William Shakespeare

English I

What Is So Great About Shakespeare Anyway?

Shakespeare is the most famous playwright and poet in the world.

There are two primary reasons that Shakespeare is held in the esteem that he is:the emotional impact of the stories that he tellshis use of language

II. Birth and Early Life

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon to parents John Shakespeare and Mary Arden.

II. Birth and Early Life

His father, John, was a glovemaker, shopkeeper, landowner, and the bailiff (essentially, mayor) of the community. In other words, he was considered to be well-off. He did, however, fall into financial straits, influencing William’s later dealings with money.

II. Birth and Early Life

William attended free grammar school until he was fifteen years old. School ran from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM and he studied Latin, Latin grammar, and mythology.

III. Young Adulthood

At age 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway (who was 26). This was likely what we would call a shotgun wedding, as they had their first child, Susanna, six months later. When Shakespeare was 20, he and his wife had twins - Judith and Hamnet, who died at age 11.

III. Young Adulthood

The eight years from the time the twins were born to the time he was 28 are frequently referred to as the “lost years”, because no record exists as to what Shakespeare was doing during this time. As such, the way in which he found his way into theatre remains a mystery.

III. Young Adulthood

The next record of him finds him in London at age 28, acting and writing plays.

IV. Career

He was a member and shareholder of a theatre troupe called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which was later renamed The King’s Men. This indicated that the group was commissioned/supported by the position for which it was named. Shakespeare earned a large amount of his money from being an actor. He acted for 20 years, earning roughly $40 a day.

IV. Career

He worked out of the Globe Theater for many years, and his plays were written to be performed in that space.

IV. Career

He wrote a total of 38 plays, which fell under one of four categories: tragedy,

comedy, history, and tragic-comedy. Some of his most famous plays include Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In addition, he wrote poems, and is famous for his sonnets.

IV. Career

Most of Shakespeare’s ideas were not original. Romeo and Juliet, for example, came from a poem by Arthur Brooks named

“Romeus and Juliet”. In fact, only 2 of his 38 plays seem to have been completely invented by him.

Shakespeare was both a public and a critical success during his lifetime, something that cannot be said of many famous authors. Debate exists as to whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote his plays. However, the people of Shakespeare’s day attributed the plays to Shakespeare.

V. Shakespeare’s Language

The question always arises: Did people REALLY talk like that in Shakespeare’s time? NO.

Shakespeare wrote the way he did for specific dramatic and poetic purposes – to create a specific rhythm or rhyme, to emphasize a certain word or idea, to give a character a specific speech pattern, etc. Let’s break down some of the confusing things about Shakespeare’s language:

A. Unusual Work Arrangements

There are many cases in which Shakespeare arranges words in odd ways that do not necessarily make sense to us (i.e., “I the sandwich ate,” as opposed to “I ate the sandwich.”). In order to “decode,” you must be able to locate the subject, verb, and object of the sentence. Then you will be able to rearrange the words in your mind into a sentence that makes sense to you.

B. Omissions

Shakespeare also frequently left out letters, syllables, or whole words for the sake of his poetry. However, this is not all that different from what we do today. For example, we may say, “Wanna have lunch?” instead of “Do you want to have lunch?”

Here are a few common Shakespearean omissions/contractions to help you out.‘tis: it is i’: in

ope: open e’er: ever

o’er: over oft: often

gi’: give a’: he

ne’er: never e’en: even

C. that Shakespeare Made Up

Shakespeare used over 21,000 different words! Of these, he made up many of them. Words such as assassinate, critic, bump, gloomy, hurry, and star-crossed all come to us from Shakespeare.

VI. Poetic Devices in Writing

Shakespeare wrote in blank verse, which is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter means that each line of poetry consists of five iambs, which are units of measure involving two syllables. In this case, the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed.

Ex. “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?”

Shakespeare frequently makes use of sonnets in his plays, working poetry into the very text.

VII. Death and Legacy

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52 in Stratford-on-Avon.

In his will, he specifically left his wife the second best bed, though she was entitled to a third of his estate as his widow. Principal bequests were to his daughter, Judith, and he also left a substantial amount to Susanna .