This was probably the most difficult play to understand of all the Shakespeare plays I've read in the last month. It's so big, so deep, and so intricately plotted that I can't call it a comedy. It's just a drama, really.
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
This was probably the most difficult play to understand of all the Shakespeare plays I've read in the last month. It's so big, so deep, and so intricately plotted that I can't call it a comedy. It's just a drama, really.
First of all, the scale is amazing. The action of the play takes place in two countries, and in each country in two more places, which creates some kind of just epic picture of what is happening. In addition, there is also a war going on in one of the countries. How all this was realized on stage seems vague to me, but apparently it was, if the play has survived to this day.
Secondly, following the dashingly twisted plot, I understood very clearly why Shakespeare is still popular - he raised a very topical theme which is still relevant and simply can't leave the reader/viewer indifferent.
So, once again, everything revolves around love. A young girl, pure, intelligent, courageous and full of every conceivable merit, is in the care of a noble lady, as she is orphaned, and the lady has promised her father to look after her. The noble lady has a son with whom this poor girl has fallen carelessly in love. At the same time, she realizes that she cannot match him as she is not an aristocrat. She is only the daughter of a doctor. She is the daughter of an eminent, famous, respected, but not of noble blood. And then she gets a chance to serve her fatherland. The thing is that the king of the country is about to die, because he got sick, and all the doctors he called in could not help. So he threw them all out and slowly takes his breath away. And our girl's father very successfully before his death invented a miracle cure, which he bequeathed to her to keep, and to use only in the most critical situation. Well, here it is a critical situation - the king is dying. And the girl decides to take a desperate step, goes to court and offers the king a way to heal, putting her honor on the line in case of failure and the fulfillment of her cherished desire, in case of success. Of course, the king is healed and is delighted that the girl's wish is only a marriage to the nobleman of her choice. It seems to be a happy ending, but the one she chooses, the very young man whom she loves so much and for the sake of which this whole epic was started is so, excuse me, an asshole, that I don't even have the words to describe the meanness of his character.
And then begins the intrigue with the imaginary deaths, lovers who are not who they think they are, even the carnal pleasures, and everything here is not what it seems. And this whole witty operation is orchestrated by a wily female mind to accomplish the impossible and get what is due. Though if I were her I would direct all this energy in another direction and break horns with her lover, a parasite.
In general, the play is quite in the spirit of modern passions, it amazes with the scale of woman's thought, will and courage to achieve the aim. It touches on the actual problem of unequal marriage, and from an interesting side, when the power recognizes the marriage and the relatives, and one of the spouses spits on all this and makes himself worse out of spite. And there's so much twists and turns that a Mexican TV series alongside a Brazilian one weeps in the background with envy.
It's a great, great play.
This article was sponsored by Igor Levin
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