Influence of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare's influence extends from theater and literatures to present-day movies, Western philosophy, and the English language itself.William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of the English language,[1] and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.[5][6][7] Shakespeare's writings have also impacted many notable novelists and poets over the years, including Herman Melville,[8] Charles Dickens,[9] and Maya Angelou,[10] and continue to influence new authors even today.[13] Early Modern English as a literary medium was unfixed in structure and vocabulary in comparison to Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and was in a constant state of flux.By the age of Elizabeth, English had become widely used with the expansion of philosophy, theology and physical sciences, but many writers lacked the vocabulary to express such ideas.To accommodate this, writers such as Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare expressed new ideas and distinctions by inventing, borrowing or adopting a word or a phrase from another language, known as neologising."In shaping, compressing, and altering chronicles, Shakespeare gained the art of dramatic design; and in the same way he developed his remarkable insight into character, its continuity and its variation".Shakespeare influenced many writers in the following centuries, including major novelists such as Herman Melville,[8] Charles Dickens,[9] Thomas Hardy[25] and William Faulkner.[29] In fact, Shakespeare so influenced Melville that the novel's main antagonist, Captain Ahab, is a classic Shakespearean tragic figure, "a great man brought down by his faults.Shakespeare's gift involved using the exuberance of the language and decasyllabic structure in prose and poetry of his plays to reach the masses and the result was "a constant two way exchange between learned and the popular, together producing the unique combination of racy tang and the majestic stateliness that informs the language of Shakespeare".However, in Love's Labour's Lost and The Comedy of Errors, there is "perfect meter-abundance of rime [rhyme], plenty of prose, the arrangement in stanza"."Shakespeare's experimental use of trend and style, as well as the achieved development of his blank verses, are all evidence of his creative invention and influences".[citation needed] Through experimentation of tri-syllabic substitution and decasyllabic rule he developed the blank verse to perfection and introduced a new style.[24] Expressing emotions and situations in form of a verse gave a natural flow to language with an added sense of flexibility and spontaneity.
National Portrait GalleryChandos portraitWestern philosophyWilliam ShakespearecharacterizationlanguageHerman MelvilleCharles DickensMaya AngelouEnglish-speaking worldneologismsGuinness Book of World Recordsmost translated author in historyShakespeare in Original PronunciationEarly Modern EnglishHebrewEnglishEdmund SpenserSir Philip SidneyChristopher MarloweneologisingWestern literatureMacbethHamletKing LearRomeo and Julietsoliloquiesexpositionhuman conditionfolk traditionssermonsgroundlingstragediesRichard IIBolingbrokeRichard IIIFalstaffThomas HardyWilliam FaulknerMoby-DickantagonistCaptain AhabRomantic poetsSamuel Taylor Coleridgeself-consciousnessGeorge SteinerTennysonhoundsharksOberoniaSamuel JohnsonA Dictionary of the English Languageblank verseWiktionaryborrowingElizabethangrammardecasyllabicNational GeographicLove's Labour's LostThe Comedy of Errorstri-syllabicsonnetShakespeare and Star TrekPhrases from Hamlet in common EnglishUniversity of DelawareReginald FoakesGaskell, PhilipNational Geographic SocietyComediesAll's Well That Ends WellAs You Like ItCymbelineMeasure for MeasureThe Merchant of VeniceThe Merry Wives of WindsorA Midsummer Night's DreamMuch Ado About NothingPericles, Prince of TyreThe Taming of the ShrewThe TempestTwelfth NightThe Two Gentlemen of VeronaThe Two Noble KinsmenThe Winter's TaleAntony and CleopatraCoriolanusJulius CaesarOthelloTimon of AthensTitus AndronicusTroilus and CressidaHistoriesKing JohnEdward IIIHenry VHenry VIHenry VIIIEarly editionsQuarto publicationsFirst FolioSecond FolioProblem playsLate romancesHenriadGhost characterChronologyPerformancesSettingsScenesShakespeare's sonnetscomparison to PetrarchA Lover's ComplaintThe Phoenix and the TurtleThe Rape of LucreceVenus and AdonisApocryphaArden of FavershamThe Birth of MerlinCardenioDouble FalsehoodEdmund IronsideFair EmLocrineThe London ProdigalLove's Labour's WonThe Merry Devil of Edmonton