics of this passage are:
-
Very short dialogues in order to make the rhythm very fast and to describe the
confusion that characterizes this part of the play.
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Macbeth is full of confusion and he has already repented. He would rather not
have done it.
-
His wife plucks her courage, she is able to go on.
-
Macbeth is going instead to have a breakdown.
Macbeth knows that now he would never have calm in his life, but in the couple Lady Macbeth is
the one who gives orders. In the dialogue in fact we can see how she uses 4 imperatives in few
lines.
After Duncan’s murder Lady Macbeth will become crazy and so Macbeth can’t rely on her
anymore. When the servants in fact announce the death of the lady he has no reactions, he has
dried up, he has no feelings for her anymore.
The murder is not performed on the stage. This is not casual. There are some reasons for that:
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Imagining a murder is more effective;
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Only few people could stay on the stage;
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It would be improper, unsuitable for a king to be dragged away from the stage. He
was the most important person in society.
At the end Macbeth realizes that his life is empty, that all the crimes that he has done have
deprived it from its meaning and so now he’s ready to die because his life has no sense. He
describes it like a shadow, inexistent, like something impalpable.

JULIUS CAESAR
Brutus is naive. He has killed Caesar because he was becoming too much powerful. Instead the
other conspirators want to kill him because they want his power, they were jealous.
Brutus talks with the crowd to explain why he has done such a horrible action. All the people clap
him and hail. But then Brutus makes a mistake. He lets Mark Antony talk at the funeral. Mark
Antony thinks that Brutus is an honorable man. But he says that to the crowd meaning the opposite
and all the people understand it. In particular at the end of his speech he reads also Julius Caesar’s
will to the crowd. Moreover he underlines themand reminds that Julius Caesar had refused the
crown three times.
An important element also in this tragedy is represented by blood. In this case Julius Caesar’s
blood is liquid and it’s one of the symbols used by Shakespeare in his works. Here the blood is the
symbol of guilt that cover murderers that are still alive.

HAMLET
The story takes place in Denmark. There was a war between Denmark and Norway. King Hamlet
had gained Norwegian territories in battle and now Fortinbras wants again back. The Norwegian
army lay siege to Elsinore Castle and this is why the guards were outside at night.
The guards saw a ghost that was like old King Hamlet. They thought that he wants to give them bad
news about the war against Fortinbras, but he never spoke with them. So at first they thought he
would speak only with a cultivated person and so they called Horatio, Hamlet’s closest friend, a
noble, virtuous and cultivated man, but the ghost didn’t speak with him. So they decided to call
Hamlet. Hamlet had just come back from Germany, where he studied at University, for his father’s
funeral. Hamlet was dejected because his father had died and his mother had married his uncle,
whom he hated. When Hamlet met the ghost, he talked with him.
The political and economical situation in Denmark was critical because King Claudius was
absolutely unable to rule and lead the army; furthermore the army was not organized and so the
people thought that they were not led by a good king; there was widespread anarchy.
The dialogue with the ghost starts with an anticipation. The relationship between the two is like the
relationship between a father and a son. The father uses a lot of imperatives.
The ghost has told Hamlet what has happened, that he has been abused and deprived of his crown
and his wife. He told him that he hasn’t gone to the heaven because he wasn’t ready to die and he
hasn’t been able to beg God’s pardon for his sins.
In the dialogue there are many references to “ear”, “listen”, “hearing”, … in order to underline also
that Denmark is corrupted and the truth here has been manipulated. The ghost wanted Hamlet to
believe him. The people of Denmark had been provided with a wrong version of his death, there
has been manipulation of the truth.
All the manipulation of the truth has taken place through hearing. The lie has been taken through
hearing.
The other important theme is the one of remembrance. Hamlet is spurred many times by the ghost
to take revenge about him but he is unable to do it. He wants many more proofs in order to
understand if the ghost has told the truth.
To be or not to be
Hamlet doesn’t know if he should believe or commit suicide. He wonders if to submit to his cruel
destiny or fight against it.
He is sure that with death he’ll put an end to all the pains.
The idea of connecting sleep and death is here present. Both are able to cancel problems. Death
might provide a solution, but maybe what comes after death could be worse than the troubles of
life. For this reason people don’t commit suicide.
He thinks here about all the bad aspects of life and how easy would be to commit suicide.
Idea of human life as disillusionment. The fear of the world that comes after death makes men
confused, they lose their strength.
It is more effective to perform the monologue meditating on the meaning of life with the skull on
his hand, but he actually found it only when Ophelia died, when the grave-digger found the skull
of the jester.
When Hamlet finished his monologue Ophelia entered. He thought that she was helping the king
and Polonius to plot against him and that she was betraying him.
He said so her that he didn’t love her anymore because in a person both beauty and honesty can’t
exist, so she couldn’t be honest and he doesn’t rely on her anymore. Ophelia was desperate because
she loved him enormously. This would be one of the reasons which would lead her to commit
suicide. The main one would be the fact that her lover would kill her father.
Hamlet with Gonzalo organized to performance “The murder of Gonzago” that was really similar to
the death of his father and they focused their attention on the king to understand if he was guilty.
Then he went to his mother room with the purpose of killing her because he thought that she was
so guilty as his uncle. Polonius was with the Queen in the room in order to defend her and he hid
himself behind the tapestry.
Hamlet went to his mother with the picture of the two brothers. His father here was perfect like a
God while his uncle was like a pig. She was guilty of lust.
The ghost realized that Hamlet was going to kill his mother and that this was why he had entered
her bedroom.
Hamlet was in love with his mother and he hated Claudius because he had deprived him of her.
(Oedipus’s complex). He couldn’t accept that his mother still have a sexual life.