Of the republic of uzbekistan andizhan state university named after z. M. Bobur the faculty of foreign languages
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ч Comparative analysis of comedy plays by Shakesperian and Ben Johnson
CONCLUSION
Ben Jonson is among the greatest writiers and theorists of English Literature. A prolific Elizabethan dramatist and a man of letters highly learned inthe classics, he profoundly influenced the coming Augustan age through his emphasis on the precepts of Horace, Aristotle, and other early thinkers. While he is now remembered primarily for his satirical comedies, he also distinguished himself as a poet, preeminent writer of masques, edudite defender of his work, and the originator of English literary criticism. Jonson's professional reputation is often obscured by that of the man himself: bold, independent, aggressive, fashioning for himself an image as the sole arbiter of taste, standing for erudition and the supremacy of classical models against what he percieved as the general populace's ingorant prefence for the sensational. While his direct influence can be sen in each genre that he undertook, his ultimate influence is considered to be a legacy of literary craftsmanship, a strong sense of artistic form and control, and his role in bringing, as Alexander Pope noted, "critical learning into vogue." Jonson as well as Shakespeare are contemporaries; writing at the same time. Their style of writing differs to a great extent. While Shakespeare is all inclusive, comprehensive, a poet, dramatist, artists (some claims), Jonson is all about his unique style, focusing on the 'humours' of human physiology. His characters are not round like Shakespeare's who evolve, change, during the course of the play. Jonson's 'comedy of humour' has stock characters, exhibiting a single faceted personality (based on the dominant humour). Shakespeare on the other hand created characters like Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and many more who are so life-like, full-blooded and that his dramatic craft at its best. It is not always easy to categorically say whether a William Shakespeare play is a tragedy, comedy, or history, because Shakespeare blurred the boundaries between these genres, especially as his work developed more complexity in themes and character development. But those are the categories into which the First Folio (the first collection of his works, published in 1623; he died in 1616) was divided, and thus, they are useful to start the discussion. The plays can be generally classified into these three broad categories based on whether the main character dies or is bequeathed a happy ending and whether Shakespeare was writing about a real person. Shakespeare's comedies are sometimes further subdivided into a group called romances, tragicomedies, or "problem plays," which are the dramas that have elements of humor, tragedy, and complex plots. For example, "Much Ado About Nothing" begins like a comedy but soon descends into tragedy—leading some critics to describe the play as a tragicomedy. Others debated or cited as tragicomedies include "The Winter's Tale," "Cymbeline," "The Tempest," and "The Merchant of Venice." Four of his plays are often called his "late romances," and they include: "Pericles," "The Winter’s Tale," and "The Tempest." "Problem plays" are so-called because of their tragicomic elements and moral issues, and they don't end perfectly tied up, such as "All's Well That Ends Well," "Measure for Measure" and "Troilus and Cressida." Regardless of all that debate, the 18 plays generally classified as comedy are as follows: "All's Well That Ends Well" " As You Like It" " The Comedy of Errors" "Cymbeline" "Love's Labour’s Lost" "Measure for Measure" "The Merry Wives of Windsor" "The Merchant of Venice" "A Midsummer Night's Dream" " Much Ado About Nothing" "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" "The Taming of the Shrew" "The Tempest" " Troilus and Cressida" "Twelfth Night" "Two Gentlemen of Verona" "The Two Noble Kinsmen" "The Winter's Tale" Ben Jonson came up against countless obstacles throughout his life, but nevertheless gave gifts to the English stage and to English literature that we still find great value in today. Although his legacy is not on the almost deity-like status of Shakespeare, there is wealth of knowledge and enjoyment to be found in his works, and I’ve only mentioned a few, so dive deep, explore and enjoy the many wonderful works of Ben Jonson. We actually know nothing of the personal and professional relationship between Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare beyond the fact that the latter’s company (the Lord Chamberlain’s/King’s Men) staged six of Jonson’s plays (Every Man In His Humour, Every Man Out of His Humour, Sejanus, Volpone, The Alchemist and Catiline) while Shakespeare was alive, and Jonson records that Shakespeare himself acted in the first and third of these. But what we like to think we know beyond this (the mythology) is deeply embedded in the literary culture of Britain, and reveals a good deal of what later ages made of what was — only belatedly and for a very mixed bag of reasons — hailed as a golden age of English letters. In assessing Jonson’s criticism of Shakespeare, we need carefully to steer round the very potent constructions that those later ages have placed upon their relationship. Download 218.75 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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