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First

period

(1590 ~ 1600)

Mainly writing historical dramas and comedies, there are 9 historical dramas, 10 comedies and 2 tragedies.

10 comedies "The Comedy of Errors", "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "Love's Labour's Lost", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Venice Merchant", "The merry wives of windsor" "," make trouble out of nothing"and" Twelfth Night "are mostly themes of love, friendship and marriage. The protagonists are mostly young men and women with humanistic wisdom and virtue. Through their struggle for freedom and happiness, they celebrate the progress and the beautiful Newcomers and new styles also gently expose and ridicule the decay and ugliness of old things, such as the hypocrisy of asceticism, the hypocrisy of the Puritans and the greed of loan sharks. The basic sentiment of Shakespeare's drama creation in this period is optimistic and clear, full of confidence to resolve social contradictions with humanistic ideals, so that the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" written in this period is also full of comedy atmosphere. Although the protagonist died in martyrdom, the ideal of love defeated death, in exchange for reconciliation of feudal feuds. However, the later mature comedy "The Merchant of Venice" in this period was also melancholic and tragic. While advocating kindness, friendship and sincere love, it reflected the class oppression and racial discrimination in the Christian society. It shows that the author has gradually realized that there is an intractable contradiction between ideal and reality.

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