MB UNIUD

Yesterday evening I stayed in front of the greatest playwright in the history of England and maybe all over the world. I have to say that it was a great pleasure for me to interview William Shakespeare. He answered all my questions. I can say that he is a very serious man even if he jokes sometimes. I asked him something about his life, where he lived and how he started his career. After that I asked him about one of his greatest play, "Romeo and Juliet". This play is known all over the world and I wanted to know something about it because I think I'm one of those few people who don't know much of it. So let's start telling you my conversation with Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford Upon Avon where he started studying in a local grammar school. But his career started when he moved to London where he became a member of the "Lord Chamberlain's Men", a company of actors financiated by the Lord. Before writing his plays, Shakespeare was an actor, then he became the resident playwright of the company which changed its name in "King's Men". He wrote histories, tragedies and comedies, using words that common people couldn't even imagine to use. He made use of all retorical figures and he was able to turn a tragedy into a comedy or write a comedy which seems a tragedy. It's really strange, isn't it? But "impossible is nothing with Shakespeare!" - as he said, proclaiming himself. In his histories he deald with kings and lords right from King Jhon to Henry VII. "They were all addressed to Queen Elizabeth as thanks for her generosity to me and all the companies of playwrights and actors" - said Shakespeare to remind his Queen who financiated the performances of his plays. He also write some histories which dealt with Roman characters ( Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus). If we speak about tragedies we can say that they were perfectly in line with the Shakespearian culture. As a matter of fact they were all about a character who had to suffer and had to make a choice: "to be or not to be"... "do or die", we can say nowadays. Facing problems helped men to go deeper into himself  and keep getting better. This was the biggest aim that people wanted to reach in the Renaissance. This is the reason why people liked Shakespeares tragedies. The most famous are "Hamlet", "Othello", "Macbeth" and "King Lear". On the other side, characters of the comedies leave their wrongs and problems and they usually last in a relationship. We can see this "beautiful" life in "Cymbeline", " The Winter's Tale", "The Tempest". Talking about Shakespeare's tragedy we can say something about the story of Romeo and Juliet. But is it really a tragedy or people only think so because of the death of  Romeo and Juliet? We discuss a lot about this problem. I'll start telling the story, then we can understand if it is a tragedy or a comedy. The drama is about Romeo, a boy from the Montague family and Juliet, from the Capulets. Romeo and Juliet are in love but they can't be together because of a feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. In the end the two characters died but the families come to peace. So if we look at the story as the lovestory of Romeo and Juliet we can consider it a tragedy even if it is a particular kind of tragedy. As a matter of fact we know that Shakespearian tragedies were all about one character who has to make a choice. This is the story of two characters, so it may be different. Now,if we consider the story between the two families we can say that it is a comedy because after some problems, there is the pacification between the Capulets and the Montagues. The problem of the choice (comedy or tragedy) affascinated me a lot so after this conversation I decided to read the story and I'll do it. In the end Shakespeares greeted generously and he said he hopes his plays will be read for a long long time.