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William Shakespeare & The Elizabethan Golden Age

In the BCS Preliminary Examination, English Literature carries 15 marks. Out of these, questions related to William Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era (1558–1603) consistently account for 3 to 5 marks.

Shakespeare is universally recognized as the National Poet of England and the "Bard of Avon". He wrote 37 plays (38 including The Two Noble Kinsmen), 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems.

1. The Four Great Tragedies of Shakespeare

A. Hamlet (Prince of Denmark)

• Theme: Revenge, hesitation, madness, and moral corruption.
• Key Characters: Prince Hamlet, King Claudius (uncle & murderer), Queen Gertrude (mother), Ophelia (Hamlet's tragic lover), Polonius, Horatio (Hamlet's loyal friend), Laertes.
• Famous Quotes:
• "To be, or not to be, that is the question."
• "Frailty, thy name is woman!"
• "Brevity is the soul of wit."
• "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

B. Othello (The Moor of Venice)

• Theme: Fatal jealousy, deception, and racial otherness.
• Key Characters: Othello (noble Moorish general), Desdemona (his innocent wife), Iago (the master manipulator and villain), Cassio, Emilia.
• Tragic Flaw (Hamartia): Credulity and intense sexual jealousy sparked by a planted handkerchief.
• Famous Quotes:
• "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on."

C. King Lear (Tragedy of Filial Ingratitude)

• Theme: Vanity, blindness of pride, and ingratitude of children.
• Key Characters: King Lear, Goneril & Regan (flattering wicked daughters), Cordelia (truthful, loving youngest daughter), Fool, Kent, Edmund (villainous bastard son of Gloucester).
• Famous Quotes:
• "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!"
• "I am a man more sinned against than sinning."

D. Macbeth (The Scottish Tragedy)

• Theme: Vaulting ambition, supernatural prophecy, and guilt.
• Key Characters: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth (the ruthless "fourth witch"), Duncan (King of Scotland), Banquo, Macduff.
• Famous Quotes:
• "Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air."
• "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage... It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
• "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."

2. Major Comedies and Tragicomedies

• The Merchant of Venice: Shylock (the Jewish moneylender demanding a "pound of flesh"), Antonio, Portia (the intelligent disguised lawyer).
• Famous quote: "All that glisters is not gold."
• Famous quote: "The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven."
• As You Like It: Rosalind, Orlando, Touchstone, Jaques.
• Famous quote: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
• A Midsummer Night's Dream: Puck, Bottom, Oberon, Titania.
• The Tempest: Shakespeare's final solo play (farewell to the stage). Prospero, Miranda, Ariel, Caliban.

3. Other Key Elizabethan Figures

• Christopher Marlowe (Father of English Tragedy): Predecessor to Shakespeare, master of blank verse ("Marlowe's mighty line"). Author of Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and Tamburlaine the Great.
• Francis Bacon (Father of English Essay): Famous for pithy, aphoristic essays (Of Studies, Of Truth).
• Quote: "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."
• Edmund Spenser (Poet's Poet): Author of the great allegorical epic The Faerie Queene.