William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, moved to the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in the mid- sixteenth century, here ha became a successful landowner, moneylender, wool and glover. In 1557 he married Mary Arden. The town records indicate that William Shakespeare was John and Mary's third child. He was born on the 23rd April 1564, he had several sisters and at least one brother. Shakespeare grew up in the Tudor market town of Stratford-on-Avon, a lovely village surrounded by extensive, unspoiled woods. His father, John Shakespeare, served as a burgess on the local municipal council, and it was because of his father's status as a town official that Shakespeare was able to attend Stratford Grammar School. When William Shakespeare was eighteen years of age he was married to Anne Hathaway, while she was twenty-six years old. The first of their children, Susanna, was born six months after the marriage and was, therefore, conceived out of wedlock. In conjunction with the substantial age difference between Shakespeare and his mature bride, it is often suggested that the future playwright married Anne Hathaway because he had gotten her pregnant, that he was, in fact, forced into a marriage with this older woman. After Susanna's marriage, William and Anne had two more children, the twins Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare spent a great deal of his time with his family in

  • Word count: 550
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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Concentrating on The Presentation of Character Setting and Sound Examine What Seems to You to be Significant Features of Baz Luhrmann's Style of The Opening Scene of Romeo + Juliet Baz Luhrmann has a reputation of making excellent films

Concentrating on The Presentation of Character Setting and Sound Examine What Seems to You to be Significant Features of Baz Luhrmann's Style of The Opening Scene of Romeo + Juliet Baz Luhrmann has a reputation of making excellent films and is known for his camera always moving. He likes doing close-ups, zooms and slow motion shots . As he has grown more secure of his position as a director, and has got a higher budget, his camera and editing have merged into a sort of helter skelter style that blends the emotional and poetic in ways that appear new and revolutionary. Luhrmann says that there are three basic things about his films: the story line is simple, the world created in his films is one of a heightened reality, there is always a specific device driving the story whether it be song or dance etc. Luhrmann did the prologue so he could show the audience the current story of what's going on and what the story is about. He needed to have strong images because at that point most of the audiences ears' won't be in tune with the Shakespearian text. He repeated just so anyone who missed it the first time would hear it this time and people that heard it before would understand it more thouroughly. The prologue is probably one of the most important parts of the film as it is a summary of what is happening and what happens throughout the film. Luhrmann manages to juggle

  • Word count: 1497
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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Types of Production.

Year 10 Business Studies Coursework Task 1 - Types of Production Primary - This is the sector that involves the harvest of raw materials For example in the chocolate industry, this is the stage where sugar and coco beans are collected Secondary - This is the sector that involves manufacturing of chocolate products For example in the chocolate industry, this is the stage where the coco beans are crushed and sugar is added Tertiary - This is the sector that involves the sale of the finished chocolates For example in the chocolate industry, this is the stage where the products are sold Here is a diagram to illustrate the stages in the chain of production Task 2 - Methods of Production Job Production - This type production involves high quality chocolates being produced For example a chocolate manufacturer such as Cadburys may use this type of production in the following way, making luxurious chocolates Batch Production - This type production involves making many of one product then changing the machinery For example a chocolate manufacturer such as Cadburys may use this type of production in the following way to make a batch of dairy milk and then a batch of caramel or crunchie Flow Production - This type production involves making a product from start to finish For example a chocolate manufacturer such as Cadburys may use this type of production in the

  • Word count: 479
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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Gcse Shakespeare Assignment Hamlet In Elizabethan Times People Paid Great Homage To the Queen Elizabeth 1.

GCSE SHAKESPEARE ASSIGNMENT HAMLET In Elizabethan times people paid great homage to the queen Elizabeth 1. During the 16th century there was great tension between parliament and the monarchy, and Elizabeth upset many Catholics, although she did restore peace in the country later on. Popular amusements included music and dancing. The most favoured instruments were the bagpipes, the fiddle, and the lute. Dancing was considered to be good for the mind as well as the body. There was not much technology i.e. TV's, radio's etc, so theatres were very popular. Theatre groups performed forms of drama such as tragedy, comedy, tragic-comedy, and historical. Shakespeare would have had great difficulty with staging because of the lack of props and poor special effects. With no lighting, the actors would have to use dialogue to determine the difference between day and night. A lot of the essential background information had to be expressed in the stage directions. 'And liegemen to the Dane' tells the audience that the play is set in Denmark and the lines ' tis bitter cold' and 'tis now struck twelve' show the time and the weather. Because of the Elizabethan audiences were very superstious, Shakespeare could also use symbolism as an effective alternative. Spirits from heaven tended to come from an upper canopy that represented heaven and spirits from hell came from a trapdoor below the

  • Word count: 254
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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July 14th, Day before performance of The Twelfth Night play at the Globe

July 14th, Day before performance of 'The Twelfth Night@ play at the Globe Everyone is talking about the performance tomorrow. There are people wishing they could go but the tickets sold out in a week. This play is so popular here because it is the first place it will be shown anywhere in the world. I was fortunate enough to get hold of a ticket. It was very expensive but I could afford it! I got a balcony seat, which is the best you can get and that's why it is so pricey. I could just about afford it! I have heard many rumors about the show. Some people are saying it is a waste of time and money because the actors can't act. There are no special effects or realism. It will be so bad everyone will have left by the interval. These rumors came from the mouths of people, which had no tickets. They could either not afford it or were not able to get hold of one before it sold out. But most of the people that did get a ticket say it's the best play around. It is like no other that has ever been shown! July 15th, Day of performance of 'The Twelfth Night' play at the Globe Everyone is on a big high now. It is the day of the performance in London. I am ready to leave for the Globe now. I have dressed smartly because I have a really good seat at the balcony. It is so close to the stage I will be able to touch the actors when they come close enough. I wouldn't, as it would disturb

  • Word count: 1043
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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Critical Approaches to Shakespeare: Some Initial Observations.

Critical Approaches to Shakespeare: Some Initial Observations [This text was last revised on November 19, 2001] Introduction An earlier introductory note to some basic principles of literary interpretation ("On Scholarship and Literary Interpretation"), stressed that literary interpretation or literary criticism is, in many ways, an anarchic conversational activity with the practical purpose of enriching our shared understanding of a particular text. The value of any particular interpretative observations, or of a methodology upon which those observations are based, is judged by the results, as adjudicated by a group of intelligent conversationalists who have read and thought about the text under discussion. Hence, there is no one privileged way of organizing and presenting one's views. As that previous note mentioned, there are some basic rules about how the conversation should proceed, but these do not require a shared adherence to a single way of reading a text. In fact, the conversational basis for really useful literary interpretation finds its justification in the contrast between different ways of reading a text or some portion of it, because conversation is the best forum in which such differences confront each other and the participants profit from a discussion of the results of such different readings. However, in spite of the above remarks, there are some

  • Word count: 6826
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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Shakespeare bullet point notes

* The average Shakespeare play had 30,000 words in it - more than the average person could need in their lifetime. He invented 1,700 new words - he turned verbs into nouns and nouns into verbs. * 100 years earlier Chaucer was writing the Canterbury Tales in English, while the upper classes spoke French and Latin. * Caxton invented the printing press in 1470. * Shakespeare wrote about foreign places a lot, but he was only transported by his imagination. E.g. in the entire Merchant of Venice he never mentions it's built over water. * Language in Shakespeare's plays is a mixture of vulgar and sophisticated. In 1592 he was said to have been stealing others' works. * Shakespeare and Marlowe were born in the same year. Marlowe went to University at Cambridge, Shakespeare didn't - however he was an actor and Marlowe wasn't, so Shakespeare had the advantage of knowing what it would be like for an actor delivering these lines. But, Marlowe is the only playwright who can match him. * Shakespeare NEVER invents any new plots. * The "Chronicle of England, Scotland and Wales" of 1587 is a source of many events in a lot of his plays, e.g. King Lear. * There is a rhythm in Shakespeare - the "iambic pentameter". When he wanted to make the audience feel uneasy he reverses the rhythm, e.g. in Macbeth. * When the plague arrived in London all the theatres closed down by law, so

  • Word count: 556
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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Feminism in Shakespeare

Feminism in Shakespeare Conventionally, feminism has little correlation with Shakespearean comedies; however, Claire McEachern attempts to address this topic with some degree of success in her article published in the Shakespeare Quarterly entitled "Fathering Herself: A Source Study of Shakespeare's Feminism". The author herself reveals the adversity face by feminists up against Shakespeare's male-dominated world by admitting, "Certainly, in considering "Shakespeare's feminism" (a debatable, and surely anachronistic, construction), the prospect of looking to Shakespeare's sources for the origins of any political understanding of the "woman's part" seems to offer little promise; behind the critical assertion that finds Shakespeare's portrayals of women remarkable lies the unarticulated suspicion of the rare if not unprecedented quality of his cultural voice". McEachern, while turning to the cultural voice of Renaissance patriarchy, fails to recognize the female community in Much Ado About Nothing within her study of feminism. In her 1988 article, Claire McEachern examines the issue of feminism by utilizing several of Shakespeare's works, including Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear. Currently a professor at the University of California, McEachern first provides two previous schools of feministic thought prior to proposing her individual criticism. She identifies "two

  • Word count: 1067
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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Discussing The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare.

Jessy McMahon CU Senior English 2 21 Oct. 2008 Hamlet Dialect Essay It is understood that in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare; Hamlet, in his famous soliloquy in scene one of act three ("To be or not to be..."), is considering suicide. Hamlet in actuality is only questioning the thoughts of death and in turn has no real intent on actually committing suicide, this can be inferred by the observations made in the soliloquy. Many of the statements that Hamlet say through the text, draws people to the conclusion that Hamlet is suicidal. The reason why Hamlet is not contemplating suicide, is that he makes the overall decision that it is not gods will and he would not go to heaven and that death is not a proper way out of the hardships in life. Hamlet is also in truth thinking whether or not to act on the ghosts' directions to get revenge on Claudius or not. It seems as though Hamlet is considering suicide when he uses the words in the expression, "To be or not to be" (3.1.56) inferred by several as whether to live or not to live. This in turn creates the tone for the rest of the soliloquy to be all about Hamlets existence and meaning to life. Hamlet also speaks of death in which he relates to sleep, "To die, to sleep," (3.1.64), he then contemplates what really happens during sleep and what might occur in 'eternal sleep', "...To sleep, perchance

  • Word count: 799
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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What is a British film?

What is a British film? Adrian Albon In order for a film to be classified as British it has to fulfil one of a number of criteria. The first type of British film is one where the production company is managed, and controlled in the UK and the film is produced in the UK.70% of the production cost of the film must be spent on filmmaking activity in the UK. If the costs of one or two people are deducted from the total labour costs then the same deductions must be taken from the total production cost before the 70% test is applied. 70% of the total labour cost (minus the cost of one non-EU/EEA etc or non-Commonwealth persons if desired) must have been paid to citizens or residents in the EU/EEA or Commonwealth or Association Countries. Alternatively 75% of the total labour cost, after deducting the cost of two non-EU/EEA etc or non-Commonwealth persons (including one actor) must have been paid to citizens or residents of the EU/EEA or Commonwealth or Association Countries. No more than 10% of the playing time of the film should be visual images from a previously certified film or from a film by a different maker. These points can be summarised as: * The film must be made by a British company or subject; * All studio scenes must be shot in British empire studios; * 75% of labour costs must go to British subjects (excluding one foreign actor or producer); * the author of

  • Word count: 451
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Drama
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