William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare:

 If anyone asks me, who is my favorite author, my reply is always William Shakespeare!

Shakespeare is a dramatic genius, belonging to the Elizabethan and the Jacobean age. A well known playwright, poet and actor. He is surely everyone’s favorite as he is known to be the greatest writer in English language and History. He has written 39 plays and 154 sonnets including two narrative poems. He is well known for his tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, histories, Romantic comedies etc.

I fell in love with Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, especially As You Like it. We were introduced to Shakespeare at U.G level, until then I hadn’t read his works. Merchant of Venice was the first one that I read. I found this play quite interesting and was delighted to read more of his works. All his works are very intensive and great to read, but I prefer his Comedies the most.

Shakespeare had the mastery of writing. His style and language belonged to that era, but reading his plays seems very satisfying as I feel those characters and the situations are exactly like ours. The dialogues in his plays seem to be very witty with elaborate metaphors that we can even apply it today. The poems also seem to be very rhetorical. His plays seem to be very mature with proper characters and plots.

 Shakespeare’s romantic comedies are always a pleasure to read. It is light-hearted with intricate complexity in love and romantic relationships. But it  ends happily with marriages among couple/s .The elements of romantic comedy are happy denouement, separation and re – unification, complexities in love, disguise and impersonation or mistaken identity and of course comedy!

Some of his comedies include – All’s well that Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s dream, As You Like it, Twelfth Night Merchant of Venice, Much ado about Nothing.

As You Like It: (1599)

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by Shakespeare. This play seems to me very outstanding and remarkable. This is one of my favorite plays. The characters, the plot, themes and others things have deeply affected me. Orlando seems to be a fine character with proper values and goodness. Rosalind is smart and intelligent. She loves Orlando. The fool occupies the most prominent position in all the Shakespeare’s plays. Touchstone is the fool of the play who is witty and quick in his dialogues. All his dialogues seem to be logical and witty. Jacques is another important character in the play, a nobleman and melancholic in nature but presents excellent dialogues. He correctly interprets life. Oliver, Orlando’s brother does not care about Orlando and is selfish but everything resolves at the end and the play ends happily!

For summary refer online website - www.williamshakespeare.net

Quote from the play by Jaques:

All the worlds's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts beings seven ages.
At first the infant,mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
And then the whining school - boy, with his satchel and shining morning face,
creeping like snail unwillingly to school.
And then the lover, sighing like furnace with a woeful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow.
Then a soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, jealous and honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the canon's mouth.
And then the justice, in fair round belly with good capon lin'd, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.
The sixth age shifts into the lean an slippere'd pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide for his shrunk shank;
And his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound.
Last seen of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion;
sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.