Plays
Plays
William Shakespeare wrote many different plays with many different genres
most of them ranging from tragedy, history, and comedy. One of his
most popular plays are:
King Lear - Tragedy
Richard III - History
A Midsummer Night's Dream - Comedy
King Lear
King Lear is a a tragedy by William Shakespeare starring these characters:
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Lear – King of Britain
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Goneril – Lear's eldest daughter
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Regan – Lear's second daughter
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Cordelia – Lear's youngest daughter
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Duke Maglanus of Albany – Goneril's husband
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Duke Henninus of Cornwall – Regan's husband
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Earl of Gloucester
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Earl of Kent – later disguised as Caius
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Edgar – Gloucester's son
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Edmund – Gloucester's illegitimate son
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Oswald – Goneril's steward
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Fool – Lear's fool
This play is about 3 daughters called, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia and their father King Lear of Britain. As King Lear grows older he asks his 3 daughters how much they love him. Now this is actually a test to see who would get the land after King Lear dies. Goneril and Regan give him the most flattering answers but Cordelia remains silent saying that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father. Her father disowns her in rage and the King of France, who has courted Cordelia, says he still wants to marry her even without her land so sthey both go to France without her father's blessing. The two daughters, Goneril and Regan, begin to betray King Lear and he slowly goes insane with disbelievement that his beloved daughters would do such a thing. King Lear now realizes he made a horrible decision so he flees.
King Lear later meets an elderly noble man called Gloucester in the heath, who has been tricked by his son, Edmund, into believing that his son, Edgar, is trying to kill him. Edgar disguises himself as a crazy beggar and calls himself "Poor Tom". Later on in the play Gloucester tries to commit suicide but Edgar saves him by pulling the strange trick of leading him off an imaginary cliff. In the meantime Edmund becomes romatically entagled wih both Regan and Goneril, whose husband, Albany, is sympathetic to King Lear's cause. Goneril and Edmund conspire to kill Albany. King Lear and Cordelia are then captured by the English troops who have reached Dover. This battle was led by Edmund. Edgar duels with Edmund and kills him and Gloucester dies. Goneril poisons Regan out of jealousy over Edmund and then kills herself when her treachery is revealed to Albany. Edmund's betrayal of Cordelia leads to her needless execution in prison and King Lear dies out of grief at Cordelia's passing. Albany, Edgar and another man called Kent who had accompanied King Lear in some parts of the journey, are left to take care of the country feeling the emotions of sorrow and regret washing over them like an endless wave.
Richard III
Richard III is a historical play by William Shakespeare starring these characters:
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King Edward IV – King of England
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Richard, Duke of Gloucester – Brother to Edward IV; later King Richard III
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George, Duke of Clarence – Edward IV's brother
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Duchess of York – Edward, Richard and George's mother
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Edward, Prince of Wales – Edward IV's eldest son; later King Edward V (never crowned)
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Richard, Duke of York – Edward IV's younger son
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Boy – George's son
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Girl – George's daughter
This play is about the royal family of York and the royal family of Lancaster when Edward IV ruled. Edward's younger brother, Richard, resents Edward's power and the happiness of those around him. Richard mailciously and bitterly begins to plot a way to secretly take the throne and decides to kill anyone he has to in order to become king. Richard is an intelligent and skilled man in deception and political manipulation and he begins a campaign for the throne. He manipulates a noblewoman, Lady Anne, into marrying him even though she knows that he murdered her first husband. He executes his older brother, Clarence, and shifts the burden of guilt onto his sick older brother King Edward in order to quicken his illness and cause him to die. Richard's plan succeeds and King Edward dies making Richard become lord protector of England. Richard did cruel things to the people and later on in the play Richard's reign of terror has caused the common people of England to fear and loathe him. He has his wife, Queen Anne, murdered, so that he can marry young Elizabeth, the daughter of the former Queen Elizabeth and the dead King Edward. Even though Elizabeth is his niece if he married her this would secure his claim to the throne. Richard then has a terrible dream where the ghosts of all the people he has murdered appear and curse him, telling him that he will die the next day. The next day in a battle involving Richmond, Richard is killed and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII and he promises a new era of peace for England.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedic play starring these characters:
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Theseus – Duke of Athens
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Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus
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Philostrate – Master of the Revels
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Egeus – Father of Hermia, wants her to marry Demetrius
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Nedar – Father of Helena
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Hermia – Daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander
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Helena – In love with Demetrius
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Lysander – In love with Hermia at first but later loves Helena and then goes back to love Hermia
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Demetrius – In love with Hermia at first and then loves Helena at the end
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Oberon – Titania's husband and King of the Fairies
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Titania – Oberon's wife and Queen of the Fairies
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Robin Goodfellow/Puck – servant to Oberon
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Theseus – Duke of Athens
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Nick Bottom – Weaver, plays Pyramus