11 An outline of British literature

• Comedy of Errors - his shortest and 1 of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to word play. It tells the story of two sets of identical twins that were accidentally separated at birth.

• The Merchant of Venice – a tragic comedy; the title character is the merchant Antonio, not the greedy Jewish moneylender Shylock, who is the play's most prominent and most famous character. Shylock, has lost his beloved daughter when she runs away with a man who belongs to an anti-Semitic society.

Shylock seeks a literal 'pound of flesh' from the Merchant of Venice - Antonio when he fails to pay the debt. Portia, defends Antonio from Shylock's legal suit. Shylock ends by renouncing his faith and his fortune and converting to Christianity.

• The Merry Wives of Windsor - the themes of the play include love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, class and wealth.

Sir John Falstaff first deceives the wives. The wives, Mrs. Ford and Mistress Quickly then deceive Falstaff. Falstaff gets into trouble because he is insincere, pretending to be in love when all he is really interested in is money. The ladies turn the tables on Falstaff, and he gets his just desserts in the end. Falstaff is one of the most popular of all the characters devised by William Shakespeare.

• A Midsummer Night's Dream - the play revolves around the adventures of four young lovers, a group of amateur actors and their interactions with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest.

• The Taming of the Shrew - the main plot depicts the courtship of Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew. Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in the relationship, but Petruchio tempers her with various psychological torments - the "taming" — until she is an obedient bride. The sub-plot features a competition between the suitors of Katherina's more tractable sister, Bianca.

• Romeo and Juliet - The famous story of the "star-crossed" young lovers Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The themes are immature blind passion, hatred and prejudice. Romeo and Juliet are young teenagers who fall deeply in love but their families are bitter enemies.

Regardless of the feud between their families they marry in secret. They make every effort to conceal their actions but the story ends in tragedy when Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris all die.

• Macbeth - the shortest Shakespeare's tragedy about a regicide (the act of killing a king) and its aftermath.

• Othello - The work revolves around four central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his wife Desdemona; his lieutenant, Cassio; and his trusted ensign Iago. The themes are racism, love, jealousy, and betrayal.

• Hamlet - the themes cover revenge, deception, loyalty, fate... Prince Hamlet mourns both his father's death and his mother, Queen Gertrude's remarriage to Claudius. The ghost of Hamlet's father appears to him and tells him that Claudius has poisoned him. Hamlet swears revenge. He kills the eavesdropping Polonius, the court chamberlain. Polonius's daughter Ophelia loves the Prince but his behaviour drives her to madness. Ophelia dies by drowning. A duel takes place and ends with the death of Gertrude, Laertes (Poloniuse's son), Claudius, and Hamlet.

• King Lear - The themes of the play cover greed, betrayal, lust for power, and cruelty. The story of King Lear, an aging monarch who is headstrong old man who is blind to his weaknesses, decides to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters, according to which one recites the best declaration of love. Goneril and Regan (the selfish daughters of Lear who pretend to love him but later treat him cruelly) and Cordelia (the loyal and unselfish daughter). King Lear disowns Cordelia after confusing her honesty with insolence. At the end of the play Cordelia dies and King Lear, now a broken man, also dies.

• The Winter's Tale – It is something between a comedy, problem play, and romance (Shakespeare himself classified it as a comedy. The plot of the story moves between King Leontes' court in Sicilia and Bohemia. The complications arise from King Leontes' and his Queen's friendly attentions to the visiting King of Bohemia.