Shakespeare’s Renaissance
Answer the question in relation to one play by William Shakespeare and one play by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. These should be plays studied on the module.
Compare the two writers’ treatment of the themes below and, in the conclusion to your essay, consider whether Shakespeare’s reputation as the greatest playwright of the period is justified on the basis of your findings.
1. Discuss the employment of disguise in early modern drama.
2. What is the significance of the servant figure in early modern drama?
3. Analyse the nature of parent-child relations in early modern drama.
4. How does early modern drama subvert sexual conventions and morality?
5. How, and why, is history rewritten in early modern drama?
6. How does race and/or nationality function in early modern drama?
7. Explore the ways in which religion is represented and utilised in early modern drama.
8. Discuss props, costumes and the materiality of the early modern stage.
9. Is early modern drama politically conservative or politically radical?
10. In what ways do early modern dramatists use environment and setting within their plays?
