Characteristics of Shakespeare Plays

William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist, is the master of the art.

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No other dramatist has been successful in attaining the heights he has achieved. The characteristics of his plays are given below.

William Shakespeare Universality

Shakespeare is not of an age but of all ages, not of the country but of all countries. Not only did his works amuse and thrill the audience in all ages and countries, but they were also written more than four hundred years ago and reflect the tastes, customs and traditions of Shakespeare's own age, they are as popular today as before. They have been translated into almost all the important languages of the world and most of them have been filmed.

Shakespeare's plays enjoy such world-wide popularity because they mirror every aspect of people of every taste, age and rank of life. Above all, Shakespeare's plays are immortal because they deal with the universals-the eternal passions which are common to all humanity. They not only present thrilling incidents or narrate amusing stories but they also give us an insight into the mind and heart of man.

The emotions of love and hatred, indignation and jealousy, joy and sorrow etc, are the themes of Shakespeare's plays. He takes us into the minds of his characters and reveals to us the conflict between violent emotions that goes on within the minds of man. He thus enlarges our understanding of our own nature and action.

Shakespeare as Versatile genius

He is equally a master of tragedy, comedy and tragic-comedy. His versatile genius creates wonderful characters and very interesting situations without any repetition. Just as he unsurpassed in tragedy, he is unbeaten in comedy. In his plays, we find a rich variety. Everyone finds something or the other to his liking.

Shakespeare Art of Characterization

In the delineation of a character, Shakespeare stands unrivalled in English Literature. Shakespeare's humanity is as varied as the human race; his men and women are drawn from every walk, age and station of life- Kings, Lords and nobles, general and great warriors, common people, drunkards, cutthroats, thieves and robbers, cowards, clowns, dreamers, saints and sinners, men, women and children all walk across the stage of Shakespeare. No other dramatist of the world has given us such infinite variety.

Moreover, these characters of Shakespeare are entirely true to life. They are neither unredeemed villains, devils in human form nor gods and goddesses, but ordinary human beings with common vices and virtues with common joys and sorrows. They are made to the same mettle as we are, every one of us can recognize a part of his own self in them.

In the treatment of character Shakespeare displays a profound of human psychology. All his varied characters have individualized. Every one of them is drawn with his own peculiarities, with his own idiosyncrasies, and no two of them are alike.

Besides his characters are so vividly and convincingly presented that we know them better than we know most of our neighbours and friends, but we can never forget Rosalind, Orlando, Touchstone, Jaques, Hamlet, King Lear, Portia, Shylock, Othello, Edmund etc.

These characters linger long in the memory and are more effective than most real men and women. We find that Shakespeare has created a large number of characters and all are equally convincing. His minor characters are also highly impressive.

William Shakespeare Objectivity

Another feature of Shakespeare's characterization is his objectivity. He seems indifferent to good and evil; he has the eye of the creator, viewing bright and dismal things alike', provided they are apt and real. In his characters vice and virtue co-mingle and the union is true to the common sense of humanity.

Thus the villain Iago is a man of resolution, intelligence and fortitude, the murderer Claudius shows affection, wisdom and fortitude, the peerless Cleopatra is spiteful, narrow and avaricious and the beast Caliban has his moments of ecstatic vision.

Shakespeare's Humanity 

Shakespeare is admirable for his humanity. He loves human beings and has an infinite feeling of sympathy for his creations. He is not a rapid satirist like his contemporary Ben Jonson. Shakespeare's greatness lies in his sympathy for human beings. He has praised human beings and human life.

He has defined human beings and when we study his plays we get a glorious picture of ourselves. For who could applaud humanity and human beings better than Shakespeare in his “Hamlet and The Tempest.” We are simply amused and delighted to read the following glorious lines on man in Hamlet and love the man who could glorify ‘man' in these words.

“What a piece of work is man!”

 

Shakespeare's Treatment of Love

We admire Shakespeare for his admirable treatment of the subject of love. All great poets have dealt with this subject in their own way, but Shakespeare presents varied and sumptuous aspects of love in his plays. The element of romance makes his plays highly interesting. 

Love keeps the interest of his plays. We have the devotion and fidelity in love in his plays as in the case of Desdemona for Othello, Miranda for Ferdinand, Rosalind for Orlando etc. All these cases are of extreme devotion to doing credit to the lovers.

Shakespeare Profundity of thought

Shakespeare had a deep insight into human life. He had his conception of this world and how it should be. We may not have a philosophy of life, but his observations about life and its different facets are so meaningful that we do not find such a rich treasure house of wisdom regarding human life in any of the plays of contemporaries and dramatists of the later times. Shakespeare observations are true to life and move us to think about the mystery of life.

In Macbeth, he utters the truth he finds about human life that this world is nothing but an empty dream. He says- 

Life is but a walking shadow...

It is a tale 

Told by on idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing.

The observation of Shakespeare is rich and profound and it gives us a rich key to the essential reality about human life. We admire Shakespeare for this rich outlook on life. He makes us think about life and that is his greatness as a dramatist.

Shakespeare's variety

Viewed in perspectives, Shakespeare's work is distinguished from that of his contemporaries by its variety. Shakespeare handled most diverse subjects with an ardour almost equalled by his achievement. Of all the world's greatest dramatists, he alone displays an equal aptitude for tragedy and comedy.

The Permanent Value of the Plays

One striking feature is that more of Shakespeare's plays have held the stage continuous to the present time than the work of all the other Elizabethan dramatists put together. Furthermore, through all the changes of fashion and taste in four hundred years, he has never at any moment been most popular; he has never been forgotten and has never lost his appeal to audiences or too ambitious actors. And the essential reason for this is that the fundamental quality of most of his plays is that they have good plots and entertaining stories.

Shakespeare Imagination

Shakespeare's imagination is poetic and active in the real sense of the word. It is by virtue of his powerful imagination that he is able to understand every aspect of character and life and present it so vividly in his plays. On the wings of his powerful imagination, he wonders from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth and wafts us to every corner of the world. It is by virtue of his imagination that he has given us those wonderful and refreshing descriptions of nature which are such a source of joy for his readers.

Shakespeare humour 

The comedy of human life has never been presented so richly as in the pages of Shakespeare. There is no bitterness in his laughter. It is sunny and good-natured. We laugh with his characters. His plays abound in the humour of all kinds. There is the farcical humour of the clown, the humour of character, the humour of situation and wit and humour of the highest kind. His varied humour is skilfully blended with pathos and so its effect is further heightened by contrast.

Shakespeare Poetic Virtue

In conclusion, we can say that Shakespeare's plays have an enduring quality. Shakespeare's vision of life, his wonderful characterization, his broad humanity, his sense of humour a tolerance, his catholicity of outlook and his dramatic art have found eloquent expression in his magnificent poetry.

Shakespeare has easily transcended the limits of time and space. He has become a rich heritage of mankind. Ben Jonson, the stern classic appreciated the universal appeal of Shakespeare's plays and poems by saying that-

He was not of an age but for all times, He was no only England, but for all mankind.

All these causes discussed above along with the fact that Shakespeare was a born genius, combine to make him the world's immortal poet and dramatist.