THEA 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Gravedigger, Puritans, Bear-Baiting
Document Summary
Began during the reign of henry vii and ended at the puritan takeover (1485-1640: most noted for the reign of elizabeth, leading to the term elizabethan theatre . Criticism of shakespeare: complicated, overanalyzed, repetitive. Shakespeare wrote in early modern english/elizabethan english, not old english! Elements of these plays: many characters, men played women"s roles (no female actors, many plots, many scenes ranging in place and time, supernatural elements. Like the ghost in hamlet or the witches in macbeth : soliloquy frequently used. Monologue delivered so the audience knows what the speaker is feeling/thinking: mixed high and low characters. In hamlet"s gravedigger scene, we see a prince talking to a grave digger: mixed comedy and tragedy. There is a lot of humor in the tragic hamlet . The globe: open air theaters, opened to the public, platform stage in the middle surrounded by an open standing room, stranding room was surrounded by a large enclosed balcony, all different shapes.
