William Shakespeare: A Telescopic Picture of the Society | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

As an actor turned playwright, Shakespeare witnessed the people from the society. He studied the crowds, gave them what they wanted simply reflected their own thoughts feelings. His plays represent the society of his time but his criticism suits our society too. When we peep through the plays of Shakespeare written during the period 1604 to 1611, we come to know that he is a very objective critic of Human Nature. He perceived the people of his own society criticized their follies in his plays. According to Dr. Johnson, Shakespeare is the best observer of Human Nature holds a mirror on different persons in the society. Shakespeare wrote the great tragedies Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1606) last Play, a romance, The Tempest (1611) during this period. His tragedies introduced us to a dark dismal world where evil Flourishes good suffers, the meaninglessness of life. He poses the fundamental questions of life, of man's inhumanity to man, of the conflict of good evil. He mocked at the tragic aspects of human life like hatred, jealousy, vanity, suspiciousness, plotting and the minute temperaments of the people from the society. His age was suffered from cruelty, plotting suspicions. It had its full measure of cruelty, superstitions, beastliness, Bearbaiting, public floggings executions which are the sources of Shakespeare's plays. The Poor, Dr. Lopez, a Portuguese Jew the personal physician to the Queen Elizabeth, was hanged, drowned quartered at Tyburn in public on 7th June 1594. He was accused of being in correspondence with Spain about a plot to poison the Queen. He was hanged his body pulled down cut in four. Of course he was guilty but his trial execution aroused immense passions waves of anti-Semitism in the society. There were other plots too, real or alleged, against the Queen.