Olivia Indah Kusumawati

“RITUAL ASPECT in SHAKESPEARE’S DRAMA is RELATED TO EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION”

COMPILED by :

OLIVIA INDAH KUSUMAWATI (136224010)

UNIVERSITY OF MUSLIM NUSANTARA

ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

ACKNOWLADGEMENT

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Praise to be Allah the Cherisher and the sustainer of the worlds. The writers want to acknowledge an everlasting gratefulness to the Al Mighty Allah for all the blessing bestowed upon us that this humble paper has successfully come to fruition.

Above all, the writers owe a special note of gratitude to our lectures Mr. Dr. Saiful Anwar Martondang, M.A.. for his academic guidance and encouragement.

This humble paper made to complete a Literary Criticism subject as one of subject in the seventh  grade in Faculty of Letter University of Muslim Nusantara.

Last but by no means least, the writers would like to massive thank you to our friends and classmates for their persistent encouragement which enable us to complete our whole paper.

Finally, in spite of our trying to do our best, the writers are aware that this paper is still far from being perfect. Therefore, the writers would be very much grateful if the dearest readers supply us with any constructive correction or comments that might help us make the paper more useful and accurate.

Best regards,

The writers

Medan, North Sumatera

2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLADGEMENT                                                                                                          2

TABLE OF CONTENTS                                                                                                            3

CHAPTER I               RITUAL                                                                                                   4

CHAPTER II             SHAKESPEARE’S DRAMA                                                                   6

CHAPTER III            EUROPEAN AND CIVILIZATION                                                       12

CHAPTER IV            THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SHAKESPEARE’S                        22

DRAMA AND EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION                              

BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                                                                                        26

CHAPTER I

RITUAL

            Ritual takes many forms, it may consist of simple routines which an individual submits to on a daily basis or it may be of more complex ceremony as in marriage, graduation from a civil or military organization or a rite of passage from a boy to manhood. Rituals to which I would like to speak concern the genuine and profound mysteries of Freemasonry and its effects on the psyche or consciousness of man.  Just how important is symbolic Masonic ritual to the well being of the individual and to the Craft indeed to society itself?  Why do we, as intelligent and rational people submit to arcane, and perhaps what some may view as out dated or obtuse actions? What significance if any do they hold?

              This issue of ritual, its meaning and importance is relevant today, perhaps more so than in the past. Our global society, ever expanding, becoming homogenous in nature and activity is more concerned with the acquisition of material and the temporal satiation of the five senses than the search for meaning and its own soul. I would submit that this moment in history is more important than any before as a society once divested of its soul, its roots, becomes dangerously unsustainable and has the potential to destroy itself through ignorance or imbalance. Freemasonry as a truly ancient institution must be the vanguard of ritual, enabling its members, providing them with a positive sense of worth and of value.  Indeed Freemasonry, properly functioning, sustains its brethren and the society in which it operates.

The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry states: "Ritual. The mode of opening and dosing a Lodge, of conferring the degrees, of installation, and other duties, constitute a system of ceremonies, which are called the Ritual. Much of this ritual is esoteric, and, not being permitted to be committed to writing, is communicated only by oral instruction." Knowledge of ancient rituals in as much as Freemasonic rites are written can be possessed by those who seek to learn its 'secrets.’ There is much that is contained within these rituals but to an outside observer it certainly would not be understood as one who has experienced it. Its modes of symbols, words and allusions to sacred geometry, cosmology, living and dying or renewal.(page 6: Pdf)

            A ritual is a repetitive physical act, sometimes accompanied by vocalization, necessary for the hange of information.  It is universal to animals and particularly relevant to human culture.  It can be heavily genetic, driven by neural structures hard-wired in the brain by evolution, or it can be intensely cultural, driven by neural networks of learned behavior.  It is closely involved with intelligence as we human beings define it, and there would be no culture without its presence, but at base "ritual" is non-verbal communication or gestural behavior with or without vocalization.  Some argue that "ritual" is the very origin of human language, myth, narrative and religion, but that position is marked by a verbo-centricism that sees signs as only words.  One must note that biological signals are often torqued into new patterns of significance by complex animals, and that human "ritual" is, by our own definition, the higher end of any such scale.  Obviously human "ritual" is based upon sub-strata of reptilian, mammalian, anthropoidal, and hominid behaviors, more or less determined by biological influences, but human semiosis tends to complicate those "ritual" substrata in very complex sign behavior.  Ritual, as non-verbal behavior, includes the whole area of gesture, body language, facial expression, spacing, sequencing, rhythm, time-factoring, etc, and some rituals, when aided by the natural pharmacopeia, are specifically designed to celebrate the sacredness of the Other and the mysteries of the Universe (at least as defined as Altered States of Consciousness).

In human beings, ritual is usually accompanied by a linguistic overlay based in non-verbal behavior and communication; this usually takes the form of narrative accomplished by either illustrative gestures or evocative patterns of sound and act.  Music often accompanies human ritual and as play, ritual is probably the source of imitative learning, drama, dance, sport, and gamethese activities are, of course, intensely tool-specific and closely related to human culture as hunting gestures, food preparation, and hearth/family maintenance.  It is often so closely related to religious expression that the term "ritual" is often expropriated to mean expressly "religious activities." Obviously religious behavior will be part of a mythic study of ritual, but our interest here is as much in the developmental and learning aspects of ritual as the religious.  The semiotic domain of ritual is as useful as, and probably more inclusive than either the liturgical or dramaturgical study of ritual, but all of them will be intimately connected with mythic narratives and the values those narrative engender.

CHAPTER II

SHAKESPEARE’S DRAMA

            The order in which the plays of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE were written is uncertain. In fact, we know very little about his life. He was born and educated at Stratford-on-Avon, married Anne Hathaway in 1582, and later went to London, where he worked in a theatre. It is known that he was an actor and dramatist in 1592. (page 40: An Outline of English Literature)

          The rhythm of the blank verse is still quite strictly observed; Shakespeare has not yet developed the master’s freedom which brings such freshness and power to his later verse plays; but the start is here.

            Romeo and Juliet (1594-5) is the first of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. The plot of this story is pure and tragic love is known in all parts of the civilized world. The death of Romeo and Juliet are necessary: their families are enemies, and death is the only way out of their hopeless situation. The tragedy is deeply sad and moving, but without the shock of the terrible tragedies that followed later. (page 41: An Outline of English Literature)

            The next play we should notice is The Merchant of Venice (1596-7).in this, Antonio, a merchant, borrows the money from Shylock to help his friend Bassanio, who wants to marry the rich and beautiful Portia. Shylock hates Antonio and only agrees to lend the money on condition that, if it is not repaid at the right time, Antonio shall pay a pound of his flesh. When Antonio’s ships are wrecked, and to everyone’s surprise he cannot pay the money, Shylock demand his pound of flesh. The case is taken to court, and Antonio has no hope. Then suddenly Portia, dressed as a lawyer, appears in court. At first she tried to persuade Shylock to have mercy, but she does not succeed, even with the famous speech about mercy:

It [mercy] droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes

‘T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.

            As You Like it (1599?), another important comedy, id the story of a good duke living in the forest of Arden because his evil brother has driven him out of his country. Love affairs play an important part, and the interest is increased when the girl Rosalind dresses herself as a man. (No actress appeared on the Elizabethan stage. The parts of girls were taken by men, and so ‘Rosalind’ was more accustomed to a man’s clothes than a woman’s.) Minor characters in the play include the sad and thoughtful Jacques and the wise fool Touchstone. The pastoral setting gives us some beautiful descriptions, but there is a reality about the characters that was not to be seen in earlier pastoral poetry and plays. It is true that nature at its most cruel is seen as kinder than men in courts and towns:

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Thou art not so unkind

As man’s ingratitude

But Touchstone is not persuaded:

Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool  I . When I was at home,

I was in a better place; but travelers must be content.

            Much Ado About Nothing (1598-9), a well-balanced comedy with good speeches, is also built on love affairs; yet there is a dark side of the play which is there almost hidden. The appearance of a selfish young man who brings sorrow to other is repeated in the even darker comedy, All’s Well that Ends Well, the date of which is uncertain.

            Twelfth Night (1600) has been called the perfection of English comedy. The whole play is alive with humour and action. The skill in the changes from bright to dark, from gentle to severe, is matched by the skill in the arrangement of the verse and prose. The Duke Orsino believes that he is in love with lady Olivia, but he is more in love with love. ‘if music be the food of love, ’he says at the beginning of the play, ‘play on.’ There are twins again, and they cause confusion when the girl dresses like her brother. Two knights , Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, provide amusement with their foolish plans and their drinking. The play contain several songs. Here is one: (page 42-43: An Outline of English Literature)

O, mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming,

That can sing both high and low.

Trip no further, pretty sweeting;

Journey end in lovers meeting,

Every wise man’s son doth know.

What is love? ‘T is not hereafter

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What’s to come is still unsure.

In delay there lies no plenty;

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,

Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

(page 44: An Outline of English Literature)

            The main subject of Antony and Cleopatra (1606-7) is Antony’s love for the Egyptian queen. He returns to Rome from Egypt to meet Octavius Caesar, whose sister, Octavia, he marries. Cleopatra is jealous, and Antony returns to Egypt. Octavius follows with ships and men, and defeats Antony at Alexandria. Hearing (falsely) that Cleopatra is dead, Antony falls on his swords, is carried to Cleopatra, and dies in her arms. She takes her own life by allowing a snake to bite her. (page 46: An Outline of English Literature)

            In Hamlet (1600-1), the prince of that name suspects that his dead father, King of Denmark, has been murdered by his uncle, Claudius: Claudius has become king and has married Hamlet’s mother. The ghost of hamlet’s dead father appears to him in the castle of Elsinore and tells him about the murder. Hamlet decides on revenge; but then he begins to think too much, and to hesitate. Was the ghost telling the truth? Hamlet must to try find proof of the murder. In the crisis in Act III, Hamlet has his proof. But still he hesitate. The play still holds our attention, and Hamlet keeps our sympathy, but the end is certain and unavoidable. Hamlet’s tragic weakness is hesitation, inability to act when action is needed. He is to much of a thinker. The next two extracts are to show Hamlet's troubled frame of mind. In the first (which is a soliloquy) he contemplates suicide as a means of resolving his dilemma.  The second shows Hamlet talking to his one trusted friend, Horatio, and contrasts his own personality with that of his friend.

To be, or not to be; that is the question

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more, and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuttled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice

And could of men distinguish, her election

Hath sealed thou has been

As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,

A man that fortune's buffets and rewards

Hath ta'en with equal thanks; and bless'd are those

Whose blood and judgement are so well Commingled

That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man

That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him

In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As I do thee ...

The selection below is from a soliloquy where Hamlet makes one of his frequent resolutions to act, shows the imagery of corruption that is used throughout the play.

'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and Hell itself breathes out

Contagion to this world; now could I drink hot blood,

And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on ...

And again when Hamlet wishes he were dead;

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon against self-slaughter! Oh God! God!

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on it, sh, fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank and gross O in nature

Possess it merely. .

            In King Lear (1606) we see an old king thrown out of his home by two wicked daughter, and treated so badly that he goes mad and dies. It is perhaps Shakespeare’s greatest work, reaching into the deepest places of the human spirit; but as a play on the stage it is very difficult, if not impossible, to act. Lear’s weakness is his openness to flattery. He gives his kingdom to the two evil daughters who flatter him, and nothing to the youngest girl, who tells the truth but loves him best.

            In Macbeth (1605-6) the hero, Macbeth, must be considered together with his life, Lady Macbeth. Three old witches tell Macbeth that he will receive high honours and then become king. The high honours come, and he decides to help fate to make him king. King Duncan stays with him at his castle, and he and Lady Macbeth murder the king; but Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, escape. Malcolm brings an army against Macbeth, who is killed. Lady Macbeth is already dead. Here are some words of Macbeth when he hears of her death:

She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time ;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way of dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

(page 47-48: An Outline of English Literature)

            Othello (1604-5) is the story of a brave Moorish commander in Cyprus who has a beautiful wife, Desdemona. Iago, an evil old soldier, has seen Cassio raised in rank above him, and tries to make Othello believe that Cassio and Desdemona are lovers. Othello too easily believes this, and kills Desdemona. Some critics have said that Othello has no fatal weakness; but such unquestioning jealousy is great weakness, even if it comes from a mind too noble to doubt evil suggestions. (page 48: An Outline of English Literature)

CHAPTER III

EUROPEAN & CIVILIZATION

1.      The “Civilized World” 

A.    Materialistic and non-materialistic Ideals:

Though politically divided, Europe prided itself in progress and saw other nations as “backward.”   Europe saw its material standards (food, housing, sanitation, transport, and communication) and values (science over superstition, secular Christian morality over polygamy, infanticide, legal prostitution, torture, caste, slavery).  Europeans pointed to the falling death  rate and to declining infant mortality, rising life expectancy, improving literacy, and higher labor productivity.

B.     The “Zones” of Civilization:

Inner zone, the “Europe of Steam”:  from Glasgow and Stockholm in the north, Danzig and Trieste in the east, and  Florence and Barcelona in the south--an area of heavy industry, railroads, scientific achievement, capital, and liberalism.   The “outer zone”:  Ireland, most of the Iberian peninsula, southern Italy, and most of Eastern Europe, was agricultural, with high poverty and illiteracy.

2.      Basic Demography:  The Increase of the Europeans    

A.    European and World Population Growth, 1650-1980

Relation of Europe’s population to that of the world as a whole:  examine the chart, which shows that Europe reached  a peak of population about 1900 (30%) and since has fallen to its historical average of 20% of world’s pop.  Factors:  subsiding of bubonic plague and retreat of smallpox.  Agricultural expansion and revolution of transportation that made possible shifting of food supplies.  Order was maintained in China and Japan by strong rulers, with peace in India and Indonesia maintained by colonial powers.  Only  Africa experienced a relative decline in population.

B.     Stabilization of European Population:

Europe’s birth rate has fallen since 1910; that France fell first, beginning about 1830.  Europe was based on the small family  system, begun about 1600:  later marriages, accumulation of savings, spacing of children.  When the Code Napoleon required the division of property among all children, peasants began to limit births.  Crowded cities set a premium on small families, especially with the reduction of child labor, compulsory schools, and longer dependency.  The overall population continued to rise, but with rising productivity there was no sense of overpopulation.

C.     Growth of Cities and Urban Life:

Rural populations became more dense, with intensive agriculture, but the key was urbanization.   The city was the child of the railroad, enabling concentration of manufacturing and supplying food and raw materials.  Cities were impersonal, with few self-help mechanisms --little support  from neighbors.  Public opinion, was formed by urban newspapers--yellow journalism (sensationalism) by 1900.  Disrespect for tradition, receptivity to new ideas--spread of socialism and blatant forms of nationalism.

D.    Migration from Europe, 1840-1940

Movement of 60 million people (mostly from the British Isles, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany) from 1840-1900, to the US (34 m), Asiatic Russia (7 m), Argentina (6.4m), Canada (5.2m), and Brazil (4 m).  New railroads and steamship lines made migration much cheaper and easier.  Immigration peaks coincided with prosperity,  but immigrants also fled famine (Ireland), political unrest (Germany) or persecution (Russia).  Equally important were a new tolerance for movement and the end of serfdom outside of Russia. (Page 2:Pdf)

3.      The World Economy of the Nineteenth Century   

A.    The new industrial revolution:

The first phase (steam, textile, metallurgy, railroads) was followed by a second, with electricity, internal combustion engines, and  diesels.  Rapid change followed  with such developments as dyes, fertilizers, explosives, synthetics, communications, medicine, and steel.  Belgium and France followed Britain; next came Germany and the US.  Germany passed Britain in steel, and  the US doubled Germany.  By 1914, the US surpassed European nations in coal and steel production, manufacturing, farm mechanization, and pioneering mass production.

B.     Free Trade and the European “Balance of Payments”: Britain by 1850 moved to free trade, and other nations soon followed.  Until 1914, extreme mobility of good across political borders was normal. Europe had a huge import surplus, with a trade deficit of $2 billion--a difference made up by shipping, insurance, and interest. 

C.     Capital: Europe exported capital; Workers’ wages had risen, but vast pools of wealth were available for developing nations like the US, especially from Britain.   Much of the capital went to build infrastructure; the America’s railways were financed and  often run by European capital--as were docks, mines, warehouses, roads and schools. 

D.    International Money: Europe adopted the British gold standard by the 1870s, resulting high economic stability until 1914.  Prices steadily fell until gold discoveries in the 1890s increased the supply.  Debtors, including farmers and businessmen, were hurt,  but creditors, the working class and financiers, were helped.  London was the new  financial center; its bankers financed France’s reparations in 1815 and even loaned money to Russia during the Crimean War.  English “acceptance houses” paid English merchants for goods and collected through international banking channels.  England was the bankers’ banker, the insurers’ insurer.

E.     World Market: Unity, Competition--and Insecurity: A true world market was created; goods, services, money, capital, people flowed easily across borders.  Commodities were international, with supply and demand set world-wide.  The system was precarious; a US grain surplus could ruin growers in Argentina, and factory owners faced brutal competition.  Workingmen suffered if business was slow or jobs were eliminated by new machinery.  Cycles of boom and depression began, with a long slide from 1873 to 1893.  The economy was based on expansion and credit, and a collapse of confidence was deadly.  Governments, to ensure against insecurities, used protective tariffs, social insurance, and welfare to an increasing degree.  Laissez faire capitalism declined as unions and the socialist movement both grew.

F.      Changes in Big Business: Small businesses were replaced by large, impersonal corporations based on limited liability.  Expensive machinery required more complex  corporations, and industrial capitalism led to finance capitalism.  Businesses were concentrated--as with department stores.  Vertical integration was characteristic; in steel, corporations bought out iron and coal mines and began producing steel, including both raw steel and manufactures.  Horizontal integration meant buying out  competitors as a means of reducing competition and protecting themselves against market fluctuations.  Trusts in the US and cartels  in Europe fixed prices or divided up markets.  Huge corporations like US Steel (Carnegie), Krupp in Germany, Schneider-Creusot in France, and Vickers-Armstrong in Britain had great power but reduced fluctuations and  increased stability.

4.      The Advance of Democracy:  France, Britain, Germany   

A.    France:  the Establishment of the Third Republic

The Republic of 1792 and 1848, was now instituted again after the defeat of France in 1870.  Free elections brought a  monarchist majority, which Parisians refused to accept.  Paris created the Commune, patriotic and republican, but hardly socialist.  It was suppressed in long, bloody battles, after which 20,000 were executed and 7,500 exiled.  Thus was born the Third Republic.With monarchists split (Orleanists and Bourbons), France became a Republic by one vote.  It had an elected President, responsible Premier, Chamber of Deputies (elected by ums) and a Senate (indirect vote).  Responsible government was assured, with the premier presiding over a cabinet.  The dozen parties brought constantly shifting coalitions, but France remained stable because the machinery of state (ministries, prefectures, law courts, police, army) continued unchanged.

B.     Troubles of the Third French Republic: The Republic was opposed by the upper classes, clergy, and pro army officers.The middle class was republican, and they had a parliamentary majority in 1879.  A major crisis arose due  to the plotting of a would-be dictator, General Boulanger, supported by radical republicans, dissatis fied workers, Bonapartists, and monarchists; his program was a revenge war with Germany.  Then came the Dreyfus Affair of 1894.  Yet France was stabilized by the Republic.  Workers were not so well off, but there were few of them.  Bourgeois/peasant France was comfortable, but not equipped for the transition to the modern industrial world.  France fell behind in industrial development, lacking entrepreneurial skills and stable governments--with 50 different ministries between 1871-1914.  French labor was frustrated, especially since the largest party, the Radical Socialists, represented the small shopkeepers and farmers.  Workers distrusted both government and politics.

C.     The British Constitutional Monarchy:

1)      Britain was reasonable, orderly, peaceable; in the era of Victoria, the Liberal Gladstone and Conservative Disraeli alternated in office.  The vote slowly expanded, from 12% in 1833 (middle class) to 33% in 1867 (urban workers).  Disraeli supported expanding the vote, but conservatives generally feared the result.  Liberals pushed the vote to rural workers in 1885, with 75%.  Not until 1918 was full ums reached, when women over 30 were also enfranchised. Until 1911, only “gentlemen” could run for Parliament--no salaries were paid.

2)      Parties alternated in power but policies were stable.  Liberals represented the industrial and commercial concerns, while conservatives were supported by the landed aristocracy.  Liberals tended to pioneer, moving to state-supported public education, secret ballot, legalizing labor unions, introducing civil service exams, eliminating the purchase of military commissions. Conservatives led in labor legislation.  The rise of the Labour Party after 1900 led the liberals to drop support of laissez faire in favor of legislation for workers.  Liberals from 1906-1916 (Asquith and David Lloyd George) established the basic social welfare system-sickness, accident, and unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, minimum wage—and weakened strike  restrictions and backed the progressive income and inheritance tax.  Opposition by the Lords to changes led to the bill in 1911 removing the Lords’ veto power.  Liberals became the party of labor, and conservatives the party of industry and landed wealth—but the liberals were soon to fall to the new Labour Party.

D.    The Irish Question:  The Irish obstructed Parliament.  Their chief grievances were relations of peasant and absentee landlord and Anglican tithes.  Gladstone improved  conditions, disestablishing the Irish Church; by 1900, the Conservative government allowed peasants to buy land.  But the issue of Home Rule split Gladstone’s Liberals.  It was granted in 1914, but the Ulstermen objected to inclusion in an autonomous  Ireland where they were outnumbered.  Only after much violence (Easter, 1916) did  Catholic Eire receive dominion status (1922).  Ulster remained in the United Kingdom, with a large, discontented Catholic minority.

E.  Bismarck and the German Empire:  Germany was a union of 25 states dominated by Prussia.  Bismarck remained the “Iron Chancellor” for 20 years; while he had a majority in the Reichstag, he believed the emperor and Chancellor should rule, regardless.  The first major issue was the Catholic Church, with the Papacy moving to regain power.  Bismarck began his  Kulturkampf  with restrictions of Catholic worship and education, expulsion of Jesuits, and attack on bishops.  Faced with strong  opposition, he pulled back.  He next fought the Social Democratic party, a moderate Marxist group.  Bismarck attempted anti-socialists laws for 12 years and tried to steal the socialist platform by social legislation--but the SDs remained strong.

F.      The German Empire after 1890--Wilhelm II:  Wilhelm I died in 1888; Wilhelm II became emperor.  He soon broke with Bismarck, forcing his retirement--”the dropping of the pilot.”  Wilhelm ruled for twenty years, initiating an aggressive colonial, diplomatic, and naval path but conciliating the masses (though his power was based on the Junkers, the army, and the new industrial magnates).  With democracy growing,  Germany would soon face a constitutional crisis.

G.    Elsewhere:  Italy had unstable majorities and shifting coalitions.  The franchise was broadening, but literacy, inertia, and poverty took their toll.  A strong anti-parliamentary ideology was emerging:  chauvinistic nationalism and explosive irrationalism, nihilistic “futurism” mixed.  Austria-Hungary saw the continued agitation of Slavic minorities.  In Europe generally the move was to ums, but little change for women before 1914.  But democracy was advancing.

5.      The Advance of Democracy:  Socialism and Labor Union

A.    Strongly anti-capitalist feelings had existed since 1793, and socialism was spreading.  As workers gained the vote, pressure was exerted to pass labor legislation, with two trends--abolition of capitalism (socialist) and bargain for rights (unions).  Middle class radicals (Marx, Engels, Blanc, Lassalle) favored the former, thinking of the long run;  workers were much more interested in short-term, tangible results, and tended to  distrust their intellectual mentors.

B.     Trade Unions and the Rise of British Labour:  Unions were first forbidden, but liberals supported them.  Craft/skilled unions built first; they gained workers the right to vote  in Britain.  Unskilled worker unions began in the 1880s.  By 1900 there were 2 million union members in Britain, more than Germany, far more than France.  Collective bargaining was successful, so there was little politicization of labor.  The government attempted by the Taft-Vale Act to ruin unions by making unions responsible for losses of a company in a strike.  The act only unified labor and ironically produced a decade of great social legislation improving working conditions, 1906-1916.

C.     European Socialism after 1850:  Marx worked in London for 30 years, but remained unknown to Englishmen.  The first International Working Men’s Association (the “international) was held in 1864.  Marx built his position gradually, driving out liberals.  His major fight was with Bakunin (anarchist); to Marx, the problem was not the state, but capitalism--and Bakunin was ousted.  Marx praised the bloody French Commune as class war, but if frightened his followers away from radicalism.  In 1875 the Gotha Conference produced the German Social Democratic party; it was followed by other socialist political parties, including the Russian SDs, led by Plekhanov and Axelrod.  These combined as the Second International in 1899, meeting every three years to 1914.

D.    Revisionist and Revolutionary Socialism, 1880-1914

1)      Marxist socialism retained an unyielding hostility competing socialist views.  It was strongest in Germany and  France, weak in less industrial nations and out-fought in Britain by Fabianism (democratic, seeing the gradual emergence of the socialist  state, not class war).  On the continent, Marxist or SD parties grew rapidly, with all except the Russian turning less revolutionary with time.  Workers talked of class struggle, but their goals were specific--parliamentary change and orderly legislation.  Real wages rose 50% from 1870-1900, due to mechanization, increased productivity, an expanding world market, and the slow fall of prices.

2)      Revisionism, led by Jean Jaurès and Edouard Bernstein, emerged:  class conflict is not inevitable.  In response, George Sorel created French syndicalism, with the idea of the rise of workers through a massive general strike.  The German Karl Kautsky attacked revisionism as petit bourgeois compromise, (i.e., “opportunism.”  In the Russian SDs, the conflict came in London in 1903, where Lenin demanded the end of revisionism.  Winning a temporary majority in Brussels, Lenin termed his party the Bolsheviks (majority), and the revisionists as the Mensheviks (minority). 

6.      Science, Philosophy, the Arts, and Religion

A.    Science:  Faith in science grew rapidly between 1870-1914 with the immense rapidity of increase in inventions.   Newton and Euclid ruled supreme, and physics was mechanics.  The universe was seen as predictable.

1)      Darwin’s Origin of Species  of 1859, changed the perception of life.  Species were mutable, developed by a  slow process operating through chance and “natural selection,” with the “survival of the fittest.”  Nature was not harmonious, but filled with struggle;  elimination of the weak was natural and good.  Change was constant; there were no fixed norms of good or bad; adaptation replaced virtue.  Emerging from the concept was social Darwinism, producing such strange step-children as racial superiority, the superiority of the “haves,” the rise and fall of nations, and the morality and value of war.

2)      Anthropology and sociology were established to explain behavior.  Anthropology studied races to find the “superior” in inheritance and survival value; whites were obviously more competent.  Anthropologists showed that no culture was superior, that all were adaptations to environment, mere products of custom, mores;  all was relative.  Anthropology seemed to undermine traditional religious beliefs.  Psychology was equally upsetting, as Pavlov’s work with conditioning--the idea that much behavior was based on conditioned responses.  Freud founded psychoanalysis, involving the study of causes of current behavior, the power of  the subconscious.  Was human behavior out of the individual’s conscious control?

3)      Physics:  Many individuals studied the nature of matter and energy.  Becquerel discovered that uranium emitted particles or rays of energy; the Curies, J. J. Thompson, and Rutherford showed that atoms were complex and that some were “radioactive;” Max Planck showed that energy was emitted or absorbed in units called quanta; and Niels Bohr postulated an atom with a nucleus of protons surrounded by electrons.  The greatest shock was with the work of Einstein showed that matter was convertible into energy and denied the absolute character of time, space, and motion in his theory of relativity.  His unified field theory brought a new view of the universe, challenging Euclid and Newton.  Thus emerged nuclear physics.

B.     Trends in Philosophy and the Arts:

1)      From science came agnosticism.  According to Herbert Spencer, evolution unified all philosophy and was  equally applicable to biology, sociology, government, and economics.  Society was evolving toward the freedom of the individual, with governments serving to maintain freedom.  He believed governments should not meddle in natural processes, especially to aid the weak and unfit; he did accept altruism and charity as laudable products.

2)      Friedrich Nietzsche strongly disagreed with Spencer’s conclusions.  Mankind was base, but from it would emerge the Superman who would lead and dominate the masses.  He viewed Christian ideals (humility, patience, love, hope) as a slave morality; true virtues were courage, love of danger, beauty of character, intellectual excellence--a new form of classical paganism.

3)      Writers like Zola in France and Ibsen in Denmark turned away from romanticism to a portrayal of real social problems, especially of the working class--strikes, prostitution, divorce.  The arts found themes in irrationalism and the subconscious.  Artist and society diverged dramatically, and art at its fringes became incomprehensible to the average person.  “People read books without punctuation...listened to mu sic called atonal and deliberately composed for effects of discord and dissonance, and studied intently abstract or ‘non-objective’ paintings and sculpture to which the artists themselves often refused to give titles.”  The arts became symptomatic of an atomized, over-specialized modern world.

C.     The Churches and the Modern Age

1)      Religion felt threatened--by Darwin, who expressed a world without need of God, and by scriptural critics,  analyzing the Bible for inconsistencies and explaining away miracles as myth.  People turned to materialistic progress rather than spiritual values.  Uprooting of society from country to city often broke religious ties.

2)      Protestants especially declined, since they were most solidly rooted in the Bible.  They split into modernists, accepting science and willing to interpret much of the Bible as allegory--thus losing spirituality. and losing membership to the evangelicals or fundamentalists, who defended the literal truth of Scripture and often denied the clear truths of science.  Protestants were slow to face the social problems and injustices of the economic system.

3)      Catholics:  Pius IX in 1864 denounced a long list of ideas--including rationalism and faith in science--in his Syllabus of Errors.  He also announced the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (1854) and proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility.  Unconditional acceptance of papal power (ultramontanism) prevailed over national tendencies within the church.  The popes lost their temporal powers in the unification of Italy (granted Vatican City in 1929), but gained independence from national or secular authority.  Leo XIII  proclaimed in de Rerum Novarum the need for social justice for the working poor, accepting private property  and criticizing the materialism and irreligion of Marx.  Socialism could be Christian.

4)      For Jews, Reform Judaism was the counterpart to Christian modernism.  European liberalism brought full citizenship to Jews and many individuals gave up their distinctive Jewish way of life.  Assimilation was slowed by anti-semitism, spurred by Jewish competition and fear of Jewish Marxists and growing from ethnic nationalism.  Brutal pogroms  in Russia and the Dreyfus case in France forced by this Jews to re-examine their identity, and many turned to the idea of Zionism, a political movement begun by Theodore Herzl in 1897 which called for a national home for the Jews in Palestine.  Some saw Zionism as a means of maintaining dignity; others felt Judaism was a religion and that Jews should seek integration.

7.  The waning of Classical Liberalism     

A.    Classical liberalism reached its highest expression with Gladstone and J.S. Mill.  The individual was formed by race, class, church, nation, or state, but was independent of  all such and should be free to use reason.  People of different interests could reasonably and profitably discuss differences and produce progress through peaceable  compromise.  Liberals opposed any force or dogma, and wanted constitutional governments   The will of the majority was decisive, but a minority should be respected.  Typically they favored ums, laissez faire, free trade, and internationalism.

B.     Yet the free economy produced hardships.  Demands began for protective tariffs.  Economic nationalism  led to imperialism, competition for markets. Workers began to form unions, industries formed monopolies, trusts, and cartels.  The social service state began to protect the individual--and new Liberals accepted a major role for government--as T. Roosevelt and David Lloyd George in Britain.  Government began to act to weaken business, strengthen the worker--and many began to fear the power of a strongly centralized modern government.  

Intellectual Currents:  Darwin and Freud undercut the old Liberal faith in reason and stress the irrational (will, intuition, impulse, emotions) and conflict.  Marx preached  class warfare, Nietzsche praised the manly virtues, Social Darwinists glorified success;  Sorel preached that all violence is good, regardless of the end accomplished.  After years without major war, men again sought the glory of war and struggle.  After 1871 virtually all of Europe maintained large standing armies; in England, the Labour Party required members to vote as a bloc, and other parties followed.  Violence became a tool of many seeking positive change--including suffragettes; it was an age of great labor strikes.  What would the new century bring?

CHAPTER IV

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SHAKESPEARE’S DRAMA AND EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION

Based on the statement above that we have already discuss about a particle of this paper which we will discuss about. To the public theatre of the sixteenth century came William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) as a actor, playwright, and shareholder in theatrical undertakings. So much has been written about his place, and so much speculation evolved from the view known fact of his life, that any brief treatment may easily be a rehearsal of common-places. In the year that followed, until the Globe was burnt down on 29 June 1613 during the first performance of Hendry VIII, the theatre dominated his life.

Of his art in its relationship to ideas, it can not be disputed, despite the divisions made in his place by categorizing historians, that he held to a consistent outlook. In human conduct, he was everywhere possessed by the conception or a ritual aspect of loyalty and this loyalty, and their consequences in human life. In the exercise of the passion, which often entrance with their delight, he contemplated the strange conflict of reason and emotion , and the disorder that arose when reason was obliterated, and it was related with European  civilization that they were built a society of conception of the reason idea that built in European at that time especially also an European civilization’s thought about the emotion. Emotion often use European at the middle of 15 and 16 centuries as same as the Shakespeare’s drama showed.

And the important ritual aspects relationship between Shakespeare’s drama and European civilization its a morality place is a ritual that rose at the medieval, early Tudor and the European civilization. In their own time, this ritual place were known as interlude, a brother term given to drama’s with or without a moral, a moral is a message conveyed are lesson to be learnt from a story or even. In the European they always use a moral as their first guidance for control a society life, morality plays are a type of allegory, a most general sense is an extended metaphor, in which the protagonist, the actors who as the primary figure that conflict because of the antagonist, is made by personification, an attribution of human form is other characteristic to anything other than a human being, of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil. This ritual aspect were most popular on Europe during the 15 and 16 centuries. Having grown out of the religiously based mystery place of the middle age, they represent a shift toward a more secular bare for European  civilization.

And by the same time and way William Shakespeare Drama allowed the characters of freedom to leave their own life to the utter most confines of good and evil, but he was ever conscious that they exist in a moral world, functioning under a define provident. While this consistency is maintained, his art permitted of an almost infinite variety of mute, and as he progress, the visions deepens.

For making sure of the statement above, one of Shakespeare’s drama “Hamlet” will show its relationship between ritual aspect in Shakespeare’s drama and European civilization. In Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet , prince of Denmark is the protagonist. He is sad in a tragic situation, where the ghost of his dead father urges to take revenge on his uncle who had murder  the father.

I heard Thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted ;or, of it was, not

above once, for the play, I remember, pleased not the million ; ‘twos coviare

to the general; but it was,-as I received it, and other whose judgements in

such matters cried in the top of mine,-an excellent play, well digested in the scenes

set down with as much moderty or cunning (II.2)

            As same as the ritual aspect in Shakespeare’s drama, a morality plays in the European civilization typically contain a protagonist who represent either humanity as a whole or a smaller social structure. Supporting character are personification of good and evil. This alignment of characters provide the plays audience with moral guidance. Morality plays are the result of the dominant believes of the time period, that human had a certain amount of control over their post –dead fate while they were on earth.

            If we look at this statement above one of Shakespeare’s drama that use of this ritual aspect that related to European civilization is ”Othello”. In Othello he saw that he could compare a much more closely design play, where the theme  is as compact as an argument . never did his knowledge of the stage show its self more completely, for the much-priced Iago owes his existence only to his master’s knowledge of what the stage can make credible. If that find villain stopped out of the theatre, as so many critics encourage him to do, he would fall into the hands of the veriest Dogberry of policeman. Before that Othello is crushed and begins to weep. He tries to kill Iago but is  disarmed. Iago kills Emelia and flees, but he is caught by Lodovico and Montano, who return holding Iago captive. Lodovico tells Othello that he must come with them back to vanish to be tried. But, Othello make a speech about how he would like to be remembered, then kills himself with a sword he had hidden on his person.

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak

Of one that loves not wisely but too well;

Of one not easily jealous, nut being wrought

Perplex’d in the extreme.(V.2)

            Another ritual aspect of Shakespeare’s drama that related to European civilization is the farce aspect. In the European, they like a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience. Farce often highly incomprehensible plots-wise (due to the many plot twist and random even that occur). Farce is also characterize by physical humor. Based on A Short History of English Literature. “ The use of deliberated absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performance in English drama and often set in one particular location, where all even occur. Such as in As You Like It  and Twelfth Night, most of the action of the former text place in the forest of Arden, another idealized would lend, in habited by a Banished Duke who holds court there ”Like The Old Robin Hood of England”.

            For another Shakespeare’s drama that related to Farce in the European civilization are “ As You Like it and twelfth Night “ represent the peak of Shakespeare’s achievement  in pure comedy. Based on A Short History of English Literature ;Second Edition.

What makes “As you Like it and Twelfth  Night outstanding is the prevailing

Imaginative control of word and idea by which everything is contained within a

Single living whole. We spoke of Shakespeare’s success in weaving

 diverse themes together  in earlier comedies. ’interweaving’ would be

an inadequate word to use of the artistry that makes a harmony

of the variety of there two plays : rather there is fusion. In Twelfth Night

the theme of identities confused in separated twins (Sebastian &Viola)

recalls The Comedy of Errors just as the theme of a girl in

male disguise (Viola as Cesano) harks back to the two gentlemen of Verona.

Twelfth night touches such theme with a new freshness (52)

            Based on the statement above that the writers has been written about the ritual aspect in Shakespeare’s drama that related to European civilization, we can conclude that Shakespeare’s drama can not be separated by the European civilization, because most of the Shakespeare’s drama was talk from the reality life of European civilization. And the main of European civilization that influenced Shakespeare’s drama are the morality plays, a ritual aspect in European that give a moral or without a moral in the European society. And which occur in the protagonist defeats the antagonist to declare a good or bad. And other ritual aspect in European civilization that relate to Shakespeare’s drama is farce aspect, the ritual aspect that aims at entertaining the audience. 

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