What did shakespeare's tragedies reveal about society during the time in which they were written?

Answer 1

Very little. Most of them (Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens) are set in a remote past, and all but King Lear are set in foreign countries. They did not intend to portray the society of the audience, except in the way and ways that the plays did and still do speak to the human condition at all times.

Occasionally the plays portray things which might give us some ideas about Shakespeare's day. From Hamlet we know that graveyards often contained the remains of many people all jumbled together. Hamlet also has those lines about the children's acting companies. The Porter in Macbeth talks about "equivocators", referring to the Catholics charged with being in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

But actually all of those things are quite trivial. Shakespeare is the worst playwright of his day to choose for an accurate reflection of his age. He was not of an age but of all time. If you want social information, you should read a play like Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl, Jonson's The Alchemistor Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle.

Answer 2

Tragedy isn't a thing you can use, like blank verse or classical allusions. If a play or any other story is structured in a particular way, with characters going from a happy situation to a sad one, either through bad luck or bad choices, it becomes a tragedy. Asking this question is like asking how you would use the colour green to make something green.

Answer 3

Very little. Most of them (Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens) are set in a remote past, and all but King Lear are set in foreign countries. They did not intend to portray the society of the audience, except in the way and ways that the plays did and still do speak to the human condition at all times.

Answer 4

Shakespeare was influenced by the generation of tragedians who preceded him, especially Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd.

Answer 5

While Shakespeare was writing his most famous tragedies, Queen Elizabeth died and King James came to the throne.