Новые взгляды на пьесы : причины, изменения

Introduction Relevance of the research: The historical background is an important part of our life. People born and die every day. History is constantly being created without stopping for a minute. The future is impossible without the experience and historical facts that we have. There can be no development on the planet if humanity does not learn from its mistakes. The question of the importance of historical facts and history in general will always be relevant because the next generations will rely on our experience.Cultural materialism is a critical theory that helps to keep historical facts afloat. It shows how a particular event or phenomenon has changed over several hundred years. How did it degrade or, on the contrary, evolve. In our case, we are studying the theatrical production of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet and it has changed many times over time. Various historical events changed the course of history and influenced one or another decision to change the production.Theoretical development and Contradictions: The cultural materialism studied from 1980. It takes roots from the America. Raymond Williams, who used it to describe a theoretical combination of left-wing culturalism and Marxist analysis, coined the term “cultural materialism”. Insisting on the importance of interacting with issues of gender, sexuality, race and class, cultural materialism has had a significant impact on the field of literary studies, especially in the UK. One big resistant in this theory is that researchers try predict the future but it is impossible.The purpose: The main purpose is to applied cultural materialism on play “Romeo and Juliet” and found out main aspects and features of it play at different time intervals.Object: the play “Romeo and Juliet” by William ShakespeareTasks:- research of theoretical aspects of cultural materialism- identify trends in the development of theatrical art- describe changes in the play “Romeo and Juliet” in 1603 and its reasons- describe changes in the play “Romeo and Juliet” in 1800 and its reasons
-to understand that historical facts help in development of theatrical art
1. Theoretical aspects of historical background analyzes1.1 Cultural materialism through the agesResearch methods of cultural materialism took roots in the late 1960s but were described completely in 1980. This term firstly was used in the field of anthropology in Marvin Harris book “The Rise of Anthropological Theory”. Extensive research (Ashley Crossman, 2019) states that in this work, Harris built on Marx's theory of base and superstructure to craft a theory of how culture and cultural products fit into the greater social system. He argued that technology, economic production, the built environment, etc. influences both the structure of society (social organization and relations) and the superstructure (the collection of ideas, values, beliefs, and worldviews). Marvin Harris claimed that it is very important to accept this system to understand why cultures are distinguished from group to group as well as why products like art are created in a specific place and context for those who use them. Cultural materialism in anthropology is often dismissed with a cultural materialism approach in literature. While approaches in anthropology study the relation between people and nature, the literature approach analyzes history and tries to predict the future.Later Alan Sinfield and Jonathan Dollimore wrote the collection of essays “Political Shakespeare”, ‘studies the implication of literary texts in history’ (John Brannigan, New Historicism and Cultural Materialism, Dollimore and Sinfield 1985, viii) where the term cultural materialism was used. Raymond Williams was an important figure. The influencer of cultural materialism, described the importance of history for literary texts. The main works of Williams are analyzed and their main content is revealed. This shows how Williams understands the difference between communication and communication as such, and how important such a separation is to understanding his theory of cultural materialism. In the first chapter two main points of Williams' theory of cultural materialism were revealed: his theory of communication and its connection with material culture, as well as its connection with the Marxist theory of culture. Moreover cultural materialism is often dismissed with new historicism because both of these approaches work with history. New historicism is about some controversial events that cannot be proven by any of sources because documents, maps and so one was rewritten or exterminated. At the same time cultural materialism is trying to predict the future. Both of these approaches cannot achieve their main aims. It is impossible. Also want to add some differences between cultural materialism and new historicism. While new historicism concentrates on the past only and works with literary and non-literary texts, cultural materialism focuses on present and future, works with literary texts only.
1.2 Cultural materialism. How does it work?Alan Sinfield and Jonathan Dollimore were creators of cultural materialism and they give four characteristics of this approach. Firstly it was emphasis on historical background, the main aim of which is to allow the literary text to "reconstruct its history", which previous research has often ignored. Secondly, the emphasis on theoretical method. Thirdly, the emphasis on political commitment and finally textual analysis. Cultural materialism is optimistic about the changes in literature values. It situates the literary text within the context of contemporary power relations. Cultural materialism wants to predict the future and understand how history could change. However it is impossible in the power of unpredictable fate. This approach looks into the particular event and analyzes how it changes through the years till nowadays.
1.3 Trends in the development of theatrical artIt is impossible to know how the theatre appeared. All that humanity knows, that first was created in the V century BC in ancient Greece in a day of celebrating Dionysus holiday. Theatre was made of wood and they performed twice in a year. Thespis added a performance by one actor to the chorus. He was reading a prologue about the myth of the god Dionysus. Later, they began to alternate the songs with the lyrics and the whole performance was obtained.Archon organized the theater performance, which was a very important and responsible position. Usually it was a well-off person because you had to pay for the scenery and costumes. The biggest theatre was in Greece; it took over 17 thousand viewers. The actor could be any citizen of ancient Greece. It was a respected profession. However, there were only 3 actors in the theater so they had to play multiple roles. Also, the actors could only be men. The staff wore special masks and were also good at dancing and gesticulating. They were professionals.The actor could be any citizen of ancient Greece. It was a respected profession. However, there were only 3 actors in the theater so they had to play multiple roles. Also, the actors could only be men. The staff wore special masks and were also good at dancing and gesticulating. They were professionals.Main tendency of theatrical art was creativity and the idea of something new. Public wants to see interesting performances with new decorations or replies. It creates the illusion of alive theatre. One modern idea which has spread now all over the world. Theatre without stage. “The stage is the “natural place” of theatre” (Franz Anton Cramer, August 2015). Professors and directors say that the theatre should become reality. Public should fall into the story and understand it from inside. Directors organise festivals in specific themes where actors interact with the public and create the atmosphere of the story show today. Many decorations and music create the feeling of nature. And one important thing, that the public should be in special dress-code. Otherwise, the audience will not be allowed to enter the theater. Well, many interesting things appear on the stages and many leave but the most important thing is that theatres have a win-win option for showing views. The audience is always delighted and watching the play "Hamlet" for the 10th time they watch it like a new one, because the theater is always developing and striving to improve its skill and skill.
Key findings of chapter 1
Found out what cultural materialism is.
Found out strengths and weaknesses of cultural materialism.
Main figures: Alan Sinfield, Jonathan Dollimore and Raymand Williams.
Connection between cultural materialism and new historicism.
Main trends in the development of theatrical art.
Chapter 2. New view on play “Romeo and Juliet”by William Shakespeare2.1 Play “Romeo and Juliet” in 1603: changes, reasonsOne of the most famous writers in the world is William Shakespere. Author is famous for his magnificent style of writing and unbelievable idea of the story. His compositions have a unique plot and characters. In this course work we concentrate on “Romeo and Juliet”, famous work all over the world. Extensive research (David Bevington,1999, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romeo-and-Juliet) indicates that “Romeo and Juliet”, play by William Shakespeare, written about 1594–96 and first published in an unauthorized quarto in 1597. He made this legendary property of his time, the Renaissance. The renaissance brought with it the dream of liberating a people from the yoke of the unfair relationship.“Romeo and Juliet” has a long story before Shakespeare. This composition has different interpretations and was played in different theatres. However, no articles of these productions have been saved to this day.First time the play was presented by the Shaksperian troupe The Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1595-96. The audience saw off the group with stormy applause. The troupe performed on the stage of “The Theatre” which was built by James Burbage. After his death The Theatre was disassembled in parts and moved to another part of the river. Further The Globe theatre was raised. “The Lord Chamberlain's Men theater company was named The King's Men in 1603.”(Olga Nikolaeva, http://www.romeo-juliet-club.ru/onas.html).The first lucky person to play the role of Romeo was Richard Burbage, many people admired his talent and told stories about how wonderfully he plays instruments and sings songs. The female role of Juliet was performed by a man named Robert Goffe. This man played almost all the main female roles in the early Shakespearean plays. Why did men play female roles til 1660? There are two historical factors that influenced history. Well, the first one is church. Europe was very religious and actors’ play was indicated by the church as blasphemy. The Christian Church did not approve of theater in general and at some time theaters in general were banned in Europe. The priests assured that there was no place for a woman on the stage because it was absolutely wrong and not clean. Thus, the director had no choice but to put "young men-usually of prepubescent age - ..." (© 2018-2021 Студия Свободы, https://svoboda.studio/article/pochemu-ranshe-v-teatre-igrali-tolko-muzhchiny) in the production, they dressed up in women's clothes and appeared before the audience. Roles where grace, subtlety of voice and grace were required were usually performed by castrati, and for example, the roles of older women were played by older men. However, the church was also dissatisfied with this, because dressing men in women was a sexual aberration. “The exclusion of women from the public sphere, including the ban on performing on stage, was due to the norms of morality and morality corresponding to that time.” (Maria Khalizeva, June 6, 2014, https://radostvsem.ru/vse-stati/zhenskie-roli-muzhchin-v-teatre-vo-vremena-shekspira-teatralnyj-akter-byl-izgoem-obshhestva.html#by___6_2014).The second theory of this interesting period is that William Shakespeare has an inexplicable attraction to young boys. Shakespeare wanted his main characters to be played by a young man. There is a theory, among others, expressed at the time by Oscar Wilde, that Shakespeare created the image of Juliet and other young female characters specifically for a young actor with whom he was in love (Ian Youngs, June 1, 2017). Many directors have delved into the biography of William Shakespeare and all unequivocally assure that if it were possible, he would definitely have written the role of Juliet male. And in the process of writing the play, the role of Juliet was dedicated to an actor with whom Shakespeare was secretly in love and this play was a kind of declaration of love. Disputes about Shakespeare's orientation have been going on for a very long time. Shakespeare wrote letters to a young man, but there is no first name or last name, only how the author addressed the unknown "blonde friend".
The writer’s theme of the play was ancient. The love story of two members of the families at enmity was used in ancient literature many times. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is the most known (Hughes, 1997, https://ru.scribd.com/doc/188137448/Pyramus-and-Thisbe).
V.D. Nikolaev writes that the source of Shakespeare's play was a novella by Matteo Bandello, one of the famous Italian short stories. Bandello's novella makes a strong impression - one feels as if one is reading a brief retelling of Shakespeare's tragedy. In 1559, Bandello's story was translated by Pierre Boaistuau into French within the first volume of his “Histories Tragiques”. Boaistuau added more moralising and sentiment. Arthur Brooke in his poem “The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet” (1562) translated Boaistuau faithfully. This trend to publish works based on Italian novella was widely used among writers and playwrights because Italian tales were very popular among theatre-goers. Following Bandello's plot, Shakespeare supplemented the play with bright, colourful lyricism and changed the characters' images having made them much more profound. A few comic scenes were added with participation of servants, the image of nurse was made picturesque (Nikolaev, 2007, http://www.w-shakespeare.ru/library/nikolaev-shekspir-enciklopediya.html).
The plot of the play was based on one Italian tale translated in verse by Arthur Brooke as “The Tragic Tale of Romeus and Juliet” (1562) and retold by William Painter in prose as “The Palace of Pleasure” (1567) (Delahoyde, 2008, https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/index.html). Shakespeare borrowed from both works, but expanded the plot by adding a number of supporting characters, notably Mercutio and Paris. It is thought that the play was written between 1591 and 1595, and in 1597was first published in a quarto version. However, the text of the first version of the quarto had poor quality, and in following editions the text was corrected to conform to Shakespeare's original.
The poetic dramatic structure (especially switching between comedy and tragedy for heightening tension, expanding secondary characters and using subplots to embellish the story) Shakespeare's use has been assessed as an early sign of his dramatic prowess. The play ascribes different poetic forms to the characters, sometimes changing as the character develops. For example, Romeo increasingly masters sonnet as the play progresses.
“Romeo and Juliet” is thought in some cases to have no common theme other than young love. The play became the epitome of doomed love. Because this is such an obvious theme of the play, some scholars have investigated the language and historical context behind the romance of the play (Honegger, 2006, https://images-insite.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/dunia_buku/koleksi-buku-lainnya/william-shakespeares-romeo-and-juliet-blooms-modern-critical-interpretations-pdfdrivecom-96461578735293.pdf#page=178).
When they first meet, Romeo and Juliet use a communication form recommended by many etiquette writers in Shakespeare's time. This form is metaphor. By using metaphors of saints and sins, it was able for Romeo to test Juliet's feelings for him in a non-threatening way. Such a form was described by Baldassare Castiglione (his works had by then been translated into English). He pointed out that if a man used a metaphor as an invitation, the woman could pretend not to understand him and he could retreat without losing his honour. In the play, Juliet, however, takes part in the metaphor play and develops it. The religious metaphors as "shrine", "pilgrim" and "saint" were widely used in the poetry of that time and were probably understood as romantic rather than blasphemous, as the concept of holiness was associated with the Catholicism of an earlier time. Later in the play Shakespeare removes the bolder allusions to the resurrection of Christ in the tomb, which he found in his source, Brook's Romeus and Juliet (Groves, 2007, https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208982.001.0001/acprof-9780199208982).
In the balcony scene, Shakespeare makes Romeo overhear Juliet's speech, but in Brook's version her confession takes place alone. By bringing Romeo into the scene to eavesdrop, Shakespeare breaks the usual courtship sequence. Breaking this rule allows the plot to develop more quickly. The lovers can dispense with the courtship and proceed to talk frankly about their relationship - they agree to get married after knowing each other for just one night. There is a contradiction in the final suicide scene in the message: in the Catholic religion, suicide was often seen as condemned to hell, whereas people who die to be with their love, according to the “Religion of Love”, reunite with their love in heaven. Romeo and Juliet's love seems to express the "Religion of Love" view rather than the Catholic view. Another point is that, although their love is passionate, it is only consummated in marriage, which prevents them from losing the audience's sympathy (Siegel, 1961, https://ur.booksc.org/book/22817469/7f741f).
Scientists argue about the role of fate in the play. There is no common opinion whether the characters are really destined to die together or whether events occur as a result of unfortunate circumstances. The case for fate often refer to the description of the lovers as "star-crossed". The phrase seems to hint at that the stars have predetermined the lovers' future (Evans, 1950, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/brevity-of-friar-laurence/C279702EE518712157CCA2EAFD9E450E). Other scholars view the play as a series of unfortunate accidents - many of them consider it not as a tragedy at all, but an emotional melodrama. The high degree to which chance is emphasised in the play makes it a “lesser tragedy” of chance rather than character. For example, the fact that Romeo defies Tybalt is not impulsive; after Mercutio's death it is an expected action. In this scene, Romeo chooses to kill, not because of a tragic flaw, but because of circumstances (Nevo, 1972, https://ru.scribd.com/book/302821615/Tragic-Form-in-Shakespeare).
Scientists have long noted Shakespeare's extensive use of light and dark imagery throughout the play. The theme of light is considered like "a symbol of the natural beauty of young love", and many critics have expanded on this interpretation (Nevo, 1972, https://ru.scribd.com/book/302821615/Tragic-Form-in-Shakespeare). For example, both Romeo and Juliet see each other as light in the surrounding darkness. Romeo sees Juliet as “the sun, brighter than a torch, a jewel gleaming in the night, and a bright angel among the dark clouds”. Even as she lies seemingly dead in the tomb, he utters that her "beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light." "Juliet sees Romeo as "day in night" and "whiter than snow upon a raven’s back." This contrast of light and dark can be extended as symbols - contrasting love and hate, youth and age in metaphorical form. Sometimes these intertwining metaphors create dramatic irony. For example, Romeo and Juliet's love is a light amidst the darkness of hate around them, but all their activities together take place in night and darkness, while all the enmity takes place in daylight. This paradox of imagery creates atmosphere of the moral dilemma the two lovers face: loyalty to family or loyalty to love. At the end of the story, as morning turns gloomy and the sun hides its face from sorrow, light and darkness return to their places, with the outer darkness reflecting the true, inner darkness of the family feud over the lovers' sorrow. All the characters then realise their folly in the light of recent events, and everything returns to the natural order of things, thanks to the love and death of Romeo and Juliet (Sabatier, 2017, https://books.google.ru/books?id=e_L3DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276&dq=Parker,+D+%E2%80%9CLight+and+Dark+Imagery+in+Romeo+and+Juliet.%E2%80%9D+Queen%E2%80%99s+Quarterly&source=bl&ots=4nO8fDADKh&sig=ACfU3U3-P9VUBf-SlnZeOxYKswUe-6_R5Q&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiNjsPiionzAhWDr4sKHcOyAhcQ6AF6BAg4EAM#v=onepage&q=Parker%2C%20D%20%E2%80%9CLight%20and%20Dark%20Imagery%20in%20Romeo%20and%20Juliet.%E2%80%9D%20Queen%E2%80%99s%20Quarterly&f=false).The theme of "light" in the play is also closely linked to that time, as light was a convenient way for Shakespeare to express the passage of time through descriptions of the sun, moon and stars (Tanselle, 1964, https://academic.oup.com/sq/article-abstract/15/4/349/5109299?redirectedFrom=fulltext).
Time is also related to the theme of light and darkness. In Shakespeare's time, plays were most often staged at noon or during the daylight hours. This forced the playwright to use words to create the illusion of day and night in his plays. Shakespeare uses references to night and day, the stars, the moon and the sun to create this illusion. He also makes the characters often mention days of the week and specific hours to help the audience understand that time has passed in the story. In total, there are no less than 103 references to time in the play, which reinforces the illusion of its flow (Halio, 1998, https://archive.org/details/romeojulietguide0000hali).
When Juliet finds Romeo's dagger and kills herself, the situation strikingly resembles the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. The only significant difference with Bundello's novella that Shakespeare allowed himself in the novel, after the death of Romeo and Juliet, the families reconciled, buried them in the same grave, but then the enmity flared up again. But Shakespeare followed the canons of the Elizabeth’s tragedy and had to end the play with the renewal of the destroyed harmony. Therefore, the enmity of the two families ends forever. It is worth noting that both Romeo and Juliet committed suicide, that is, they committed the most terrible Christian sin (the most terrible, because it can no longer be redeemed). But Shakespeare didn't seem to care at all. That is how his tragedy differs from Brooke's poem. In addition, despite certain sympathy, the love of Romeo and Juliet is shown, if not as a sin, then as excessive passion and delusion that caused punishment. Shakespeare created the tragedy of great love, where the characters, having died, reconciled their families.
The play represents the life of the Renaissance, revealed as a kind of theatrical spectacle, The costumes, faces, habits, landscape - all from the Renaissance, and on the stage of the Renaissance in Italy, the most classic and expressive by the time of Shakespeare. The English Renaissance was only shown through Shakespeare himself, through his poetic deeds, which could argue with the superiority of Italy and the culture of Italy. The world before people, the historical existence before individuals - such is the poetics of Shakespeare, without which he would not be a tragic artist: tragedy requires the power and primacy of the universal and objective world. The world common to all, inevitable for everyone, differs in the Shakespeare’s play in its elements, within which people struggle and act. Not everything belongs to the Renaissance; it is still far from power in Verona, in Italy, and in the world. There is a traditional and extremely strong life, on its side is custom, manners, legislation. In addition, in the newest society, its own continuation of the old traditions, its own transformation, has been formed. Shakespeare knew very well what a life that had developed over the centuries, and is fluent in it as an artist. The house of the old Capulets, their cuisine, feasts and pies are tangibly shown in the tragedy (Berkovsky, 2002, http://19v-euro-lit.niv.ru/19v-euro-lit/berkovskij-lekcii/romeo-i-dzhuletta.htm).
In the play "Romeo and Juliet" the problems that made up the content of all Shakespeare's early work were intertwined into a single knot. The feud between the Montagues and the Capulet, from which Verona suffed, is similar to the feudal civil strife depicted in the chronicles of Shakespeare. Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Benvolio, the nurse remind us of the world of love, friendship and fun that appears before us in Shakespeare's comedies. In the play, these two worlds collided, and the victims of the conflict were those in whom there was the most desire to save life from the feudal enmity - Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet. It happened when the bloody enmity of two noble families would seem to end. Although the struggle between the Montagues and the Capulet takes a significant place in the plot, it does not form the basis of the conflict. In the tragedy, not two families collide, but two social and moral forces - the spirit of feudal cruelty, anger and revenge and the Renaissance principle of love, friendship, and harmony (Anikst, 1963, http://william-shakespeare.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000011/st000.shtml).
Shakespeare's tragedy seems to have two endings. The death of Romeo and Juliet is one thing, and the reconciliation of the Montague and Capulet over the bodies of the deads is another. In the epilogue of the tragedy, a balance modeled on the classical ancient theater was established. In fact, Shakespeare had no real balance. Shakespeare's tragic theater, in contrast to the ancient theater, was characterized by a lack of balance and unambiguity. Romeo and Juliet had a moral and aesthetic victory. The actual victory was with the enemies. Those who have suffered a real defeat spiritually can be considered winners, and vice versa: real winners have nothing to be proud of. The ending of Shakespeare's tragedy is not final: the process of the parties, in fact, continues after the fifth, final act. The conciliatory scene between Montague and Capulet was nothing more than an anticipation of how this process would end somewhere and once, far beyond Romeo's time and Juliet, and Shakespeare himself (Berkovsky, 2002, http://19v-euro-lit.niv.ru/19v-euro-lit/berkovskij-lekcii/romeo-i-dzhuletta.htm).
2.2 Play “Romeo and Juliet” in 1800: changes, reasons
Shakespeare's golden era was followed by grim suppression of theater by the Puritans, which was then followed by the Restoration in 1660, and a return to bawdy comedy. Comedy from the 1670s and '80s was extremely explicit, full of sexual jokes, and those plays remain very popular until around the 1720s or so. By the 1740s those plays disappeared from the English-speaking world. They either ceased being presented or they were revised or adapted. As for Romeo and Juliet, there had been a revival of the play in the late 1600s. But not too long after that, a playwright Thomas Otway wrote a new work, with two young lovers named Marius and Lavinia. It became so popular that it was nearly impossible to find a production of Romeo and Juliet for the next 85 years. What people saw instead in 1750, and, importantly, for about 100 years after, was a variation of the play, adapted by a famous actor named David Garrick. Garrick changed Romeo and Juliet in many ways. For one thing, he turned Romeo into a hero, principally because Garrick was going to be playing Romeo (Witmore, 2014, https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/romeo-juliet).
About 1845 Shakespeare's original play returned to the stage in the United States with the sisters Susan and Charlotte Cushman as Juliet and Romeo, respectively, and then in 1847 in Britain with Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Cushman adhered to Shakespeare's version, beginning a string of eighty-four performances. Her image of Romeo was considered genius by many people of that time. The Times wrote: "For a long time Romeo has been a convention. Miss Cushman's Romeo is a creative, a living, breathing, animated, ardent human being." (Gay, 2002, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-shakespeare-on-stage/women-and-shakespearean-performance/4C4756A52456591070D61939F16BD349). Queen Victoria wrote in her journal that "no-one would ever have imagined she was a woman" (Potter, 2001, https://search.library.brandeis.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_cambridge_cco_CBO9781139000109A016&context=PC&vid=01BRAND_INST:BRAND&lang=en&search_scope=LibraryCatalogAll&adaptor=Primo%20Central&query=genre,contains,Handbooks,%20manuals,%20etc.,AND&offset=50). Cushman's success paved the way for later performances to return to the original storyline. Charlotte Cushman was one of the most respected actresses of her day (Stevens-Garmon, 2013, https://www.mcny.org/story/romeo-and-juliet-love-story-pictures).
Cushman was known for playing traditionally male roles, like Romeo and Hamlet. She was not the only actress of her time to play these parts, but her style was uniquely assertive and athletic. When Queen Victoria saw Cushman as Romeo, she said she couldn’t believe it was a woman playing the part. Cushman managed her own career and demanded to be paid as much as her male counterparts. She also spent her life in a series of romantic relationships with women. It wasn’t that uncommon at this moment in time for women to play men onstage, but that paly wasn’t just the fact of playing male characters, but the way that Cushman did it. The other women who played were called "breeches parts" at the time, women wearing male clothes, were conventionally attractive women. Women were wearing large skirts that time. Most breeches parts allowed were ways for women to attract men’s attention in the audience. Cushman did not do that, and that’s part of why she was remarkable. The role of Romeo was her most successful one and the most famous. She was just about 21 when she first played Romeo. She also played male characters in some other melodramas. This was the time when most performances were done in a declamatory style, where performers, just like public speakers, would take a pose and they would orate onstage. However Cushman said claimed that she wasn’t attractive enough to stand and pose, so she had to move around. She fenced as Romeo, and she jumped all around the stage. It was very unusual in terms of a performance style of that time. Cushman had a remarkable amount of fans, but there were people who objected to her, also objected to women in any other kind of professional or assertive roles, as well as women onstage. There were so few careers open to women, and onstage, a woman could compete financially with a male, and so there were people who considered it unnatural that she was as assertive as she was. She demanded to be paid exactly what male actors were paid as soon as she became successful, which was remarkable. No women did that at that time. She managed her own career, so there were people who objected to those aspects of her life (Sheir, 2000, https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/romeo-charlotte-cushman).
Professional performances of Shakespeare in the mid-19th century had two particular features: firstly, they were generally star vehicles, with supporting roles cut or marginalised to give greater prominence to the central characters. Secondly, they were "pictorial", placing the action on spectacular and elaborate sets (requiring lengthy pauses for scene changes) and with the frequent use of tableaux.
American actors began to rival their British counterparts. Edwin Booth (brother to John Wilkes Booth) and Mary McVicker (soon to be Edwin's wife) opened as Romeo and Juliet at the sumptuous Booth's Theatre (with its European-style stage machinery, and an air conditioning system unique in New York) on 3 February 1869 (Lokker, 2020, https://owlcation.com/humanities/edwin-booth). Some reports said it was one of the most elaborate productions of Romeo and Juliet ever seen in America.
Criticism of the play in the 18th century was less sparse but no less divided. Publisher Nicholas Rowe was the first critic to ponder the theme of the play, which he saw as the just punishment of the two feuding families. In mid-century, writer Charles Gildon and philosopher Lord Kames argued that the play was a failure in that it did not follow the classical rules of drama: the tragedy must occur because of some character flaw, not an accident of fate. Writer and critic Samuel Johnson, however, considered it one of Shakespeare's "most pleasing" plays (Scott, 1987, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-research-international/article/abs/shakespearean-criticism-excerpts-from-the-criticism-of-william-shakespeares-plays-and-poetry-from-the-first-published-appraisal-to-current-evaluations-volume-one-edited-by-laurie-lanzen-harris-detroit-gale-research-co-1984-pp-683-illus-7000/AED919D3AD5E9035ED38316CA07205D2). 
In the later part of the 18th and through the 19th century, criticism centred on debates over the moral message of the play. Actor and playwright David Garrick's 1748 adaptation excluded Rosaline: Romeo abandoning her for Juliet was seen as fickle and reckless. Critics such as Charles Dibdin argued that Rosaline had been included in the play in order to show how reckless the hero was and that this was the reason for his tragic end. Others argued that Friar Laurence might be Shakespeare's spokesman in his warnings against undue haste. At the beginning of the 20th century, these moral arguments were disputed by critics such as Richard Green Moulton: he argued that accident, and not some character flaw, led to the lovers' deaths (Scott, 1987, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-research-international/article/abs/shakespearean-criticism-excerpts-from-the-criticism-of-william-shakespeares-plays-and-poetry-from-the-first-published-appraisal-to-current-evaluations-volume-one-edited-by-laurie-lanzen-harris-detroit-gale-research-co-1984-pp-683-illus-7000/AED919D3AD5E9035ED38316CA07205D2).
Key findings of chapter 2The second chapter describes the original plot of the play “Romeo and Juliet” appeared about 1600. The plot is believed to be subjected by the private life of Shakespeare and social life of that time, when the actor were only men. The play was forgotten for about 200 years and appeared again in theaters in the 19th century. In the 1800s the play was also influenced by social environment. However, women got opportunity to take part in plays. The roles of Romeo and Juliet, vice versa, were performed by women, in comparison with the plays of 1600s.

Conclusion
Research methods of cultural materialism started in the late 1960s. Cultural materialism is based on the theory that cultures are distinguished by art products created in a specific place and context around them. The influencers of cultural materialism also describe the importance of history for literary texts.
In this aspect, we observed the play “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare of two time periods – 1600s and 1800s. In 1600s the play was strongly influenced by Italian writers who generally tended to antique plots. Social and private life also influenced the play. There is a theory that Shakespeare created the image of Juliet and other young female characters specifically for a young actor with whom he was in love. All actors in plays were male that time.
From the point of view of social life, Romeo and Juliet became the epitome of young lovers and doomed love. Some scientists highlight the role of fate in the play. The case for fate often refer to the description of the lovers as "star-crossed, that was determined by the ideas of the time. The theme of "light" in the play is also closely linked to that time, as light was a convenient way for Shakespeare to express the passage of time through descriptions of the sun, moon and stars.
In the 1800s, the play got a new vision due to female part in the theaters. About 1845 Shakespeare's original play returned to the stage in the United States with the sisters Susan and Charlotte Cushman as Juliet and Romeo. Miss Cushman's Romeo was a creative, living, breathing, animated, ardent human being. Cushman's success paved the way for later performances to return to the original storyline.

Works cited
Anikst A.A. (1963). Shakespeare’s works. – Moscow. 616 p. (In Russian). URL: http://william-shakespeare.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000011/st000.shtml
Berkovsky N.Ya. (2002). Romeo and Juliet, the tragedy of Shakespeare // Berkovsky N.Ya. Articles and lectures on foreign literature. Saint Peersburg. Pp. 317-351. URL: http://19v-euro-lit.niv.ru/19v-euro-lit/berkovskij-lekcii/romeo-i-dzhuletta.htm.David Bevington,1999, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romeo-and-Juliet
Delahoyde M. (2018). Shakespeare. Washington State University. URL: https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/index.html.
Evans B. (1950). The Brevity of Friar Laurence. PMLA. Modern Language Association, 65 (5). Pp. 841–65. URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/brevity-of-friar-laurence/C279702EE518712157CCA2EAFD9E450E.
Gay P. (2002). Women and Shakespearean Performance. In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 155–173. URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-shakespeare-on-stage/women-and-shakespearean-performance/4C4756A52456591070D61939F16BD349.
Groves B. (2007). Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare, 1592–1604. Oxford. URL: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208982.001.0001/acprof-9780199208982.
Honegger T. (2006). Wouldst thou withdraw love's faithful vow?: The negotiation of love in the orchard scene (Romeo and Juliet Act II). Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 7 (1). Pp. 73–88. URL: https://images-insite.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/dunia_buku/koleksi-buku-lainnya/william-shakespeares-romeo-and-juliet-blooms-modern-critical-interpretations-pdfdrivecom-96461578735293.pdf#page=178.
Halio J. (1998). Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play. Westport: Greenwood Press. URL: https://archive.org/details/romeojulietguide0000hali.
Hughes Т. (1997). Pyramus and Thisbe. In: Tales of Ovid. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. URL: https://ru.scribd.com/doc/188137448/Pyramus-and-Thisbe.John Brannigan, New Historicism and Cultural Materialism, Dollimore and Sinfield 1985, viiiKhalizeva Maria, June 6, 2014, https://radostvsem.ru/vse-stati/zhenskie-roli-muzhchin-v-teatre-vo-vremena-shekspira-teatralnyj-akter-byl-izgoem-obshhestva.html#by___6_2014
Lokker B. (2020). Edwin Booth: 19th Century Tragic Actor. URL: https://owlcation.com/humanities/edwin-booth.Nikolaeva Olga, http://www.romeo-juliet-club.ru/onas.html
Nikolaev V.D. (2007). Shakespeare. Encyclopedia. Moscow. 448 p. URL: http://www.w-shakespeare.ru/library/nikolaev-shekspir-enciklopediya.html
Nevo R. (1972). Tragic Form in Shakespeare. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. URL: https://ru.scribd.com/book/302821615/Tragic-Form-in-Shakespeare.
Potter L. (2001). Shakespeare in the Theatre, 1660–1900. In Wells, Stanley; deGrazia Margreta (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 183–98. URL: https://search.library.brandeis.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_cambridge_cco_CBO9781139000109A016&context=PC&vid=01BRAND_INST:BRAND&lang=en&search_scope=LibraryCatalogAll&adaptor=Primo%20Central&query=genre,contains,Handbooks,%20manuals,%20etc.,AND&offset=50.
Sabatier A. (2017). Shakespeare and Visual Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. London-NYc. 295 p. URL: https://books.google.ru/books?id=e_L3DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276&dq=Parker,+D+%E2%80%9CLight+and+Dark+Imagery+in+Romeo+and+Juliet.%E2%80%9D+Queen%E2%80%99s+Quarterly&source=bl&ots=4nO8fDADKh&sig=ACfU3U3-P9VUBf-SlnZeOxYKswUe_R5Q&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiNjsPiionzAhWDr4sKHcOyAhcQ6AF6BAg4EAM#v=onepage&q=Parker%2C%20D%20%E2%80%9CLight%20and%20Dark%20Imagery%20in%20Romeo%20and%20Juliet.%E2%80%9D%20Queen%E2%80%99s%20Quarterly&f=false.
Scott M.W., ed. (1987). Shakespearean Criticism: Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays & Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Shakespearean Criticism. 5. Detroit: Gale Research. URL: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25854463M/Shakespearean_criticism_excerpts_from_the_criticism_of_William_Shakespeare%27s_plays_and_poetry_from_t.
Siegel P.N. (1961). Christianity and the Religion of Love in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare Quarterly. Folger Shakespeare Library, 12 (4). Pp. 371–92. URL: https://ur.booksc.org/book/22817469/7f741f.
Sheir R. (2000). Charlotte Cushman: When Romeo Was a Woman // Folger Shakespeare library. URL: https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/romeo-charlotte-cushman.
Stevens-Garmon M. (2013). Romeo and Juliet, a love story in pictures // Stories: City Arts, Notable New Yorkers. URL: https://www.mcny.org/story/romeo-and-juliet-love-story-pictures.
Tanselle G.Th. (1964). Time in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare Quarterly. Folger Shakespeare Library, 15 (4). Pp. 349–61. URL: https://academic.oup.com/sq/article-abstract/15/4/349/5109299?redirectedFrom=fulltext.
Romeo and Juliet Entire play // The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. URL: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html.
Witmore M. (2014). Romeo and Juliet through the Ages // Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. URL: https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/romeo-juliet.© 2018-2021 Студия Свободы, https://svoboda.studio/article/pochemu-ranshe-v-teatre-igrali-tolko-muzhchiny