shakespeare and the renaissance

As a professional writer since 1985, Bridgette Redman's career has included journalism, educational writing, book authoring and training. Broadly speaking, the Renaissance period is used to describe the era when Europeans moved away from the restrictive ideas of the Middle Ages. How Did William Shakespeare Affect the Renaissance? He was one of the first playwrights to bring the Renaissance’s core values to the theater. Shakespeare's treatment of characters marked a shift from medieval to Renaissance thinking. Richard Cummins/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images. His attention to the intricacies of language, characterization and plot became an example to follow for future playwrights and other writers. His characters show humanistic tendencies that were a hallmark of the Renaissance, Hamlet being the most notable of these. Everything You Need to Know About Shakespeare's Plays, M.A., Theater Studies, Warwick University, B.A., Drama and English, DeMontfort University.

Shakespeare was one of eight shareholders in the Lord Chamberlain's Men -- later called The King's Men. Fact Check: What Power Does the President Really Have Over State Governors? His inclusion of Catholicism in his works has led historians to hypothesize that the Bard was secretly Catholic. This questioning produced enormous upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy. Shakespeare's greatest effect on the Renaissance was in expanding vocabulary and... To Thine Own Self Be True: Characters With Humanistic Ideals. Until Shakespeare's plays, soliloquies had been used mainly as a means of conveying information, but Shakespeare internalized the monologues and caused them to bring out the emotional depth of his characters. His written vocabulary was 17,000 words -- four times that of the average educated person of the English Renaissance -- and, according to educational resources provided by the Royal Shakespeare Company of Stratford-upon-Avon, he contributed more than 3,000 words to the English language, either by being the first to record them or by creating them. These laws required citizens to attend worship in Anglican churches. The printing press's arrival in England in 1475 helped stabilize the language and gave Shakespeare access to books about Greeks and Romans as well as allowing him to print his plays, reports David Judkins, an English professor at the University of Houston, in the university's website, uh.edu. Copyright 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Ironically, the Renaissance freedom brought to the English theater by Shakespeare and other writers also brought about its temporary demise. His plays weren't put on solely for the royal or noble class but were available as entertainment to everyone. Lee Jamieson, M.A., is a theater scholar and educator. // Leaf Group Lifestyle, University of Houston: Life in Renaissance England, Royal Shakespeare Company: Shakespeare's Language, Saylor.org: Renaissance Humanism and Shakespeare, Electrum Magazine: Shakespeare and the Classics -- Plutarch, Ovid and Inspiration, British Humanist Association: Shakespeare, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human; Harold Bloom; 1999. Shakespeare's greatest effect on the Renaissance was in expanding vocabulary and language.

The Influence of the Renaissance in Shakespeare's Work The Renaissance in Shakespeare's Time . William Shakespeare was among the people who brought about a lot of changes during the renaissance period in England and transformed literature, thus affecting later culture.

Shakespeare updated the simplistic, two-dimensional writing style of pre-Renaissance drama. He was an important member of the King’s Men company of … In addition to being a playwright, Shakespeare was a businessman. Shakespeare was born toward the end of the broader Europe-wide Renaissance period, just as it was peaking in England. The Renaissance cultural creators did, however, question humankind’s relationship to God. ... Tony Soprano and Shakespeare… The new openness and humanism are reflected in Shakespeare’s plays. The most obvious evidence of his classical contributions comes in such plays as "Coriolanus," "Antony and Cleopatra," "Julius Caesar," "Pericles," "Timon of Athens" and "Titus Andronicus" but can also be seen in "A Midsummer Night's Dream.". Until Shakespeare's time, although the English language was widely used, it did not have the complexity to express profundity adequately. Profit came from joint investment in a business enterprise, a typical Renaissance ideal and one that moved away from the medieval system of profit from land and serfdom. This is not to say he did not have Christian theology in his plays, but he showed a secularism that would affect Renaissance thought in England, says an article by the British Humanist Association and comments by Harold Bloom in "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human." The upheaval in social hierarchy allowed Shakespeare to explore the complexity and humanity of every character, regardless of their social position.

Shakespeare instead wrote plays that were secular in story and ideas. Consider King Lear and Macbeth. At the very least, Shakespeare’s writing indicates a thorough knowledge of Catholic rituals. She is the author of two blogs, reviews live theater and has a weekly column in the "Lansing State Journal." Shakespeare reintroduced many stories and classical texts from Ovid, Plutarch, Livy, Plautus and Sappho, helping to keep these classics alive, a very prominent characteristic of the Renaissance.

When Shakespeare was working in the theater, the Renaissance movement in the arts was peaking in England. The Influence of the Renaissance in Shakespeare's Work.

He previously served as a theater studies lecturer at Stratford-upon Avon College in the United Kingdom. Shakespeare helped bring the Renaissance freedom, humanity and rebirth of appreciation of classical antiquity to the English theater. Broadly speaking, the Renaissance period is used to describe the era when... Shakespeare, the Renaissance Man . Festival of Sacrifice: The Past and Present of the Islamic Holiday of Eid al-Adha. Theater Experience in Shakespeare's Lifetime, The Roles of Women in Shakespeare's Plays, Renaissance Architecture and Its Influence, Discover the Mysterious Shakespeare Lost Years, The Renaissance Writers Who Shaped the Modern World, Biography of William Shakespeare, History's Most Famous Playwright. It reached its zenith during the Elizabethan era in the 16th century. Shakespeare's treatment of characters marked a shift … Shakespeare's plays in the Renaissance left an unforgettable mark on this era and the world, because of his use of complex characterization, and his use of rich language in his plays. Lantern Theater Company How Did Shakespeare Influence the Renaissance? Shakespeare influenced the Renaissance by standardizing the English language and expanding its vocabulary, deepening the humanity of the characters in his plays through emotional complexity and using elaborate references to Greek and Roman mythology in his writing. His theater was also able to thrive because of the financial prosperity of a new business class. The Renaissance arrived in England rather late. The Renaissance arrived in England rather late. Shakespeare’s influence on Renaissance culture was not simply a matter of incorporating works written in foreign languages and times past into his present. In fact, Shakespeare himself may have been Catholic. Shakespeare was a frequent borrower of classical tales that he adapted and rewrote. Shakespeare demonstrated a deep understanding of self-expression, humanity and intellectual freedom through the characters he created, characters who were intelligent and witty in their expression. Catholic characters included Friar Francis ( "Much Ado About Nothing"), Friar Laurence ("Romeo and Juliet"), and even Hamlet himself. Will 5G Impact Our Cell Phone Plans (or Our Health?! It’s very easy to think of Shakespeare as a unique genius with a singular perspective on the world around him. Shakespeare created new words and expressions that enabled English to become a much more precise artistic instrument.

The ideology that dominated the Middle Ages was heavily focused on the absolute power of God and was enforced by the formidable Roman Catholic Church.

The renaissance began in Italy in the 14th century, spread across Europe and arrived in England by the late 15th century. He also contributed many phrases that continue to be used, such as a sorry sight, all of a sudden, all one to me, dash to pieces, fair play, heart's content, in a pickle, love is blind, pound of flesh, the be all and end all, the game is afoot, there's method in my madness, up in arms and wild goose chase.

He focused on creating human characters with psychological complexity. The Renaissance was a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages. Shakespeare at the Crossroads of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Though Shakespeare was writing during the Renaissance, his work owes much to medieval traditions. She's worked for daily newspapers, an educational publisher, websites, nonprofit associations and individuals. When she took the throne, Queen Elizabeth I forced conversions and drove practicing Catholics underground with her imposition of the Recusancy Acts. Grammar and usage was in flux, and Shakespeare took much artistic freedom, a choice that would add style to the grammar of early modern English. Words he coined include advertising, lonely, arouse, blushing, excitement, mimic, torture and zany. He is the most famous writer of all times with his works being used even today in many societies in the world. William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissanceera. They often drew on the more human-centered classical writing and art of ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration. His use of genres such as history, tragedy and comedy helped to hone the focus of theatrical production. Shakespeare's plays left just as big a mark on the Renaissance as the Renaissance left on his work. When the Puritans took over the government after the First English Civil War, all forms of theater were banned as immoral until the restoration of the monarchy in the late 17th century. Despite these laws, Shakespeare did not appear to be afraid to write about Catholicism nor to present Catholic characters in a favorable light. Regardless of what he may have been doing secretly, he maintained a public persona as an Anglican. The artists and thinkers of the Renaissance did not necessarily reject the idea of God. Even monarchs were portrayed as having human emotions and were capable of making terrible mistakes. Is the Coronavirus Crisis Increasing America's Drug Overdoses? ), The Secret Science of Solving Crossword Puzzles, Racist Phrases to Remove From Your Mental Lexicon. He had access to source material that would inform his plays and help change the world around him. From the 14th century onward, people started to break away from this idea.

He mocked Puritans with his portrayal of Malvolio in "Twelfth Night," he showed Christians to be cruel in their dealings with a Jew in "The Merchant of Venice," and Angelo in "Measure for Measure" is cast as a villain for sentencing a character to death for fornication. The renaissance began in Italy in the 14th century, spread across Europe and arrived in England by the late 15th century.