Shakespeare's Play Research Articles

“The Strength of The(Ir) Illusion” (Macbeth 3.5.27): Transmission of Magic and the Ambiguity of Magical Spaces in Macbeth and The Tempest

“The strength of the(ir) illusion” (Macbeth 3.5.27): Transmission of Magic and the Ambiguity of Magical Spaces in Macbeth and The Tempest. Starting from Ina Habermann and Michelle Witen’s 2016 taxonomy of space in Shakespearean drama, our paper focuses on setting and social/ gendered space. What we aim to discuss is how two of Shakespeare’s plays involving magic—namely Macbeth and The Tempest—associate various settings with witchcraft and magic, while also constructing space simultaneously as magical and political, a topophrenic “thirdspace” (cf. Tally, 2019; Soja, 1996), where disorder rules and where power relations in general, and gender relations in particular, are negotiated between ordinary characters and magic-wielding ones (the witches and Hecate vs. Prospero and Ariel, as well as Sycorax). The paper also discusses what “rough” magic is in these plays (a term used in The Tempest, first addressed critically by Robert Egan, 1972), roughness being, on the one hand, a reference to the impurity of the art employed, and, on the other, a nod to the transgression(s) implied by magic practices. Keywords: gender, performance, magic, thirdspace, transgression, transmission

‘Imitate the Motions of Those that are Infected’: Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost in Margaret Cavendish’s The Convent of Pleasure

Abstract Despite a Restoration vogue for adapted—or ‘improved’—productions of Shakespeare’s plays, Love’s Labour’s Lost (c.1594) fell out of the theatrical repertoire after 1660. The play’s immediate afterlife exists solely in Margaret Cavendish’s inversion of the play in her closet drama The Convent of Pleasure (1668). This essay argues that both plays respond to the virulent plague outbreaks which immediately preceded them in their depiction of single-sex cloistering, and engage with contemporaneous debates around the efficacy of household quarantine as a public health response. Love’s Labour’s Lost offers a complicated defence of public theatre in the face of quarantine restrictions which saw the playhouses forcibly closed for 11 months. Convent repurposes Shakespeare’s portrayal of infection risk in a public theatre for the closet environment. But transferring a play predicated upon the fear of contagious bodies from the commercial stage to the ‘Stage of Imagination’ has potentially dangerous consequences for its readers. Cavendish’s vitalist materialism renders the recreation of the public stage within the mind an act of potential self-harm. Yet Cavendish’s adaptation of a Shakespearean play preoccupied with plague allows her to think through her own theory of imitation as the driving force behind both contagion and sympathetic inclination.

NLP as Individual Programming:

The current study is an attempt to analyze two literary texts, namely William Shakespeare's play Hamlet and Bachtyar Ali's Kurdish novel The City of White Musicians, in the light of, neurolinguistics as an individual programming. These are from two distinct literary traditions that were picked because they essentially share the appearance of ghosts. To find out how these subtleties affect the reader's understanding, neurolinguistics is applied. Consequently, the paper's title was chosen. The texts serve as a sort of manual, and our goal is to identify the link that connects language and reason. These pieces are meant to affect the reader both while they are written and after. As a result, the influence is similar to programming and adheres to one of the core ideas of neurolinguistics, which will be covered in the introduction. The research tries to answer issues like The extent to which literary works' particular programming and neurolinguistics influence readers. Likewise, how "reaching success," one of the fundamental ideas of programming, is perceived. Moreover, Are there any similarities between the English and Kurdish texts in terms of neurolinguistics and personal programming? The methodology of the research is a thematic analysis method that is through studying the language and special terms from a variety of perspectives to illustrate the personal programming that is present in the texts and forms the main body of this study. One of programming's core principles is that success serves as a focus point for the procedures, according to the study's major findings. Additionally, self-criticism and the will to succeed are two other neurolinguistics foundations that are present in both texts.

The ‘pre-Shakespearean’ balcony and outdoor spaces from the European sources to Romeo and Juliet

This article shows how the balcony scene has been represented in Romeo and Juliet's narrative sources and how it has been treated by Shakespeare and on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century stages. It focuses on the absence of any balcony in Shakespeare's play and on the actual presence of a balcony in one of the Italian indirect sources of the play, Luigi Da Porto's novella; it also explores how all the spatial, gender, and power connotations of the balcony have been ‘translated’ from the sources to Shakespeare, where they are conveyed by the use of a ‘window’ and an ‘orchard’. The article shows how, thanks to the SENS: Shakespeare's Narrative Sources: Italian Novellas and their European Dissemination digital archive a comparison of multiple texts at a time, focusing on the words ‘balcony’, ‘window’, ‘garden’, and ‘orchard’, favours the investigation of the way in which these liminal spaces are represented.

"Ophelia; Do not believe his vows; they are brokers!" A Study of Unrewarded Love in Selected Shakespeare's Tragic Plays

إلى جانب الكم الكبير من الأعمال الأكاديمية التحليلية المتعلقة بالمسرحيات التراجيدية لوليام شكسبير (1564-1616)، تحاول الدراسة تقديم رؤية مختلفة للاطلاع النقدي فيما يتعلق بالمسرحيات التراجيدية العظيمة المختارة لشكسبير. إنه يصور حالة الحب غير المكافأ (أحادي الجانب أو غير المتبادل) والعواطف غير المربحة التي لم يتم تقديرها أو حتى أخذها بعين الاعتبار من قبل بعض الشخصيات الرئيسية في مسرحيات شكسبير المأساوية النقية المختارة كما اعتبرها إيه سي برادلي (1851-1935)، بما في ذلك هاملت، عطيل، روميو وجولييت، ماكبث، والملك لير بسبب تصويرهم للصراع المستمر من أجل أهداف وأسباب مختلفة في حبكاتهم التي تهم الأفراد والمجتمعات أيضًا. وتساهم النتائج في تقدير أوسع لعبقرية شكسبير الفنية في التقاط تعقيدات المشاعر والعلاقات الإنسانية، وتقديم تصوير دائم لتعقيدات الحب وإمكانية حزنه. ونتيجة لذلك، تقدم هذه الدراسة رؤى قيمة حول الأهمية الدائمة لمآسي شكسبير، مما يثري فهمنا للطبيعة البشرية والموضوعات الدائمة للحب غير المكافأ (غير المتبادل) الذي يستمر في أسر الجماهير حتى يومنا هذا. تعتمد الدراسة على المنهج التحليلي لاستخلاص تحليلات أعمق للشخصيات، وتعتمد أسلوب MLA في التوثيق، وتنتهي بالاستنتاجات والأعمال المستشهد بها.

Whose Othello Are We Talking About Anyway?

Abstract This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become ‘all mixed up’ and needs to move beyond essentialist identities.

The Speech Act of Promising in Romantic Love

Abstract Full of men and women in love, Shakespeare's comedies have triggered abundant discussions of the dramatist's treatment of romantic relationships, which, however, nearly ignore the importance of language use. This pragmatic reading of Shakespearean comedies undertakes to explore the speech act of promising of characters in love. By incorporating quantitative data and qualitative insights, the research outlines the attributes and distribution of promising in four comedies, compares gender differences in the use of promising, and scrutinises the change of promising during the shift in love dynamics. In doing so, we anticipate providing a fresh interpretation of speech acts and Shakespeare's dramas.

Blending Noh and Shakespearean Elements: An Exploration of Tradition and Modernity in Singaporean Theatre

This paper delves into the groundbreaking fusion of Noh and Shakespearean elements in Singaporean theatre, showcasing a unique blend that mirrors the diverse cultural tapestry of Singapore and its ambitions as a global arts hub. By melding the minimalist and symbolic aesthetics of Noh with the rich narratives and characters of Shakespearean drama, Singaporean theatre has carved out a distinctive niche in the global arts scene. This fusion not only pays homage to the traditional roots of Noh and the timeless appeal of Shakespeare but also pushes the boundaries of theatrical expression, creating a vibrant and innovative form that resonates with audiences worldwide. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the artistic innovations resulting from this fusion, evaluates the audience reception, discusses the cultural implications, and explores the potential opportunities for future theatrical endeavors in Singapore. The blending of Noh and Shakespearean elements signifies a creative dialogue between Eastern and Western traditions, offering fresh perspectives and new possibilities for storytelling and performance in the contemporary theatrical landscape. This fusion is emblematic of Singapore’s broader aspirations to serve as a cultural bridge and a hub for artistic innovation, reinforcing its position as a dynamic and multicultural arts center on the global stage.

An Analysis of Badawi’s and Ramzi’s Arabic Translations of the Speech Act of Compliments in Shakespearean Play ‘King Lear’: A Pragmatic Contrastive Study

The current study aims at investigating into the appropriateness of the translations of Badawi and Ramiz of the speech act of compliments of the Shakespearean play 'King Lear'. The researcher applied a content analysis of the original version of the play being compared to the Arabic versions as target texts. 20 texts of compliments are sampled for analysis. The study adopted a pragmatic analysis of the speech act under study with reference to the taxonomy of Al-Mansoob, Patil, and Alrefaee (2019). The analysis taxonomy consists of 20 compliment strategies. There occurred a reasonable number of similarities between the original version of the play and the TTs. 75% of Ramzi’s translations and 65% of Badawi’s translations seemed to be identical to the original contexts in preserving the function of the speech act of compliment in the selected 20 texts. The encountered differences between the ST and each of the target translations are not serious to the extent which could break the function of the original context in the target setting as they appropriately preserved the naturalness and smoothness of approximately more than 80% of the target texts. The translators further assimilated each other in handling the ST compliment strategies to the TL context in 12 of the total 20 complimenting contexts.

“(The) Play’s the Thing”: Shakespearean drama as an end in itself

Drama, more obviously than other genres of art, is a form of play; and play, according to Johan Huizinga, is essentially autotelic, or not a means to an end. Shakespeare’s plays are trivialised if they are seen essentially as means to other ends. Science conceives of the material world as an endless chain of causes, just as utilitarianism demands that all human artefacts and endeavours take their place on an eternal chain of purposes. This model devalues all its elements, for they acquire their worth only in terms of what appears next along the chain, never in or of themselves. The model is also counter-intuitive, since human experience values things, people and events differently from one another. Some items give us more pause than others; a few invite us to lose ourselves, as a child becomes lost in a game. Drama asks an audience to play along with its playing actors, pointlessly. If there is a point – moral or utilitarian – it is a mere side effect. A play, like Cleopatra’s hopping, is a digression from the straight journey of human lives toward death; and, as Freud suggests in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, detours are the only places in which the life drive makes any inroads into the death instincts’ relentless onward progress. Shakespeare’s dramatic works not only demonstrate play, and hook their audiences into the delightful, terrifying and all-absorbing world of (the) play, but they also provide a metanarrative about play, playing with the idea of playing. This essay resists the tendency to interpret Shakespeare’s dramatic works pragmatically, and instead shows, with examples from comedies and romances, especially The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and from tragedies including King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra, how they refuse to be means toward other ends, but “play till doomsday”, throwing reflective aspects up to their audiences and defying the puritans to stop them as they do so.

Translanguaging as Transformative Pedagogy of Shakespeare in South African Secondary Schools

Despite the historical tendency to use the teaching of Shakespeare to perpetuate British colonial educational objectives, the study of a Shakespeare play remains a prerequisite for obtaining a school-leaving certificate, with English Home Language as a subject, from each of the three largest examination bodies in South Africa. Against this background, I propose the implementation of translanguaging as a transformative pedagogy of Shakespeare in South African secondary schools. This proposal is based on the results of practitioner-based research I conducted with a class of Johannesburg-based, multilingual, Grade 10 learners during the study of Macbeth. My research showed that translanguaging facilitated learners’ comprehension of Macbeth, while simultaneously empowering them to interpret the play from their own linguistic and cultural perspectives. Although the study was limited in participant numbers and duration and needs verification by further research, its results suggest the potential of translanguaging to transform the pedagogy of Shakespeare in South African schools by equipping learners to contribute to global discourses on Shakespeare with authentic and uniquely (South) African interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays.

“You Know No Rules of Charity”: A Corpus Analysis of ‘Love’ in William Shakespeare’s Richard III Using Voyant Tools

This essay conducts a corpus analysis of ‘love’ in Shakespeare’s Richard III using Voyant Tools, a free web-based application for analyzing digital texts. While Voyant Tools have been used in Shakespeare classes for educational purposes, it is hard to find any books or journal essays that incorporate the online program in Shakespeare drama research. It is hoped that the paper serves as an example that suggests academic potential of using digital tools in drama text analysis. Although Richard III is rarely discussed with reference to ‘love,’ the high frequency of the word in the text confirms its thematic importance in the play. My analysis of the corpus data makes the following discoveries. First, ‘love’ in Richard III has a broad spectrum of meaning ranging from erotic and familial love to loyalty and self-love. Second, the majority of references to ‘love’ come from or concern Richard and his chief assistant Buckingham, both of whom use the word for purposes of deception. Third, the type of love that is absent from all characters, including antagonist Richmond and those who display sincere love for their family or monarch, is ‘charity,’ the highest form of love modeled on God’s unconditional love for humanity. From these observations, it can be concluded that Shakespeare explores the broad spectrum of human love in order to satirize the absence of charity from the powerful figures that inhabit the world of Richard III as well as to expose the limitations and vulnerability of human love. If Richard III is a play of ‘love,’ as the corpus data suggests, it is not a critique of the title character but of the lack of charity in the world he was born into.

Morality and craft of insanity in hamlet character

Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare's most complex and iconic characters, grapples with themes of morality and the craft of feigned insanity throughout the play. The exploration of Hamlet's psyche reveals a character torn between moral dilemmas and a strategic use of madness. Hamlet's character is a fascinating study of the intricate relationship between morality and the craft of insanity. Shakespeare's dramas are amazing expressions of his creativity as a writer, a talent that has stood the test of time. His drama revolves around the idea that human nature is mostly derived from the surrounding environment. This research investigates the madness of the character hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet and to show whether he is really mad or no. The paper also shows Hamlet cleverness in using insanity to achieve his goal for revenge and how he uses the madness to achieve morality. This paper studies moral revenge in the play.

Just How Remarkable was the ‘Jealous Moor’? Othello, Jealousy and Early Modern Racial Stereotypes

ABSTRACT It is a critical commonplace that Othello is informed by the early modern stereotype that understood Moors to be particularly inclined to jealousy. This article contextualises this stereotype, by placing it within the larger early modern racial anthropology of jealousy. I argue that the association of Moors and jealousy was not particularly notable or exceptional, because contemporary English writers similarly diagnosed many different peoples from across the global as temperamentally disposed to excessive jealousy. When historicised, the early modern stereotype of the ‘jealous Moor’ conveys somewhat less meaning than is usually thought by modern critics of Othello – but by placing it in its proper historical context, we freshly see how the intersection of race and emotion remains vital to the play, and how a fully historicised account of Shakespearean drama must be attentive to the matters of race.

Seeing Feelingly: A Sight‐Impaired Observer's Reflections on an Infant Observation during the Covid‐19 Pandemic

The author reflects on the experience of conducting an infant observation from their perspective of having a sight impairment encapsulated in the phrase ‘seeing feelingly’ taken from Shakespeare's play King Lear. The multi‐sensory and somatic world of the infant is explored where sight is secondary to touch in early infancy and how this reflects something of the observer's way of experiencing the world. The impact of disability on how the author sees themselves and is seen by others is discussed in terms of the defences of projection, projective identification and disavowal. The COVID‐19 pandemic and the necessity of remote observations via video link add another angle from which emotional connection is explored, leading the author to conclude that, although greater visual clarity was gained, emotional contact was diminished. The paradox of a sight‐impaired person ‘observing’ challenges the privileging of the sense of sight, suggesting that a more multi‐sensory approach could be of benefit to the conduct of infant observations. In addition, the very title ‘infant observation’ might deter others with sight impairment from participation.

Beyond Ophelia: A Deep Dive into the Agency and Constraints of Female Characters in Hamlet

This paper explores the nuanced portrayal of female characters in William Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. With a focus on Ophelia and Queen Gertrude, often overshadowed by the titular character, the paper employs a multidimensional approach. It navigates historical and cultural contexts, examining the socio-cultural norms of Elizabethan England and the role of women in Shakespearean drama. The in-depth character analyses of Ophelia and Gertrude unveil their agency and constraints, exploring the impact of external forces on Ophelia’s agency and the Queen’s dilemma as both a mother and a queen. The exploration extends to the absence of prominent female characters in Fortinbras’ narrative, the significance of the play within a play, and a comparative analysis of female characters across Shakespeare’s plays. Reception and criticism are surveyed, from early moralistic interpretations to contemporary feminist readings, offering a historical trajectory of evolving perspectives. The paper concludes by summarizing key findings, emphasizing the profound impact of societal constraints on female agency, and suggesting avenues for future research.

Shakespearean Drama: A Tapestry of Legal Discourse and Literary Expression

Shakespearean Drama: A Tapestry of Legal Discourse and Literary Expression

Rendering Legal Terms in Shakespeare's Plays into Arabic Problems and Solutions

Rendering Legal Terms in Shakespeare's Plays into Arabic Problems and Solutions

Use of Drama to Enhance Speaking Skills of English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners

This study delves into the transformative potential of Shakespearean drama staging in enhancing the speaking skills of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners in higher education. Employing a qualitative interpretive research paradigm and drawing on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, the research utilizes semi-structured interviews as the primary tool to explore the experiences of teachers and students in a specific Department of English Language and Literature at a private university in Chattogram, Bangladesh. The findings illuminate the manifold benefits of drama, including heightened speaking confidence, improved teamwork, enhanced improvisational skills, and increased self-esteem. This study not only contributes valuable insights into the advantages of incorporating Shakespearean dramas in ESL settings but also establishes a foundation for future research in diverse contexts beyond national borders.

Revenge as a Mirror of Corruption in Shakespearean Drama

Speaking in general terms, a revenge play is a genre of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in which the protagonist is seen to seek revenge since, sometimes imaginatively, sometimes in reality, he has been exposed to injustice and/or injury and wronged. The approach to the notion of revenge was dualistic in early modern culture. Revenge was something accepted and approved in the feudal world. However, in the early modern period, it was solely God who had the responsibility of taking revenge. Plays which ended with the accomplishment of the avenger are indicative of the fact that feudal codes were more powerful than the Christian ones. However, the Christian notion of revenge in which God might be the only avenger was actually praised since it was believed that the sovereign represented God. Thus, early modern revenge plays, especially revenge tragedies, reflected this twofold consideration on the subject. Undoubtedly, Shakespeare was among those dramatists of the Renaissance period who illustrated his time’s ambivalent treatment of the notion of revenge. This study proposes a reading of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and Hamlet focussing on the notion of revenge to demonstrate that Shakespeare embedded revenge in his plays to mirror or even emphasize social/political corruption and inequity. Thus, the paper contends that Shakespeare’s depiction of revenge becomes a solid metaphor to dramatize justice and the judicial system in the selected plays.