In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

First period – 1590 – 1595 – period of learning; improved the works of others

Chronicle plays (Henry VI, Richard III)

Comedies (A Midsummer night’s Dream; The Taming of the Shrew)

Tragedies (Titus Andronicus; Romeo and Juliet)

Second period –1596-1600 – best dramatic works

(comedies – The Merchant of Venice; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Much Ado about Nothing; As You Like It; The Twelfth Night)

Wide range of themes – the pain and pleasure of love; mistaken identity; the degrading of materialistic and humorless people

Third period – 1600-1608 – best tragedies – dark elements, pessimism, difficulties in personal life

Unforgettable characters – Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth

Fourth period 1609-1612 – return to a happier period.

44. Shakespeare, tragedies. Analysis of one of the plays

during his life, he wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets. His plays translated into every major living language. Shakespeare has given many words (about 3000) to the English language.

Many of his tragedies based on real historical figures so they classified as «histories». Most significant tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth. His tragedies have dark and hard contents; this might be the reflection of the general mood of the country, following the death of Elizabeth I

Analysis: it's a tragedy and the ending is not happy, both main characters dies in the end. Speaking of composition – it`s built on love. Love goes through the all script, and getting closer to final – more and more love in the air you can catch, but Shakespeare pushed new Renaissance values: Romeo is ready to secretly marry his passion and Juliet isn't trying to play shy lady. They both go against their parents wills, just to be together. Shakespeare payed attention to social and moral problems of that time and extolled (превознес) high feelings

45. Shakespeare. Sonnets. Literary legacy

When discussing or referring to Shakespeare’s sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609; however there are six additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost.

The sonnets cover such themes as the passage of time, love, infidelity, jealousy, beauty and mortality. Shakespeare explores themes such as lust, homoeroticism, misogyny, infidelity, and acrimony in ways that may challenge, but which also open new terrain for the sonnet form. The first 126 are addressed to a young man (aka Fair Youth); the last 28 are either addressed to, or refer to a woman (aka The Dark Lady).

The sonnets are almost all constructed of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet. The sonnets are composed in iambic pentameter, the meter used in Shakespeare's plays. Sonnets using this scheme are known as Shakespearean sonnets, or English sonnets, or Elizabethan sonnets.

Shakespeare's legacy includes the ongoing performance of his plays, and his influence upon culture and the arts, extending from theatre and literature to present-day movies and the English language itself.

Shakespeare's writings greatly influenced the entire English language. Prior to and during Shakespeare's time, the grammar and rules of English were not standardized. But once Shakespeare's plays became popular in the late 17th and 18th century, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language, with many Shakespearean words and phrases becoming embedded in the English language. Some estimates at the number of words coined by Shakespeare number in the several thousands.