Shakespearean Influence On Dickens Essay
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Did Shakespeare, in any fashion, influence the great novelist Dickens? That is the question that I have set to find out. I assumed so, but I really wanted to find the pure truth about these great novelists, perhaps the best people ever to have perfected this art form. I looked for specific reasons and certain examples about these two men.
William Shakespeare is a genius of his art form, of that there is no question. His contributions and influence upon all literary movements to this day are innumerable. He advanced the status of playwriting in a time where actors and the theatre were not highly regarded (Martin, 105). Shakespeare wrote thirty-six plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems in his lifetime. A few of these acclaimed works are: The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear. Shakespeare is considered to have the gift of being able to create complex psychological identities in his characters, and setting the standard in this area for all the writers to come. How Shakespeare came into his fame after his death is a great story. To the neo-classicists (people that believe that art is governed by rules set by Greco-Roman standards) in the 18th century, his works were regarded as a virtue for their 'artlessness' (Martin, 30). During the Victorian Age, there was a resurgence of patriotism, and that patriotism led the English to claim him as a vital part of their national heritage (Martin, 45). During this time period, Samuel Johnson, a popular critic, helped the resurgence of Shakespeare's good reputation (Martin, 134). In the early twentieth century, the plays captured on film and on television encouraged the growth and the spread of his works. A.C. Bradley and E. Tillyard's approach to Shakespeare's literature became the basis of the teaching of Shakespeare. To this day, it seems as though no other author is more widely read, nor quite as respected. To almost everyone, his works are considered to be the best out of all other authors. The status of literature today would not be the same had it not been for the man named William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare had a huge impact upon the world of literature, so it is no surprise to find that Dickens indeed studied him as a boy (Kaplan, 185). To say that Dickens merely studied Shakespeare would be an injustice. He devoured all of Shakespeare's work! He carried with him, at all times, a pocket Shakespeare (Kaplan, 185). He was Dickens' favorite author as a young boy, and also one of the favorites of his maturity. He especially loved Macbeth and Richard III (Kaplan, 65). Dickens says of Richard III, "[Richard] made my heart leap with terror!" (Stone, 10). The following quote from Shakespeare's Richard III, will give you an idea of what a villainous character Richard III is. He is referred to in this passage, from Act I, Scene I, as the "sun of York".
"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried."
Shakespeare's influence carried over into Dickens' personal life as well. As a child, he lived near the town of Kent for some time. A home in this town resembled Gad's Hill Place, the hill associated with Falstaff's adventures in Henry IV (Kaplan, 185). In March of 1856 he bought this 'Gad's Hill Place' and returned to his childhood home as a country gentleman, as Shakespeare did long ago (Kaplan, 185). Dickens says about this purchase, " I used to look at it as a wonderful mansion (which God knows it is not) when I was a very odd little child with the first shadows of all of my books in my head" (Kaplan, 185). Still today, a monument of Shakespeare looks down upon Dickens' grave, in Poet's Corner (Kaplan, 187).
Shakespearean productions in the theatre and Dickens' own flair for the theatre, was a big influence on Dickens. Shakespeare was quite a thespian, himself. He was an actor in the group Chamberlain's men. As a very young child, Dickens acted in, wrote, and produced many plays, all at the same time (Kaplan, 105). He simply could not stay away from the theatre. In his later years, he built a miniature...
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