Summary of The Tempest

Summary

The Tempest

By William Shakespeare

Prospero was once Duke of Milan, but his brother Antonio took over when he began deeply studying literature. Later, Antonio and Alonso (king of Naples) banished him with his daughter, Miranda at the sea. Luckily, he landed in the island and survived since Gonzalo helped them. Now, he knows that his enemies (Antonio, Sebastian and Alonso) have sailed with Alonso’s son Ferdinand and Antonio’s counselor Gonzalo, so he creates a tempest to shipwreck them. Then, Prospero calls spirit Ariel to come. The spirit sings a song and scares Ferdinand as he wanders around the island. Later, Ferdinand meets with Prospero and Miranda. The both Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love. Elsewhere, Caliban (Sycorax’s deformed son) convinces Stephano to kill Prospero and seize Miranda so they can be king and queen. Ariel overhears and warns Prospero. In another part of the island, the nobles are wandering. Alonso fears Ferdinand is dead. Ariel causes all to sleep, except Sebastian and Antonio. Antonio convinces Sebastian to kill Alonso so he can be king of Naples’s. But, Ariel has awakened Gonzalo to warn Alonso. In the final act, Prospero brings the nobles to his cell and forgives Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian. He also reveals that Ferdinand is safe with Miranda. Prospero’s dukedom is restored by Alonso and Prospero promises to return them safely to Italy.

REFLECTION ON KING LEAR

Title : King Lear

Author : William Shakespeare

Year : 1606, first performed in 1608

Source : http://www.about-shakespeare.com/king_lear.php

KING LEAR

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

REFLECTION

In Britain King Lear, in old age, chooses to retire and divide up his kingdom among his three daughters. However, the three daughters must be wed before they are given the land. The two oldest, Goneril and Regan, both get the land and marriage to the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cornwall, respectively. The youngest and the beloved daughter, Cordelia does not get anything. But the anger of the King’s since she refuses to profess blinding love to his father. The Earl of Kent tries to convince the King to reconsider his decision, but the King banishes him for acting traitorously by supporting Cordelia. Gloucester then brings the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy in and Lear offers Cordelia to Burgundy, though without dowry of land. Burgundy declines, but the French King takes her as queen of France. Next, the all powers of Britain down to Albany and Cornwell. Edmund, bastard son of Gloucester, play his father against Edgar, his another son. Edmund wants to get the all power of his father. Edgar flees. Goneril and Regan do not serve their father properly. They mistreat their own father since he continues to grow more unruly. To help his king, Kent sends a man to Dover to get Cordelia and her French forces to rescue Lear and help him fight Albany and Cornwall. Edmund informs Cornwall that his father deals with the French. Gloucester returns to Farmhouse. He convinces Lear, Kent and the fool to flee because Cornwall plans to kill him. Cornwall captures Gloucester and with Regan cheering him on, plucks out Gloucester’s eyeball with his bare fingers. Fortunately, a Gloucester’s servant rescues his master and flees. Albany refuses to fight the French, because he believes that the daughters mistreated their father (Lear). As a result, Goneril promises her love to Edmund. So does Regan. A messenger brings news about Gloucester and that Cornwall is dead by a Gloucester’s servant. Albany feeling sorry for Gloucester and vows revenge to Edmund of his deeds. In battle, Lear and Cordelia are captured by Edmund. He sends them to jail and command a captain to kill them. Edgar arrives and fights with Edmund, he can wound him. Goneril poisons Regan, them stabs herself. Lear then emerges with dead cordelia, and tells all he killed the Captain that hung her. Edmund dies and King Lear, in grief over Cordelia, dies.

The story is so full of moral. From the story we can take one precious things that is the true love and loyalty is not enough to be understood at glance. They are not only on the lips, just like Regan and Goneril say to their father. Or Edmund says to his father. They love power more than love to their own father. It so different, which is shown by Cordelia, Earl of Kent and Edgar, to their beloved people, King Lear and Gloucester. The story may reflect a true condition in this life. We can not deny that throne and wealth sometimes makes people change; sons have the heart to kill his own parents, just because the they want to dominate his parent’s wealth. They have denied a sacred relationship to their parents. The story actually resembles an Indian movie I have ever watched. It talks about life of a couple that can not enjoy his age since their children do not wants to serve them well, but always offend them. Until they meet their adapted son, who become a successful manager in one company. He is so polite and serves them well, although there is no biological relationship among them. In Islam, we know that the willingness of god depends on willingness of our parents. So, to serve our parents in their age is our biggest obligation since when we were in childhood, they always devout their life and love for us.

BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare (1564-1616): Who was he?

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), `The Bard of Avon', English poet and playwright.

Though William Shakespeare is recognized as one of literature’s greatest influences, very little is actually known about him. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone. Anecdotes and criticisms by his rivals also speak of the famous playwright and suggest that he was indeed a playwright, poet and an actor.

Date of Birth? (1564)

William was born in 1564. We know this from the earliest record we have of his life; his baptism which happened on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564. We don’t actually know his birthday but from this record we assume he was born in 1564. Similarly by knowing the famous Bard's baptism date, we can guess that he was born three days earlier on St. George’s day, though we have no conclusive proof of this.

Brothers and Sisters.

William was the third child of John and Mary Shakespeare. The first two were daughters and William was himself followed by Gilbert who died in 1612 and Richard who died in 1613. Edmund (1580-1607), sixth in the line was baptized on May the third, 1580 and William's oldest living sister was Joan who outlived her famous playwright brother. Of William’s seven siblings, only Judith and four of his brothers survived to adulthood.

William's Father.

From baptism records, we know William's father was a John Shakespeare, said to be a town official of Stratford and a local businessman who dabbled in tanning, leatherwork and whittawering which is working with white leather to make items like purses and gloves. John also dealt in grain and sometimes was described as a glover by trade.

John was also a prominent man in Stratford. By 1560, he was one of fourteen burgesses which formed the town council. Interestingly, William himself is often described as a keen businessman so we can assume he got his business acumen from his father. In the Bard's case, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree at all...

William's mother: Mary Arden.

William's mother was Mary Arden who married John Shakespeare in 1557. The youngest daughter in her family, she inherited much of her father’s landowning and farming estate when he died.

The Bard's Education.

Very little is known about literature’s most famous playwright. We know that the King’s New Grammar School taught boys basic reading and writing. We assume William attended this school since it existed to educate the sons of Stratford but we have no definite proof. Likewise a lack of evidence suggests that William, whose works are studied universally at Universities, never attended one himself!

William marries an older woman. (1582)

A bond certificate dated November the 28th, 1582, reveals that an eighteen year old William married the twenty-six and pregnant Anne Hathaway. Barely seven months later, they had his first daughter, Susanna. Anne never left Stratford, living there her entire life.

The Bard's children. (1583 & 1592)

Baptism records show that William’s first child, Susanna was baptized in Stratford sometime in May, 1583. Baptism records again reveal that twins Hamnet and Judith were born in February 1592. Hamnet, William's only son died in 1596, just eleven years old. Hamnet and Judith were named after William’s close friends, Judith and Hamnet Sadler. William's family was unusually small in a time when families had many children to ensure parents were cared for in later years despite the very high mortality rates of children and also their life expectancy in the 1500s.

The Bard as a poet.

Evidence that the great Bard was also a poet comes from his entering his first poem Venus and Adonis in the Stationers’ Registrar on the 18th of April, 1593. The playwright registered his second poem The Rape of Lucrece by name on the 9th of May, 1594.

The Bard suffers breech of copyright. (1609)

In 1609, the Bard's sonnets were published without the Bard’s permission. It is considered unlikely that William wanted many of his deeply personal poems to be revealed to the outside world. It was not however the first time; in 1599, in a collection entitled "The Passionate Pilgrim" , two of his poems had been printed without William’s permission.

The Bard's will and death.

Records reveal that the great Bard revised his will on March the 25th, 1616. Less than a month later, he died on April the 23rd, 1616. Literature's famous Bard is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. He infamously left his second-best bed to his wife Anne Hathaway and little else, giving most of his estate to his eldest daughter Susanna who has married a prominent and distinguished physician named John Hall in June 1607. This was not as callous as it seems; the Bard's best bed was for guests; his second-best bed was his marriage bed... His will also named actors Richard Burbage, Henry Condell and John Hemminges, providing proof to academics today that William was involved in theatre. The Bard's direct line of descendants ended some 54 years later until Susanna’s daughter Elizabeth died in 1670.

The Bard's last words...

Written upon William Shakespeare’s tombstone is an appeal that he be left to rest in peace with a curse on those who would move his bones...

Good friend, for Jesus´ sake forbeare
To digg the dust enclosed here!
Blest be ye man that spares thes stones
And curst be he that moues my bones.

Translated this reads as:

Good friend, for Jesus’ sake, forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here;

Blest be the man that spares these stones

And curst he that moves my bones.

The First Folio (1623): Conclusive proof that Shakespeare authored his plays.

The proof most often cited that Shakespeare authored his plays however, was the First Folio (1623) where Henry Condell and John Hemminges who were actors in the Bard's theatre company, claim in a dedicatory verse within the Folio that they recorded and collected his plays as a memorial to the late actor and playwright. In terms of value, the First Folio originally was sold for just 1 Pound in 1623. Today as one of just 250 still in existence, it would fetch nearly 3 million dollars (US).

Poetry

It is generally agreed that most of the Shakespearean Sonnets were written in the 1590s, some printed at this time as well. Others were written or revised right before being printed. 154 sonnets and "A Lover's Complaint" were published by Thomas Thorpe as Shake-speares Sonnets in 1609. The order, dates, and authorship of the Sonnets have been much debated with no conclusive findings. Many have claimed autobiographical details from them, including sonnet number 145 in reference to Anne. The dedication to "Mr. W.H." is said to possibly represent the initials of the third earl of Pembroke William Herbert, or perhaps being a reversal of Henry Wriothesly's initials. Regardless, there have been some unfortunate projections and interpretations of modern concepts onto centuries old works that, while a grasp of contextual historical information can certainly lend to their depth and meaning, can also be enjoyed as valuable poetical works that have transcended time and been surpassed by no other.

Evoking Petrarch's style and lyrically writing of beauty, mortality, and love with its moral anguish and worshipful adoration of a usually unattainable love, the first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man, sonnets 127-152 to a dark lady. Ever the dramatist Shakespeare created a profound intrigue to scholars and novices alike as to the identities of these people.

Tragedies

Some probably inspired by Shakespeare's study of Lives (trans.1597) by Greek historian and essayist Plutarch and Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Some are reworkings of previous stories, many based on English or Roman history. The dates given here are when they are said to have been first performed, followed by approximate printing dates in brackets, listed in chronological order of performance.

Titus Andronicus first performed in 1594 (printed in 1594),
Romeo and Juliet 1594-95 (1597),
Hamlet 1600-01 (1603),
Julius Caesar 1600-01 (1623),
Othello 1604-05 (1622),
Antony and Cleopatra 1606-07 (1623),
King Lear 1606 (1608),
Coriolanus 1607-08 (1623), derived from Plutarch
Timon of Athens 1607-08 (1623), and
Macbeth 1611-1612 (1623).

Histories

Shakespeare's series of historical dramas, based on the English Kings from John to Henry VIII were a tremendous undertaking to dramatise the lives and rule of kings and the changing political events of his time. No other playwright had attempted such an ambitious body of work. Some were printed on their own or in the First Folio (1623).

King Henry VI Part 1 1592 (printed in 1594);
King Henry VI Part 2 1592-93 (1594);
King Henry VI Part 3 1592-93 (1623);
King John 1596-97 (1623);
King Henry IV Part 1 1597-98 (1598);
King Henry IV Part 2 1597-98 (1600);
King Henry V 1598-99 (1600);
Richard II 1600-01 (1597);
Richard III 1601 (1597); and
King Henry VIII 1612-13 (1623)

Comedies, again listed in chronological order of performance.

Taming of the Shrew first performed 1593-94 (1623),
Comedy of Errors 1594 (1623),
Two Gentlemen of Verona 1594-95 (1623),
Love's Labour's Lost 1594-95 (1598),
Midsummer Night's Dream 1595-96 (1600),
Merchant of Venice 1596-1597 (1600),
Much Ado About Nothing 1598-1599 (1600),
As You Like It 1599-00 (1623),
Merry Wives of Windsor 1600-01 (1602),
Troilus and Cressida 1602 (1609),
Twelfth Night 1602 (1623),
All's Well That Ends Well 1602-03 (1623),
Measure for Measure 1604 (1623),
Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1608-09 (1609),
Tempest (1611),
Cymbeline 1611-12 (1623),
Winter's Tale 1611-12 (1623).

Source : http://www.enotes.com/william-shakespeare/shakespeare-biography

http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/