William Shakespeare

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the poet and playwright. For other persons of the same name, see William Shakespeare (disambiguation). For other uses of "Shakespeare", see Shakespeare (disambiguation).

William Shakespeare

The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.

Born

Baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date unknown) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire,England

Died

23 April 1616 (aged 52) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

Occupation

Playwright, poet, actor

Nationality

English

Period

English Renaissance

Spouse(s)

Anne Hathaway (m. 15821616)

Children

Susanna Hall Hamnet Shakespeare Judith Quiney John Shakespeare (father) Mary Shakespeare (mother)

Relative(s)

Signature

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) 23 April 1616)[nb 1] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".[2][nb 2] His extant works, including somecollaborations, consist of about 38 plays,[nb 3] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[3] Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called theLord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.[4] Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.[5][nb 4] His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, andMacbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included

all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as "not of an age, but for all time."[6] Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".[7] In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
Contents
[hide]

1 Life

o o o

1.1 Early life 1.2 London and theatrical career 1.3 Later years and death

2 Plays

o o

2.1 Performances 2.2 Textual sources

3 Poems

3.1 Sonnets

4 Style 5 Influence 6 Critical reputation 7 Speculation about Shakespeare

o o o o

7.1 Authorship 7.2 Religion 7.3 Sexuality 7.4 Portraiture

8 List of works

o o

8.1 Classification of the plays 8.2 Works

9 See also 10 Notes

10.1 Footnotes

10.2 Citations

11 References 12 External links

Life
Main article: William Shakespeare's life

Early life
William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer.[8] He was born inStratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George's Day.[9] This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616. [10] He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.[11] Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford,[12] a free school chartered in 1553,[13] about a quarter-mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar, the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree,[14] and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.[15]

John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage.[16] The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste, since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times,[17] and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583.[18] Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585.[19] Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.[20]

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the 'complaints bill' of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589.[21] Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years".[22] Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphalstories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeares first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deerpoaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him.[23]Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London.[24] John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster.[25] Some 20th-century scholars have suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will.[26] Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.[27]

London and theatrical career

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts..." As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, 13942[28]

It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592.[29] By then, he was sufficiently well known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit: ...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shakescene in a country.[30] Scholars differ on the exact meaning of these words,[31] but most agree that Greene is accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match university-educated writers such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and Greene himself (the "university wits").[32] The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", identifies Shakespeare as Greene's target. Here Johannes Factotum"Jack of all trades" means a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".[31][33] Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeares career in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks.[34]From 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed by only the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London.[35] After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new king, James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.[36]

In 1599, a partnership of company members built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they called the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that the company made him a wealthy man.[37] In 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, he invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.[38] Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions from 1594. By 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages.[39] Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603).[40] The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonsons Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end.[41] The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, although we cannot know for certain which roles he played.[42] In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles.[43] In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father.[44] Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It and the Chorus in Henry V,[45] though scholars doubt the sources of the information.[46] Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford during his career. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames.[47] He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there.[48] By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of ladies' wigs and other headgear.[49]

Later years and death

Rowe was the first biographer to pass down the tradition that Shakespeare retired to Stratford some years before his death.[50] It is perhaps relevant that the London public playhouses were repeatedly closed for months at a time during the extended outbreaks of the Plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610),[51] which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time,[52] and Shakespeare continued to visit London.[50] In 1612, Shakespeare was called as a witness in Bellott v. Mountjoy, a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary.[53] In March 1613 he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory;[54] and from November 1614 he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall.[55]

Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon.

After 16061607, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613.[56] His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher,[57] who succeeded him as the house playwright for the Kings Men.[58] Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616[59] and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607,[60] and Judith had marriedThomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeares death.[61] In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna. [62] The terms instructed that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body".[63]The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying.[64] The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeares direct line. [65] Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one third of his estate automatically. [66] He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation.[67] Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.[68] Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death.[69] The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curseagainst moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:[70]

Shakespeare's grave

Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones, And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.[71] (Modern spelling: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, | To dig the dust enclosed here. | Blessed be the man that spares these stones, | And cursed be he that moves my bones.) Sometime before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil.[72] In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published.[73] Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments inSouthwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays
Main articles: William Shakespeare's plays and William Shakespeare's collaborations Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, and critics agree that Shakespeare did the same, mostly early and late in his career.[74] Some attributions, such as Titus Andronicus and the early history plays, remain controversial,

while The Two Noble Kinsmen and the lost Cardenio have well-attested contemporary documentation. Textual evidence also supports the view that several of the plays were revised by other writers after their original composition. The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI, written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date, however,[75] and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeares earliest period.[76] His first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland,[77] dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty.[78] The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca.[79] The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it is related to a separate play of the same name and may have derived from a folk story.[80] Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to approve of rape,[81] the Shrew's story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics and directors. [82]

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. By William Blake, c. 1786. Tate Britain.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies.[83] A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes.[84] Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences.[85] The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing,[86] the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies.[87] After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work.[88] This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually

charged adolescence, love, and death;[89] and Julius Caesarbased on Sir Thomas North's1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Liveswhich introduced a new kind of drama.[90] According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".[91]

Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost of Hamlet's Father. Henry Fuseli, 17805. Kunsthaus Zrich.

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "problem plays" Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies.[92] Many critics believe that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The titular hero of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, Hamlet, has probably been discussed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins "To be or not to be; that is the question".[93] Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, the heroes of the tragedies that followed, Othello and King Lear, are undone by hasty errors of judgement.[94] The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves.[95] In Othello, the villain Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him.[96] In King Lear, the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty".[97] InMacbeth, the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies,[98] uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne, until their own guilt destroys them in turn.[99] In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot.[100]

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. [101] Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day.[102] Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.[103]

Performances
Main article: Shakespeare in performance It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes.[104] After theplagues of 15923, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames.[105] Londoners flocked there to see the first part of Henry IV,Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest...and you scarce shall have a room".[106] When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre, the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark.[107] The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with Julius Caesar one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.[108]

The reconstructed Globe Theatre, London.

After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604 and 31 October 1605, including two performances ofThe Merchant of Venice.[109] After 1608, they performed at the

indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer.[110] The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline, for example,Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees." [111] The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear.[112] The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, among other characters.[113] He was replaced around the turn of the 16th century byRobert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It and the fool in King Lear.[114] In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that Henry VIII "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony".[115] On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision. [115]

Textual sources

Title page of the First Folio, 1623. Copper engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout.

In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the First Folio, a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. [116] Many of the plays had already appeared in quarto versionsflimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves.[117] No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies". [118] Alfred Pollard termed some of them "bad quartos" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory.[119] Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the other. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers.[120] In some cases, for example Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida and Othello, Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of King Lear, however, while most modern additions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto, that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.[121]

Poems
In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on erotic themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin.[122] Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses,[123] the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust.[124] Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects.[125] The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.[126]

Sonnets
Main article: Shakespeare's sonnets

Title page from 1609 edition ofShake-Speares Sonnets.

Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership.[127] Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends".[128]Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence.[129] He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".[130]
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate..." Lines from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.[131]

The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known

who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication.[132] Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.[133]

Style
Main article: Shakespeare's style Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama.[134] The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetoricalwritten for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted.[135] Soon, however, Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richards vivid self -awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays.[136] No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles.[137] By the time of Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

Pity by William Blake, 1795, Tate Britain, is an illustration of two similes in Macbeth: "And pity, like a naked new-born babe, / Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd / Upon the sightless couriers of the air".

Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony.[138] Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and Hamlet. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:[139] Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly And prais'd be rashness for itlet us know Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well... Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, 48[139] After Hamlet, Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical".[140] In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length.[141] In Macbeth, for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.3538); "...pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air..." (1.7.2125). The listener is challenged to complete the sense.[141] The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.[142] Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre. [143] Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed.[144] He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama.[145] As Shakespeares mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.[146]

Influence
Main article: William Shakespeare's influence

Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head. By Henry Fuseli, 179394.Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington.

Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot,language, and genre.[147] Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy.[148] Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events; but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds.[149] His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge toTennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."[150] Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in MobyDick is a classic tragic hero, inspired by King Lear.[151] Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works. These include two operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Otello and Falstaff, whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays.[152]Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated Macbeth into German.[153] The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature. [154] In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now,[155] and his use of language helped shape modern English.[156] Samuel Johnson quoted him more

often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type.[157]Expressions such as "with bated breath" (Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion" (Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.[158]

Critical reputation
Main articles: William Shakespeare's reputation and Timeline of Shakespeare criticism
"He was not of an age, but for all time." Ben Jonson[159]

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. [160] In 1598, the cleric and authorFrancis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy.[161] And the authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower and Spenser.[162] In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", though he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art".

A recently garlanded statue of William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park, Chicago, typical of many created in the 19th and early 20th century.

Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson.[163] Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare".[164] For several decades, Rymer's view held sway; but during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing reputation.[165] By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet.[166] In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal and Victor Hugo.[167] During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge; and the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism.[168] In the 19th century, critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation.[169] "That King Shakespeare," the essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible".[170] The Victorians produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a grand scale.[171] The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as "bardolatry". He claimed that the new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.[172] The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde. TheExpressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern.[173] Eliot, along with G. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticism, led a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for "post-modern" studies of Shakespeare.[174] By the 1980s, Shakespeare studies were open to movements such as structuralism, feminism, New Historicism, African American studies, and queer studies.[175][176]

Speculation about Shakespeare

Authorship
Main article: Shakespeare authorship question

Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him.[177] Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.[178] Several "group theories" have also been proposed.[179] Only a small minority of academics believe there is reason to question the traditional attribution, [180] but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.[181]

Religion
Main article: William Shakespeare's religion Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when Catholic practice was against the law.[182] Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. The document is now lost, however, and scholars differ as to its authenticity.[183] In 1591 the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse.[184] In 1606 the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford.[184] Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove either way.[185]

Sexuality
Main article: Sexuality of William Shakespeare Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical,[186] and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than sexual love.[187] The 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.[188]

Portraiture
Main article: Portraits of Shakespeare No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait, so the Droeshout engraving, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness,[189] and his Stratford monument provide the best evidence of his appearance. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, repaintings and relabelling of portraits of other people.[190]

List of works
Further information: Shakespeare bibliography and Chronology of Shakespeare's plays

Classification of the plays

The Plays of William Shakespeare. BySir John Gilbert, 1849.

Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed below according to their folio classification as comedies, histories andtragedies.[191] Two plays not included in the First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with scholars agreed that Shakespeare made a major contribution to their composition.[192] No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio. In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances, and though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomedies, his term is often used.[193] These plays and the associated Two Noble Kinsmen are marked with an asterisk (*) below. In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term "problem plays" to describe four plays: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida and Hamlet.[194] "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may therefore borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays."[195] The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though Hamlet is definitively classed as a tragedy.[196] The other problem plays are marked below with a double dagger ().

Plays thought to be only partly written by Shakespeare are marked with a dagger () below. Other works occasionally attributed to him are listed as apocrypha.

introduction
The word Tsunami is of Japanese origin, which means, harbour wave. Tsunami are large waves that are generated when the see floor is deformed by seismic activity, vertically displacing the overlying water in the ocean. The quake occurred at a place where several massive geological plates push against each other with massive force. Tsunami has very low height while traveling over deep ocean. High waves occur only when it reaches the shallow waters, typically near the coast. The mega thrust earthquake-measuring 9.0 at Richter scale, off the western coast of northern Sumatra (Banda Ache), Indonesia was the largest of its type since the 9.2 magnitude Good Friday earthquake off Alaska in 1964. The deadliest natural disaster caused by the tsunami generated from an undersea earthquake on 26 December 2004 in the Indian Ocean has shaken up the world. The 2004 tsunami generated waves of up to 15 meters in height and even hit Somalia at a distance of about 4500 km west of the epicenter. The tsunami traveled slowly and took seven hours to hit the farthest coast at the west. Because of the 1200 kilometer of the fault line affected by the seaquake was in a nearly north-south orientation, the greatest strength of the tsunami waves was in the east-west direction.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time) on December 26, 2004. The earthquake originated in the Indian Ocean just north of Simeulue island, off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The resulting tsunamis devastated the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other countries with waves of up to 15 m (50 feet) high, even reaching the east coast of Africa, 4500 km (2,800 miles) west of the epicenter.The Unieted States Geological Survey recoreded the magnitude of the earthquake of Sumatra at 8.9 with the epicenter lying 10km below the seabed. Aftershocks struck in the magnitude 7 range. The quake occurred at a place where several massive geological plates push against each other with massive force. The survey said, a 1000 kilometer section along the boundry of the plate shifted, a motion that triggered the sudden displacement of a huge volume of water. An interesting phenomenon of the seismic tidal waves in the different part of the world was that people saw sea water disappearing away from the beaches in the minutes before the giant wave lashed back with infernal fury devouring whatever come on the way of their lethal onslaught. Scientists say the effect is caused by tidal waves shocking shallow coastal waters out to see before returning them as a massive wall of water. The titanic tsunami that wrought unprecedented death and destruction in South and South-East Asia will go down in history as one of the greatest natural calamities of the modern times. The great disaster caught the people and the government off guard and in a matter of minutes, snuffed out more than 2,00,000 lives. Across the more than twelve countries. The number of people rendered homeless might run into millions, as no estimate is immediately available as to how many children have become orphans, how many women become widows and how many families have been wiped out in a single sweep.

Impact on tsunami in india

Almost all the countries situated around the Bay of Bengal were affected by the tsunami waves in the morning hours of 26 December 2004 (between 0900 1030 hrs IST). The killer waves were triggered by an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale that had an epicenter near the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The first recorded tsunami in India dates back to 31 December 1881. An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter believed to have been under the sea off the coast of Car Nicobar Island, caused the tsunami. The last recorded tsunami in India occurred on 26 June 1941, caused by an earthquake with magnitude exceeding 8.5. This caused extensive damage to the Andaman Islands. There are no other welldocumented records of Tsunami in India. It was all quiet on the waterfront on the Sunday morning after Christmas in 2004 at Kanyakumari, the famous Marina Beach in Chennai and elsewhere on the Kerala coast and Andaman Nicober Islands. There was the excitement of a holyday with an offbeat mood with swarms of people on the sea front: children playing cricket and man and women on their morning work at the Marina. Elsewhere, fishermen were putting out to sea for the days catch. Then all on a sudden, a curious thing happened. The holidaymakers at Kanyakumari were awestruck when the sea receded from the shores. In the present tsunami, India was the third country severely battered after Indonesia and Srilanka. In India the State severely affected by tsunami are Tamilnadu, Pondicheri, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Andaman and Nicober Island. The following Table.1 shows the average scenario of tsunami devastation in the respective areas. The data relating to the Andaman and Nicober are yet to be assessed, for which it does appear in the e Table

Table. 1 (Tsunami damage in India) Tsunami damage in India Factor Population affected Area affected (Ha) Length of coast affected (Km) Extent of penetration (Km) Reported height of tsunami (m) Villages affected Dwelling units Cattle lost (Source: DiMaRF, India-2005) Andhra Pradesh 211,000 790 985 0.5 - 2.0 5 301 1,557 195 Kerala 2,470,000 Unknown 250 1-2 3-5 187 11,832 Unknown
1

Tamil Nadu 691,000 2,487 1,000 1 - 1.5 7-10 362 91,037 5,476

Pondcherry 43,000 790 25 0.30 - 3.0 10 26 6,403 3,445

Total 3,415,000 4,067 2,260

876 110,829 9,116

Tamil Nadu

The state of Tamil Nadu has been the worst affected on the mainland, with a death toll of 7,793. Nagapattinam district has had 5,525 casualties, with entire villages having been destroyed. Kanyakumari district has had 808 deaths, Cuddalore district 599, the state capital Chennai 206 and Kancheepuram district 124. The death tolls in other districts were Pudukkottai (15), Ramanathapuram (6), Tirunelveli (4), Thoothukudi (3), Tiruvallur (28), Thanjavur (22), Tiruvarur (10) and Viluppuram (47). Those killed in Kanyakumari include pilgrims taking a holy dip in the sea. Of about 700 people trapped at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial off Kanyakumari, 650 were rescued. In Chennai, people playing on the Marina beach and those who taking a Sunday morning stroll were washed away, in addition to the fisherfolk who lived along the shore and those out at sea. The death toll at Velankanni in Nagapattinam district is currently 1,500. Most of these people were visiting the Basilica of the Virgin Mary for Christmas, while others were residents of the town. The nuclear power station at Kalpakkam was shut down after sea water rushed into a pump station. No radiation leak or damage to the reactor was reported

Pondicherry
An estimated 30,000 people are homeless in the Union territory of Pondicherry. The current official toll is 560. The affected districts are Pondicherry (107 dead), Karaikal (453 dead). Kariakal is the most devastrated area from the Pondichery Union territory.Where massive destruction and loss of casualities accure.This mishalp occure because of uncover stone block.Mostly fisherfolk are affected due to location and distance between sea and their basti (village).Fishing peoples are just preparing for venturing into sea and within fraction of seconds every thinng wash away and their boats are damaged they lost every thing in terms of life and property. More than 453 people are died so far and still some are missing .

Kerala
The current official toll is 168. The affected districts are Kollam (131 dead), Alappuzha (32 dead), Ernakulam (5 dead).The tsunami that hit the Kerala coust on December 26,2004 , were three to five metres high ,according to the National Institute of Disaster Management,(NIDM) which functions under the ministray of home affairs.The Tidal upsourge had affected 250 killometers of the kerala costline and entered between one or two kilometers inland.pounded 187 villeges affecting 24.70 lakh persons in the state .As many as 6,280 dwelling units were destroyed. As many as 84,773 persons wee evacuated from the costal areas and accomedated in 142 Relif Camaps opened in Kollam,Alappuzha and Ernakulam Districts. According to NIDM,131 Lives were lost in Kollam,32 in Alappuzha and five in Ernakulam,taking the official death tole to 168.High wave sweept the cost along a 40-Km stretch ,from Sakthikulangare in the south to Thrikunnapuzha in the north.This stretch has two narrow strips of land sand wiched between the sea and back water.

Andhra Pradesh
The current official toll is 105. The affected districts are Krishna (35 dead), Prakasam (35 dead), Nellore (20 dead), Guntur (4 dead), West Godavari (8 dead) and East Godavari (3 dead).

Andaman and Nicobar :

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprise 572 islands (all land masses in both low and high tides) out of which 38 are inhabited, both by people from the mainland and indigenous tribes. The islands lie just north of the earthquake epicentre, and the tsunami reached a height of 15 m in the southern Nicobar Islands. The official death toll is 812, and about 7,000 are still missing. The unofficial death toll (including those missing and

presumed dead) is estimated to be about 7,000. The Great Nicobar and Car Nicobar islands were the worst hit among all the islands because of their proximity to the quake and relative flatness. Aftershocks continue to rock the area. One fifth of the population of the Nicobar Islands is said to be dead, injured or missing. Chowra Island has lost two thirds of its population of 1,500. Entire islands have been washed away, and the island of Trinket has been split in two. Communications have not been restored with the Nancowry group of islands, some of which have been completely submerged, with the total number of the population still out of contact exceeding 7,000. Among the casualties in Car Nicobar, 100 Indian Air Force personnel and their family members were washed away when the wave hit their air base, which was reported to have been severely damaged. The St. Thomas Cathedral (also known as the John Richardson church after John Richardson, a missionary and member of parliament) was washed away. The church, established in 1930 was one of the oldest and prominent churches in the region. A cricket stadium named after John Richardson and a statue dedicated to him were also washed away. The majority of the population of Andaman Islands is made up of people from the mainland, mostly from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The natives of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are endangered tribal groups, such as such as the Jarawa, the Sentinelese, the Shompen, the Onge and the Andamanese. They are regarded as anthropologically significant as they are some of the world's most primitive tribes and considered the world's only link to ancient civilisation. Most of these tribes have maintained their aboriginal lifestyle for centuries, and government policy has been to not interfere with them unless absolutely essential. It is reported that most of the native islanders survived the tsunami because they live on higher ground or far from the coast. The Onge (with a 2001 census population of 96), Jarawa (240), Sentinelese (39) and Andamanese (43) have been reached by survey teams and are confirmed to be safe although the number of dead is unknown. The Sentinelese live on a reserved island and are hostile to outsiders which is making it difficult for Indian officials to visit the island. They have shot arrows at helicopters sent to check on them. In the Nicobar Islands, the Nicobarese, a Mongoloid tribe (2001 population of 28,653), have lost about 656 lives with 3,000 still missing. Surveys are being conducted on the Shompen (2001 census count of 398) located on Great Nicobar island. India's only active volcano, Barren 1, located at Barren Island 135 kilometres (80 miles) northeast of the capital Port Blair, erupted because of increased seismic activity on 30 December 2004. People have been evacuated since then and there have been no reports of any casualties.

Early warning system

The largest tsunami, which struck 11 nations that border the Indian Ocean, was a complete surprise for the people living there. Many seismic networks recorded marine earthquake, but there was no tidal sensors other than wave sensors to provide confirmation as to whether a tsunami had been generated. There was no established communication network or organization infrastructure to pass a warning of any kind to the people living at coastlines. No tsunami warning system exists for the Indian Ocean as it exists in the Pacific Ocean. There should need for Early warning Center set up in Indian ocean and every country within the Indian ocean part of this for sharing information .In India for whole costal line there should be warning center both for cyclone and tsunami. There should be need for start a research based on tsunami and its impact.

Tsunami's impact on India

Brandon Cramer
cramerbd@uwec.edu Part of Waves of Devastation, a class website on the Indian

Ocean Tsunami & Global Environmental Injustice, produced by students of Geography 378 (International Environmental Problems & Policy) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA, Spring 2005. Professor Zoltan Grossman

WAVES OF DEVASTATION homepage Background: Global environmental justice Natural disasters How a tsunami happens Tectonics Past tsunamis Pacific Ocean warnings Indian Ocean warnings Overviews: Indonesia Thailand Sri Lanka India Other countries Environmental impacts: Freshwater supplies Fishing Wetlands/timber Agriculture Diseases

The earthquake and resulting tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26th, 2004 had a devastating effect on India. According to the Indian government, almost 11,000 people died in the tsunami and over 5,000 are missing and feared dead (Ministry of Home Affairs). It is estimated that 380,000 Indians have been displaced by the disaster and reconstruction is expected to cost more than 1.2 billion dollars (World Bank). The areas hardest hit by the tsunami were the southeastern coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Tsunami Map

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Wildlife Reefs/islands Human & environmental impacts: Indigenous peoples Tourism Clean-up Relief/aid Civil wars Conservation education

A class project by students in International Environmental Problems & Policy (Geography 378, Spring 2005, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) Assistant Professor of Geography Zoltan Grossmangrossmzc@uwe c.edu (715) 836-4471 P.O. Box 4004, Eau Claire, WI 54702 USA

Andaman and Nicobar Islands Map

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a territory of India located in the Indian Ocean along the southeastern portion of the Bay of Bengal, near the epicenter of the original 9.0 earthquake. Both island groups were not only devastated by the tsunami, but also by the earthquake and several aftershocks that occurred near the islands in the following days. The death toll from the tsunami in the islands is believed be around 2,000, accounting for a large percentage of Indias total casualties. Most of the still 5,000 Indians still missing and presumed dead were from the islands, so the actual death toll may be much higher (Wikipedia). The Nicobar Islands were particularly affected by the tsunami. According to the Territory Police Chief S.B. Doel, one in five people living on the islands had been injured or killed by the tsunami (India Times). The islands of Great Nicobar and Car Nicobar experienced widespread devastation because of their general flatness. Some smaller islands in the Nicobars have completely vanished and others have changed shape, such as Trinket, which split into two parts after the tsunami hit. Saltwater intrusion has also occurred on many islands, destroying farmland and sources of freshwater. Chowra Island (population 1,500) lost two- thirds of its people in the aftermath of the tsunami. On Car Nicobar, one hundred members of the

Indian Air Force and their families perished when the waves submerged the local air base (Yahoo).

Destruction on Car Nicobar after the tsunami

Communication lines with the Indian government were completely knocked out after the tsunami and many roads and runways were completely washed out, limiting the amount of relief aid that could reach the islands. The Indian government also refused international support on Car Nicobar because of the presence of a military base on the island, which largely delayed the distribution of food, water, and medical supplies to local people. Hundreds of people on the islands were forced to live off of coconuts, bananas, and food packets dropped from planes for days until relief agencies and military forces could reach the islands. Currently, thousands of settlers on the islands have moved back to the Indian mainland because of the intolerable conditions and fear of another tsunami (BBC 1). Most of the deaths in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were recent settlers or immigrants. However, the 28,000 indigenous people of the islands mostly escaped the disaster. Many tribes that live on the islands such as the Onge, Jarawa, Sentinelese, and Shompen are regarded as some of the most primitive in the world and have little contact with the outside world. Oral traditions have been passed from generation to generation, telling tribes to move into the hills or elevated areas if the earth shakes. The story of the indigenous tribes survival of the tsunami may lead to other problems however. The arrival of international reporters and aid workers may bring

new diseases to the tribes, who do not have the medication or immunity to survive a widespread epidemic. The number of casualties among some tribes is still largely unknown because they live in relatively remote regions and tend to avoid outside contact. For example, the Indian military reports that the Sentinelese shot arrows at a relief helicopter trying to land near one of their villages and the Shompen have fled into the forest when planes and helicopters fly overhead (BBC 2).

The Indian Mainland

Areas most affected by tsunami

The tsunami hit the Indian mainland roughly two hours after the earthquake. The waves completely leveled villages and devastated cities along the southeastern coast, resulting in over 9,000 deaths. The vast majority of the casualties came from the state of Tamil Nadu (8,000), although Kerala also lost an estimated 200 people. Nagapattinam district was the worst hit region of Tamil Nadu, accounting for over half of the deaths (5,500) from the tsunami on the Indian mainland (Wikipedia). Perhaps the people most affected by the tsunami were the local fishermen (SeeFishing). Eighty percent of the people who were affected by the tsunami came from fishing communities and over 50,000 fishing vessels were damaged by the waves (World Bank). Several fishing villages in Tamil Nadu were completely destroyed, nearly wiping out the whole population in some areas. Thousands of fisherman lost their boats and other

fishing equipment in the disaster. In Nagapattinam, only three of the 15,000 vessels escaped damage. Indian officials estimate that it will cost 125 million dollars to repair the ships and replace fishing equipment (BBC 3).

Damaged fishing boats

The fishermen in Tamil Nadu further experienced problems when the price of fish in markets dropped substantially in the days and weeks after the tsunami. People were afraid of the eating the fish because they thought the fish may have fed off dead bodies in the water and became contaminated with disease. Scientists tried to downplay claims of disease by telling Indians that the tsunami would have stirred up nutrients on the ocean floor, creating new sources of food for sealife and decreasing their desire to feed off of bodies. Although most of these fears were unrealistic, the demand for fish in the region declined by 30 percent after the tsunami, which only hurt the relief effort futher in the region (CNN). Most of the fishermen and people living in the fishing villages are relatively poor and come from low castes in Indian society. When the fishing industry haulted in the area after the tsunami, the people not only lost their primary source of income but also a substantial portion of their diet. Those fishermen who were able to take their boats out found that prime fishing spots were unproductive due to changes in the ocean floor. Sand brought in from the tsunami also covered many coastal coral reefs and limited the number of fish caught in those areas. Thankfully, the Indian Government was able to move into the region fairly quickly with relief supplies to prevent widespread disease and famine. The primary issue now in the fishing villages is how to repair the fishing boats and equipment and rebuild the economy. Many villagers are wary of the rebuilding effort because they feel that politicians are trying to buy their votes rather than actually caring about their personal well-being. The government has not stated a clear policy for rebuilding the villages and no organization exists to truly represent fishing communities, making it

difficult for the government to know exactly what the people need. A massive rebuilding effort has begun in coastal villages, but most are built on a large project oriented basis, and rarely consider the individual needs of people or communities (The Hindu). People from the fishing villages are now concerned that they will once again be ignored by politicians and government officials after the clean-up process and elections have concluded. One of the more interesting outcomes of the tsunami occurred near Mahabalipuram, India . For generations, local people had told stories about an ancient port city known as Seven Pagodas along the east coast of India, although little archaeological evidence could be found. The sand along the coast was thought to cover up much of the ancient city, but after the tsunami hit, many treasures of the fabled city were became visible for the first time in 1,500 years. Local people discovered remnants of large temples and huge statues such as elephants, lions, and flying horses in the days following the disaster. The water level along the coast receded dramatically before the tsunami, revealing to many fishermen that the city extends well into the ocean. The new discovery has brought a number of archaeologists and tourists to the area to observe and study the ancient city, helping the local economy and rebuilding effort (CBS News).

Ancient statues uncovered by the tsunami

The Future
The Indian government has also pledged $29 million to develop a tsunami early warning system to prevent such a large loss of life from ever happening again. The United States has agreed to work alongside the Indian government to place roughly 20 data buoys around the Indian Ocean to alert scientists of a possible tsunami. It is estimated that the entire project will take two years to complete. The Indian Ocean system will be completely independent of the Pacific warning system in Hawaii, however the two countries will share data and scientific information to learn more about

tsunamis (Vanguard).

Rebuilding in Serudur, India

The tsunami disaster has marked a critical turning point in history for India. When a 6.9 earthquake hit the state of Gujarat in 2001, the Indian government was vastly unprepared and relied almost exclusively on international help for the relief and cleanup effort. In the three years following the Gujarat earthquake, the economy of India grew considerably with new high tech and manufacturing moving into the country. The rapid modernization of the country has allowed it to cope with the tsunami disaster in late 2004 with little or no international aid whatsoever. India has even become a donor country, sending relief supplies to Sri Lanka. The change for Indians has not only been economical but also psychological. Indians are feeling more self-reliant and almost seem to look at international assistance as a burden. There have been a large number of volunteers and companies within India who have come to the southeast coast to assist the government in the cleanup effort (Kripalani). Although the relief and rebuilding of the tsunami-devastated areas has been far from perfect and sometimes ignore the local peoples needs, it is a major improvement from only three years ago. India's response to the tsunami has been a stepping-stone for the country to move out of the world's periphery.