Barabas is the name of the Jew in Marlowe’s
Jew of Malta who stands parallel to Shylock in Shakespeare’s
Merchant of Venice.
Twelfth Night is the play with the alternative
title What You Will.
Touchstone in As You Like It apes foreign dress and manners.
Dr. Cains in The Merry Wives of Windsor is the only character to mention the
Bible by name.
In the comedies of Shakespeare, we observe a peculiar and skilful blend of realism and
romance as well as tragic and comic elements. Dr. Johnson rightly calls them tragi-comedies. They are full of music and song and
adorned with clowns and fools for special entertainment. They are humorous and represent the funnier sides of human life specially
designed to delight the audience. Women play very significant roles in comedies than men.
In major tragedies Shakespeare provides comic relief by introducing comic characters and
comic scenes. They help to relieve the emotional stream of the dark and gloomy.
Pe
ricles ignores the unity of time along with The Winter’s
Tale.
The Tempest is considered to be the ‘magical swan
song’ of Shakespeare.
As You Like It is the play in which ‘seven ages of
man’ are referred to.
Julius Caesar is the Roman Play dealing with the theme of
Democracy.
Macbeth and Richard III are two British rulers who employed murderers to kill innocent
children.
Macbeth and Hamlet are called vacillating heroes.
King Lear and Romeo and Juliet were the two
tragedies produced on the English stage with happy ending immediately after Shakespeare’s death.
Othello is the most Greek of all Shakespearean
tragedies as it has the rigour of construction, purity of structure and tragic dimension of the plays reminiscent of Sophocles
and Aschylus.
Ophelia in the play Hamlet is
characterised by Ruskin as a weak woman in his Sesame and Lilies.
Macbeth has been described by Quiller-Couch as "a traitor
to his king, murderer of the sleeping guest, breaker of most sacred trust, ingrate self seeker, false kinsman and perjured
soldier."
The name of Lady Macbeth is Gruach.
Macbeth and Merry Wives of Windsor are the two
plays that are known to have been staged in court at the time of James I and Queen Elizabeth respectively. Macbeth was
staged in connection with the visit of King Christian of Denmark, King James’ brother-in-law. Merry Wives of Windsor was
written and staged at the suggestion of Queen Elizabeth to present John Falstaff in love.
The visit of King Christian of Denmark, brother-in-law of James I, to the English court from
17th July to 14th August, 1506 had prompted Shakespeare to write
Macbeth in a hurry.
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© 2005 Atanu Bhattacharya
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