The Light of Shakespearean Influence - Essay Example

We only encounter the real Shakespeare at the margins of his work - in eccentric works like "Cymbeline" and "The Sonnets". Discuss in relation to Cymbeline, The Sonnets, and one other text you have already studied. Introduction: The light of Shakespearean influence has illuminated the theater scene since mid 1500 to mid 1600 and beyond. For centuries people have been entertained, stimulated and aroused by the Shakespearean dramas and plays and have been touched by the deeper penetration of the sonnets. The wide variety of portrayal in the field of literature which has been contributed by Shakespeare is remarkable in content and dimension. It is evident form the range of issues addressed in his plays, that his casts reveal a very complex and fascinating life, which is symbol of the extraordinary development in his tragedies and comedies including the sonnets and poems. The deep layers of penetration which is required to understand the situation and the role of the character is very intricate. It is not just few of the selected plays but most of the plays reveal this thin line of eccentricity and hybrid factor in their representation of the situation, issue and performance. Shakespeare tends to merge historical facts with dramatic situation with the sole purpose of entertaining the audience and causing a stir in the hearts and minds of the audience. The extraordinary characteristics of Shakespeare’s work lies in the hybrid synthesis of extensive knowledge, history and situation to create dramas which would make people laugh and cry. The interesting fact about the plays is that they produce an ideological version of past with the objective to be staged in the present. They are loaded with information and references made in tragedies of Sophocles, dialogues of Plato and many ancient classics. His work also establishes a firm understanding of the politics of the time be it of Bismarck, King of Denmark of Germany. His eccentricities come from the depth of knowledge and understanding about the state of affairs and behind the scenes stories related to political life of the time. He also had deep knowledge of the legal issues of the time and not just intelligent understanding of the law. He understood the mechanism in details and also the specifics. His knowledge of the naval and military matters was remarkable and also possessed an intimate understanding of the plants and animals. His range of spread with knowledge is vast and extensive and he uses extreme imagery in his plays to produce dramas and manipulate human emotion. He understood the life of nobility, wizardry and thus is empowered to use eccentric scenes in hybrid combinations to masterfully create an illusion of impact on the audience using words, actions and background for sheer dramatic experience. He is induced to indulge in eccentricity and hybrid use of literary tools for creating drama and pathos. He merges himself in extreme manner with the audience in providing an experience which is powerful and forceful. It is not just selected works of Shakespeare which reflect the presence of eccentricity and hybrid factor, but in my personal evaluation most of the works of Shakespeare’s are laced with motifs and images which can be categorized as eccentric in nature. The intertwining of the historical elements with the public life and issues make it very hybrid in presentation. It is the intermingling of the issues which produce the human drama beyond the reach of the senses. The drama is tool for propaganda and demystification of the issues which are aching to resurface on the social and the political scene. The extreme use of the historical and patriarchal factors and the portrayal of contrasting female subversion, create a dynamic drama which is complex and penetrating. This combination is the essence of most of the Shakespearean work. The aristocratic legacy, the banishment, the ghost, the challenge and the female struggle for power, all intertwined in the comedy ‘Cymbeline’, tragedy ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The Sonnets’ in which Shakespeare has poured out his literary genius. These three specimens of his work will provide an ample reflection and investigation into the discussion of evaluation of the statement that all work of Shakespeare can be said to be a little eccentric and hybrid in nature. It is rather and inherent characteristic of the art of Shakespearean drama. Shakespeare has been recognized as a writer of paramount significance whose extensive knowledge of history, legal issues, politics and social scenario along with skillful use of vocabulary and the literary tools have been an omnipotent and powerful tool of expression and entertainment for centuries. Shakespeare molded everything including the rules of grammar and vocabulary to suit the need of the written work in progress. He was gifted with the power to use just the right combination of words which would create the right image. He authored countless pages which are remarkable in expression and execution. His creative consciousness had no limits which always urged him to delve in eccentric imagery and hybrid situation which added depth and complexity to his dramas, passages and poems making them powerful, comedic, tragic and romantic in a manner which has made them immortal, and has been memorized and performed even today, four centuries since his death. The real beauty of Shakespeare’s talent is inherent in his works which are original and creative, with words which paint the scenarios which are full of charged emotions like love, power, greed, discrimination, hatred and despair. It was this wide range of themes which were found in his plays which attracted people from all class both courtiers and peasants to the theatres to watch his plays. He touched the chord with the sensitive truth which struck chord with everyone regardless of status and wealth. This skilful use of eccentric and hybrid element made his plays timeless. Cymbeline: Cymbeline is considered as one of the most delightful historical plays written by Shakespeare. It was written in the last phase of his writing which was marked as the period after 1611, and has also been accredited as the apex of Shakespearean work. The play can be categorized as dramatic romance in which the characters and the dialogues are presented in a very light mood and the circumstances are navigated skillfully by different speakers. The characteristic happy ending of the play distinguishes it from some of his other historical tragedies. There is great emphasis on power, dangers of evil, death and forces which are inherent in the guise. The plot of Cymbeline can be seen to have marked resemblance with some of Shakespeare’s great tragedies like King Lear. Cymbeline-Imogen relationship can be compared with the relationship of Lear and Cordelia in King Lear. . There is another character in Cymbeline Iachimo which plays the role which is similar as that of Iago in Othello and the sleeping potion which has been characteristically used in the play has marked similarity with similar device used in Romeo and Juliet. The most striking part about Cymbeline as a play is that we feel the lurking disaster which never strikes, in which only bad characters meet the end in the form of death, but the final curtain falls with joyous reunion and reconciliation. Cymbeline presents the hybrid of historical context with the complexity of feminine subversion. The eccentricity is caused by the power, greed, sex and manipulation which are on the play for control and designed motive for control. The play centers on Cymbeline-Imogen relationship. Cymbeline, orders his daughter Imogen to marry Cloten-his stepson and an unworthy suitor. Imogen has already given herself in a secret marriage to Posthumus a meritorious man of low birth. This news is met by banishment of Posthumus from Britain to Italy. Posthumus , though banished is still in love with Imogen and regards her as his wife. Posthumus is challenged by Iachimo, a soldier in the army who believes that no woman is chaste and virtuous and bets that he could tempt Imogen to commit adultery. Iachimo is unsuccessful, yet greedy of the bet amount uses mischief to enter her bedchamber when she is asleep. He gives a detailed account of her bedchamber and steals her bracelet as proof of his success. Posthumus is devastated and in his fury orders his faithful servant Pisanio to murder Imogen. Pisanio warns her instead and helps her fake her death by taking on a guise as a boy. This can be compared to what some of the other characters do in Shakespeare’s play like Rosalind in As You Like it, Portia in Merchant of Venice and Viola in Twelfth Night. Imogen is sent to West Coast of Britain where she is reunited with her kidnapped brothers Guiderius and Aviragus. The wicked queen of Cymbeline dies and so does her son Cloten. The end of the play meets dramatic resolution to all entanglements and confusion and clarity is regained and parted souls meet. The misunderstandings are cleared. The king of Britain Cymbeline is united by his long lost sons and everything ends on happy note with Imogens virtue restored and Posthumus trust regained and united. There are elements of extreme action and hybrid situation inherent in the play which can be seen as reflected pattern even in other plays. One such example is the disguise in the plot used for survival of the character Imogen in the face of murder or death. It is an eccentric situation in which woman guises as a man when she has to face the outside world unarmed. This situation is not just relevant to Cymbeline but also to several other Shakespearean plays. Another extreme used is the presence of the conniving wicked stepmother who uses everything in her power to manipulate the king and overpower the innocence of the virtuous girl. She uses tactful manipulation, poisoning and forced marriage as tools to see her wicked vision successful. She poisons her husbands mind against his innocent and virtuous daughter and imposes that she be married to her unworthy son. This is an extreme situation for a young girl and is an eccentric situation which calls for great sympathy from the audience. Thus Shakespeare uses these tools of eccentricity to draw the audience in the play and feel the pain which the character is facing and feeling. It seems like the play though it is called Cymbeline, but in truth centers around the virtue and innocence of Imogen. Most of the characters are forced into their respective actions by centering themselves around the tests and the trials of Imogen. Imogen survives in the end even under the pressure of the insurmountable tests and trials with the help of a loyal helper Pisanio, and her undying love for her lover Posthumus. The extreme situation which is caused by testing of the chastity of Imogen by Posthumus is eccentric. No one lures an unknown man to his wife’s bedchamber as bet for chastity. Shakespeare uses eccentricity to add complexity and intrigue in his plays. History, politics and human emotion is intertwined to create a situation which is remarkably complex and seem out of control. The real drama lays in the fact that fact that the truth is revealed in a timely manner leading everyone to the rightful desired destination. There is resolution in the relationship of Cymbeline and Imogen and there is unity between Imogen and Posthumus. “The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter,   Which we call 'mollis aer;' and 'mollis aer'  We term it 'mulier:' which 'mulier' I divine   Is this most constant wife; who, even now,”..With the virtue of Imogen established, peace returns in the kingdom. (http://absoluteshakespeare.com/plays/cymbeline/cymbeline.htm) Another aspect of eccentricity and hybrid factor can be seen in the use of potion and poison use, where the two always play a very key role in determining what the final outcome will be. Shakespeare uses potion instead of poison in comedies like Cymbeline. The poison is made more potent in the case of tragedies. In Cymbeline, the wicked who resorts to the use of the poison is self destroyed by the same poison. This device is used by Shakespeare to reveal desperation and confinement. This heightens the outcome of the play and though eccentric is effective in getting audience interested in the final outcome of play. In Cymbeline, the potion gives life to Imogen and the poison kills the two wicked people in the play wicked Queen and Cloten, leaving the stage free of negative interferences which results in natural resolution and reunion. Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s unique creations, with extraordinary number of characters and cast, chaos and complicated plot which appears to the audience like a maze or a riddle which needs to be solved or interpreted. This phenomena as playwright was not a usual practice with Shakespeare and he went out of his way to engage his audience in a manner they had not been entertained before by overwhelming them with a series of riddles, leaving them to solve unsolved puzzles, confused and mystified. He proved himself a risk taker with the complexity and eccentricity in this play where he delicately balances on a knife’s edge the fine line between somberness, mockery and satire. Hamlet: Hamlet is one of the longest tragedies written by Shakespeare sometime around 1601. The tragedy which has been presented in the form of play is regarded as milestone in the dramatic development of Shakespeare. This play established Shakespeare as playwright of high stature where he brilliantly brings out the characteristics of a hero who is caught in the struggle between two opposite forces like moral integrity and desire to avenge his father’s murder. He presents the conflict and struggle through many eccentric uses of situations and circumstances and again uses the hybrid of historical facts and violent supernatural elements and complex political fervor. The creative manner in which Shakespeare departs from the contemporary revenge, in the play is remarkable and worth acknowledging the genius play of hybrid factor and eccentric casts and circumstances which aid Hamlet in his mission. Ernest Johnson has very accurately captured the spirit of Shakespearean genius used in Hamlet when he states “the dilemma of Hamlet the Prince and Man is to disentangle himself from the temptation to wreak justice for the wrong reasons and in evil passion, and to do what he must do at last for the pure sake of justice.… From that dilemma of wrong feelings and right actions, he ultimately emerges, solving the problem by attaining a proper state of mind.” (Wells and Taylor). Hamlet is seen as the hero who transcends the core moral dilemma by seeing the bigger picture and thus in seeking justice becomes a man identified with justice as a timeless hero. He transcends the boundaries of the Elizabethan period in his mission to achieve justice and avenge his father. He endures through the trials and the triumphs of the time. He emerges out symbolic of human fate when he attempts to struggle against the corrupt world while striving to maintain his moral integrity. He symbolically represents the fate of the humanity. Hamlet begins with the news that the King Hamlet of Denmark has died suddenly, King Claudius has been established as the new King and Denmark is on the verge of war with Norway. The new king Claudius is the brother of dead King Hamlet, who marries the protagonist Hamlet’s mother, a recent widow Queen Gertrude. When Hamlet, hears about the new, he is filled with remorse and does not trust the new King Claudius and is very angry with his mother for marrying Claudius in such a hurry within months of his father’s death. The encounter with the Ghost of dead King Hamlet, narrates the circumstances under which he was poisoned and killed by Claudius. This is moment of when young Hamlet promises his father’s ghost that he will avenge his death. There are three parallel plots which can be seen interweaved in the play Hamlet: the main plot is of revenge and the two other sub plots are romance between Hamlet and Ophelia, and the lurking war with Norway. Just like most revenge oriented tragedies we see some characteristics elements like a play within a play, mad scenes, a vengeful ghost, gory scenes and a character like Hamlet who has a serious grievance against a very powerful opponent. Here Hamlet decides to take matters in his own hands and seek revenge for his father’s death on his own, after he evaluates and watches justice fails in the public arena. The moral implications which are involved in the revenge is what makes Hamlet a timeless hero. The eccentricities and the hybrid factor is present in the moral and political flavor of the play where war and moral courage is displayed in series of deaths which takes place from the opening of the play and ends with roughly all characters killed and dead. The corruption and politics in hybrid combination is responsible for the death of so many lives. The ghost of the dead king is the driver of most of the actions of young Hamlet, and Hamlet goes to extreme actions to hide his real motive from the people surrounding him. His eccentricity is seen in his faith in the words of the ghost, his conviction that he should feign madness and unreasonable behavior to misguide people who may be observing his actions, his eccentric behavior and faith in the ghost leads to the death of Ophelia and her father Polonius. He builds a wall against his mother and considers her part of the corrupt world. He takes a bold moral stand avenges the death of his father and gives up his life in the end. Nothing survives, all return to dust. Just the heroic deed of Hamlet shines through the drama. The eccentricity is further seen in the dominant role which the ghost plays in the whole play, and is still seen to have fondness and desire to protect the queen from any harm. Hamlet plays a puppet to the ghost, and is disapproving and angry with his mother, but ghost always intervenes in these moments of harshness and asks Hamlet to be gentle to the Queen. This extreme manner in which the ghost interacts and arranges the lives of the humans is remarkable and reminds us of the three witches with their prophesies in Macbeth. The dramatic use of poison which connects the beginning of the play with the end of the play is phenomenal. The result the play begins with a murder and ends with death of so many casts and characters as a result of selfishness . The poison plays the most critical mode of death for major characters is out of the ordinary. It seems that poison is omnipotent. There is balancing with potion, there is extreme use of poison to conclude the actions of end game of the play. The climax of the play is reached by the witnessing of the gruesome sight by Fortinbras of Norway, who sees the entire royal family lying dead on the floor. He takes over the kingdom and upon hearing the story of Hamlet from Horatio, orders that Hamlet be honored as fallen soldier. Hamlet is still remembered as a timeless tragic hero with moral integrity and courage and persistence to avenge his father’s death, the sole mission of the protagonist. These words of Hamlet in the last scene reveal his anguish “Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,   That would not let me sleep: me thought I lay”..he was restless and agonizing until he had avenged his father, and entered the most desired sleep. (http://absoluteshakespeare.com/plays/cymbeline/cymbeline.htm) The Sonnets: Shakespeare has been recognized as an iconic literary figure not only during his time in history, but also in 21st century. He is equally known for his poems and sonnets as has been known for his plays. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets which are 14 line lyrical poems in a definite pattern, in addition to his plays and major poems. His sonnets were published in 1609, have intrigued scholars reflecting more in depth on Shakespeare’s life. These sonnets deal with subjects such as love, loyalty and the transformation caused by time, leading to a sequence of events relating to life of Shakespeare. Most of his sonnets have an identity established in the character of a young man, his rival another poet and his tumultuous relationship with ‘the dark lady’. The context of the sonnet has been real people, who had an influence over him. The range of topics covered under the guile of three principal characters in the sonnets is wide ranging. One can see the eccentricities of this thinking and literary breakthrough from the confines of writing. One can also trace the hybrid aspect of various elements lurking in the form of time covering wide array of topics like politics, gender roles, sex and love. He also deeply and in an extreme manner explores his own passion and emotion with a rival as well as a member of opposite sex. One can clearly identify that sonnets 127 to 152 are written in an overpowering manner referring to The Dark Lady which is seen in its climax in sonnet 130.The content and form is lyrical yet strong and penetrating. In sonnet 130 we see a mockery of his beloved, he attempts to make fun of a typical love poem. He used very common metaphors to describe the essence of his beloved. He compares his mistress eyes to that of sun and expresses that they are not like sun, coral is much redder than her lips, and her hair is like black wires and so on. The images used to describe ‘The Dark Lady’ are very crude and savage. This comparison of his beloved with the natural phenomenon experienced in everyday life is an effortless match. Her specific personal and tender attributes like hair, eyes, lips, breasts are brutally compares with mundane physical objects of this world. The opening lines itself is a mockery of a woman being inferior when he states “eyes are nothing like the sun”. Still he dwells on her thought and is impelled to write and think about her. He is certainly drawn to her in some sentimental way. He continuously compares and reveals his inexperience with beautiful and gentle women. He focuses just on the faults and the shortcomings. The sonnet almost reads like a confession of his inexperience with women and his strong attraction towards this woman. His range of emotion is evident in this sonnet giving us clue to his eccentric and direct thinking. He is torn between the ideal and what he experiences, the hybrid of human and goddess. Sonnet 138 displays bold use of sound and sense by which the sonnet releases from referential fidelity and asserts independence. This is sincere counterpart to irresponsible writing, here the sincerity seems strangely inapplicable to the exchange described in “When my love swears she is made of truth; I do not believe her though I know she lies” . The problem here is words belie their speakers feelings, but are true to speakers mutual desire to lie together “Therefore I lie with her, and she with me; And in our faults by lies we flattered be” . This is not a normal relationship; he is involved in a very eccentric circle of passion and desire, which is further intertwined by the hybrid factors of the gender inferiority and social status. In Sonnet 144 he explicitly describes the color of the woman, he is drawn to the dark...“The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.” His woman and his mistress is black in color. It seems that during his time the dark color was not accepted as a characteristic trait of beauty, and he dwells on this color very strongly in his expression of his thoughts, feelings and emotions. He is passionately involved with this woman whose features do not matter to him, but her presence does. He is oblivious of any other dimension of her image. He is his true savage self when he his with her. The era and time stops to him in that moment. There can be traced an element of hybrid in the sonnets where it can be felt that the dual identity is reflected in heartfelt love utterances and artful poems. There is presence of critical history as well as critical literary theory which demonstrates the pull which was evident even two centuries ago. The sonnets have aesthetic literary richness, power and conceptual challenge which sustained for a very long time. The sonnets are a collection of issues related to sincere appeal of the self to psychological state of the self and discursive circumstances of the external world. The whole collection is a reflection of eccentric thought and hybrid situations and factors leading to complex scenarios. Thus through out we can see various characteristic factors emerging from the fountain of the sonnets like rationalization in sonnet 35, self flattery in sonnet 62, self deception in sonnet 93, conscious madness in sonnet 147 and perjury in sonnet 152. All these issues have evolved from the self; torn and clashed with the self, and Shakespeare has made an attempt to present it in his most transparent and sincere words as they have floated from the stream of consciousness. (Grazia, Margreta de and Rosmarin) Conclusion: Shakespeare has been regarded as a magician with words and has very high imaginative powers which make him a playwright who can penetrate the hearts and the souls of the audience to stir emotions which lay hidden in the cave of the heart and the depth of the mind. This power evolved gradually leading his work to be more laced with eccentricity and intertwining of hybrid factor. The dictionary meaning of the word “eccentric” is “unconventional, unusual, and deviating from established pattern, rule or norm.”  When Shakespeare started to write for the stage, Shakespeare mildly conformed to the established literary pattern by imitating closely a style set by the playwrights who wrote for Edward Alleyn (Marlowe being one). However, this early style disappeared rapidly as he became more experienced and his confidence grew.  He developed his own inimitable style as he learned the power of expression in an unusual, unconventional way and he became more daring in his writing, reaching the limits of acceptability, or “margins”.  The question establishes a dichotomy between two types of Shakespeare’s work, suggesting that some is eccentric and some not. In my opinion all his work shows some evidence of hybridity and eccentricity. The three above mentioned plays Hamlet as well as Cymbeline and The Sonnets justify the point that imagery used, scenario’s created, the elements used and the power of the words were far deeper unconventional and complex, than normal lives of the people during that era. This is what provided the thrill and the enchantment of Shakespearean drama in which peasantry and nobility were witnessed side by side to participate in the moment of entertainment. The later plays are more controversial than his earlier plays and contain very complex representation of casts, moods and circumstances. They also touched the issues of sexuality in more explicit terms which can be termed raw and crude. These are very much apparent in the Sonnets, which were ideally written private thoughts not intended to be brought out before public. One thing which has been characteristic of Shakespearean drama and poems is their unique style and complexity, which plays with layers and layers of manifold and subtle manipulations before the climax is reached. The classic example of this is the tragic ending of Hamlet and the happy ending of the Cymbeline. They are original and thus very unorthodox and complex in their presentation. Shakespeare was a genius in the understanding that any variant away from a standard family will cause an element of drama and in both Hamlet and Cymbeline he presents a family situation in which there is instability and dysfunction. The lack of harmony between the family members cause a situation which creates complexity and eccentricity, this leads to greater drama and heightened emotions. Work Cited http://absoluteshakespeare.com/plays/cymbeline/cymbeline.htm Craig, W.J., ed. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. London: Oxford University Press: 1908. Wells, Stanley and Taylor, Gary. William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. Kamps, Ivo. Review: Shakespeare Criticism: "It Is a Kind of History" College English, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Mar., 1994), pp. 331-347 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English Moorman, F. W Shakespeare's Ghosts The Modern Language Review, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Apr., 1906), pp. 192-201 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Morris, Christopher. Shakespeare's Politics The Historical Journal, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1965), pp. 293-308 Published by: Cambridge University Press Weimann, Robert. Playing with a Difference: Revisiting "Pen" and "Voice" in Shakespeare's Theater, by Shakespeare Quarterly , Vol.50, No.4,(Winter 1999). pp.415-432. Folger Shakespeare Library. Grazia, Margreta de and Rosmarin, Adena Interpreting Shakespeare's Sonnets PMLA, Vol. 100, No. 5 (Oct., 1985), pp. 810-812 Published by: Modern Language Association Shakespeare, William. The Sonnets . Kessinger Publishing, 2004 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=0npm-wVKye4C&dq=The+Sonnets-Shakespeare&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 Read More