Shakespeare can rightfully be called a philosopher artist; an artist who delves deeply into the essence of human existence and its relationship with gods and the universe in his works. Shakespeare, a wizard of words, is a symbol of an artist whose works will live forever because they touch the core of human experience and ask questions that will always be important to people. Why Shakespeare? What makes him so special? Why have many playwrights of his time disappeared or been forgotten while he endures? There is no rational explanation. Following the course of history, we witness the existence of artists who have paved the way for inspiration, unveiled the veil of the mystery of existence… A great gift and a great responsibility.
To understand Shakespeare’s greatness, we must first understand the theater of the Elizabethan era, of which he was the brightest star. It was a theater that emerged during the English Renaissance, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was a unique theater, due to the unique combination of renewed of classical teachings and medieval theater tradition.
It is precisely Shakespeare’s plays that represent the best performances of that theater and belong to the very top of its heritage. We will explore several passages from these works and present the greatness of their author through them.
COR:
Oh, if only we had the muse of fire that would ascend
To the brightest heavens of imagination;
If only we had a kingdom as a stage, princes to act,
And rulers to witness the magnificent scene!
The Elizabethan theater is unique. It combines the classical teachings of the Renaissance – which explored man, society, and their relationship with the universe – with medieval theater, whose plays were performed outdoors, during the day, in city squares; simply a theater without much external decoration, but with a lot of creativity and imagination. Shakespeare’s theater, like most others in London, contained both of these worlds. The Globe Theatre was a circular theater with an open roof so that performances could be held. During the day, while the stage was very plain. It was a world made up of the power of spoken words and imagination. We can witness the magic of this theater at the beginning of Henry V, one of Shakespeare’s greatest historical works, where the Chorus addresses the audience:
CHORUS:
Imagine that within the boundaries of these walls
there are now two mighty kingdoms
whose high and low foreheads
are completely separated by a perilous narrow sea;
fill our imperfections with your thoughts;
divide one man into a thousand fragments
and create a powerful army in your imagination;
when we speak of horses, envision them
imprinting fiery hooves into the yielding earth;
for your thoughts must now clothe our kings,
carry them here and there, skipping time,
compressing the achievements of many years
into a single hourglass: to assist you in this,
allow me to be the Chorus of this history;
It is marvelous to create a world with words and imagination. A chair on stage becomes a palace, a tree painted on canvas becomes a forest. “Three armed men – a powerful army. This was Shakespeare’s theater, and the means used to create that imagined world were the words he wrote, words that still stimulate our imagination to this day. That is the real magic of theater; it is not made up of elaborate sets and special effects, but rather the ability of the actor and audience to create a world together. In this theater, there were no boundaries between actors and audience, there was no so-called ‘fourth wall.’ On the contrary, the audience was invited to participate in the performance, to be an active part of it. A great example is King Henry’s speech to his army, in which he urges them to march against the enemy.
HENRY:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility.
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood…
The participants of the scene were not just” not only the people of King Henry, but also all the spectators who decided to become part of the play. It was a magic that united nobles with peasants, the rich with the poor. Shakespeare didn’t just offer them entertainment, but also a world in which they could live, even if only for a few hours. The spectators were part of Lear’s great storm, Macbeth’s terrible crime, and Caesar’s cruel murder.
However, Shakespeare’s words didn’t stop at creating a world outside of man – they opened the doors to the inner world of characters. During the Renaissance, classical teachings (philosophy, art, science, medicine, astronomy, and many other knowledge) again became the center of life. Human beings were no longer simply subjects under the rule of an angry God who taught them to distinguish between good and evil. Man decided to listen to his own conscience and choose his own fate.
Shakespeare is an exceptional example of an artist’s ability to illuminate the psychological world of man. In his soliloquies and Monologues, during which characters on stage provide the audience, as their intimate friend, with a glimpse into their inner world, revealing their most intimate thoughts, doubts, and desires – Shakespeare magnificently describes the internal struggle that takes place within ourselves, the struggle between good and evil, virtues and desires, inner paradise or inner hell. Shakespeare crafts a mirror of the soul and offers it to us in his exceptional dramas. Is there a better example of this than his famous soliloquy from Hamlet, where the indecisive prince turns directly to us for help? What is right, he wonders: to avenge his father, to die in that attempt, or to end his life immediately?
HAMLET:
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
Is it nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them? To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die To die – to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream. Yes, there’s the catch;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause – there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. a. Silence now;
Lovely Ophelia! – Nymph, in your prayers
let all my sins be mentioned.
Hamlet takes us on an inner journey with his monologues throughout the entire play. We embark on this journey with all of Shakespeare’s great characters. We become a part of King Lear’s desperate madness, Iago’s envy towards Othello and his plan to destroy him, the wickedness of Richard III, the helplessness of Richard II, and much more… The most marvelous thing about Shakespeare’s characters is that we don’t see them as good or bad, weak or insane, but as human beings capable of both the noblest and the most terrible acts, just like all of us. The countless shades of emotions we discover in Shakespeare’s characters are the same ones we recognize within ourselves. This is what makes Shakespeare great and immortal. In his greatest works, he touches the core of human existence. He urges us to look into our hearts and see the greatness of mankind and the horror that man can inflict upon the world and himself. He allows us to understand Yes, like his characters, we can choose what kind of people we will be, that heaven and hell are not something outside of our lives, but rather a consequence of our actions and the way we live. Heaven and hell are within us, expressed through virtues and conscience opposed to base passions and desires. In a speech addressed to the actors of the traveling theater that comes to Elsinore, the castle where the play takes place, Hamlet gives them a few “professional tips”. However, the key observation in his speech applies not only to actors but also to art itself.
HAMLET:
Align your movement with words, words with movement, with this special
attention, so as not to exceed natural restraint.
For whatever is exaggerated, it is far from the purpose
of acting, whose goal, as it was once and still is,
has been and is to hold a mirror to nature; to show
the face of virtue, the image of contempt,
and to be the embodiment and imprint of the times.
This article does not cover the magnitude and depth of Shakespeare’s work, but it should It was not intentional. It is impossible to capture the artistic wealth of Shakespeare’s works in so few words. The purpose of this article is to emphasize the importance of his works and the value we can discover in them from a philosophical standpoint. We learn that art is a bridge between the eternal and the momentary, and that every great artist reveals a fragment of eternity through their works. Through Shakespeare’s words, characters, and his deep understanding of human nature, we can touch the essence of the struggle that rages within each of us. Each of us is a hero and a coward, a noble and a bad person, a sage and a madman. The only question that remains is which role we will choose in the performance of our lives. Shakespeare’s words can inspire us to embark on this inward quest and to never stop asking ourselves the same question.