23) explain why the tragedy “Hamlet” is called the tragedy of mind, the tragedy “Othello” – the tragedy of deceived faith, “King Lear” – the tragedy of false grandeur, “Macbeth” – the tragedy of ambition;
24) why do you think the tragedy “Macbeth” is considered to be Shakespeare’s best tragedy?
25) speak on Shakespeare’s tragicomedies or romantic dramas. Why did Shakespeare call these plays comedies while the critics nowadays call them tragicomedies? What common features concerning the plot and the characters do they all have?
26) speak on the sources of the plays “The Tempest” and “The Merchant of Venice”;
27) speak on the contents, collisions and problematics of the plays;
28) speak on the theatrical history of these romantic dramas;
29) speak on Shakespeare’s historical chronicles: the problems of good and evil, human beings and society; the problem of Fate; Shakespeare’s attitude to monarchy; Falstaff and his background as the unique creation of Shakespeare’s comic genius. Explain the difference between a tragedy and a historical chronicle;
30) comment on the following point of view:
“We have in these … plays [historical chronicles] not only … separate plays, five of which are complete in themselves, but one single drama also, with a unity of its own, with one subject, and with one divine justice in them slowly working out its laws to their fulfillment”;
“England’s deliverance from inner feuds and corrupt administration comes with the death of Richard III and with the coming of the Tudors”;
“Shakespeare’s historical chronicles are the creations of fiction woven around historical characters”;
31) speak on the image of an ideal king in Shakespeare’s historical chronicle “Henry V”;
32) speak on the problems of tyranny and despotism in Shakespeare’s historical chronicle “Richard III”;
33) give the possible interpretations of the character of Richard III and his environment; was Richard II a gigantic devilish figure or a mediocrity? How does the personality of Richard III change over the course of the play? Speak on Shakespeare’s method of character creating;
34) would you agree that this play is a story of the rise and fall of a villain – representing Machiavellian outlook and “Renaissance Virtue”?
35) what role do women play in the historical chronicle?
36) what role does the supernatural play in “Richard III”? Why might Shakespeare have chosen to populate a play supposedly based on history with so many ghosts, curses, and prophecies?
37) how does the talent for wordplay affect the fortunes of characters in the play? Is skill with words a sure sign of intelligence and capability, or does it indicate manipulative cunning and shrewdness? Why is the ability to express oneself so important throughout the play? Think especially about the characters of Richard, Margaret, and the princess;
38) compare the characters of Buckingham and Hastings. How do their conceptions of loyalty to their respective masters differ? What traits lead them to their eventual executions?
39) there are historical inaccuracies in Shakespeare’s plays. Is it important that the real Richard III was different from Shakespeare’s character?
40) how up – to – date is the figure of Richard III?
41) Identify, translate, learn by heart and comment on the following quotations:
1. Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York.
2. No beast so fierce but Knows some touch of pity.
3. An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
4. O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!
5. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
6. To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?
7. Frailty, thy name is woman!
8. The time is out of joint – o cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
9. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
10. What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
11. The purpose “of playing is” to hold mirror up to nature.
12. How much sharper than a serpent’s tooth
It is to have a thankless child.
13. What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
14. He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
15. All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
16. She loved me for the dangers I have passed,
I loved her for she did pity them.
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