Shakespeare’s Literary Legacy: A Luminous Guiding North Star

Abstract

Strolling amidst the literary bowers of English literature flavor- of the period between the dawn of Chaucer and till now, we find ourselves miraculously enmeshed into the variegated labyrinth of Shakespeare’s versatile personality. In a large galaxy of poets and dramatists, he stands aloof as Gulliver among Lilliputians. He enthused luster in English language and changed its landscape from dusky to delightful.  Shakespeare’s genius remains elusive, but its fruition is manifest in his works as it evokes our pent-up feelings and incite ideas. The paper is, however, a humble attempt to explore his timeless legacy that shakes, shapes and adorn new evolving English language and literature invariably. The study pinpoints his immeasurable and inexplicable contribution to literature by adding gleam that was not seen before him to various genres – tragedy, comedy, history, romance, long poems, and sonnets etc. He employs very ornamental language and iridescent imagery, and painted human nature vehemently, vigorously and vivaciously. Shakespeare delineated characters that we find ourselves very close to, they earn our empathy and esteem. Apart from his immense contribution to the evolution of English language and literature, he substantially exerts influence on the modern writers irrevocably. The paper hovers around the adaptations and allusions of his themes, motifs, imagery and his tireless and tenacious command over language.