Shakespeare's Histories

The language in Shakespeare’s histories is quite similar in that they both have dramatic, important speeches made by the main characters. These speeches which can be broken down into different parts or sections are either spoken by Richard III, who was the antagonist of the play Richard III, or Henry, the protagonist, from the play Henry V.

All of Richard’s speeches were about his vengeance for the crown and how he wanted to destroy as many lives as he could to receive the crown. His most famous speech happens to be the very first page of the play. It sets up the reader so they know right away that he is the villain in the play. His speech begins with him telling the reader how the war is over and all the soldiers are coming home to their lovers and families while he has no one. He states that he does himself does not have a lover due to his deformities. "Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time... That dogs bark at me as I halt by them". (Act I Scene I) The deeper meaning to his deformities causes Richard to hate the world for the world hating him. All he wants is to be loved and liked but he cannot because of how he looks which could be the main reason for his bitterness and anger. There are no secrets in Shakespeare’s play. He makes sure that the audience knows of Richard’s plans and his murderous ways so that they may see the man he truly is, a two-faced man and down right evil with no conscience.

Henry, from Henry V, is the total opposite to Richard in the sense that the people love Henry while the people hate Richard. But if you analyze both of their speeches, you notice that both of them use their power and their way with words to get people to do their bidding. They also are after the same thing in general. They both want more power. Richard wants the crown, Henry wants France. Only Henry’s way is the noble way while Richard’s way is the murderous way.

Henry’s speeches are replicated in almost every movie and before any big dramatic event or a time of much needed moral. In his famous speech which became known as the Crispin Day Speech, he gets his army to go from we’re all doomed to a horrible death to, this is the greatest day of our live and most honorable thing we will ever fight for. He was a master at raising moral and making people believe in something worth fighting for. He, in the same way as Richard, manipulates people’s emotions and minds. The soldiers did not want to fight the next day to an army that out numbered them five to one. Henry influences his soldiers to fight the same way Richard controlled the assassins to kill all of the people he wanted dead.

Shakespeare’s histories are made to entertain his audience of a historical event or being without boring the audience with facts most already knew. He had to create a setting and plot that entertained people and get them to love and hate the characters right away to keep them interested. Most of the audience already knew the stories of the characters the histories told about, so Shakespeare had to tell the “untold” stories and background of the decisions made by such characters to introduce a whole new light on the subject.

In Richard III they open up with his speech which makes the audience love to hate Richard and they want to see if his plan works in the end or if there is hero in the end that will stop him. And in Henry V, Henry was described by the Archbishop and the Bishop as a boy who turned into a man over night and earned the respect of his country. The audience is captured by the set up of the plays and Shakespeare’s writes his plays of a dull subject into an exciting and visually appealing play that is loved and replicated through the ages.

I did not enjoy the histories as much as I enjoyed the comedies, but I did like the histories and the way they developed the plot and the way they asked us to use our imagination to help set up the play. It forces the audience to think and not just listen. Shakespeare cleverly incorporated a fault in his plays which where that they did not have the space to set up the magnificent scenes being played for the audience and made it seem like the audience had little help with the play and made them feel more involved in the play than just watching it unfold it before them.

I enjoyed Richard III more than Henry V mostly because it easier to love to hate someone than it is to love a character. In Richard is was very easy to hate him and despise all the things he had done and find satisfaction in the way that he was killed. For a man who planned everything out and have no conscience second thoughts of his actions, was killed because he simply fell off his horse.

The Comedies of Shakespeare

Between the three comedies read in class, they have similar style context and similar style plots and even similar speeches. Shakespeare knew the workings of how to manipulate the style of his comedies to entertain people through out centuries.

The languages in all of these plays are very similar to one another. Shakespeare uses his language to get different meanings from one speech spoken by a character. In Taming of the Shrew, when Petruchio and Kate interact for the first time, all she tries to do is insult him and make him sound idiotic while Petruchio takes what she is saying and makes it incredible dirty with sexual innuendos all over the place. They argue and Petruchio states that Kate is a bee, she then says to beware of her sting. He then replies that he would pluck it out, and then she says only if he is able to find it. He says that it is on the tail, she says tongue, he asks whose, she replies his, then he says, “What, with my tongue in your tail? nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.” She means the sting to be her words which lay on her tongue, but the whole time he is talking in the sexual terms. These types of hidden innuendos are all over the place in Shakespeare’s comedies.

Most of Shakespeare's comedies all have the same or similar themes which involve the protagonist falling in love and out of love fast while the antagonist tries to stop the communion of those who are in love. Of course there are more details and some plot lines change a little along with the characters, but Shakespeare was a master at creating characters that seem like everyday folk but live in a whole different world of mystical beings and ridiculous everyday events that are the norm for the characters and unrealistic to us, the audience.

Two of those comedies we read in class, Taming of the Shrew and A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, have much in common. They both contain a fool, hero, heroine, villain, and plays within a play. The character’s who play the fools are Bottom in A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, and Grumio in Taming of the Shrew. They are there for the comic relief factor and just too plainly make people laugh. They get themselves into ridiculous situations that do not faze them at all. Both take themselves to be very serious people when in all actuality they are anything but the total opposite of serious. Bottom for example had his head turned into that of a donkey's head. This is why Shakespeare named Bottom, for he acts like that of a donkey's "bottom". He is there to make fun of those who take them far too serious and to make the audience laugh.

Another recurrence of structure in Shakespeare's comedies is the play within a play. In A Mid-Summer Night's Dream and in Taming of the Shrew there is a play within the play. For A Mid-Summer Night's Dream it was a play about Pyramus and Thisbe which is about two people in love but can not be together because there parents are forbidding them from being together, just as in the actual play Hermia is in love with Lysander but her father wants her to marry his choice, Demetrius, whom she does not love. Pyramus and Thisbe’s story is one of the most romantic and classic love story there is and the whole time it is being acting out, lines are being forgotten or screwed up while Bottom over acts everything making himself more of a fool. In Taming of the Shrew the play within the play is actually the main story. The play is Taming of the Shrew which is acted out for Christopher sly who believes he is lord when really the trick is being played upon him.

All of Shakespeare's comedies treat sensitive and usually meaningful subjects lightly and with ironic and moronic satire. I find all of the comedies we have read to be funny and joyful. The main reason is because Shakespeare makes sure that there is no seriousness in the plays at all. It is funny how all of the characters believe that everything they is serious and take it full heartedly while the audience is laughing at them the whole time. It is also comical to listen to the language because every time you read a play, no matter how many times you have read it previous, you find some type of new symbol or meaning or theme in Shakespeare’s writing. He was a great manipulator of words.