Shakespeare Can Never be Forgotten

There is nothing new to say about William Shakespeare. So much has been written about him over the last four hundred years that now it’s an old story. Yet when it comes to drama, the one whose name is first mentioned is Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 in England. In just half a century of his life, he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and two long anecdotes. Although originally a playwright, he is known as the Bard of Avon.

The reason for his reputation as a poet rather than a playwright is that he is a poetic playwright. He also made a name for himself as an actor in his lifetime.

Shakespeare's plays have been translated into all major languages ​​of the world. He is not unfamiliar to Bengali speakers either.

Originally most of his plays were written in historical contexts, but due to his incomparable artistic and immortal poetic language, each play has become radiant in its own glory. There is no shortage of research on why Shakespeare became involved in tragedy and comedy. Researchers have found that Shakespeare's play reflects the turmoil, frustration, and loss of relatives in his life. Shakespeare's conjugal life begins with the marriage of a woman of unequal age, in whose womb her child conceived before marriage. When Shakespeare was 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. After 6 months of marriage, a daughter was born in their house.

Then, in 1585, Anne Hathaway gave birth to a son named Hamlet. When Shakespeare's son passed away at the age of eleven, he was overwhelmed with grief.

From 1585 to 1592 were Shakespeare's years of loss, but even in these years, his work did not stop. He also gained fame as an actor along with a playwright during this time.

Although much has been written about Shakespeare in the last four hundred years, his personal life has not been much discussed. Although he is a devout Catholic, his life and relationships with his parents and family are insignificant. And even some maintain that the plays that have been published in Shakespeare's name are not all written by him.

But no matter how much Shakespeare is criticized and no matter how much controversy is created about his plays, he is still as alive as he was in the Elizabethan era. This is because of Shakespeare's ability to implement outstanding observational powers in his literary work. Whose plays and poems seem to have been contained within himself. As he was an actor, playwright and businessman at the same time, the combination of these characters can be seen in his literary work. He has not only become a time-winning personality by combining different characters but he has also created time-winning literary works.

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Unknown facts about Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Hamlet is a famous 5-act tragic play written by William Shakespeare. It is the longest play ever written by the playwright. It is one of the most cited literary works in the world, and since 1960 it has been translated into 75 languages, including Klingon. The play is chiefly noted for its psychological probing into the deepest core of the human mind. Accordingly, the play chronicles the story of Prince Hamlet, who undergoes a series of conflicts in the way of avenging his father’s murder. But this revenge attempt culminates to the deaths of not only to the villain but to the hero and some other characters as well.

 

Facts of the play

Full Title:  The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Popular Title: Hamlet

Playwright:  William Shakespeare

Genre:   Revenge tragedy

Language:  English

Number of Lines: 4042

Time written:  Early seventeenth century, most probably between 1600 to1602.

Sources: Ur-Hamlet, a lost play possibly written by Thomas Kyd.

Hamlet Influenced: John Marston most probably wrote Antonio’s Revenge inspired by Hamlet.

First publication:

• The First Quarto or Bad Quarto was printed in 1603 from an unauthorized source and was entitled The tragicall historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke.
• The Second Quarto was published in 1604 under the aforesaid title.
• The First Folio was published in 1623 under the title of The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke.

First performance: 1609

Major Characters: Hamlet, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, Old Hamlet, Horatio, the Gravedigger, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Protagonist: Hamlet

Antagonist: King Claudius

Setting (time):  The late medieval period

Setting (place): Elsinore, Denmark

Major themes: Revenge, corruption, madness, delay in action, mystery of death, and political intrigues

Symbols: The ghost; Yorick’s skull, flowers, weather, graveyard, mousetrap, fencing swords, Gravedigger, Hamlet’s costume changes, and poison

Conflict: The following conflicts are present in the play:

1. Physical conflict: (a) when Hamlet slays Polonius (b) when Hamlet fights a duel with Laertes.
2. Mental conflict: Hamlet and King Claudius displayed such conflict throughout the play.

Story of the play

The action starts from another world

When the play begins, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is visited by a mysterious ghost who resembles his father, the recently deceased king. The ghost tells Hamlet that his father was killed by Claudius, the king's brother, who later took the throne and married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. The ghost eggs on Hamlet to avenge his father's death by killing Claudius.

The task before Hamlet weighs heavily on him. He thought the ghost could be an evil spirit trying to mislead him. So Hamlet undergoes a series of psychological conflicts. Hamlet's uncertainty, anguish, and pain are what make the character so believable. He is arguably one of the most psychologically complex characters in literature. He is slow to act, but when he proceeds he is reckless and violent. We can see this in the famous "curtain scene" when Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius.

Hamlet's love

Polonius' daughter Ophelia is in love with Hamlet, but their relationship has been broken since Hamlet learned of his father's death. Ophelia is instructed by Polonius and Laertes to reject Hamlet's advances. Eventually, Ophelia commits suicide as a result of Hamlet's confused behavior towards her and the death of her father.

A play within a play

In Act 3, Scene 2, Hamlet arranges actors to re-enact the murder of his father through the play The Murder of Gonzago to see Claudius’ reaction. He confronts his mother for the murder of his father and hears someone behind the curtain. Believing it to be Claudius, Hamlet stabs the man with his sword. It turns out that she has actually killed Polonius.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Claudius realizes that Hamlet is trying to catch him and professes that Hamlet is angry. Claudius arranges for Hamlet to be sent to England with his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who have been informing the king of Hamlet's state of mind.

Claudius has secretly sent orders to kill Hamlet upon his arrival in England, but Hamlet escapes the ship and trades his death order for a letter ordering the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

To be or not to be…

Hamlet returns to Denmark just as Ophelia is being buried, leading him to contemplate life, death, and the fragility of the human condition. The performance of this soliloquy is a big part of how the actors judge any actor who plays Hamlet.

Tragic ending

Laertes, the son of Polonius returns from France to avenge the death of his father. Claudius plots with him to make Hamlet's death seem accidental and encourages him to smear his sword with poison. He also sets aside a cup of poison, in case the sword is unsuccessful.

In the action, swords are exchanged and Laertes is mortally wounded with the poisoned sword after striking Hamlet with it. He forgives Hamlet before he dies.

Gertrude dies from accidentally drinking the poison cup. Hamlet stabs Claudius and forces him to drink the rest of the poisoned drink. Hamlet's revenge has finally been completed. In his last moments, he bequeaths the throne to Fortinbras and prevents Horatio’s suicide by pleading him to stay alive to tell the story.

Top Quotes

 

 “To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”

 
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”

 
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.”

 
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“To die, to sleep -
To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub,
For in this sleep of death what dreams may come...”

― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”

― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. ”

― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.”

― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”

― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.”

― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

Photo by ahmed adly from Pexels

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Meaning of Björk’s “Utopia”

It won’t be an overstatement if Björk’s Utopia is called an essentially nature inspired song. As the name suggests, the song transports us into a dreamy, ideal world populated mostly by birds. However, after a few moments the song startles the audience when the artist discards the existence of the bird species. Then she claims that the first flute was created from the fauna, implying the fact that the birds in fact, are the flutes:

“Bird species never seen or heard before
The first flute carved from the first fauna”

To visualize this Björk used a host of Icelandic women playing flutes, which represents the chirping of birds. The scene is dreamy, heavenly, and ecstatic. In facts, the birds have enabled her to create a relaxing ideal world or Utopia. The melodious sound effect from the flutes accompanied by the singer’s calm but intense voice make her world more engaging and enchanting, thereby strongly compelling the audience entering into it for living peacefully.

However, breaking the utopian tradition, soon Björk confronts us with the ugliness behind this fanciful world. She wants to say that we don't need to go somewhere else to see this ugliness. The world itself is the Utopia since behind its eye-catching surface appearance there is another antithetical inner look which is full of evil, injustice, dishonesty, barbarism, and so the like. God entrusted nature to guide us towards the right path. But as human beings have a predilection to evil by birth they never follow the right path:

“Utopia
It’s not
Elsewhere
…

You assigned me to protect our lantern
To be intentional about the light”

Horrified by these dark sides, the singer, the queen of the birds/nature feels an urge for purifying the evil which lies deep down the human heart. She reinforces this by saying “Let’s get out of here!” But this is not actually a call for escape from the world, rather a request for renouncement of evil:

“My instinct has been shouting at me for years
Saying let’s get out of here
Huge toxic tumor bulging underneath the ground here
Purify, purify, purify, purify toxicity”

There are also strong indications of feminist thoughts in this song. All the birds are represented by females, which emblems the womankind. The weirdly-clad women were playing flutes in pensive mode indicating the zeal for female emancipation. The grotesque organ on the upper portion of the singer’s body resembles most possibly to a female vulva which is again symbolic of womanhood.

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Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow was an American author of fiction, essays, and drama. He was born to the Russian immigrant parents in Lachine, Quebec, Canada. He grew up in Montreal and when he was nine his family moved to Chicago. Bellow’s literary works include numerous award-winning novels such as, The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Herzog (1964), Humboldt's Gift (1975), etc. Bellow secured the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976.

Fast Facts

Full Name: Saul Bellow
Birth Name: Solomon Bellows
Nick Name: Sollie
Birth: 10 June 1915
Place of Birth: Lachine, Quebec, Canada
Death: 5 April 2005
Place of Death: Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Zodiac Sign: Gemini
Nationality: American
Father: Abraham Bellows
Mother: Lescha (Liza) Bellow s (née Gordin)
Siblings:

1. Jane Zelda Kauffman
2. Maurice Bellows
3. Samuel G. Bellows

Spouses:

1. Anita Goshkin (m. 1937–1956)
2. Alexandra (Sondra) Tschacbasov (1956–1959)
3. Susan Glassman (1961–1964)
4. Alexandra Bagdasar Ionescu Tulcea (1974–1985)
5. Janis Freedman (1989–2005)

Children:

1. Son: Gregory Bellow (1944)
2. Son: Adam Abraham Bellow  (1957)
3. Son: Daniel Oscar Bellow (1964)
4. Daughter: Naomi Rose Bellow (1999)

Education: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Quotes

“But what is the philosophy of this generation? Not God is dead, that point was passed long ago. Perhaps it should be stated Death is God. This generation thinks – and this is its thought of thoughts – that nothing faithful, vulnerable, fragile can be durable or have any true power. Death waits for these things as a cement floor waits for a dropping light bulb. The brittle shell of glass loses its tiny vacuum with a burst, and that is that. And this is how we teach metaphysics on each other. "You think history is the history of loving hearts? You fool! Look at these millions of dead. Can you pity them, feel for them? You can nothing! There were too many. We burned them to ashes, we buried them with bulldozers. History is the history of cruelty, not love as soft men think.” Saul Bellow, Herzog

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George Orwell

George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. He is best noted for his polished prose style and his painstaking satires on social injustice. He always opposed and criticized the British imperialism. His literary reputation chiefly rests on the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945).

Fast Facts

Full Name: Eric Arthur Blair
Pseudonym: George Orwell
Date of Birth: June 25, 1903
Place of Birth: Motihari, Bengal, India
Date of Death: January 21, 1950
Place of Death: London, United Kingdom
Zodiac Sign: Cancer
Nationality: British
Father: Richard Walmesley Blair (1857-1938)
Mother: Ida Mabel Limouzin Blair (1875-1943)
Siblings:

1. Sister: Marjorie Frances Blair (1898?-?)
2. Sister: Avril Blair (1908-?)

Spouse:

1. Eileen Maud O'Shaughnessy (1905-1945)
2. Sonia Brownell (1918-1980)

Children:

1. Son: Richard Horatio Blair (adopted) (b. 1944)

Education: Eton

Quotes

"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent."
George Orwell, "Reflections of Gandhi"

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George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) is an Irish-born British dramatist, considered by many to be the most notable dramatist since William Shakespeare. With a sharp contrast to Shakespeare, Shaw opted to write anti-romantically, a tenet which created a great scope for him to unveil the social evils of his times. Due to this antithetical attitude his plays are replete with more pragmatic concerns than that of Shakespeare. His most comic plays also paid a glimpse to the absurdities of society and its institutions.

Shaw had a very unpleasant childhood life, which was burdened with untold poverty. His father was an unsuccessful merchant for which he could support his family properly. Consequently, his mother taught voice pupils for extra income. Even Shaw left school and took a clerical job to support his family. Since then he was self-educated. In 1872, Shaw's mother left her husband and took his two sisters to London. Eventually, Shaw also moved to London with his mother to materialize his dream of becoming a writer. His early writing career was not as smooth as he conceived it to be. Shaw faced extreme financial hardship when he was working with his first novel. During these hard days his mother supported him financially. But despite all the adversity and devotion, his first novel was less impressive and rejected by majority of publishers. However, during maturity, his plays infused with social criticism, which he conceptualized from the Fabian Society learnings.

Fast Facts

Full Name: George Bernard Shaw
Date of Birth: July 26, 1856
Date of Death: November 2, 1950
Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland
Place of Death: Ayot St. Lawrence, United Kingdom
Zodiac Sign: Leo
Nationality: Irish
Father: George Carr Shaw (1814–1885)
Mother: Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (1830–1913)
Siblings: 02 elder sisters

1. Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853–1920)
2. Elinor Agnes (1855–1876).

Spouse: Charlotte Payne-Townshend (m. 1898–1943)
Notable Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature (1925)

Quote

 “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul.”
—George Bernard Shaw

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William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth is a seminal 20th century English poet. His poetic experiment helped to create a new tradition in poetry. It is believed that the Lyrical Ballads, which he published in collaboration with S.T. Coleridge, marked the beginning of English Romanticism. Wordsworth's poetry is noted for its vivid descriptions of nature revealing the delight and comfort he enjoyed from the beauties of nature.

William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, in the Lake District of northwestern England on April 7, 1770 and died on April 28, 1850.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne

 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is a prominent 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is chiefly noted for his treatment of sin, punishment, and salvation through allegorical settings. Most of his major works are engendered by a sense of guilt about the erroneous activity by his ancestors in the notorious Salem Witch Trials in 1962. Although, he wrote during the golden age of transcendentalism, Hawthorne was completely anti-transcendentalist by temperament.

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Huxley, the Explorer of Our Civilization

The 20th century is especially remarkable for landmark developments in art and literature. A number of writes dedicated their lives to introduce in literature subjects that describe various social and moral concerns of the age. The groundbreaking works by these writers disregarded traditional technique of writing and introduced fresh ideas in literature.

Among the most seminal writers of the age, Huxley is the writer whose name comes first in our mind. Like many of his contemporaries, he too, attempted to deal with various social concerns. His novels are a unique blend of science, philosophy and religion. Hence they are called the novels of ideas. Through his epoch-making novels Huxley established himself as one of the supreme examiner of the social norms and ideals of the generation that was misled by the devastating effects of the World Wars I and II.

Huxley is one of first writers to create a relationship between science and literature. In a number of works he introduced either semi real or fictional scientific and technological ideas to heighten the interest of science through art. The fiction that mirrors Huxley’s adherence to scientific developments at its best is none other than his masterpiece Brave New World. At first reading the novel seems to be a science fiction (of dystopian tradition), depicting the tragic and chaotic vision of a futuristic world. But in reality the novel is a serious satire of the social and moral decline of the present civilization.

In the novel Huxley deals with some serious issues of the modern technologically advanced world. Technology was supposed to make us civilized, but instead it led us to utter destruction. Man is the destroyer of his own existence. He himself creates situations that cause class distinction, moral decline, religious dearth, decline of traditional values, and many things that are related to civilized manner.

Nature has its own way to govern man’s life. Man has invented technologies to change his lifestyle. Technology is not bad but overindulgence to it may result in loss of normal flow of life. Comfort is an essential part of human life, but in the name of comfort we cannot manipulate the rules of nature radically. Huxley rightly showed that artificial production of human child, free sex, denouncement of god and region can increase our opportunities of gratification of needs and comforts but at the same time they lead us towards complete dehumanization. Such civilization leads a supposed happy life. Behind the guise of its colorful appearance lives an ugly one that is full of chaos and violence.

Huxley’s work is a successful work of social criticism. It brings us face to face with the unpleasant image of human beings. The present world is full of sexuality, dehumanization, and mechanical intentions. Day by day it is loosing its naturally inherited manners. Huxley’s examinations accurately match with the condition of our age. From this point of view he is truly the greatest examiner of norms and ideals of modern society.

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