Antony in William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra": A Man with Magnificient Rhetoric




Antony: That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct,
As water is in water.

William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra": The Art of Persuasion

The Enigma of Antony: Rhetoric, Passion, and Ethical Scrutiny

William Shakespeare

Antony in William Shakespeare's play "Antony and Cleopatra" is depicted as a man with magnificent rhetoric. Throughout the play, Antony's eloquence and persuasive abilities are showcased, emphasizing his mastery of language and his ability to captivate and influence others through his words.

In the very extensive, various and fluid text, the imagery cosmic magnitude, Antony is a man with magnificent rhetoric. He is the observed of all observers. While Antony journeys to Rome, three separate groups – Caesar and Lepidus, Cleopatra and her servants, Pompey and his followers – about little else but Antony. He is judged from a variety view points. We entertain a complex image of Antony or perhaps a series of different complementary images of him, in a way that we scarcely do of Hamlet, Othello, Lear or Macbeth. In this respect the play has much more in common with Coriolanus and Timon of Athens, the question being not the tragic action but what sort of men Antony, Coriolanus and Timon are in these three Plutarchan tragedies, where the heroes are subjected to prolonged ethical scrutiny in which praise and blame are mixed.

 Antony has surrendered to passion, to a life dominated by will and impulse and is consequently at the mercy of fortune. When he insists on fighting the crucial battle on sea he is making yet another symbolic choice of throwing away his absolute soldership and committing himself to instability. He struggles for life in an amorphous  ways and becomes hollow, watery, void and unreal, a victim of the moment. To him life has become a succession of phantasmagorical moments in which mere phenomenal experience is all he has.

The Persuasive Mastery of Antony

Antony possesses a commanding presence and is known for his powerful speeches and poetic expressions. His rhetorical prowess allows him to sway crowds, win battles, and negotiate political alliances. Whether addressing his troops or engaging in political discourse, Antony's words carry weight and evoke strong emotions.

Shakespeare portrays Antony as a skilled orator who can use language to charm and manipulate. His speeches are filled with vivid imagery, metaphorical language, and passionate appeals. Antony's rhetoric not only serves to convey his thoughts and desires but also serves as a tool for political maneuvering and persuasion.

Moreover, Antony's rhetorical abilities are not confined to formal settings. He is equally adept at engaging in witty banter and engaging conversations, captivating those around him with his charm and clever wordplay. His ability to adapt his rhetoric to different contexts showcases his versatility as a communicator.

However, Antony's rhetorical prowess also becomes a double-edged sword. While his words can inspire loyalty and admiration, they can also lead to his downfall. Antony's eloquence sometimes blinds him to the practical realities of the political landscape, causing him to make impulsive decisions driven by his emotions rather than strategic reasoning.


The Duality of Love: Antony's Ruin and Exaltation

Many modern readers hold that Shakespeare’s play departs from the moralistic tradition in that Antony's’ love for Cleopatra is justified by its transcendence whereas the value of the world, embraced by Caesar and his success-pursuing followers, are mean, paltry, asinine. This argument about the value of the love relation ship has been debated. Elizabethans knew the pair to be depraved. But Shakespeare aroused some sympathy, and even admiration for this doomed pair the love relationship is presented as both a destructive and a creative force. The robustly masculine Antony has been feminized by Cleopatra. His ruinous infatuation as well as his devotion to her is his strength, transubstantiating his character. The conflict between love and duty dogs him till the end. The love exalts and also wrecks him and this love marks the development of his character. This paramountcy of love is at once his forte and hamartia resulting in his loss of reason and balance. He flights shamefully from the battle at Actium and the Egyptian army gives in to Caesar. This is the cost of his being too much emotional and his inability to fashion anything consummately and discerningly. Tet the sense of spiritual enlargement experienced by the pair, particularly by him, creates a new heaven. A final kiss of Cleopatra is, to Antony, worth more than an empire. This great man is certainly ruined by his sensual passion and possibly exalted by it too. This is the ultimate growth of Antony. Read More about Drama   

The Tragic Splendor of Antony: Frailties and Triumphs

Half the play shares between Antony and Cleopatra. Out of Plutarch’s rather negative, unpromising material, Shakespeare creates a sympathetic hero. Shakespeare employs poetry to glorify Antony’s stature. He is compared god like, to Mars and Hercules – “a rarer spirit never did steer humanity” (Agrippa). Antony’s frailties are equally great. Taints and honours are waged equal in him. His inner conflict vis-à-vis Cleopatra makes him dwindle to and fro. He talks about breaking with Cleopatra and he also knows her too well to be taken in. Pompey says, “Be a child o’th time” and Caesar says, “possess it”. Like a child Antony lives in and for the moment taking the easiest route. Antony’s frailties are intertwined with his merits and his weaknesses are part of his strengths. Read More about Drama   

 Antony’s faults, according to Lepidus, are “hereditary………… what are chooses” (1/4/13) “Here I am Antony” (4/4/13) “Fall not a tear… lost” (3/11/69). When denuded of regal splendour, Antony is the most splendid. He is all melt but Caesar is eclipsed.

  Antony dominates in life and death. He carries the moral predicament, torn by the choice between duty and beauty (pleasure) and as the protagonist he bears the tragic burden.

Both the hero and the heroine are tragic because both chose imagination and spirituality. But finally they go beyond this “world” (42 times, counted Spurgeon), and what is unique, go beyond tragedy.

Conclusion

In summary, Antony in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" is characterized as a man with magnificent rhetoric. His eloquence and persuasive abilities enable him to influence and inspire others. Antony's mastery of language, whether in formal speeches or casual conversations, adds depth and complexity to his character, illustrating the power of words in shaping both personal relationships and political outcomes.


References

A Companion to Shakespeare Studies : H et al Granville-Barker : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/companiontoshake0000heta

The complete works of William Shakespeare, with a full and comprehensive life; a history of the early drama; an introduction to each play; the readings of former editions; glossarial and other notes, etc., etc., from the work of Collier, Knight, Dyce, Douce, Halliwell, Hunter, Richardson, Verplanck, and Hudson. Edited by George Long Duyckinck : Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/completeworksofw00shakuoft

Cleopatra in William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra": a Complex Inscrutable, Indefinable Heroine


Cleopatra: Celerity is never more admir'd
Than by the negligent.

Cleopatra: Unraveling the Enigmatic Heroine in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra"

The Enigmatic Queen: Unveiling Cleopatra's Complexity

Cleopatra
Image by Kevin Phillips 
from 
Pixabay

Cleopatra embodies mystery. William Shakespeare chose to keep her feminine mystique inexplicable
in "Antony and Cleopatra." She is, in turn, vain, sensual, violent, cruel, bawdy, cowardly, beautiful, witty, vital, intelligent, a strumpet, a gipsc, a lass unparalleled, a triumphant lady, royal wench, a great fairy, a rare Egyptian. She is all these and more – a source of Perini fascination.

Cleopatra, the legendary queen of Egypt, is indeed a complex and multifaceted character in William Shakespeare's play "Antony and Cleopatra." Throughout the play, she embodies various qualities that make her both inscrutable and indefinable as a heroine. Shakespeare portrays Cleopatra as a woman of great power, intellect, and passion, but also as someone who is manipulative, volatile, and unpredictable.

Love, Intrigue, and Vulnerability: Cleopatra Unveiled

William Shakespeare
She grows, starting as a courtesan-cum-enchantress. She presses her love through dramatizing (playacting) and dialogue. But inwardly she ultimately proves to be vulnerable. Her love for Antony intensifies into something more than sexual passion (her playacting in outwitting the astute Caesar).

   H. Granville Barker, in Preface to Shakespeare second section, comments, “This is the Woman herself, quick, jealous, imperious, mischievous, malicious, flagrant, subtle; but delicate creature too, and the light, glib verse seems to set her on tiptoe”.

Love's Ambiguity: Cleopatra's Enchanting Betrayal

  Cleopatra is an enchanting sorceress. It is ambiguous if she really betrayed Antony at Actium. Does she love Antony? Shakespeare uses a retrospective, flashback method for the answer. The infinite variety precludes easy judgement. Plutarch disliked her, portraying her in unflattering light. Her violence towards the messenger indicates frustration and insecurity in love (Elizabet temper?). Isis was represented as a cow where there is no physical fear Cleopatra shows courage. She can Egyptiamize even the high Roman fashion, transforming death into a sensuous pleasure. Shakespeare intensifies her in the final senses. Here poetry makes up for politics, lyricism files over materialism and love transcends power. The compassion and passion in her bridal outfit implies that she is one her way to facilitate her reunion with Antony in the Kingdom beyond death, in the realm of the blest, “Where souls do couch on flowers”. Cleopatra will remain Cleopatra. Shakespeare’s use of the word “bliss” (1/3/35-8) suggests the quasi-divine nature of their love which will blossom again in Elysium.

Allure and Volatility: Cleopatra's Complex Nature

One of Cleopatra's defining characteristics is her ability to captivate those around her. Her allure is described as irresistible, and her beauty and charm are renowned. Antony, the Roman general and Cleopatra's lover, becomes enamored with her and is willing to forsake his duties and responsibilities for her sake. Cleopatra's seductive powers, coupled with her intelligence and wit, enable her to wield significant influence over men.

However, Cleopatra's complexity lies in her mercurial nature. She can be playful and coquettish in one moment, and then suddenly transform into a passionate and jealous woman. This volatility makes it difficult to pin down her true intentions and motivations. Cleopatra's actions are often driven by her emotions, leading to impulsive decisions that have far-reaching consequences.

Seductive Machinations, Defiant Sovereignty: Cleopatra

Furthermore, Cleopatra's political acumen and her understanding of power dynamics add to her enigmatic nature. She is a skilled manipulator, adept at playing games of politics and using her sexuality as a tool to achieve her goals. Cleopatra's ability to maneuver through a male-dominated world, maintaining her sovereignty and protecting her kingdom, showcases her intelligence and strategic thinking.

Despite her flaws and questionable choices, Cleopatra is undeniably a strong and assertive woman. She refuses to be subjugated by the Romans or anyone else, asserting her independence and asserting her authority as the queen of Egypt. Cleopatra's refusal to conform to societal norms and her unwavering self-confidence make her an intriguing and compelling character.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Cleopatra in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" is a complex and inscrutable heroine. Her beauty, intelligence, and allure draw people to her, but her unpredictable nature and manipulative tendencies make her difficult to define. Cleopatra's strength, passion, and refusal to be controlled by others contribute to her status as an enduring and enigmatic character in literary history. Cleopatra is the female counterpart of Hamlet. She is Shakespeare’s greatest female character embodying the supremacy of imagination over reason, of spirituality over maternity.


References

A Companion to Shakespeare Studies : H et al Granville-Barker : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/companiontoshake0000heta

The complete works of William Shakespeare, with a full and comprehensive life; a history of the early drama; an introduction to each play; the readings of former editions; glossarial and other notes, etc., etc., from the work of Collier, Knight, Dyce, Douce, Halliwell, Hunter, Richardson, Verplanck, and Hudson. Edited by George Long Duyckinck : Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/completeworksofw00shakuoft

The Subject of Death in English Poetry


"Philaster: Oh, but thou dost not know
What 'tis to die.
Bellario: Yes, I do know, my Lord:
'Tis less than to be born; a lasting sleep;
A quiet resting from all jealousy,
A thing we all pursue; I know besides,
It is but giving over of a game,
That must be lost."--
Beaumont & Fletcher 

Mortal Musings: Death Explored in English Poetry

Exploring the Ephemeral: Death's Grip on English Poetry

The subject of death has been a recurring theme in English poetry throughout the ages. Poets have explored various aspects of mortality, from contemplating the inevitability
Image by Pexels from Pixabay

of death to pondering its meaning and impact on the human experience. This exploration of death in poetry often evokes a range of emotions, including fear, sadness, acceptance, and even transcendence. 'O eloquent, just, and mighty Death,' cried Sir Walter Raleigh in his book - titled so very appropriately - "A History of the World". It is indeed less a history of morality than of mortality, of Thanatos or the Freudian death wish rather than of Eros or the primal love instinct. The consciousness that death is the ultimate reality, that man's life is a short journey from womb to tomb, that man's very birth is again painfully and paradoxically - the beginning of the end, the death and the intellectual, the virtuous and the vicious - has led man to resignation and stoicism, to theology and philosophy. In short, it dominates his entire life. If poetry be the mirror of life, it will be the remoldings of reality; if it be the effusion of emotions, poetry can certainly not ignore this vital reality, to some 'the only reality.' 'Doth poetry wear Venus's livery?' asked Herbert, and indeed poetry wears the sable shroud of death too. Death has led poets to write elegies and threnodies, carpe diems and carpe florems, and a host of other poems of non-distinctive genres."

Shifting Perspectives: Evolution of Death in Anglo-Saxon Poetry

 In Anglo – Saxon poetry death was primarily a cause for heroic celebration, a martyrdom which entailed emulation rather than lamentation. When in the second part of the epical "Beowulf." Beowulf himself dies after a mortal struggle during which he slays the murderous dragon his warrior attends the elaborate funeral with sorrow in their mien but defiance in their eye. Although the "Battle of Maldon" is the story of a disastrous English defeat it is remarkable for its description of the unflinching courage of Byrthnot who dies with glory. But in later stage of the  Anglo – Saxon period death under the influence of Christianity became less of a warrior’s creed, than of a religious fulfillment. A hint is provided in "The Sea Farer" in which the call of the sea is also in a way of the call of death, the call of god to renounce the world and unite with him. In the "Dream of the Road" the death of Christ becomes the paradigm of human redemption for aeons to come. Read More about Poetry  

Facing Death's Duality: Shakespearean Reflections in "Measure for Measure"


The next sustained concern with death in English poetry comes with the vibrant dramatic poetry of the Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights, Shakespeare, the myriad – minded artist, presented almost all the faces of death to the human mind. In "Measure for Measure," the impending death of Claudio brings about an intense debation death, in which the Duke tells Claudio that the sense of death is most in apprehension:
"Be absolute for death; either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences,
That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun
And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st
Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get,
And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,
For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even."
THOUGH Claudio initially seems content with this idea and manfully declares, ‘I will encounter darkness as a bride, / And hug it in my arms, he soon admits that he is afraid ‘to die, and go we knows not where’:
 "The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on nature is a paradise
To what we fear of death."

Heroic Attitudes and Tragic Reflections: Death in Shakespearean and Jacobean Tragedies

"Antony and Cleopatra" expresses a more heroic attitude to death in the case of both the hero and the heroines. Antony, in particular, will run to death like a bridegroom “As to a lover’s bed”, and he enjoins his followers to do likewise:
  "Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us. Come, away:
This case of that huge spirit now is cold:
Ah, women, women! come; we have no friend
But resolution, and the briefest end."             
Almost all of Shakespearean tragic heroes be they Brutus, Othello or Romeo, embrace death in preference and shame. Macbeth is the only hero who strikes a discordant notes to this magnificently heroic ending, grand finale by conceiving of death as the appropriately absurd end to an incessant absurd life. For him every death is a “dusty death”, and a process no more significant or sorrowful than the blowing out of a candle. The Jacobean dramatist were even more concerned with death, and if Marston believed that “death hath a thousand doors”, Webster could go further by declaring that “death hath ten thousand. . . . .  . .doors”. Although in most decadent playwrights death is merely an excuse for revenge, it has its glories, too as is borne out by the observation after the duchess’s death : ‘Cover her face, mine eyes dazzle : she died young’ ("The Duchess of Malfi").

Defying Death: Love, Poetry, and Immortalityin Elizabethan Sonneteers

Most Elizabethan sonneteers, on the other hand, considerable death to be the enemy of love and the beloved. The cruel phrase, memento mori , forces poets to declare their crusade against time in general and death in particular. In the sonnets Shakespeare considers the various means by which death may be baulked and the most obvious is reproduction:
 "From fairest creatures we desire increase
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die."              
But he would rather make love transcend death by taking recourse to deathless and dateless poetry. His beloved  will continue to live on as long as men can breath or eyes can see through the ecstasy of their love and the splendor of his poetry. In a poignant sonnet he enjoins the beloved, ‘No longer mourn for me when I am dead’, for he feels that the value of the living body lies in the sprits which animates it, and in his case the spirit is one and the same as his poetry which continues to live on with the beloved. Although Spenser, in poems like the "Amoretti" , declared the poet and the poetic craft has the power to ‘illume’ the beauty of the beloved even after her death as well as to make the love come alive in the minds of later lovers, he also admits in the "Fairies’ Queen" that ‘death after life doth greatly please.’ Read More about Poetry   

Varied Attitudes Towards Death in Metaphysical Poetry

 The metaphysical had variegated attitudes to death. Throwing up a direct challenge, Donne proclaims, ‘Death be not proud”. In on of the "Holy Sonnets," he declares that death is the agent of unification with god:
"One short sleep past, we wake eternally.
And death shall be no more, death, thou shall die."    
    In his poem "Death, be not proud," Donne challenges the conventional portrayal of death as a fearsome entity. He personifies death and addresses it directly, asserting that death is not as powerful or intimidating as it seems. He suggests that death is merely a transition to eternal life and, therefore, nothing to fear.      
Vaughan addresses death as ‘dear, beauteous death’, for he likewise death as an union rather than as a separation. But unlike these devout beings, Marvell, considered death not as a reminder that the present life is empty, but that the present life should be compensated for by its intensity. His carpe Diem reminds the virgin girl friend to ‘make much of time’.

 Romantic Perspectives: Death Explored and Contemplated in English Poetry

Although among the romantics Coleridge and Byron made no profound observation on death and Wordsworth in his "Immortality Ode" , made the passing suggestion that it is the dead who reside in the bosom of god, and much of his poetry is the product of his vivid recollection of his brother’s death and the expectation of his own impending death. But the poet who declared that “I think I shall be among the English poets after my death’. For a moment he doesn’t envy the nightingale who ‘waste not born for death’, and realizes, like Tagore  that death is even more intense than verse, fame and beauty that ‘death is life’s high need’. Although Shelley the idealist and reformist often equated death with the oppressed condition of the common man as in "The Mask," he also romantically calls death ‘a veil’ in "Prometheus Unbound" and in "The Daemon" exclaims, ‘How wonderful is death!’

Elegies in English Poetry: Tennyson, Arnold, and the Meditations on Mortality


Death is the subject of all elegies, and other than Milton, the two most successful elegiac poets in English are the Victorian poets Tennyson and Arnold ‘No life that breaths with human breath/had ever truly longer for death’, believed Jenny son, and although he wrote of ‘The charge of the height Bridge’ into the jaws of death’, the death of his own friend Arthur Hallam promoted him to write "In Memoriam" the most magnificent elegy in the English language. But he himself desired that there should be ‘no moaning of the bar for him’. In "Empedocles" Arnold presented death as a cure for all diseases and in "Sohrab and Rustum" sang a requiem for the dead son. Read More about Poetry   

 The Twentieth Century Poets' Confrontation with Death: From Heroism to Horror, Lamentation to Defiance

In the twentieth century the war poets began their descent on death and Rupert Brooke, renewing the heroic tenor of epic poetry, enjoins other to ‘Blow out, you bugles, over dead rich dead’. In The Soldier he declares that his death in some foreign place would transform the soil to England. In stark contrast the other poets of the twentieth century, especially Siegfried Sassoon and Owen presented the horror of death in battle. For him death is neither decorous nor patriotic. T.S.Eliot, who had pointed out that ‘Webster was much possessed by death’, speaks of spiritual death when he makes the narrator declare, ‘I didn’t know death had undone so many’. But the one poet concerned the most with death is the 20th century in Dylan Thomas. In "Death and Entrances" he not only laments death, but also praises his father for resisting death. For the man of imagination and instinct of love and liveliness, he believed, death shall have no dominion’.
Another notable poet who plunge into the subject of death is Emily Dickinson. Dickinson's poetry often explores themes of mortality and the afterlife. In her poem "Because I could not stop for Death," she personifies death as a gentleman caller who takes her on a carriage ride to the grave. Through vivid imagery and a reflective tone, Dickinson portrays death as a tranquil and inevitable part of life, rather than something to be feared.
W.H. Auden addressed the subject of death in his poem "Funeral Blues." This poignant poem expresses the intense grief and despair following the death of a loved one. Auden's powerful words capture the universal experience of loss, emphasizing the profound impact death has on the living. The poem's closing lines, "For nothing now can ever come to any good," encapsulate the devastating finality of death.
The theme of death is also prevalent in contemporary English poetry. For instance, in Philip Larkin's poem "Aubade," the speaker confronts the terror and existential dread that arise from the contemplation of death. The poem explores the fear of the unknown and the ultimate solitude that death entails.

Conclusion

Overall, death is a subject that has captivated English poets for centuries. They have used poetry as a means to confront and understand the complexities of mortality, offering various perspectives on the nature of death, its impact on life, and the human condition. Through their exploration of this universal theme, these poets have provided profound insights and reflections on the nature of existence and the transient nature of life.
References

English poetry : the English poetry full-text database : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/englishpoetryeng0000unse_g7m8

Essays in criticism. The study of poetry. John Keats; Wordsworth. Edited by Susan S. Sheridan : Arnold, Matthew, 1822-1888 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/essaysincritic00arnouoft

Samuel Johnson’s literary criticism : Hagstrum, Jean H : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/samueljohnsonsli00hags

Principles Of Literary Criticism : I A Richards : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.218337

An outline history of English literature : Hudson, William Henry, 1862-1918 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/outlinehistoryof00hudsuoft

The complete works of William Shakespeare, with a full and comprehensive life; a history of the early drama; an introduction to each play; the readings of former editions; glossarial and other notes, etc., etc., from the work of Collier, Knight, Dyce, Douce, Halliwell, Hunter, Richardson, Verplanck, and Hudson. Edited by George Long Duyckinck : Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/completeworksofw00shakuoft

A history of English literature : Compton-Rickett, Arthur, 1869-1937 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/historyofenglish00comprich

A short history of English literature : Saintsbury, George, 1845-1933 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofen00sain

Science Fiction: A Brief History of It's Development


Understanding the Evolution of Science Fiction: A Concise Journey

Introduction

Science Fiction is the current name for a class of prose narrative which assumes an imaginary technological or scientific progress, or depends upon an imaginary change in the human environment. Such narrative were first labeled “Science Friction” by the American magazine of the 1920’s, though the term previously used in Britain was ”Scientific Romance”, and many contemporary writers and critics preferred “Speculative Fiction”. Narrations of this kind are distinguished from other kind of fantastic narrative by the claim that they respect the limits of scientific possibility. It also referred to stories that appeared in cheap, so-called pulp magazines, but science fiction now appears in all media, including motion pictures, staged dramas, television programs, and video games, as well as short stories and book-length works.

The Early Times: 

Although elements of science fiction appear in many stories of imaginary voyages including in those of Lucian, the Greek writer of the second century, and swift’s Gulliver’s travels, it is only in the 19th century that the advancement of science began to inspire a good deal of work, in the vain. Science fictional themes play a significant part In the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Hawthorne, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a notable early example. In this tale Frankenstein, a student natural philosophy, unnatural strength, this creature looks horrible but is eager to be loved. Frankenstein ultimately agrees to make a mate for him, but later in a wave of remorse, destroy the female he has been constructing, the creature swears revenge on his creature, and kill Frankenstein’s bride on their wedding night. Frankenstein decided to destroy his creature and after a chase across the world, the two confront each other in the Arctic wastes. Frankenstein dies and the creature who mourns for his creator disappears into the wilderness. Bulwer – Lytton’s The Coming Race describes a visit to subterranean race of superior beings that live in the depth of the earth. They have developed a highly sophisticated civilization and the author points to their superiority to the present civilization on the surface.

The Later Times:

Jules Verne the French novelist in the 19th century is one of the immortal in the realm of science fiction. Among his most successful tales are A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, Round The Earth In Twenty Four Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, which recounts the advantages of Captain Nemo on the submarine Nautilus. Among the British by far the most ambitious as well as most successful author at the beginning of the 29th century was H.G. Wells. His first work, The Time Machine, is based on the invention of a machine which can travel through time, enabling him to examine the destiny of the human race. The Invisible Man is based upon a scientist who fatally stumbles upon the secret of invisibility. The War Of The Worlds is a powerful and apocalyptic vision of the world invaded by people from Mars. All resistance to them fails, but ultimately the horrible Martian’s armored weapons prove ineffective against the ravage of earthly bacteria which succeed where men’s best effort failed. Other novels of Wells include The First Men On The Moon and The Food The Gods.

Diversified Themes: 

Science fiction also sometimes presented a state of affairs when the entire traditional religious system seemed to have crumble away, to be replaced by a scientific perspective. The earth was a tiny atom in as infinity Universe, and man’s dominion but billions of years. One example is The Host World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in which the author evidently influenced by Darwin’s Origin Of Species described the discovery of a lost world of the pre-historic animals including the famous “missing link” which unites man with the animal. Jack London’s The Iron Heel gives a socialist vision of the historically inevitable demise of capitalism, and is in the form of a manuscript edited by a man who lives in the fourth century of the Brotherhood of Man.

Inherent Irony: 

Science fiction also led to negative or dystrophic views of the world’s present materialistic and scientific progress. Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World, written in this mode, describes the state of affairs in the year 632. After ford – that is, the twenty sixth century – in which the means of production are in state ownership. Biological engineering or “eugenics” fit different categories of workers – Alphas, Betas, Gammas etc – to their stations in life, and universal happiness is preserved by psychotropic drugs. The work provides a scathing criticism of the values implicit in the myth of social salvation through technological progress. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty - Four , written in 1958, describes England  as part of the super state Oceania in the year 1984. It is ruled to the party, and the party’s workers are constantly rewriting history or redesigning the language with aim of controlling men’s thought absolutely. One who even thinks against the state is guilty of thought – crimes and his spirit is broken and made to surrender to the state.

 Intellectual sophistication: 

Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein brought a measure of intellectual sophistication to science fiction while retaining  its  imaginative fertility and adventurousness. A professor of biochemistry at Boston, he wrote which at once dealt worth in the romance of source of science and explained basic scientific theories. Some of his science fiction stories are the most popular ever produced, specially those collected in the three volume Foundation series and the classic collection, I-robot which made famous the ‘ Three Laws Of Robotics’. Heinlein was the first writer to fit a number of stories together into a coherent future history, all of which are collected in The Past through Tomorrow. History features as ‘an alternate world’ in some of his novels. His understanding of technology and enthusiasm for the myth of the conquest of space made him an outstanding bestseller. It is noteworthy that both Asimov and Heinlein owe a debt to korel Capek, a Czech novelist and dramatist, who introduced, as early as in the 1920’s, such motifs as interplanetary travel, robots, mechanical brain, atomic weapon and destruction of the world as a result of its own technological achievement. His best known independent work was R.U.R a play set ‘on a remote island in 1950-60’ (the play was written in 1920). The title stands for ‘Rossum’s Universal Robot’s, and the concept of the mechanical ‘robot’ – a word coined from the Czech “robota” meaning drudgery – opened up a whole new vein of science fiction.

More on Modern Times: 

A new generation of post World War II writers – John Wyndham, Brian Aldiss and J.G.Ballard – retain a strong interest in the catastrophic tradition. In novels such as The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalides he focuses on the reactions of ordinary people to terrible circumstances which plunge them into a struggle for survival. These anxious fantasies are preoccupied with the difficulty of preserving the values of English decency in hostile conditions. Aldess, in novels like Non – Stop and Greybeard develops stock themes of science fiction in a thoughtful and stylish manner. There are fantasies of the far future, satires, antinovels and descriptions of the aftermath of a psycho-chemical war. Ballard is an avant  garde writer of science fiction, and his novels focus on the psychological adoptions made by his central characters to natural catastrophes the most famous being The Drowned World and The Drought.
The two most successful contemporary science fiction writers are the British Arthur Clark and the American J.R.R Tolkien. As a writer and popularize of science and as a writer of optimizer Clark has been an ardent champion of technological progress. His novels deal with space exploration hypothetical communications and are realist in treatment. These include Rendezvous with Rama and Imperial Earth. Later works like A Space Odyssey and Odyssey Two emphasize the visionary element in his work. Pessimistic, in contrast to Clarke, Tolkien is a fantasy writer menacing dragons who prey on the idealized rural communities in which the stories are set. In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Ring , an equally reluctant hobbit hero Frodo Baggins has to save the world from appalling evil.

Conclusion:

Thus, the genre of science – fiction has developed and is continuing to develop in diverse directions. Indeed, the boundaries of the genre are now more difficult to outline than ever before, since many mainstream novelists like Thomas Pynchon and Gore Vidal have started using science fiction elements in their works.
2.Writing & selling science fiction : Science Fiction Writers of America : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/writingsellingsc0000scie_a3r7

The Development of the Theatres and Stages from Medieval Drama to Shakespeare’s Time


"HAMLET Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and—as I may say—whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. O! it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it."

Evolution of Theatrical Spaces: From Medieval Drama to the Age of Shakespeare

The Rise of Playhouses: Shaping Shakespearean Theatre and Performance Spaces

The development of the theatres and stages from Medieval drama to Shakespeare’s time was revolutionary. The ‘mystry’ and ‘miracle’ plays as they came to be called, were performed on platforms, or carts, that moved around the city to various ‘stations’ where the audience gathered. In early years of Elizabeth’s reign groups of players performed where they could, indoors in hells or courts, but more frequently in the square on the yards of inns. The companies were all licensed by patronage of some great lord, for it unlicensed they were deemed ‘Rogues and Vagabonds’ according to a statue of 1598. The earliest playhouses, ‘The Real Lion’ and ‘The Theatre’ which had permanent stages, were built by 1576 outside the jurisdiction of the critic authorities. The ‘Globe’ the most spectacular of playhouses in Shakespeare’s times and the one patronized by Shakespeare’s himself, was built by Burbage operational by 1599. The leave for the level and the authorship of Globe was divided into two: fifty percent of assets by Cuthbent and Richard Burbage; the other fifty percent was apportioned among five other numbers including Shakespeare himself. It is the nature of contemporary play houses that usually determined Shakespeare’s choice of locale the descriptive language in the actors’ mouth as well as the fertile use of asides and soliloquies.

The Architecture and Seating Arrangements of Elizabethan Playhouses

Although no picture and diagram exists, a drawing of the swan in about 1596 by Johannes De Witt ,a Dutch traveler who made the sketch while on a trip to London, who was then visiting London gives a fair idea of all contemporary playhouses. These playhouses were all similar the basic conception. All were relatively large arena theatres, hexagonal or octagonal in structure with a circumference of about eighty feet, though the discovery of the foundation of the Globe proved it to be larger, of about a hundred feet. As chambers points out in “Elizabethan stage”, the roundness led De Witt to call them ‘amphitheater’. They accommodated between two thousand and three hundred spectators, and there was a hierarchy of accommodations for the socially & economically diversified. A Swiss visitor noticed how during the performance of Julius Caesar, the spectators paid one penny to stand in the arena another penny to sit in the gallery & another extra penny to sit in the most comfortable place where he can not only see everything well, but also be seen. One may remember Hamlet’s caustic inexplicable dumb-shows and noise’.

The Dynamic Stage of the Globe: Features and Transformations

The stage of the Globe was a level platform about 43 feet in width some 28 feet deep that was raised about 5 feet off the ground. The cover above the stage was perhaps initially a simple canopy, designed to protect actors, properties and hangings from the worst of the weather. It was painted on the underside with a represent of the sun, moon, stars and zodiac, & known as the ‘heavens’. As Wickham points out, in the Globe the heavens ‘for windlasses and machinery to low people and properties on to the stage’ (“Early English stages”). The stage floor was usually made of streak oak  boards, and the area underneath was jocular trapdoor made possible various kinds of startling appearances, like the Devil that rises from the stage in scene 3 of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. It was a visible window above from which the famous balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet could be enacted. In some plays the rear wall of the stage served as the battlements of a city under siege, a castle, houses and shops in a street, a forest, a seashore, or whatever a dramatist like Shakespeare declared it to be.

The Interactive Dynamics of Elizabethan Theatre: Shared Spaces and Intimate Connections

Globe Theatre
It is noteworthy that the arena stages of the Shakespearean times were radically different from modern times. In modern times actors usually appear behind a proscenium arch, in front of an audience sitting in a darkened auditorium. In contrast, in Elizabethan times, it was of fundamental importance that actors and audience shared the same lighting, the same space in the arena playhouses, since the stage projected into the middle of the pit. They provided an especially close relationship between actors and audience, with no visual barriers between them, allowing the actors to identify as intimately as he pleased with the spectators, or to distance himself within the action. Gurr rightly notes that ‘Awareness of the illusion as illusion was therefore much closer to the surface all the time’ (“Shakespearean Stage”). Two devices used with especial brilliance were the aside, in which an actor could step out from his role for a moment to comment on the action, and the soliloquy, in which the actor could address the audience directly and seem to take it into his confidence.

Theatrical Spectacles and Special Effects: Enhancing Elizabethan Stages and Performances

Johannes De Witt's drawing of the swan has perpetuated the idea of the Elizabethan theatres having a bare stage and minimal facilities, but modern evidence suggests that their accommodation & equipment were continually being improved. Many different kinds of spectacular effects could be conclusion in the couplet. Shakespeare was, however, achieved by the use of hangings, of practicable tents, scaffolds,  chairs of state, beds, ladders, trees, and other objects brought on stage, or thrust through the trap door. The use of fireworks also made possible such effects as lightning, or the effect of a blazing star. The open-air theatres also made much use of loud noise, of trumpets and drums as in Macbeth, & the shooting of guns. One might bear in mind the fact that the use of an actual cannon on the Globe for the performance of Henry VIII led to the burning of the Globe and the end of Shakespeare’s career as dramatist.

The Primacy of Language: Theatrical Representation and Verbal Imagery in Shakespearean Stages

Shakespeare’s stage also held, a Hamlet put it, a mirror up to nature, but it did so usually by the use of language. With no stage lightning & with the daytime sky above, the author had to write speeches about the time, season, and weather of the play. There are more than forty such speeches in Macbeth. We know that we are in the Forest of Arden, for example, or on the battlements of a Danish castle, or on the seacoast of Bohemia, because the characters tell us so, not because we can see or hear for ourselves that we are. Visual spectacle, though not unimportant, was secondary to dialogue; we speak of going to see a play where audiences up to the 19th century spoke of ‘hearing’ one.

Conclusion

Thus, even if Shakespeare were of all times he would scarcely have used the plots, the languages, the asides and soliloquies, and the descriptions which he actually did, if the playhouse & stage conditions were other than what he found in the contemporary times. If Shakespeare determined the much improved state of the play, his plays were at least partly determined by the state of the stage. 

Let's sum up Chronicle  of Development of Renaissance Theatre:
  • By the late 16th century in Europe, permanent buildings were being constructed to house a new kind of commercial theater.
  • In 1576 actor James Burbage built London's first public theater, known simply as The Theatre, which was an open-air structure that combined features of pageant wagons, fixed stages, and banquet halls. 
  • The most famous Renaissance theater Globe Theatre was completed 1599. It shared the talents of playwright William Shakespeare and Burbage's acting company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, later renamed The King's Men. A modern reconstruction of the Globe stands on the south bank of the Thames River in London.
  • By 1610 a rebuilt Blackfriars Theatre had become the winter home of Shakespeare's company, and by 1642 six other private theaters had opened.
  • In Italy conventions of theater architecture and stage spectacle introduced in Florence, Venice, Parma, Bologna, Rome, and Milan during the Renaissance and most popular was commedia dell’arte, an actor-centered improvisational theater.

Ref:

An outline history of English literature : Hudson, William Henry, 1862-1918 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/outlinehistoryof00hudsuoft

The complete works of William Shakespeare, with a full and comprehensive life; a history of the early drama; an introduction to each play; the readings of former editions; glossarial and other notes, etc., etc., from the work of Collier, Knight, Dyce, Douce, Halliwell, Hunter, Richardson, Verplanck, and Hudson. Edited by George Long Duyckinck : Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/completeworksofw00shakuoft

A history of English literature : Compton-Rickett, Arthur, 1869-1937 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/historyofenglish00comprich

A short history of English literature : Saintsbury, George, 1845-1933 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofen00sain

Studies in the History of the Renaissance. (n.d.). Studies in the History of the Renaissance - Walter Pater - Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/studies-in-the-history-of-the-renaissance-9780199535071

A short history of English literature : Saintsbury, George, 1845-1933 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/ashorthistoryen01saingoog

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