CLASS V E … your humble patience pray gently

to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

ROMEO & JULIET

JULIUS CAESAR

HAMLET

OTHELLO

KING LEAR

MACBETH

THE TEMPEST

TITANIA

JULIET

CALPURNIA

GERTRUDE

DESDEMONA

CORDELIA

LADY MACBETH

MIRANDA

HELENA

NURSE

OPHELIA

EMILIA

REGAN

HERMIA

LADY CAPULET

GONERIL

Bob Marley: “no woman no cry”

CALPURNIA

Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,

Yet now they fright me. There is one within,

Besides the things that we have heard and seen,

Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.

A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;

Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,

In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,

Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;

The noise of battle hurtled in the air,

Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,

And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.

O Caesar! these things are beyond all use,

And I do fear them.

CCAALLPPUURRNNIIAA She is Caesar ‘s wife. This character has not got a great part in the play :she acts only a dialogue with Caesar at the beginning of the play and another one just before the killing of Caesar. The night after the offer to Caesar of the crown she dreams a bad dream. So in the morning she tries to convince Caesar not to go to the Capitol. But Caesar doesn’t follow her advice and is killed. She is presented as a silly woman that believes in dreams, but at the end the dream proves true.

JULIET

O Romeo, Romeo!wherefore art you Romeo?Deny thy father and refuse thy name!

Or, if thou wilt not be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet

LADY CAPULET

Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a wordDo as thou wilt, for I have done with thee

NURSEFaith, here it is./ Romeo is banish’d; and all the world to nothingThat he dares ne’er come back to challenge you;/ Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth.Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,/ I think it best you married with the County.O, he’s a lovely gentleman!/ Romeo’s dishcoult to him. An eagle, madam,Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye/ As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, I think you are happy in this second match,/ For it excels your first; or if it did not,Your first is dead - or ‘twere as good he were/ As living here, and you no use of him

JJUULLIIEETT Juliet can be considered the first real woman in English literature. In fact she takes the role of the man, because is determinate, sure of herself and takes decisions. She is a very revolutionary character, the first girl similar to a modern girl. She falls in love with Romeo, the son of Lord Montague, while, she is lord Capulet’s daughter :their families are enemies. Also Romeo is in love with Juliet, and makes her a promise of marriage, so Juliet is sure of his love. To make the promise also in front of God, they decide to get married, and finally they make the ceremony in the chapel, in secret. Juliet so goes against her father decisions, with great courage. One of the most surprising passages in the play is in the third act : just before the wedding night between the two lovers...Juliet is waiting for Romeo in her room. She feels “like an impatient child that has new robes and may not wear them.” She invites the night to come, because during the night Romeo will come and speaks about” love performing night, to learn how to lose a winning match played for a pair of stainless maidenhood, her unmanned blood bating” without problems of decency or convention. Juliet is unconventional, impulsive, spontaneous and passionate, her love for Romeo is real, sincere, true. Her language is concrete, sincere, not influenced by the courtly love conventions. At the end of the play the two lovers die together, so Juliet, even if she will forever remain a heroine for young girls, is finally a victim. Dire Straits "Romeo and Juliet"

LLAADDYY CCAAPPUULLEETT She is Juliet’s mother. Juliet ‘s mother in difference of Juliet is the symbol of the typical woman of the 17th century. She doesn’t follow her feelings, but her husband’s will. He is a sort of pater familias, which has rights on his children and his wife, which are submitted. In fact Lady Capulet tries to persuade Juliet to marry Paris, to respect her husband’s decisions. The relationship between Juliet and her mother isn’t good: in fact Juliet can’t speak about her love story with Romeo, she is sure that her mother will not help her and would not understand her love. So Lady Capulet can be considered a victim of men’s power. She is the exact opposite of Juliet, the new, modern woman

THE NURSETHE NURSEThe nurse is the comic character of the play together with Mercuzio. Her function is to give wise advice to Juliet who loves Romeo but her father has given the consent to marry Paris. At first the nurse helps Juliet to speak with Romeo but when the boy is banished from Verona the nurse suggested Juliet to marry Paris because he could become a good husband. So we can see that he considers money more important than true love. But at the end she understands that for Juliet Romeo is more important than Paris and she decides to help the girl to arrive at her aim. The nurse is an important character also because she is the only one, together with Friar Laurence, to know everything so she becomes an important point of union in the play.

GERTRUDE

What have I done that thou dar’st wagty

tongue in -noise so rude again si me

OPHELIA

My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;

And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed

As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,

Take these again; for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

There, my lord.

GGEERRTTRRUUDDEE Hamlet’s mother, only a month after her husband’s death, decides to marry Hamlet’s uncle. So Gertrude is the cause of the moral torment in Hamlet’s soul, and, at the same time, restrains Claudius from killing her son. But she isn’t an exceptional character: Gertrude doesn’t act great monologues, but from what she says we can understand that she is a good mother, careful and tender; she isn’t an accomplice in her husband’s murder, and she insists in seeing only the good side of life. In fact, for example she doesn’t believe in her husband’s ghost. She is very unhappy for Hamlet’s behaviour and wants to discover the cause of Hamlet’s madness, with the naive hope of finding again happiness. One of the most important passages in the play is when Hamlet and Gertrude meet in her room: Gertrude, during their meeting face to face, answers with the pride of an innocent soul. So she shows us lack of self-criticism. But then she begins to feel a sense of remorse: for this reason when she speaks with the king she doesn’t reveal that Hamlet isn’t really mad. Only her own death, at the end of the play, can persuade her of Claudius’s fault. Her language is tender, gentle and when she speaks about Ophelia’s death also poetic.

EMILIABut I do think it is their husband’ faults

if wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,

and pour our treasures into foreign laps;

DESDEMONA Your wife, my lord; your true

And loyal wife.

OOPPHHEELLIIAA Ophelia is Polonius’s daughter and Laertes sister. She has a negative vision of mankind and she is narrow-minded, but she loves Hamlet. She has a weak character and she is influenced by her family, in particular by her father and her brother. In fact Laertes describes Hamlet’s love as deceptive and Polonius doesn’t want that she falls in love with Hamlet and he thinks Hamlet’s madness is caused by his love for his daughter Ophelia. But Hamlet is disgusted by her mother’s behaviour and he is so disappointed by the feminine gender that he refutes Ophelia. This passage is very important and very famous: in this scene Hamlet asks Ophelia, after a discussion about honesty and beauty, where her father is. When she answers she doesn’t know, we can understand Hamlet’s reaction. At the end Ophelia becomes mad. The first signs of madness emerge in act 4, scene 5; Claudius says to Horatio: "Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.” She exits and then her brother Laertes enters. She has in this early part of the scene the rosemary, pansies, columbines and daisies she will give to Laertes, the king, and the Queen. While Ophelia is hanging a garland of flowers in a branch of a tree in a stream, she falls in water and she is drowned.

EEMMIILLIIAA Emilia is one of the main women in “Othello”. She is Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s attendant so she tries to convince Othello that his wife is faithful and honest, when he is suspicious and believes in Iago’s plot and so he insults her. After Othello has killed Desdemona and she has understood Iago’s plot, she decides to tell everybody the truth. So Iago, the real loser, must drop the mask of the honest man and he is obliged to face reality. In some of Emilia’s words feminist ideas emerge clearly, in fact she says to Desdemona that if women are unfaithful to their husband, it is their fault because they are too jealous, unfaithful or they beat them. Emilia thinks in a different way from Desdemona; Emilia is more quick-witted than Desdemona who instead is an ingenuous woman, and a victim of men. Emilia’s language is concrete and direct: she says everything she thinks. Zucchero Fornaciari "Donne"

MMIIRRAANNDDAA In general Shakespearian women are victims, many of them die or men manipulate them. But Miranda isn’t a victim, she represents womanly perfection and she has a happy destiny, in fact at the end of the play she can marry her beloved Ferdinand. Miranda is beautiful and innocent. She loves Prospero, her father, she respect him, but their relationship is strange, in fact Prospero loves Ariel, the spirit of the island, more than her. Miranda loves Ferdinand and she doesn’t respect Prospero’s will; at first, in fact, her father dislikes Ferdinand and so he tries to avoid their union, but Miranda is also a determinated girl so she decides to continue her relationship with Ferdinand and she wants to convince Prospero that Ferdinand is a good boy

DDEESSDDEEMMOONNAA

Desdemona is very innocent and at the same time she is passionate like Juliet. Her love for the Moor is true and deep while for Othello she is only an object of desire and jealousy. Desdemona’s death seems a punishment for the secret marriage as it was for Juliet. Desdemona feels a more sincere and confident love to such an extent that she lets herself be guided by her husband blindly, while Othello’s love is only selfish and possessive. Desdemona is sensual and romantic she is presented from two points of views: through Othello’s prize of her beauty and innocence and through Iago’s vulgar comments. When she reaches the top of love and happiness, she starts to decline towards death. Desdemona is assertive, calm and becomes uneasy only when Othello is away. She speaks in poetry, and her language is concrete.

MIRANDAI might call himA thing divine; for nothing naturalI ever saw so noble

LADY MACBETH

Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy Thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think

So brainsickly of thing. Go , get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand.

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there: go, carry them, and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood

LLAADDYY MMAACCBBEETTHH Lady Macbeth turned her husband into a murderer in fact she, with her determination, sweeps away doubts from Macbeth’s mind. Lady Macbeth is more determinated and decides to kill Duncan, while Macbeth wants to have the power and to became king without committing crimes. In Macbeth it seems that the woman takes the role of the man. Lady Macbeth and her husband are punished for their ambition and their thirst of power, Lady Macbeth starts sleepwalking while Macbeth can’t sleep. She is ambitious, proud and superstitious; she behaves like a man but then she commits suicide. After the murder of the king she has a nervous and psychological breakdown. She is the real witch, more cruel than the three witches and bossier than her husband.

The three main female characters are Regan, Goneril and Cordelia, the three daughters of King Lear. These women have a great importance in the play, they take decisions and they hold the same role of man. This is an uncommon thing for the society of the time where women were considered inferior to men. Regan and Goneril are the two ungrateful and greedy daughters: they pretend respect, love and reverence to their father only because they want to inherit his kingdom. Their feelings are false, dishonest, bad and opportunist. In fact they illtreat their father, they haven’t respect for his old age. Their aims are power, wealth and to obtain these things they use all means without any moral doubt. The condition of Lear is similar to the condition of a lot of old fellows that still now are considered by their sons and daughters a burden to move from a place to another. Regan and Goneril didn’t get married for love but their marriage is simply a contract and they have no problems to betray their husbands for a man who has more power: they are immoral. Their idea of love is very different from the idea of love of Juliet: she is passionate, has values and true feelings. The third daughter of King Lear, Cordelia, is the opposite of her sisters, she is the prototype of the good daughter. She is sweet-tempered and modest; she doesn’t show publicly love to his father but she honours and respects him. She helps her father in the moment of difficulty; she is helpful, honest and loyal. She has a modern idea of love and she is wise.

TITANIA

Out of this wood do not desire to go:

Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.

I am a spirit of no common rate;

The summer still doth tend upon my state;

And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;

I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!

HELENA

So methinks:And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine own, and not mine own.

HERMIA

Methinks I see these things with parted eye,

When every thing seems double.

GONERIL By day and night he wrongs me; every hour

He flashes into one gross crime or other,

That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us

On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,

I will not speak with him; say I am sick:

If you come slack of former services,

You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.

REGAN

Out, treacherous villain!

Thou call'st on him that hates thee: it was he

That made the overture of thy treasons to us;

Who is too good to pity thee.

CORDELIA

Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now

As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;

Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,

With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,

Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;

Search every acre in the high-grown field,

And bring him to our eye.

TITANIAShe is the queen of the fairies. She was married to Oberon. She falls in love with a man with an ass head and this is a comic part of this comedy. She represented the woman in the world of the fairies but she is described like a common woman with her passions and her mistakes

HERMIAShe falls in love with Lysander. Their love is true love but her father has given Demetrius the consent to marry her. This love is similar to Romeo and Juliet love but at the end their love finishes well. Hermia follows her passions, she is impulsive

HELENAHelena is a friend of Hermia who loves Demetrius so she follows him when he follows Hermia in the wood. Also Helena is impulsive she follows her emotion and her heart. At the end she married Demetrius

SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease halth all too short a date;

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,

And every fair from fair sometimes declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

As the title itself says “ a Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a sort of “dream” and love is seen as the result of enchantment. In fact there’s no deep passion of affection but love is only physical love, it depends on sight: Puck puts a poison on the lovers’ eyelids to change their feeling, so magic is also important in this play. Infatuation is the only kind of love represented in “ Midsummer night’s dream”, and this love is irresponsible, capricious. In fact Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius fall in love and become indifferent to each other in a night because of Puck’s magic. Love is based on eyes and it can be noticed with Titania: The queen of the fairies falls in love with Bottom thanks to the love filter, because Bottom’s head is transformed into an ass’s head but Titania doesn’t matter. This is a strange situation, because Titania could have all the men she wants but by magic she chooses the worst one, a man transformed in a ridiculous animal.Queen “Somebody to love”

“ Love’s reason’s without reason”: this is one of the most representative sentences by Shakespeare, because he mainly writes about love. In fact in his plays love can be considered the main feeling of human life because it influences our existence. For example in Romeo and Juliet the lovers cannot escape from their tragic destiny and their destiny makes the story more moving and in contrast with their simple innocence and youth. Love between the two protagonists is excessive: “Do not swear at all. Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, which is the god of my idolatry”, They act following only passion. They believed in eternal love and for it they are ready to commit suicide.

In Othello there are two kinds of love represented by Othello and Desdemona. For the Moor love is a practical, physical matter; in fact he considered his wife like a thing in his hands. He also considered his love as a social conquest but Desdemona’s love is true and passionate and she has fallen in love with Othello for compassion and for admiration. For example when Othello wants to kill Desdemona she doesn’t resist to her husband’s will and she dies without asking for revenge. Iago’s love can be compared to Othello’s one; in fact Iago uses his wife for his business: he asked her to steal Desdemona’s handkerchief. However, in our opinion, the play that best represents the theme of love is Othello because everything is moved by it. Othello’s and Desdemona’s love triumph over their cultural and racial differences and this was a strange thing for that time. The feeling between them is different because Other’s love is possession, selfishness, and a simple desire to control his partner. Desdemona feels a more sincere and confident love to such an extent that she lets herself be guided by her husband blindly. For Othello his love for his wife is the most important thing, so important that when he begins to think that Desdemona is unfaithful he becomes mad and, in order to establish harmony, he kills her. Othello’s feelings are impulsive and passionate, while Desdemona loves him because his tales, his strength and his «diversity» fascinate her. Queen "Love of my life"

Madness

“Fools had never less grace in a year, for wise men are grown foppish and know not

how their wits to wear, their manners are so apish.”

Love in “ Macbeth” is presented in a strange way, because Lady Macbeth is stronger than his husband and he obeys her because of his love. It’s a feeling based on ambition: at the beginning Lady Macbeth is ambitious but at the end also Macbeth wants to become more and more powerful. In fact when his wife dies, Macbeth is not sorry ( he says “ she should have died hereafter” ) but when the story starts, Macbeth kills the king to give his wife a proof of love ( she tells him that if he doesn’t commit the murder it means that he doesn’t love her) so this feeling is also used as a means of blackmail.

IntroductionIn ancient times, a lot of authors as Sofocle in “Aiace”, Euripide in “Eracle” and “Baccanti” and Seneca in “Hercules Furens” dealt with the way and effects of madness. This is a theme that unites the modern production to the antique one, because madness not only has always existed, but it has always scared the sane. Obviously the interpretation has changed: the antique thought that madness was inflicted by gods, while with the passing of time scientists has given more and more medical reasons. Sometimes it was described as a cheat planned by the mad himself. In the XVII century scientists began to give a rational explanation to madness because of the affirmation of the scientific and experimental method that brought about the birth of hospitals as centres of studies and research about mad people and their madness. It’s only at the beginning of this century that Shakespeare writes his plays about madness: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Shakespeare wrote these plays in a period where madness began to be considered an illness and where mad were considered as “different”, that is as people one should be afraid of. This attention about the problem of madness indicates an important change in the attitude of the author about humane nature. Madness was considered a weakness that might be true or false. In fact in some cases madness is only false and it plays a strong attraction on all the art of this period. But in the cases of true madness, it can’t be considered as a punishment of an individual unrestrained pride or as a momentary darkening of reason caused by external events, but as a mental illness that started in the dark deep of common irrationality of every people. Mad people are usually weak people to whom their world and their certainities are destroyed finding themselves alone to face difficult situations. In these cases we can talk about these people of a first death, in fact, becoming mad, it seems that these people live in a transitory world between life and death that is, they are totally detached from reality, everyone for their own reasons. The reaction of wise people is different: some mad people are seen as a danger and for this cause people are afraid of them whereas for other mad people we feel mercy for their situation. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, the theme of madness is intimately bound to the theme of power and the connected motives of ambition, rebellion, greed and responsibility. But all mad characters, also the fool in King Lear, are joined by a feature: in their madness they reveal a deeper disturbing truth.

Queen “Bohemian rapsody”

HamletAt the beginning of the play, Hamlet is desperate, he is very angry, he feels himself betrayed by his mother because she was with her husband in a perfect union of strength and virtue. This was, for Hamlet, an imperishable fusion, a model for everybody. Now his mother has broken this “dream” which the son was clutched to and because of this he felt sure of himself. (act I scene II “why she would hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on)

But the anger is not against his mother, because the love and the admiration for her cannot disappear as for the need to keep a part of the previous world alive. The anger is against his uncle who broke the magic. First he is seen like a murderer, a evil person without any shadow of virtue and dignity. All the hate against him makes the young prince plan a diabolical project, absolutely mathematical and logical to assure the hell not only on earth but eternal to the murderer of his happiness. (act I scene IV “why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee”)

From here the decision to pretend madness. (act I scene V “here, as before, never, so help you merci, how strange or odd some’er I bear myself)

In madness Hamlet is tormented by doubts of how to act and when, whether to revenge soon or to wait for the moment when the victim is not ready to die. Not also this seems a delay for fear but also a diabolic will, the expression of a deep hate. Hamlet expresses very well the fears and doubts of a suffering man more than a mad, a man who fells betrayed by everybody, and also by the person which, after his mother, he most trusts; Ophelia. Hamlet perhaps wanted to share his woe with her but when understand that she doesn’t support him, he feels totally alone. In his monologues, to all appearance chaotic, he puts the criticism and the disappointment towards women. (act I scene II “fragility your name is woman”)

(act III scene II Ophelia: “’tis brief, my lord.” Hamlet: “as woman’s love.”)

The Ark “it takes a fool to remain sane”

The distrust towards humanity, men that are all swindlers and sinners. In the dialogue with the other characters Hamlet underlines the fault of his speakers: he says to Polonius that he is a dishonest and stupid man, he calls his “friends” snakes. When he speaks to his mother, Hamlet stresses her mistake, tells her about his anger, his woe, he confides in her. He finds only a bit of comfort when he speaks and plays with the actors.

At the end, Hamlet dies for his faults: the inability to power and because he entrusts too much to rationality, but so he couldn’t resolve his doubt. But, before dying , Hamlet leaves a testament to the world: he leaves the truth, that he strongly wants to live in Horazio: there was too falsity, too ambiguity in society. He leaves his state to Fortinbras because Hamlet knows that he would be a better king than him. At the end Hamlet says “the rest is silence”; with these words he wants to express again the uncertainty of life: we can known only our own acts, nothing more.

OPHELIAOPHELIAOphelia, Polonius’s daughter, is a simple, obedient and ingenuous girl. She loves Hamlet very much, but when her father orders her to see the prince no more, she doesn’t find the strength to rebel against him. When Hamlet pretends to be mad, she doesn’t understand his will and his woe, but she believes that he is really mad because she refused his love.

But when her father, the person she is got on better to, dies, Ophelia, oppressed by her woe, becomes mad. She is more vexed up because the murderer is Hamlet.

In her madness Ophelia goes on to name her father and speaks about him to everybody, she tells about his death, his funeral, his life. She says all with ingenuity, with tenderness but also with bitterness: she says that nobody mourned him properly. She sings love songs and, when she meets her brother Laertes, whom she loves very much, she doesn’t recognise him but she speaks to him, giving some flowers, imaginary, and explains him their meaning. In particular she speaks about rosemary that is for memory, to keep the remembrance of who is no more with us. So she doesn’t want to forget the dead, in her madness it seems that she accepted the fact. At the end Ophelia dies drowning in a small river while doing garlands. She dies singing old songs without fear as if she had already died with her father, with him her reason had died and in her madness she is not afraid to die, on the contrary, she wished that.

King LearMadness in King Lear is the central theme of the play: at the beginning of the narration, the fool tells about madness jokingly and annoyingly to make the king wise, without result. At the end of the play the king doesn’t bear all the suffered injustices and becomes crazy. In this moment the fool, who is the mirror character of Lear, disappears and the king takes the place of the fool. We can say that all the play is based on the alternation of these two characters. King Lear gets mad after he had been expelled by his two daughters, who had sworn they loved him, and he found out that the only one who really loved him was Cordelia, who had been disowned by himself.

In his madness the King starts to tell and to discover the truth, perceiving the real condition of society that in this way discovers corruption and hypocrisy. In his speech he puts in evidence these aspects, above all in the dialogue with Gloucester, when the old king shows how wealth can hide sins.

OthelloIn Othello the theme of madness coincides with the theme of jealousy that drives the hero crazy. Jealousy is the thread of the play because it is the cause that destroys first Iago, then Othello and also Desdemona, who is the object of desire. Jealousy is, in the drama, a monster, created by the mind, created from by nothing and about nothing: so it is far stronger. Othello is a tragedy of jealousy, but also of confusion, of unsuccessful communication that will corrupt the meaning of what the actors are saying. The tragedy of jealousy is caused by the fact that the characters speak with a different code, they meet in disguise, for fraud. Appearance is subordinated to reality, falsehood is subject to truth. As in other Shakespearean famous tragedies, the conflict that subtends this play is the tragic conflict between appearance and reality. The inversion of the roles that involves the characters is possible because in the drama truth and falsity, appearance and reality are impossible to extricate: it is impossible to distinguish given and received information and so they are confused. Because of Iago’s words, Othello doesn’t see a separation between doubt and certainty, so Iago reinforces his “revenge” with allusions. The proceeding with denials and interruptions of time and place induces Othello to fill Iago’s gaps with his imagination, his opinions, and his language. At this point Othello falls in catalepsy: the extreme demonstration of his verbal breakdown, the inability to speak, the loss of language, not any speaking in prose but with rambling phrases: by this time he has lost the qualities that a man has got.

Queen “I’m going slightly mad”

Macbeth The theme of madness is also present in Macbeth and it has a basic role. Lady Macbeth becomes mad after the murder of the king because of the remorse. It is she the most determinate and she almost forces the husband to commit the crime. So at the beginning of the play it is Lady Macbeth who represents the strongest character, then after the murder of the king, the remorse prevails over her feelings and she becomes mad. She starts to repeat the gesture she had committed after the killing when she got her hands dirty with blood. She repeats the gesture as to try to wash away the fault, to forget the acts thanks to that strength that herself had invoked. Afterwards she starts sleepwalking and confesses the crime.

Revenge

Shakespeare

KING LEAR

MACBETHOTHELLO

HAMLET

THE TEMPEST

The plot of a revenge tragedy does not need very complex interpretations: a murder has been committed , someone has been murdered, the relatives or the ghost of the murdered one feel the duty to set it right by taking justice into their own hands and killing the murderer.The tragedy will end with the annihilation of the murderer and preferably of the revenger as well.In the Elizabethan age, revenge was quite a difficult case. Formally, both State and Church warned against private revenge, which was seen as a major disturbance of law and a return to feudal lawlessness.The world of vendetta was also seen as a typical manifestation of Italian Machiavellian thought.However there was a distinction between instant retaliation, on the spur of a moment, which might be pardoned, and premeditated murder, which was instead condemned as the foulest manifestation of human wickedness.

* OPHELIAOPHELIAOphelia, Polonius’s daughter, is a simple, obedient and ingenuous girl. She loves Hamlet very much, but when her father orders her to meet the prince no more, she doesn’t find the strength to rebel against him. When Hamlet pretends to be mad, she doesn’t understand his will and his woe, but she believes that he is really mad because she refused his love. So Ophelia tells this to her father and to king Claudius to help them to discover the true reason of Hamlet’s madness. But when her father, the person she is got on better to, dies, Ophelia, teared by the woe, becomes mad. She is more vexed up because the murderer of Polonius is Hamlet.

In her madness Ophelia goes on to name her father and speaks about him to everybody, she tells about his death, his funeral, his life. She says all with ingenuity, with tenderness but also with bitterness she says that nobody cried him honestly. She sings love songs, when meets her brother Laertes, that she loves very much, she doesn’t recognise him but she speaks to him, gives him some flowers, imaginary, and explains him their meaning. In particular she speaks about rosemary that is for memory, to keep the remembrance of who is no more with us. So she doesn’t want to forget the dead, in her madness at seems that she accepted the fact.

At the end Ophelia dies drowning in a small river while doing garlands. She dies singing old songs without fear as if she had already died with her father, with him her reason had died and with her ingenuity she is not afraid to die, on the contrary, she wished that.

HAMLET

HAMLET’S REVENGE Hamlet is a play that very closely follows the dramatic conventions of revenge in Elizabethan theatre. All revenge tragedies originally stemmed from the Greeks, who wrote and performed the first plays. After the Greeks came Seneca, who was very influential to all Elizabethan playwrights. The Roman Seneca basically set all of the ideas and the norms for all revenge plays in the Re naissance.

During the time of Elizabethan theatre, plays about tragedy and revenge were very common and a regular convention seemed to be formed on what aspects should be put into a typical revenge tragedies. In all revenge tragedies:

1. A CRIME IS COMMITTED and for various reason law and justice cannot punish the crime so the individual who is the main character, revenges it in spite of everything. The main character than usually had a period of doubt, where tries to decide whether or not to go through with the revenge, which usually involves though and complex planning.

2. THE APPEARANCE OF A GHOST, to get the avenger to go against his doubts. The avenger usually also had a very close relationship with the audience through soliloquies and aside. The original crime that will eventually be revenged is killing.

U2 “With or without you”

3. The crime has been committed AGAINST A FAMILY MEMBER OF THE REVENGER. 4. The avenger places himself OUTSIDE THE NORMAL MORAL ORDER of things, and often becomes more isolated as the play progresses, an isolation which brings to its most extreme consequence, MADNESS. The revenge must be taken out by the avenger or his trusted accomplices. 5. The avenger and his accomplices MAY ALSO DIE at the moment of success or even during the course of revenge. In Hamlet, Shakespeare follows the regular convention for a large part of the play. At the beginning, Shakespeare sets up the scene, presenting a ghost in a dark night. This sets up for the major theme of the play which is of

course the revenge. The ghost appears to talk to Hamlet. The play immediately presents a gruesome, violent death. The ghost tells Hamlet that he has been given the role of the person who will take revenge upon Claudius. Act 1 scene 5 “So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear…..Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder!” Hamlet must now thinks of how to take revenge on Claudius, although he doesn’t know what to do about it. He thinks for a long period of time, supposing to do the act immediately, but instead he drags it on until the end of the play.

Although what was important was that all tragic heroes of the play at that time delayed their actual revenge until the end of the play, in most revenge plays,the revenger was often anonymous and well disguised. But Hamlet started a battle of wits with Claudius by feigning madness and calling it “antic disposition”; although the whole thing was a plan to get closer to Claudius to be able to revenge his father’s death more easily. The tactic was an advantage because it drew all attention on himself. Madness isolated him for the rest of the court because the people didn’t pay attention to what he thought or did because of his madness. Hamlet’s delay in killing Claudius takes on two distinct steps. First he had to prove that the ghost was actually telling the truth, and he did this by staging the play “The murder of Gonzago” at court. The second step sees Hamlet who could have killed Claudius while he was praying. If Hamlet had done it then Claudius would have gone to heaven because he was praying while Hamlet’s father was in purgatory because he didn’t even get the opportunity to confess. So Hamlet decided not to murder Claudius at this point of the play. Hamlet stands out from many other revenge plays because it enacts and analyses the conventions of its genre. It can be easily understood that Hamlet very closely follows the regular convention for all Elizabethan tragedies. First Hamlet is faced with the fact that he has to revenge the murder of his father and since there isn’t justice, he must apply justice with his own hands. His father’s ghost appears to guide Hamlet to Claudius and to inform Hamlet of the crime that Claudius has committed. Then Hamlet constantly delays his revenge and always finds a way to put it off until he finally does it in Act 5 scene 2. Hamlet at the same time continues to keep a close relationship with the audience with his seven main soliloquies. The only point that is changed is that the accomplice wasn’t killed because at the end of play, Horatio was the only one to survive, and weren’t it for Hamlet, Horatio would have committed suicide. If Horatio had killed himself, then the tragedy would have followed the regular convention for Elizabethan revenge tragedy. Hamlet is definitely a great example of a typical revenge tragedy of the Elizabethan revenge theatre. It followed every convention it required, it can be classified as a revenge play quite perfectly. Hamlet is one of the greatest revenge stories ever written.

KING LEAR

EDMUND’S REVENGEThis is one of the most important character of Shakespearean plays. He is the illegitimate son of Gloucester, considered inferior to Gloucester’s legitimate son Edgar. The play is King Lear, a tragedy with fictitious characters, treating the ingenuity of an old but not wise, king, who doesn’t succeed in distinguishing the falsity from the truth.The play can be divided in two parallel tales: the former about King Lear and his daughters, the latter about Gloucesters and his sons; in both we have a villain who plots against the protagonists.Edmund is a villain, who plots not only against his brother and father to obtain the power and the legitimacy, but he also rebels against a society that excludes and humiliates him.One of the most important monologue of Edmund in this play is his invocation to Nature; he asks what difference exists between a bastard son and a legitimate one. Act 2, scene1

“Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy lawMy services are bound. Wherefore should IStand in the plague of custom, and permitThe curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base?When my dimension are as well compact,My mind as generous, and my shape as true,As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they usWith base? With baseness? bastardy? base, base?Who in the lusty stealth of nature take More composition and fierce qualityThan doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,Go to th’ creating a whole tribe of fops,

Edmund’s revenge is brutal, cruel but not unjustified: in fact it happens to improve his social condition and to react against a society hostile to him. For this character the enemy is his brother Edgar who, with a lot of lies and falsehoods, loses his father’s trust and becomes a poor man; the father instead becomes a traitor, is tortured and dies for the wounds.At the beginning Edmund obtains power, wealth but at the end he dies in a worse condition if compared with his previous one.Through this character the author’s will is expressed; in fact Shakespearepresents a critical analysis of the XV century, marked by social divisions and inequalities.

Got ‘tween asleep and wake? Well then Legitimate Edgard, I must have your land: Our father’s love is to the bastard EdmundAs to th’legitimate. Fine word, ‘legitimate’!Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,And my invention thrive, Edmund the baseShall top th’legitimate-:I grow, I prosper;Now, gods, stand up for bastards!”

CALIBAN’S REVENGE TO SOCIETYIn “The Tempest” Shakespeare presents the character of Caliban; this name may be considered an anagram of the word “cannibal”. He was Sycorax’s son, a witch that kept Ariel prisoner for such a long time; he represents the native population of the island in opposition to the civilized world of Prospero and Miranda. This character, halfway between man and beast, rebels against his condition of slavery caused by Prospero. When Stephano and Trinculo arrive on the island after the shipwreck, Caliban meets for the first time unknown people: so they start to plot against Prospero to kill him and regain his lost island. After that Caliban’s attempt fails, he recognizes Prospero as his master. Prospero embodies the white colonizer that conquers people and places.Colonizers used to fascinate Indians using a lot of “presents” that were considered magic things: some of these, like guns and alcoholics, became harmful because they caused the destruction of these peoples. Colonizers were very interested to cut down native population to better conquer the new lands. Caliban understands that he can’t rebel, so he starts to learn the language of the colonizer trying to begin a new kind of relationship. Act 1 scene

THE TEMPEST

“CALIBAN I must eat my dinner.This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother,Which thou strok’s me, and made much of me ; wouldst give me Water with berries in’t; and how the less,That burn by day and night: and then I lov’d thee,And show’d thee all the qualities o’th’isle,The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:Curs’d be I that did so! All the charmsOf Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! For am I all the subjects that you have,Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from meThe rest o’th’island.

PROSPERO Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, n

ot kindness! I have us’d thee,

PFilth as thou art, with human care; and lodg’d thee

In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child.

CALIBAN O ho, O ho! Would’t had been done!

Thou didst prevent me; O had peopled else

This isle with Calibans.

PROSPERO Abhorred slaves,

Which any print of goodness wilt not take,

Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour

One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,

Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like

A thing most brutish, I endow’d thy purposes

With words that made them known. But thy vile race,

Though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou

Deservedly confin’d into this rock,

Who hadst deserv’d more than a prison.

CALIBAN You taught me language; and my profit on’t

Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you

For learning me your language!

PROSPERO Hag-seed, hence!

Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou’rt best,

To answer other business. Shrug’st thou, malice?

If thou neglect’st, or dost unwillingly

What I command, I’ll rack thee with old cramps,

Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar;

That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

CALIBAN No, ‘pray thee.

(aside) I must obey: his Art is of such pow’r,

It would control my dam’s god, Setebos,

And make a vassal of him.

PROSPERO So, slave; hence!

PROSPERO’s REVENGE TO HIS BROTHER In the “The tempest” there is the very significant theme of the revenge of Prospero against his brother.Prospero has been waiting for a long time on the desert island and keeping this feeling in his heart. His project of revenge doesn’t change in the years and Prospero waits for the opportune moment for having justice. He plans all his actions with intelligence and ability. He is also a magician and uses magic to create the occasion of revenge, with Ariel’s help. He wants to revenge but he also admits that he has made a mistake. He recognizes his mistake but his brother shouldn't have thrown him from Milan; Prospero considers his brother him a traitor that has to pay for his action. The revenge is almost a duty and not a right: Prospero does it also for Miranda that has lived on a desert island instead of living as a princess in Milan. He wants to redeem his life and Miranda's life. He pays great attention to his plans because for him it is important to have a good revenge. He makes his brother crazy but then he has compassion of him. Prospero isn’t a bad person, but a sensible and good man; he needs intelligence and sense of limits not to exaggerate and not to fall in the same mistake. At the end of the Prospero returns to be duke of Milan, forgives his brother and brings him in Milan with himself. Shakespeare also teaches to respect human dignity and that we have to respect everybody. Prospero, in fact, refused the magic powers that before he had used for deceiving the other people and for treading on their dignity and abandoned his magic powers. For Shakespeare a man that wants to have revenge isn’t a bad one, but he is a person who wants have justice for a suffered wrong; in fact it is a normal thing to bring justice and redeem his right with everyone, also with a brother. It was a way to obscure the Catholic idea of forgiveness since, in that historical period, it was renounced by a lot of political parties. It is the demonstration that Shakespearian ideas were always modern and innovative.

MACBETH

MACDUFF’S REVENGE TO MACBETH“Macbeth” was written by Shakespeare in 1606 and it is a tragedy; next to Duncan’s regicide organized by Macbeth and his wife, for ambition and thirst of power, to the killing of sleep, another important theme is Macduff’s revenge towards Macbeth.The mechanism of revenge is triggered in fourth act: Macduff, a Scottish nobleman, is looking forward to preparing war when his existence is deeply upset by a piece of news about the killing of his loved wife and children.In consequence of this tragic event, it is possible to witness Macduff’s psychological collapse: he holds himself responsible for this innocent murder and he suffers and his strong qualm of conscience begins to appear.At the end of this act the revenge has already been organized and victory comes up to Macduff; with this revenge Macduff wants to obtain a personal revenge, he wants to punish Macbeth’s atrocities, he wants to rebel against his limitless cruelty: Macduff therefore seems to act the part of the avenger and he shows whole his wickedness against Macbeth, considered as a devil.

The revenge takes place in fifth act and it represents the top of the dramatic power in this play: there is an attack to the castle of Dunsinane, Macbeth’s residence, and after it, there is the final duel, before verbal and then physical, between Macbeth and Macduff. Here Macduff shows all his rage talking to Macbeth offensive words.Macduff completes his personal revenge when he kills with sword the cruel tyrant and shows to the people his beheaded head.Therefore in this play revenge is an instrument to shout one’s despair, one’s inner destruction, to rebel against injustices, to balance the accounts and here especially to claim something important, for example the family; so it is the revenge of nature, of the whole mankind against symbolic evil.

OTHELLO

IAGO’ S REVENGE TO OTHELLOIn Shakespearian tragedy there is always a villain that is the character who opposes the hero.Shakespeare in “Othello” presents Iago, the worst of villains, who plots his revenge against Othello: envy is the main cause of this cruel deed.In fact he makes a plot to have Cassius, the Moor’s lieutenant, dismissed; moreover Iago is jealous too, because he believes his wife Emilia and Othello had a sexual relationship.The revenge is planned and well devised, aimed to destroy Othello’shappiness. He has just married Desdemona secretly against her father’s will, a rich Venetian merchant, and she follows the Moor in his expedition to Ciprus.Iago, to succeed in his plan, tells Othello that Desdemona and Cassius have an affair and this provokes in hismind a mad jealousy nourished by Desdemona’s interests to persuade Othello to readmit Cassius as lieutenant.Othello is in this way suspicious about Desdemona’s behaviour and the doubt seizes him until to plot with Iago the murder of Cassius and Desdemona. So Desdemona dies and when Othello understands he has been deceived by the good and honest Iago he stabs himself: the revenge is so completed. In this tragedy Iago’s revenge provokes three victims: Desdemona, Othello and Emilia. Europe “The final countdown”

We have just said that Iago is the worst of the villains: It is true.He considers other people’s lives like pawns in a game of chess, that he can move anyway he wants.This kind of revenge is wicked because it is to the detriment of other people’s happiness like in this play Othello and Desdemona.In this play it is considered the theme of racism too: in fact the victim of society, even if he’s the hero of the tragedy, is black (Othello). This theme is tackled in “The tempest” too, with Caliban.Finally I think this revenge is egoist because there are no positive consequences after this tragedy, and Iago himself doesn’t get advantages from his deeds. For example Hamlet does his revenge for a valid motive; Iago doesn’t.

MAGIC AND SUPERNATURAL

If we look up in a vocabulary the definition of “magic” we find “art of domination of the occult forces of Nature and of subduing them to one’s own power”.With the advent of Christianity magic was regarded as a sinful activity connected with the devil.This interpretation of magic caused during the Middle Ages the religious persecution of wizards and witches, that produced lots of trials for magic, and the guilty were condemned to the stake.In England as in France, in Spain, in Italy there were popular representations of mysteries, miracles, magic, and the classic Renaissance induced the poets even in England to write dramas and comedies based on these themes. Shakespeare is the greatest English playwright, born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, in days when superstition and magic were widespread not only in the poor classes, but also among the nobility; an example is James I. The Shakespearian production is very wide, the themes are various but at the same time they have a common characteristic: The theme of magic. So in Shakespeare’s theatre philtres, potions, charms are the main ingredients through which some passages of three famous plays are presented: so fairies and elves with the help of the juice of a magic flower have fun of men in “A midsummer night’s dream”; witches accompany the events of “Macbeth”, influencing the story with their predictions. We still find magic in “The tempest”, where Prospero with his “art” dominates an island populated by spirits and monsters, waiting for his revenge.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

MACBETHTHE TEMPEST

CONCLUSION

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

“A midsummer night’s dream” is a comedy rich in magic places and characters, probably the most magical of all shakespearian plays. The scene takes place in an enchanted wood suspended between reality and dream, the kingdom of beautiful fairies and spiteful spirits who dance, joke and plot; potions, charms and enchantment are the key of the whole story. This play reflects the splendour of the Elizabethan Age, in fact there is no darkness (even at night), no wicked witches, no death (as in “Macbeth) but fairies and love.Magic wraps up the characters and complicates their vicissitudes but then, as in all comedies, brings to the happy-ending. 

.

Puck

 

He is maybe the most important magical character. Shakespeare doesn’t describe him physically, we only know that he is an elf, a spiteful elf, and that he’s Oberon’s helpmate. He’s careless in fact he mistakes Lysander for Demetrius so he upsets the lovers’ harmony; moreover for a joke he changes Bottom’s head in a donkey- head and for Oberon’s revenge makes Titania fall in love with him. He has a lot of fun for the troubles he makes and and for other people’s unhappiness

“Through the forest have I gone, But Athenian found I none On whose eyes I might approve This flower’s force in stirring love. Night and silence – who is here? Weeds of Athens he doth wear: This is he, my master said, Despiséd the Athenian maid: And here the maiden, sleeping sound, On the dank and dirty groung. Pretty soul, she durst not lie Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. Churl, upon the eyes I throw All the power this charm doth owe: He drops the juice on Lysander’s eyelids When thou wak’st, let love forbid Sleep his seat on thy eyelid. So awake when I am gone; For I must now to Oberon.”

Titania, Oberon and fairies They are wonderful immortal creatures and they disappear at sunrise. These beings, very different from the witches in “Macbeth”, are spiteful but not wicked; they use men like toys but finally they put everything in order. They dominate nature, for example they use the powder of a flower for their charms. They can also influence the weather, for example when Oberon quarrels with Titania there is a storm. 

TITANIA Come now, a roundel and a fairy song: Then, for the third part of a minute, hence- Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings, To make my small elves coats, and some keep back The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep; Then to your offices, and ley me rest. She lies down Fairies sing I FAIRY You spotted snakes, with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blind-worms do no wrong, Come not near our Fairy Queen. CHORUS [dancing] Philomele, with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby, Lulla, lulla, lullaby, Lulla, lulla, lullaby, Never harm, Nor spell, nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh. So good night with lullaby. I FAIRY Weaving spiders come not here: Hence you long-legged spinners, hence: Beetles black approach not near: Worm nor snail do no offence [...]”

MACBETH

“Macbeth” is a tragedy in which magic is seen in a very negative way, since it reflects the dark period under the reign of James I. The society of that time was in fact the scene of social and political contrasts. In this play magic brings death and destruction, not by chance the words “blood, bloody, to bleed” are used very frequently in the texts. “Black magic” is stressed by the witches’ presence, frequent figures in the popular literature of the ancient world. The physique and moral characteristics of these women derive from the popular traditions, and so now we have an image of witches as old, ugly, poor and characterized by physical defects.It’s ascribed to them the knowledge of the occult properties of the herbs and of the metals, and in consequence the art of preparing potions and unguents, poisons and philtres of extraordinary effectiveness.The three witches of “Macbeth” reflect this description and they also can foresee the future. As a consequence of this Macbeth will suffer an uncontrollable thirst for power.In the following slide, we report the text in which the witches reveal Macbeth his destiny.

MACBETH So foul and fair a day I have not seen. BANQUO How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are these So wither’d and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth, And yet are on’t? Live you? Or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so. MACBETH Speak, if you can: what are you? I WITCH All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! II WITCH All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! III WITCH All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! BANQUO Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that sounds so fair? I’ the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and royal hope, That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate. I WITCH Hail! I WITCH Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. II WITCH Not so happy, yet much happier. III WITCH Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! I WITCH Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

THE TEMPEST

In this play magic has a leading role. In fact the same tempest of the title of the romance and the facts of the story are nothing else than the results of spells and magic art. The members of the crew of the ship involved in the storm are shipwrecked on an enchanted isle. Here Prospero and his daugther Miranda, the savage Caliban, Ariel and many other spirits and nymphs live.

Ariel

Ariel is the most important of the spirits living on the isle. Entrapped in a tree by the witch Sycorax, Caliban’s mother, it’s made free by Prospero who makes of it his assistant. So Ariel makes Prospero’s will, organizes and looks after all that was planned by him. Ariel hasn’t a determinate sex because it’s a spirit and as this it’s lively, light, it seems air, as its name suggests. It can be considered as air, while the rough Caliban is earth. Ariel is very quick, it moves with lightness, but it can become also terrible and frighten the Italian gentlemen. It’s visible only to Prospero’s eyes, but all the others can hear his sounds, noises and breath. Ariel very often sings sweet songs to support a love story or sad songs to make fear the worse about the shipwreck. So Ariel is a character of a thousand faces. When it speaks to Prospero, in its words there is a great love and a great devotion for its protector. But Ariel would like to be free and not at Prospero’s service. So Prospero remembers to it its imprisonment in the tree for Sycorax’s spell. There we can see the opposition between Prospero and Ariel’s white magic and Sycorax’s black one. The civilized men, the survivors, know only Prospero and Ariel’s magic and they fear it. In fact when they hear the noises and the strange sounds made by spirits are frightened by them but Caliban reassures them. So we can see the superiority of the savage to the civilized. Anyway Prospero loves Ariel very much and he treats him more tenderly than his daughter Miranda. Ariel, after having served Prospero for 15 years, finally obtains its freedom and independence. The lively, light spirit full of movement and joy can fly about free with the other spirits and enjoy freedom.

Prospero

The legitimate duke of Milan, he loses his dukedom because he neglects the obligations and the duties of sovereign to devote himself to magic arts and philosophical studies. His brother usurps his throne and sends him adrift with his daughter Miranda. Docked on a desert isle inhabited by spirits, as a colonialist, he subdues the savage Caliban and he makes of the spirit Ariel his assistant. Prospero dominates the entire isle with his magic. In fact he uses Ariel and the other spirits to carry out his plans and he commands them with his magic arts. It is Prospero who makes the initial tempest which makes the entire crew wreck. In fact on this ship his brother and other nobles are travelling. After the shipwreck the characters live strange adventures created by Prospero to make them expiate their sins. After they repent of their mad acts, Prospero sees his work finished and so he can renounce magic. As regards this, we report the monologue of Prospero which is his farewell to magic:

“Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves, And ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him When he comes back; you demi-puppets that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid, Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimmed The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds, And ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up The pine and cedar: graves at my command Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ‘em forth By my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure, and, when I have required Some heavenly music, which even now I do, To work mine end upon their senses that This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book.”

From this passage we can understand Shakespeare’s conception of magic and its aim in this play. Propspero doesn’t cultivate magic for practical ends, but for his own sake. He makes all the spirits living on the isle at his service work for him. He wants to reconquer his dukedom and he uses magic to do it. This is also a mean of reconciling the exiled duke with his brother and the other gentlemen. When Prospero achieves his aim, he decides to leave the magic arts and to live a life like all the others. But Prospero’s magic can be considered as a metaphor for science. In fact, with his knowledge, Prospero can give a practical contribution to human happiness by defeating evil and injustice and to live more comfortably. But the most evident metaphor is between Prospero’s magic and Shakespeare’s theatrical production. In fact just in the renounce to magical powers we can see Shakespeare’s abandonment to his activity of playwright. This is Shakespeare’s farewell to the theatre more than Prospero’s farewell. In fact, as Prospero says, “we are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep”. Here it’s evident the idea of life as something futile and transitory, impalpable and weak, without meaning. In Macbeth there is the same concept; when he is said his wife is dead, he says: “Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sounds and fury, signifying nothing”. In this idea it is evident that knowledge is just one way of occupying time, because all the things end in death and in oblivion. The conception of life and world like a theatre is typical of XVII-XVIII centuries and the main causes are: the Counter Reformation, above all in Italy, who imposes the theatricality of life; the new scientific discoveries which shake human certainties and the appearances and the conventions asked and imposed by society. So Shakespeare affirms that theatre is a dream, a magic. As Prospero breaks his wand and buries his magic books, so Shakespeare puts down his quill pen and renounces the magic of theatre. We can find a sort of melancholy and pessimism in the final speech of Prospero. On one side it seems he (and so Shakespeare) is really sorry to leave his art and he’s almost forced by an external strength. But on the other side his choice seems free and it comes after a great disappointment and discontent of life. Anyway it’s a serious and painful farewell that Shakespeare hides skilfully in a romance and gives to a character full of thousands contradictions the duty to tell everybody..

In the analysis we have seen that witchcraft and supernatural events are recurrent themes in Shakespeare’s theatre; we have also seen that at that time magic was quite an obsession for everybody, even for the king, James I, so we could easily say that the author was influenced by the beliefs and the events of his period. But if we look better we can see how magic changes during Shakespeare’s activity: in “A midsummer night’s dream”, the earlier of the plays we analysed, there is beneficent magic, it is a comedy pervaded with an idyllic atmosphere, with fairies and enchantments. It seems to end with the triumph of love but this love is just the results of magic, it isn’t a real feeling; so we could say that in this play Shakespeare uses this theme to tell us that true, absolute love doesn’t exist.In the second play we analysed, “Macbeth”, there is maleficent magic, ghosts and witches who foretell the future of the protagonists; it is Macbeth’s destiny but he wants anyway to have what he’s doomed to have quickly. This brings him to death, and this death was foretold too by the witches but Macbeth, blinded by his desire of glory, doesn’t listen carefully to the words of the “magic sisters” and thinking to be invincible comes up against his death. Maybe in this play Shakespeare uses magic to describe the thirst for power of men, which brings only to sadness and destruction. Finally, in “The tempest” we find both maleficent and beneficent magic, respectively in Sycorax and Prospero, who at the end will succeed in his revenge against his brother and will abandon his art. In reality, since this is the last play wholly written by Shakespeare,it represents his farewell to the theatre, metaphorically identified with magic.As a consequence of this, does Shakespeare really believe in supernatural or does he just use them to say something else? We don’t know the answer to this question, since we don’t know if the playwright uses this theme to write pleasant tales, or if he firmly believes in magic as his contemporaries, or if he doesn’t either know if it’s real or unreal. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” said the three witches in “Macbeth”: this is maybe the passage that best represents the equivocation in the author’s production. Anyway, we will never know what Shakespeare really wanted to express: as any other writer he left us his works

and nothing else: it’s up to us to decide which is the best of the thousands interpretations we can give to them. Queen “a kind of magic”

c

Arrighi Elena

Banfi Marco

Barbieri Patrizia

Bernazzani Alessandra

Bosisio Alice

Caronni Pamela

Castoldi Alberto

Ceolin Chiara

Chiaretti Sara

Cimbro Sara

Colombo Marcella

De Domenico Claudia

Gianna Salvatore

Lattuada Marta

Leoni Marta

Livio Stefania

Luraghi Barbara

Mola Paolo

Pelizzoni Silvia

Pizzi Francesca

Pozzoli Francesca

Radrizzani Ettore

Re Andrea

Scalvini Anna

Tolando Elisa

Volontè Giovanni

Zaffaroni Diego

Zaffaroni Luca

Grassi Angelica

LICEO SCIENTIFICO G.B.GRASSI

Via B.Croce 1 Saronno VARESE –E-mail: gbgrassi@gbgrassi.it http://www.gbgrassi.it

SARONNO, 30 MAGGIO 2002 Queen “We are the champions”