The Tempest, Hamlet, and A Winters Tale all fit into different genres, unlike Henry IV parts 1-3. Just from the contrast in genres between H
is very first and very last of His work we can see the tip of the iceberg of Shakespeare shaking up the conventions of the style of his day for His own evolved poetic artistic expression. However, He could never fully get away from those conventions. In fact the pressures of Shakespeare's popular audience to conform to the new genre's were a cattiest to his greatest work and retirement.
The Tempest is one of the best examples of the idea that, Shakespeare adjusted the conventions of popular genre of that day. The play The Tempist, appeals to so many different aspects of different genre's that doesn't fit in any one genre of his time. The play draws heavily on the traditions of the romance, a fictitious narrative set far away from ordinary life. Romances were typically based around themes such as the supernatural, wandering, exploration and discovery. They were often set in coastal regions, and typically featured exotic, fantastical locations and themes of transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion. However “There are jokes, songs” and a happy ending that are common to the tragicomedy genre. The play has festive courtly entertainment of the Masque genre as well. It is a mixture of so many different genres that contemporary scholars have grouped this play with a few other plays written by Shakespeare that draw heavily on romance but include aspects of other genres, their own genre called “Shakespeare Romance”. A Winters Tale is another one of the three last works completely written by Shakespeare being used as an example in this blog, is also categorized with Shakespearean Romance because it has many parts of a Romance but also has aspects of other genres. From the study of history plays genre we see Shakespeare strictly conforming to the popular styles of his day. From the analysis of final three plays that He wrote we see a freedom from strictly adhering to the conventions (but not stepping away either) of that day and more artistic expression. Shakespeare evolved the style's of His day to give more freedom for the development of His characters and allow more dramatic art. But as we will see in the next paragraph He never really turned his back on the conventions, simply adjusted them to fit His own imagination. (Bevington)
is very first and very last of His work we can see the tip of the iceberg of Shakespeare shaking up the conventions of the style of his day for His own evolved poetic artistic expression. However, He could never fully get away from those conventions. In fact the pressures of Shakespeare's popular audience to conform to the new genre's were a cattiest to his greatest work and retirement.
The Tempest is one of the best examples of the idea that, Shakespeare adjusted the conventions of popular genre of that day. The play The Tempist, appeals to so many different aspects of different genre's that doesn't fit in any one genre of his time. The play draws heavily on the traditions of the romance, a fictitious narrative set far away from ordinary life. Romances were typically based around themes such as the supernatural, wandering, exploration and discovery. They were often set in coastal regions, and typically featured exotic, fantastical locations and themes of transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion. However “There are jokes, songs” and a happy ending that are common to the tragicomedy genre. The play has festive courtly entertainment of the Masque genre as well. It is a mixture of so many different genres that contemporary scholars have grouped this play with a few other plays written by Shakespeare that draw heavily on romance but include aspects of other genres, their own genre called “Shakespeare Romance”. A Winters Tale is another one of the three last works completely written by Shakespeare being used as an example in this blog, is also categorized with Shakespearean Romance because it has many parts of a Romance but also has aspects of other genres. From the study of history plays genre we see Shakespeare strictly conforming to the popular styles of his day. From the analysis of final three plays that He wrote we see a freedom from strictly adhering to the conventions (but not stepping away either) of that day and more artistic expression. Shakespeare evolved the style's of His day to give more freedom for the development of His characters and allow more dramatic art. But as we will see in the next paragraph He never really turned his back on the conventions, simply adjusted them to fit His own imagination. (Bevington)
Shakespeare wrote many “History’s” until Henry V in 1599. He did not write another history play by himself again. After the History plays Shakespeare would go on to write heart wrenching Tragedies, gut busting Comedies, and lastly heart throbbing Romances but not without influence. In 1608 the popular audience had become “disenchanted with the drama. The Winters Tale and The Tempest show the distinct influence of the dramaturgy of the private theater.” (Bevington) The genre that appealed to Shakespeare's popular audience changed for the third time in his life in 1610 so as always, He had to as well. The new appeal of His popular audience was to the “Tragicomedy and Pastoral Romance”. The new genres “demanded a kind of studied and but informal artifice”. Shakespeare would have to study hard to artfully contrivance the new appeal. The new type of plays “compel in the artistic world”. He could not rely on His experiences as a youth and trips to the pub as he once did in his earlier plays. The Tragicomedy and Pastoral Romance are concerned more about the artistic expression of the human experience within a society and not as much with the individual. It could have been the pressures from the new genre or that Shakespeare knew He was nearing retirement but He began to think back more upon His childhood as will be shown later in the section "subject" of this blog. Shakespeare was known as a “skinflint” and introverted as is shown later in the blog. The combination of the influences forced Shakespeare to artistically express himself in his new plays.Shakespeare used the appeal to the new genre's as an opportunity to express where he had been as a youth as will be shown later in this blog under "subject" and last to say goodbye to the theater shown in the "conclusion" of this blog. Today as mentioned before His last works are considered to be his greatest however audiences of his time didn't share that same view. Critic’s and audiences gave the play's bad reviews, the great Bard had lost his touch and been defeated.(Bevington)
Shakespeare “did much to establish the new genres” but He did not or could not make the adjustment to appeal to his contemporary audiences as he once did. Shakespeare’s earlier plays were still wildly famous and being acted out all over England including the Kings personal theater. Shakespeare's inability to appeal to His contemporary's caused Him to “slowly disengaged himself (from the acting scene), spending more time in Stratford”. Shakespeare wrote three plays with the idea of the new genres in mind. But the new age of the theater belonged to others and eventually Shakespeare become “Apostrophized”. Shakespeare's undisputed popularity was over; as a result of the change of the popular genre.
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