Story and Character in Shakespeares’s Theatre

Shakespeare is arguably the best storyteller of all time. Each play has a story and intertwined stories that work together to take the audience on a journey of unfolding emotions and complexities. Shakespeare’s stories were influenced by historical sources, romances, poems, folktales and myths and he transformed these stories into dramatic action. It is for this reason that critics have said he was not an original storyteller as such - his genius was grounded in his use of language alone – he simply borrowed stories from history and folklore. What is your view on this point?

Stories in the Plays

Within any play of the Bard you will find numerous stories that can be analysed and acted outside the main story of the play itself. In the first act of the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as Gibson points out, the Prologue provides the audience with an explanation of the entire story in a fourteen line sonnet. Then, Benvolio recounts the story of the fight between the Montagues and the Capulets whilst Montague goes on to relate the mystery of Romeo’s odd behaviour. Following, the Nurse relates her story of Juliet’s childhood. We then have Mercutio telling a fanciful tale of Queen Mab and then Capulet and his cousin telling the audience of their long lost ‘dancing days.’

How do these stories work inside the play? What functions do they serve?

-    They help to introduce character and create atmosphere and context

-    They help fill gaps and move the play’s action along

-    They  may tell of events that happened before the play opens

-    They relate events off stage or summarise what has happened on stage

-    They may give us glimpses of characters that will never appear on stage but who are important catalysts for certain events on stage.

These stories are most often only spoken and not acted out on stage.

Summarising the Story

Shakespeare used this technique to help the audience understand where the story may head. Usually one character will give a speech that outlines what has happened or is to happen.

Consider Horatio’s speech as he lists seven elements of Hamlet’s story:

So  you shall hear

Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts.

Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,

Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,

And in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fallen on th’inventors’ heads.

Point of View Narratives

Shakespeare’s stories are told from multiple points of view, not just one. There is no narrator, no single storyteller - each character is allowed to evolve and express their own feelings and ideals and points of view will shift every time a new character speaks. Each point of view is partial as the story is unfolding - no one character is privy to all the information.

Character

The beauty of these plays is that every character has their own unique voice, their own dimensions of feeling, understanding, and points of view. Gibson provides a good example of the way each character brings to the stage a new trait, a new way of seeing the world.  When the Nurse comes on stage in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, she brings a new style of speaking that is in contrast to what the audience has heard before:

Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old

I bade her come. What, lamb? What, ladybird!

God forbid, where’s this girl? What, Juliet!

We can both love and hate the characters with great passion - so colourful and interesting that some of them are. Minor characters can be just as fascinating on stage as the major ones and the interpretation and portrayal of the characters in these plays remain a challenge to us even today. One important point to remember is that in Shakespeare’s plays, language is character and it is through careful analysis, experimentation and performance of the lines that you the student of Shakespeare will come to know the characters best.

The best known approach to understanding the characters of Shakespeare is that of A.C.Bradley - his works Shakespearean Tragedy (1904) concentrated on analysing character and the emotional relationship that existed between characters in the plays. Other critics such as L.C.Knight’s How many children had Lady Macbeth favoured approaches that treated the plays as dramatic poems and argued that as the characters were not ‘real’ it was a waste of time analysing them in any great depth.

The Complexity of Shakespeare’s Characters

Every character of Shakespeare offers some kind of complexity or dimension that contributes importantly to the play. In the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ the characters of Tybalt and the Nurse are clearly defined from their first appearance on stage. The nurse provides a contrast to the idealistic love struck Juliet. Tybalt represents tension and trouble that contrasts beautifully with the peaceful nature of Benvolio and the wit of Mercutio.

Gibson points out that although Tybalt only speaks 36 lines in total, the language is powerfully angry and violent providing energy and pace to the play. He is direct and honest as in this speech to the servants of the Montagues and Capulets as they fight:

What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?

Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.

What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word,

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.

Have at thee, coward.

As Gibson points out, the actor who portrays Tybalt may approach him as a violent thug or as a silky and sinister dandy; or a dangerous psychopath, sometimes laughing, sometimes snarling. (Gibson, p.113)

Hamlet for example, has been represented as a noble prince, a madman, an avenger, a philosopher, an unhappy young man, a tortured man; sometimes depressed, disillusioned, harsh, hesitant, cruel, resentful, brave, mad and sarcastic. He has mood swings that are challenging to the best actor:

O that this too too solid flesh would melt

Now could I drink hot blood

Bloody, bawdy, villain!

Oh, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I!

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable.

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will

The rest is silence. (Gibson, p.114)

Language and Character

In Shakespeare’s plays, language and character are intertwined. Language indicated all we need to know about the character, defines the character and drives it throughout the play.

Consider King Lear’s language in the opening scene of the play:

Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester

And, as he speaks to his daughter setting a love test - she who proves she loves him best, will get the largest share of his wealth and power. Whilst Gonerill and Regan make the most flattering replies to their father, Cordelia, the rebellious younger daughter enters into this dialogue with her father:

Lear: What can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters. Speak.

Cordelia: Nothing, my lord

Lear: Nothing?

Cordelia: Nothing.

Lear: Nothing will come of nothing, speak again.

Lear: Let it be so, thy truth then be thy dower.

         For by the sacred radiance of the sun

         The mysteries of Hecate and the night,

        By all the operations of the orbs

        From whom we do exist and cease to be,

       Here I disclaim all my parental care,

       Propinquity and property of blood

       And as a stranger to my heart and me

      Hold thee from this forever.

In what ways does the language of Lear add tension and pace to the play?

Journeys through the Plays

There is evidence of characters changing throughout the plays: King Lear becomes introspective and learns through suffering, the folly of his ways. Hamlet undergoes a journey of self-actualisation whilst Othello falls from supreme confidence:

Keep up the bright swords, for the dew will rust them

to mad jealously:

Pish! Noses, ears and lips. Is’t possible? - Confess? Handkerchief? O devil!

Every character journeys through their own unique relationship with other people - all so important to the dynamics of the play and Gibson points out character names can often indicate the kind of character you will meet in the play:

-    Sir Tony Belch (Twelfth Night) indicates an earthy, crude character

-    Malvolio (Romeo and Juliet) (from the Latin male volente) indicates ‘evil wishing’ whilst Benvolio hints at someone who is intends well.

-    Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet) indicates a mercurial temperament or like Mercury, the messenger of the gods, a bringer of dreams.