World Building

Latest Articles

Latest Topics

7

The morbidity and cynicism of Shakespeare's worlds

An examination of how dark and morbid the worlds in Shakespeare's plays are, as they're depicted in small vignettes and windows through either historical explanation, or character aside and motivation. See Hamlet, for a world that is ravaged by war and suspicion and lies, and see Richard III for a world that is corrupted by the banality of evil and its persuasive charm.

Othello is also a good look at a world that has a very strong/power sense of "justice": the enemy ships are destroyed by a a storm, Othello must have used magic to trick Desdemona into marrying him, the trustworthiness of "close allies".

How does that cynicism reflect Shakespeare's time and our own with making the plays and stories so long-lasting?

  • There is a pattern in Shakespeare's plays of characters in disguise or pretending to be other characters in order to advance their status...this could be relative to our own use of deception in our own lives and the way we portray ourselves online. – katrinafowler 9 years ago
    8