Theme: Shakespeare's historical dramas

Practical value of this qualification paper is that the practical results could be used in teaching processing in elaboration lectures and during practical lectures from literature, during English lessons.
Introduction is about the aim of the research work that explains its actuality, purpose, literary and scientific value.
The main part includes 2 chapters;
The chapter I named "General information about Shakespeare's historical dramas " also includes 2 sub paragraphs
First paragraph deals showing common features of dramas
Second paragraph is dedicated to determine significiance of social life in England by studying his historical plays
The chapter II is devoted to study of "King John "historical drama . It consists of 3 sub paragraphs
The first paragraph is about plot summary of work
The second paragraph is about character analysis
The third paragraph is about main themes analysis
Conclusion summarizes the main points and reviews the information which was covered in the research work.
REFERENCE is a list of sites, books, articles used to create this research work.

Main part

Chapter l General idea about Shakespeare's historical dramas
1.1 Common features of Shakespeare's historical dramas
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. The histories—along with those of contemporary Renaissance playwrights—help define the genre of history plays.The Shakespearean histories are biographies of English kings of the previous four centuries and include the standalones King John, Edward III and Henry VIII as well as a continuous sequence of eight plays. These last are considered to have been composed in two cycles. The so-called first tetralogy, apparently written in the early 1590s, covers the Wars of the Roses saga and includes Henry VI, Parts I, II & III and Richard III. The second tetralogy, finished in 1599 and including Richard II, Henry IV, Parts I & II and Henry V, is frequently called the Henriad after its protagonist Prince Hal, the future Henry V.¹
The Shakespeare histories share a number of things in common. First, most are set in times of medieval English history. The Shakespeare histories dramatize the Hundred Years War with France, giving us the Henry Tetralogy, "Richard II," "Richard III," and "King John"—many of which feature the same characters at different ages.²
What Are Shakespeare's History Plays?
Shakespeare wrote 10 histories. While these plays are distinct in subject matter, they are not in style. Unlike other plays than can be categorized into genres, the histories all provide an equal measure of tragedy and comedy.The 10 plays classified as histories are as follows:
"Henry IV, Part I" ,"Henry IV, Part II" ,"Henry V" ,"Henry VI, Part I" ,"Henry VI, Part II" ,"Henry VI, Part III" ,"Henry VIII" ,"King John" ,"Richard II", "Richard III"³
What are the main aspects that distinguish Shakespeare’s historical works from other historical works?
Shakespeare's histories are somewhat easier to identify
The plays are named after the historical figure who is the main character in the play
The histories plays are all set in medieval England
Also important to note is that the history plays are not completely historically accurate ; Shekespeare's plays were meant to offer social commentary and critique rather than to be compleately accurate
Shekespeare also has characters from every end of the social spectrum in his histories and sometimes these characters who range in social class end up scenes together to illustrate the contrast in the classes
It is important to note that all of the historical plays are based on medieval English history because Shakespeare wrote other plays dealing with historical figures from the Roman empire , but these plays dealing with historical figures from the Roman empire , but these plays are not considered histories . ⁴
Henry V and Richard III, the two most popular (and most-filmed) history plays, are each the culmination of a four-part history cycle, whose characters and events the text often alludes to. This can be solved by editing and reshaping, but at the risk of oversimplifying the material - Laurence Olivier's Henry V is a far less complex character than Shakespeare's original, partly through cuts to the text of Henry V itself in order to beef up the patriotism for wartime propaganda purposes, but mostly through the elimination of his coming of age, a key narrative strand of the preceding Henry IV plays. Similarly, the politics of Richard III are almost incomprehensible without the scene-setting of the three Henry VI plays, and most one-off adaptations tone these down considerably in favour of focusing on the title character: only the BBC Television Shakespeare production comes anywhere close to presenting the full text.⁵