Literary Criticisms
The Acts of Forgiveness
William Shakespeare's works contain many conflicting emotions and life lessons. Scholars have identified forgiveness as one of many repetitious moral goods Shakespeare includes in his works. Shakespeare explores the morality of forgiveness in several of his plays, sonnets, and poems, such as The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, and Julius Caesar. In The Tempest, Shakespeare's overarching theme is the Acts of betrayal. Prospero uses magic to torment the survivors of a shipwreck, which includes his brother, Antonio, after they speak of killing him, and Antonio speaks of overthrowing the King. Only in the last act (Act V) does Prospero renounce his magic and forgive those who wronged him. It shows the true mercy shared after such disloyalty. True forgiveness requires the ability to repent. Shakespeare creates the characters to be incapable of emotion until the end. Even then, it might not happen. The piece was written as revengeful but instead is combined with possibilities of forgiveness, love, and compassion. The Winter's Tale follows the same premise as The Tempest and Cymbeline. The late romances were written to emphasize forgiveness, compassion, and redemption. Shakespeare's writing has been compared to the Christian Ideology of sin, repentance, and forgiveness.
While many plays follow this pattern, there are also juxtaposing plots, such as Hamlet and Titus Andronicus, where the plot of vengeance leads to the failure of forgiveness. In Hamlet, Macbeth is told a prophecy by the three witches. He is to be promoted twice. His desire for power inflicts a killing spree among the profited future kings and innocent townspeople. Malcolm, whose father is killed by Macbeth, seeks revenge and Kills Macbeth. Malcolm makes peace and becomes the King of Scone. Macbeth is never forgiven by any of the townspeople for the mass murders, but Malcolm is praised for being noble. Shakespeare does not denounce the human ability to forgive, yet he enlarges the importance of forgiveness by creating a mass tragedy of morals.
Chronic Figures
Every story has a chronic figure. Chronic figures originate from ancient Greek dramas. Plays typically separate characters into classes of people: elders, matrons, and citizens. Elizabethan writers started to adapt this style of literature. Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe innovated this writing style until it soon became the theatrical standard. Shakespeare, however, did not abide by these standards. His characterization was no longer limited to groups of people, yet each character had their ambitions and motives. Shakespeare adds to the theatrical dimension by creating the chronic figure with an oblique persona. His plays Henry IV, Pericles, and The Winter's Tale shift dramas in which the chronic figure connects the audience to the dramatic action.
Henry V is Shakespeare's most known chronic figure. His play shifts history into a relatable tragedy. It takes history to a shifted point of view that allows the audience to view typical opinions in the eyes of the character. However, there is a significant difference between the Shakespearean character, and the idealized Henry V. Shakespeare portrays the king as vulnerable and more complex thinking rather than the anger-filled, hasty king he indeed was. The chronic figure and chorus are entirely separated. The chorus is the mediator between the playgoers and the players. This writing style allows the audiences' imaginations to overcome the typical theatrical limitations of the stage.
Narrative Poetry
Shakespeare is best known for his plays and 154 sonnets, but he also wrote two long narrative poems: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and shortly after, two short narrative poems: The Phoenix and the Turtle and A Lover's Complaint. These four poems are considered outcasts of Shakespeare's typical line of work. Many critics ignore these poems, but they share many similarities to his mainstream works. Venus and Adonis and A Lover's Complaint both bestow affinities of a highly passionate and over-the-top pursuit, which leads to comedic mockery throughout the poem. While The Rape of Lucrece deals with such wrongful doings that her death is the relief. Both long narrative poems reference the Roman poet Ovid, whose works are known to be comedic and tragic. Poets, in the times of early poetry, would use or steal others' works. Shakespeare's long narratives reference the juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy in Ovid's works. Recent studies prove that this writing style connects his plays and poems.
Although lengthy narrative poems are typically overseen, many writers were inspired by the same plots. There were many versions of The Rape of Lucrece, including Titus Livius History of Rome, where Shakespeare was first inspired, Thomas Middleton's The Ghost of Lucrece, and John Quarles's The Banishment of Tarquinius, which were both written as sequels to Shakespeare's famous work. Shakespeare's long narrative poems all inspire each other. The narrative poetry follows typical vivid imagery, exploration of human emotions, and a poetic style that adapts to all of his plays and sonnets.
The Art of Death
In many of his plays, Shakespeare writes the final fatalities of the chronic figure. Shakespeare uses the ars moriendi tradition. Ars moriendi uses the characters' dying words throughout their lives as the moral turnaround. Their dying words represent the entire plot's truth, leaving the readers in pain or relief.
Shakespeare uses different deaths to interpret the audience with different emotional connections:
- Comedic deaths allow the audience to accept the character's fate while knowing something else is coming.
- Reversals form hope that a character might survive, then hit the audience with a tragedy.
- Self-affirmations allow the character to accept their fate.
Self-assertion to the worst fate concludes that people should not protest the inevitable.
Ultimately, the creation of his characters breaks down into very intricate steps. They each become a symbol for something greater. Shakespeare's brilliance in character development would be wasted without the impact of death. Each character he kills has a significant death that only adds to each
character's personality seen throughout the work.