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Analysis of allen poe's writing
Analysis of allen poe's writing
Analysis of allen poe's writing
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THE UNIVERSITY WITS: The growing popularity and diversity of the drama, its secularization, and the growth of a class of writers who were not members of holy orders led in the 16th century to a new literary phenomenon, the secular professional playwright. The first to exploit this situation was a group of writers known as the University Wits, young men who had graduated at Oxford or Cambridge with no patrons to sponsor their literary efforts and no desire to enter the Church. They turned to playwriting to make a living. In doing so they made Elizabethan drama more literary and more dramatic--and they also had an important influence on both private and public theaters because they worked for each. They set the course for later Elizabethan and …show more content…
He was born in Canterbury and educated there at Cambridge and adopted literature as a profession. Marlowe's plays, all tragedies were written within a short span of five years (1587-92). He had no bent for comedy and the comic parts found in some of his plays are always inferior. As a dramatist Marlowe had serious limitations. Only in "Edward the Second" does he show any sense of plot construction, while his characterization is of the simplest and lack the warm humanity of Shakespeare. All the plays except "Edward the Second" revolve around one figure drawn in bold outlines. Indeed to appreciate Marlowe properly we must put aside conventional ideas of the drama and view his play as the representation of a poetic vision, the typically Renaissance quest for power combined with the quest for beauty. Each of his plays has behind it the driving force of this vision, which gives it an artistic and poetic unity. His verse is notable for its burning energy, its splendor of direction and its sensuous richness. Full of bold primary colours, his poetry is crammed with imagery from the Classics. "Tamburlaine the Great" centered on one inhuman figure, is on a theme essentially undramatic in that the plot allows no possibility for complication. The play is episodic and lacking any cohesion. Yet it contains much of Marlowe's best blank verse. "The Second part of Tamburlaine the Great" is inferior to its …show more content…
He was born in Norwich, educated at Cambridge and at Oxford, and then took to a literary life in London. We can refer only to his thirty-five prose tracts, which are probably the best of his literary work for; they reveal his intense though erotic energy, his quick malicious wit and his powerful imagination. Among his plays are "Alphonsus", "King of Aragon", easily his best work and containing some fine representations of Elizabethan life. "Orlando Furioso", adapted from an English translation of "Aristo". Greene is weak in creating characters and his style is not of outstanding merit. But his humour is somewhat genial in his plays and his methods less austere than those of the other
The renaissance lay dormant in the minds of men from the 13th and 14th centuries. Their work was considered heretical and they were burned at the stake. The repression of the 13th and 14th centuries was undone as the power of the church and its scholastic knowledge was transferred to any literate men with access to a local printer's workshop and money to buy a library of ancient works that were now being copied at incredible speeds. This created a threat to the doctrinal power of the church which gave way to a scientific revolution. The new power of scientific knowledge and the engines that it was to build was a subject of two of the greatest playwrights of the period, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Marlowe identified the perceived threats that came from irreverence of the church and tradition. Shakespeare wrote a play that focused on the great promise that the renaissance turned out to be. Many in power feared that the promise of returning to old ideas was actually a demonic illusion of prosperity which undermined traditional doctrine. Others enjoyed the thought of the new power that might be enjoyed from conquering distant lands and using the old books as tools to master earth.
In 1564, a man was born by the name of William Shakespeare. He was born to a poor family, was given little education, and had no interaction with sophisticated society. Thirty-eight plays and over 150 sonnets are not attributed to this ignorant man. Those who believe that Shakespeare was the author have no definitive proof but instead point to Hamlet’s declaration: "The play’s the thing(Satchell 71)." The true author, however, lies hidden behind he name of Shakespeare. Edward de Vere the premier Earl of Oxford is not only considered a great poet in history, but he may also be the great playwright who concocted the sonnets and plays which are now attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford, England.
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 34, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1994), pp. 341-356 Published by: Rice University http://www.jstor.org/stable/450905
Elizabethan times in the 1600s was a progression for the world of the theater. A period named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, it is from this period that modern day society has its foundation for the entertainment industry. From the violence that was prevalent because of the Black Death, people turned to the theater for its poetry and romance. During this time period, there were two types of theatrical performances that were available for the people’s viewing, comedies or tragedies. These two genres were never really intertwined until the time of William Shakespeare. His play, Romeo and Juliet, is an example of both a comedy and a tragedy. It starts off as a comedy with Romeo weeping like a baby because of his love Rosaline, who did not love him back and ends as a tragedy when Romeo and Juliet, a pair of star crossed lovers, commit suicide because the lost of each other. It was also during Shakespeare’s time that writer were finally acknowledged by the people. Before this time, writers were not considered upper classman. Another group of people that began to rise into a higher social class were the actors. Actresses were not present back then because women were not allowed on stage. It was considered unladylike to have a female actor. Men played all the parts. Theater owners were dependent on actors to make them a profit. Rehearsals for the plays were fairly short, only lasting for about a week. The performances themselves would only show for three to four days.
It is harder to imagine a more universal writer than William Shakespeare. Rarely if ever is one of his many plays not being performed somewhere in the world and similarly rare is the tertiary English student who has not examined his work at length. His plays, sonnets and poems are common fodder for high school English departments across the globe.
William Shakespeare has become landmark in English literature. One must be familiar with the early days of English literature in order to comprehend the foundation of much of more modern literature’s basis. Shakespeare’s modern influence is still seen clearly in many ways. The success of Shakespeare’s works helped to set the example for the development of modern dramas and plays. He is also acknowledged for being one of the first writers to use any modern prose in his writings.
Shakespeare’s dramatic theatre performances have long endured the test of time. His tales of love and loss, and even some history, make a reader think about events in their own life and what they wish to accomplish in life. Though written for the stage, Shakespeare’s plays have life lessons that readers of the great works can take put into effect in their own lives. Some may say that his plays are out dated, and are something of the past; though they were written in the 1600’s, they have morals and themes that can apply to life. “You've got to contend with versification, poetic license, archaisms, words that we don't even use any more, and grammar and spelling that were in a state of flux when the works were written,” says Pressley in an attempt to explain how to read Shakespeare. Once read and understood, however, one can start to compare and contrast different plays. The ways in which Shakespeare’s two plays King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing are similar out numbers the instances they are different, even though one is a Shakespearian tragedy while the other is a comedy.
Marlowe, Christopher Dr Faustus in ed. WB Worthen (1996) The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, 2nd edn., Texas: Harcourt Brace
The impeccable style and craft of Shakespeare’s writing has always been looked upon with great respect, and it continues to serve as an inspiration to writers and thinkers today even as it did when it was being first performed in London. Shakespeare’s modern audience, however, is far less diverse than the one for which he originally wrote. Due to the antiquity of his language, Shakespeare’s modern readership consists mostly of students and intellectuals, whereas in Shakespeare’s own time, his plays were performed in playhouses packed with everyone from royalty to peasants. Because of this, Shakespeare was forced to write on many different levels, the most sophisticated of which appealed to his more elite audience members, while the more straightforward and often more crude of which appealed to his less educated viewers, and the most universal of which still appeals to us.
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 62: Elizabethan Dramatists. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Fredson Bowers, University of Virginia. Gale Research, 1987. pp. 267-353.
The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus is Marlowe's misreading of the drama of the morality tradition, the Faust legend, and, ironically, his own Tamburlaine plays. In the development of the character of Doctor Faustus, we find one of the supreme artistic achievements of English dramatic literature, a milestone of artistic creativity and originality. The force of Marlowe's dramatic poetry resonates with lyrical intensity in its dialectic between world and will. Not only is Faustus the first true dramatic character of any psychological, moral, and philosophical depth in English literature of the modern period, but in his creation of this unique character we see Marlowe on the verge of Shakespearean characterization, that supreme artistic achievement that Harold Bloom calls the invention of the human personality.
Levin, Harry. General Introduction. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.
Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of D. Faustus. In Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments. Edited by A.F. Kinney. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2002.
The name most associated with excellence in theatre is William Shakespeare. His plays, more than any other playwright, resonate through the ages. It may be safe to say that he has influenced more actors, directors, and playwrights than any thespian in the history of the stage. But what were his influences? During the Middle Ages theatre was dominated by morality, miracle, and mystery plays that were often staged by the church as a means to teach the illiterate masses about Christianity. It wasn’t until the early sixteenth century that Greek tragedy experienced a revival, in turn, inspiring a generation of renaissance playwrights.
William Shakespeare’s work is known throughout the world and has been performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal history of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. There are two main sources that provide us with a basic outline of his life. One source is through the plays, poems and sonnets he wrote, and the other source is from official documents, such as church and court records. But these sources can give only so much, they only tell us about specific events that happened that happened in his life, not much about the person experiencing them. William Shakespeare was a successful poet and playwright during the Elizabethan era, and became the most popular dramatist of his age.