Essay: Explore Shakespeare’s Legacy: His Continuing Influence across Genres and Time

Shakespeare is one of the most well known writers even after centuries of his work. His work continues to be passed on and he is responsible for some of the most famous work in literary history. Shakespeare has created many amazing stories in various genres such as; drama, comedy, and romantic sonnets which still influence many writers today. His literal writing style was called iambic pentameter also known as blank verse, but his personal style was different than the writers in that era which makes him all the more interesting.
Shakespeare’s style comes through in all of his genres in many ways. Most of his early work was written with the conventional style of the time. He wrote in a stylised language that didn’t always agree with the needs of the characters or the drama. The work of shakespeare has extended and elaborated metaphors, which makes it hard for new readers of Shakespeare’s writing to understand, even the translated versions from Elizabethan English could still be difficult to comprehend due to the long elaborate metaphors. The context was sometimes rhetorically written for the actors to declaim what they’re saying rather than just speaking it. Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter, these were plays and sonnets that had ten syllables per line and the lines were usually unrhymed. During the late 1500’s writing Richard II, Shakespeare’s writing developed and he changed his style from a traditional form to a more self-expressed form. He used his metaphors to fit melodrama. He also used monologues which were served to show the character’s inner thoughts and feeling, for example in Hamlet the famous line “To be or not to be, that is the question.” This was a very useful style of writing to fully show the audience the feelings of the characters and to also add more drama to the plays.
There are many similarities in shakespeare’s plays including ones from different genres. One of the most common among many of his writings is the use of the supernatural that he adds through the plays which makes it very interesting to the audience. The supernatural was used in his plays because at the time there was a strong belief in the existence of the supernatural. This is why the supernatural is such a recurring aspect in many of Shakespeare’s plays. In Hamlet for example the supernatural is a main part of the structure for the plot. It provides a catalyst for action, an insight into character, and augments the impact of many key scenes. Examples of some the supernatural things he used was the appearance of ghosts, witches, usage of spells, and psychic elements. Another style he uses is romance, like the use of the supernatural, it adds tension and intensifies the play and the relationships between the main characters in his plays that eventually end up bringing devastation to the plot. While both of these elements play a big role in his work, undoubtedly the most used genre between all of Shakespeare’s work is the involvement of heros or “tragic heroes” these figures have issues finding their flaws, which most commonly results in their own downfall or death in a lot of his work and almost all of the plays we have dealt with this semester.
The different styles of Shakespeare can also be different in his genres. His tragedy genres include a tragic hero whose life fortune gets reversed because of his/her tragic flaw. Often times this ends with their own suffering or sometimes death, along with the suffering other characters in the play. Also theres two different types of Comedy genres shakespeare portrays and one of the types is known as a tragic comedy which takes on some of the elements of a tragedy, such as the hero’s major downfall, but due to it being a comedy it is usually spun in a sarcastic way because satirical comedy was a huge role in the comedy plays of shakespeare’s work. Shakespearean comedy often includes a light ambiance, people leading with deception, cases of mistaken identities, and differences in the characters moral values such as abstinence, self control and wildness. Historical Drama is another famous genre of shakespeare’s. The genre is basically real life events taken from history which are changed and dramatized in order to make the story more interesting for the audience, all of these genres are still frequently used today because shakespeare’s style is one of the most influential in writing history.
Sexuality and gender are big themes in Shakespeare’s plays. It shows a lot of incite into shakespeare’s views of society during his time and the different types of stereotypical roles between men and women between the different levels of social classes. In the time of Shakespeare there was a difference between the roles of sexes and each had their own part in society. Men were masculine and were not controlled by emotion, they were strong and hard working. Women belonged in the home and were ruled by men and by their emotions and were thought to make bad decisions due to their emotions. Also in the time of Shakespeare’s plays female parts were played by male actors since females were not yet allowed to act in the plays. Todays remakes of the plays we watched had roles played by both genders. Not only was there a stereotype between men and women, there was a stereotype between women in different social classes and men in different social classes. Such as in the film Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice was wanted for death by her own father due to the fact it was heard that she had had inercourse with a man before marriage and because she was held at such high standards for being high class. When it was found that it wasn’t her who was having intercourse, it was the maid no one had blinked an eye.