What was the theme of most of Shakespeare's plays?

Answer 1

Shakespeare's plays are so diverse that there is no one theme which can be traced through all of them, assuming that a theme is defined as "a unifying idea in a literary or artistic work".

Some themes which are very common in Shakespeare's plays are:

• Attempts to control succession of authority with violence (Macbeth, Richard II, Richard III, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, the Henry VI plays)
• Wives wrongfully suspected of adultery (Cymbeline, Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing)
• Women who escape the restrictions of gender roles by disguising themselves as men (Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
• Young people opposed to the marriages arranged for them (Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, All's Well that Ends Well, A Midsummer Night's Dream)

Answer 2

Shakespeare employed a number of different themes. There is no one theme which is paramount in his work. Indeed one of the reasons why Shakespeare's palys continue to be popular is that people keep finding new themes in it.

Answer 3

There are loads and loads of themes in his plays. Quite a lot of them (Julius Caesar, Richard II, the Henry VI plays, King John, Macbeth, Richard III) deal with transition of political power, and how using force to change succession of power leads to chaos. Many of the comedies deal with the fickleness of lovers (especially men) such as Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night's Dream, or the Claudio subplot in Much Ado. Themes of deceit and deception are very common, especially in King Lear, Othello, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and Hamlet. In developing the theme of reality and unreality, Shakespeare frequently draws parallels between the stage and life, in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pyramus and Thisbe), Hamlet (The Mousetrap), As You Like It ("All the world's a stage . . ."), The Merchant of Venice ("I hold the world but as a stage . . ."), Macbeth ("A poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage . . .") and The Tempest ("We are such stuff as dreams are made on . . ."). As the last quotation shows, dreams often get into the reality and unreality theme as well.

Answer 4

Adult children are frustrated and angered by the erratic behaviour of their parents, leading to elder abuse (King Lear), people seeking justice find out that the justice system is more crooked than the crooks (Measure for Measure), teenagers want to break from their parents' wishes and go their own way (Romeo and Juliet), men and women get into the habit of insulting each other and don't see that they are made for each other (Much Ado About Nothing), one act of revenge brings another, and another, and another (Titus Andronicus), men get talked into being jealous of their innocent wives (Othello), how you can make someone give up her antisocial behaviour (Taming of the Shrew), racial prejudice begets a merciless desire to retaliate in the victim (Merchant of Venice), people cannot reconcile what they are supposed to do with what they think they ought to do (Hamlet), assasinating a tyrant only leads to more tyrrany (Julius Caesar), to be a leader, you must get into the minds of the people you are leading (Henry V), if you take power by violence you must keep it by violence (Macbeth)

Elder abuse, corrupt justice, teen rebellion, frustrated love affairs, blood feuds, jealousy, antisocial behaviour, racial prejudice, conflicts between internal morality and social expectation, political assasination, leadership, violent coups d'etat--I'd say these themes are still relevant.

Answer 5

Shakespeare was a person. People don't have themes. His literary output comprises 38 plays, two or three long poems and 154 sonnets. All of these have themes, but they are not all on the same theme. Shakespeare was not one of those writers who, having produced a successful work, continues to write essentially the same thing over and over.

Answer 6

Shakespeare almost always wrote his plays in iambic pentameter. His plays are also famous for using soliloquies, which allows the audience to hear the characters thoughts out loud.

Answer 7

Historical events, Romantic love, Magic, Men vs Women, Fairy Tales, etc etc.

Answer 8

He uses a stlye called mhutho a latin word know for a unknow pattern or ryhming