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William Shakespeare’s Life
William Shakespeare’s Life
William Shakespeare lived from 1564 until his death in 1616. The amount of information about Shakespeare’s life is very little. Especially the amount of information from his early life and childhood is even less. Contemporary sources tell very little of his childhood, and its even hard to confirm whether these tell the truth as it was. The insecurity has given rise to a number of different tales, and so a lot of rumours surround the great playwright. There even exists a research centre in Britain that collects information and tries to put all the pieces together and get an overview over his life.
There is some fact we know for sure. He was born around April 23 in 1564 in Stratford-upon- Avon, as the third child in a family of at least 8 children, whereof several died in their childhood. His father John Shakespeare made gloves and sold agricultural products. He was also engaged in politics. The mother Mary Shakespeare was from a wealthy family of landlord. William Shakespeare did not have a poor childhood, even though his parents did not have a stable income.
There is a big chance that Shakespeare went to public school in Stratford. Nothing is for sure, but researchers have come to agreement that due to his fathers status and position automatically would put him in that school. It is clear that Shakespeare plays are based on his knowledge on classic literature, which he may have received from this exact school. As thirteen years old Shakespeare was taken out of the school because of the bad economical situation that hit the family in 1577.
Then follows what is called “The Lost Years” of the Shakespeare research. In the time between his school years until his work as a professional actor in London in the late 1580ies, there is absolutely no information about his life in any way. There is many theories about what he have been up to, for example that he has worked as a butcher or at his dads shop, and maybe travelled to explore the theatrical life outside Stratford. Only one thing is sure about his lost years; he met Anne Hathaway and married her in 1582. Together they raised three kids; Susanna, and the twins Hamnet and Judith.
In the late 1580ies Shakespeare must have worked himself to London and established an acting career and made a name of himself. The first surviving source, which had a relation to William Shakespeare’s acting career, originates from 1592. In Robert Green’s biography he describes Shakespeare very criticizing. At this time Shakespeare may be a known name, but he have not found his inner genius yet.
He did not wait long to get great success. In 1995 he became a member of the theatrical group “The Chamberlain’s Men” where he functioned as both a writer and an actor. It was in this period he wrote some of his greatest plays, including “Romeo & Juliet” and “Richard II”. With The Chamberlain’s Men he experienced acting several times for Queen Elizabeth.
In 1599 Shakespeare got to influence his time’s theatrical world as he became co-owner of what is now known as the world-famous theatre The Globe. This was the place where he performed the tragedies and comedies that is now fixtures in the literary history. Playwrights all over the world have to relate to.
In 1611 William Shakespeare quit the theatrical world and moved back to Stratford. This is where he lived until his death on April 23 in 1616, on his 52nd birthday.
Theplays:
Theplays:
William Shakespeare’s plays are divided into four different categories, such as Tragedy, Comedy, history and romances.
The purpose with the tragedy play’s was to feel for the characters, and learn through their mistakes , but also to also see how a tragedy happens and what the courses are. But also to show how often violence became a big factor in a tragedy back then. William Shakespeare described the violence in tragedy as: ”The violence of tragedy: this strange beauty is given to the most horrific suffering.”
The purpose of the comedies was to make light of our faults, bring joy and examine the madness and delusions of love even as they celebrate its enchantment. Each comedy teaches us something different about love.
Shakespeare has written around 37 plays, the most famous ones are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar.
The plays got so famous because of the way the plays interact with the audience. The plays were a picture of the society back then. Shakespeare used a lot of the class differences in his plays. For example Romeo and Juliet. A love story between two different ranks of society.
Style:
Style:
Shakespeare wrote in a way that was very typical for the time in which he lived in. He wrote in iambic pentameter. This means that his plays and sonnets had ten syllables per line and it is important to note that these lines were unrhymed in his plays.
The rhythm of the iambic pentameter is alike to that of a heartbeat. It is structured as a interchanging pattern of stressed and unstressed words. Regarding the comparison with a heartbeat it would sound like bump BUMP, bump BUMP, bump BUMP. An example of this from Shakespeare’s sonnet is: “When i do count the clock that tells the time”. You can hear the interchanging pattern of stress and unstressed as so: “When I do count the clock that tells the time.”
Shakespeare sometimes ended the iambic pentameter on an unstressed, which would makes it sound like so: bump BUMP bump. For example; “To be, or not to be, that is the question”
He often used rhyming couplets at the end of scenes. This is due to the fact that it was made for a play, so they the rhyming couplets were a cue to the actors backstage.
Some scenes in Shakespeare's plays, mainly comedies, were in couplets. He used this to lighten the mood, to show a character's wit, to quicken the pace of a scene etc.
Myths and Conspiracy Theories
Myths and Conspiracy Theories
Many people are to believe that William Shakespeare are one of the greatest writers of all time, but we don’t know an awful lot about him. Throughout time there has been a lot of myths and conspiracy theories of whom William Shakespeare really is, and what he has done exactly.
The first myths about Shakespeare is his birthday. It is widely known that Shakespeare's birthday falls on the 23rd of April, 1564. This is an approximate, because historical documents show that he was baptised on the 26th, and back then it was a custom to be baptised three days after ones birth. This is questioned because it coincidently lands on St. George’s Day, the national day of England. The argument is that since his birthdate is only an approximation, history could have allowed the date to be adjusted so that England’s greatest Playwright just happened to be born on April 23rd.
This theory stretches even broader, because when the Gregorian Calendar replaced the Julian in 1582, the days shifted. This would mean that Shakespeare would have been born on the 1st of May, and baptised on the 3rd.
This is just one of the aspects that makes people questioning Shakespeare's existence.
One of the more well-known conspiracy t
heories is the Shakespeare authorship question, which is the argument that someone other than William Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him. There is a collective term for adherents of the various alternative-authorship theories, these are named Anti-Stratfordians, being that Shakespeare was originally from Stratford. The case that the Anti-Stratfordians present share several characteristics. They’re attempting to disqualify as the writer of his plays, and they often argue for another candidates to have written them. More than 80 authorship candidates have been proposed, the most popular being Sir Francis Bacon; Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe; and William Stanley.
The absence of documentary proof of Shakespeare's education is often a part of anti-Stratfordian arguments, discussing how a person of little-to-no education could write such descriptive stories. Shakespeare's vocabulary is calculated to be between 17,500 and 29,000 words.
There is 6 known signatures of William Shakespeare, collected from different fronts of his plays and his will. The six authenticated signatures of Shakespeare are written in, what is known as, secretary hand, a style of handwriting that vanished by 1700. The appearance of Shakespeare's surviving signatures, is interpreted as indicating that he was illiterate or barely literate. This theory is supported by documents showing William’s father was illiterate, by using a “mark,” a drawing of a glover’s tool, instead of a signature. William’s daughter also used a mark, showing that she too was illiterate.
His surname was spelled inconsistently in both literary and non-literary documents, seeing the most variations in works written by hand. This is used as evidence that he was not the same person who wrote the works, and that the name was used as a pseudonym for the true author, or authors. These names had been written as’ Shake-speare’ or ‘Shak-spear’.
Anti-Stratfordians suspects that the reason of this pseudonym, being to protect the authors credibility, and not have the work based on the writers social status. Otherwise it would be to avoid prosecution by the authorities, because of explicit or provocative content of the stories.
Legacy:
Legacy:
William Shakespeare is by many regarded as the most influential artist in the whole english language. His works about star crossed lovers, and opportunistic warlords have captivated audiences for centuries, and they will continue to do so for decades to come. The literary footprint of this creative giant cannot be underestimated, and he is in many ways an integrated part of popular culture. Many scenes from Shakespeare's plays are still being referenced today, which only serves to make him even more immortal. Although hís life may be shrouded in mystery, his genius lives on in his wiórks, and this is what people will remember him for. You can hardly stand with a skull in your hand, without thinking about the ill fated prince of Denmark, and every single love story owes a little to “romeo and juliet”. He is not only remembered by his playwrights, but also had considerable skills as a writer of sonnets. All in all Shakespeare was, and still is, the most accomplished artist of the english language. The themes of his plays a universal, and appeals to just about anyone. He also expanded the dictionary with over a thousand words, and introduced the rest of the world to Helsingør, which is not bad thing either. Shakespeare is the quintessential english writer, and his legacy only seem to withstand the test of time. Although we may not have known much about his life, we know of his plays, and we must hope that they will never be forgotten.
William Shakespeare is by many regarded as the most influential artist in the whole english language. His works about star crossed lovers, and opportunistic warlords have captivated audiences for centuries, and they will continue to do so for decades to come. The literary footprint of this creative giant cannot be underestimated, and he is in many ways an integrated part of popular culture. Many scenes from Shakespeare's plays are still being referenced today, which only serves to make him even more immortal. Although hís life may be shrouded in mystery, his genius lives on in his wiórks, and this is what people will remember him for. You can hardly stand with a skull in your hand, without thinking about the ill fated prince of Denmark, and every single love story owes a little to “romeo and juliet”. He is not only remembered by his playwrights, but also had considerable skills as a writer of sonnets. All in all Shakespeare was, and still is, the most accomplished artist of the english language. The themes of his plays a universal, and appeals to just about anyone. He also expanded the dictionary with over a thousand words, and introduced the rest of the world to Helsingør, which is not bad thing either. Shakespeare is the quintessential english writer, and his legacy only seem to withstand the test of time. Although we may not have known much about his life, we know of his plays, and we must hope that they will never be forgotten.
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