Week 2 Question- SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND BIOGRAPHY

"Research Shakespeare’s life, ensuring you include information about his origins, family, relationships, the world he lived in and questions surrounding his work."

Shakespeare's life is an interesting topic to research considering he was the greatest and most well-known playwright, actor, writer and dramatist in the Elizabethan times. 

There are quite a lot of things we don't know about Shakespeare's life since he lived more than 400 years ago and many of his records of that time are lost or probably never existed. For instance, it is predicted that the day of his birth was April 23rd,1564 because it must have been a few days before his baptism which was on April 26th, 1564. Even Shakespeare's death is not known for sure as he died apparently on his 52nd birthday because it was assumed from a record of his burial two days later, 25 April 1616, at Holy Trinity Church. We don't even know the reason for his death yet there are different theories such as that Shakespeare died after contracting a fever after a drinking binge with fellow playwrights Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton.A more convincing theory is that Shakespeare was sick for over a month before he died. The evidence comes from the fact that on 25 March 1616 (just 4 weeks before his death) Shakespeare dictated his will – in keeping with the 17th Century tradition of drawing up wills on one’s deathbed. This points to the fact that Shakespeare was aware his life was coming to an end. Some scholars also point out the fact of his signature being somewhat shaky, giving evidence of his frailty at the time.

Shakespeare was the oldest surviving child of his parents, John and Mary Shakespeare. This is because John and Mary's two young children, girls, did not even live beyond infancy.William Shakespeare was the big brother of the family as he had three younger brothers called Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters Anne and Joan. His father was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. He was a prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff—much like a mayor.

Shakespeare's siblings

• Joan Shakespeare
• Edmund Shakespeare
• Gilbert Shakespeare
• Richard Shakespeare
• Margaret Shakespeare
• Anne Shakespeare

In late 1582,a few years Shakespeare left school, he married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26.On May 26th 1583, they had their first child called Susanna. 2 years after the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet. Anne lived in Stratford with the children whilst Shakespeare worked in London as he was pursuing a theatre career and because of this distance it lead to a strained marriage which made them to separate.

Shakespeare wrote plays for at least one or two years before he gained fame for his work. When Shakespeare was 28,(1592), his rival, Robert Green had called Shakespeare an "upstart crow" and this shows that at this time Shakespeare was the envy of most writers at the time.

It is said that Shakespeare joined an acting company when he was young called The Earl of Derby's Men, ran by James Burbage. Records suggest that Shakespeare was a member of the company by 1594. However around this time London theatres closed down due to the plague and Shakespeare used this time to write sonnets.

There are many questions surrounding Shakespeare's life but there are also many questions surrounding his work. In relation to Hamlet, there are many questions and opinions to why Shakespeare actually wrote hamlet.

Some say that his writing in Hamlet was influenced by what was going on in the 1600,for instance to highlight the tensions that arose during the “English Reformation”.Others say that Shakespeare copied another play called “Ur-Hamlet” which was written during the Elizabethan times yet the original play is nowhere to be found now.

It is also believed that his reason for writing Hamlet was from the deaths he experienced. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in 1601 and in 1556, Shakespeare’s only son,Hamnet died of an unknown illness. Yet also the same year Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, was the same year his own father died therefore the death of Shakespeare’s father seems more of a justified reason to why Shakespeare wrote about a young man named Hamlet who was grieving over the death of his own father. Death was common back then which is why Shakespeare had witnessed so many with his close relatives and it seemed that he wanted to explore that with the character of Hamlet who also witnessed neuromas deaths through his life, as his own mother,Gertrude, died at the end of the play.

It is said that some of Shakespeare’s inspiration came from a play called “Amleth” which had a very similar plot to Hamlet : Prince Amleth is advenging for his ‘death.Amleth’s mother Gurutha marries Amleth’s uncle Feng. Feng sends Amleth to England along with his two retaines also with a note telling the King of England to kill Amleth; Amleth finds the note just like in Hamlet and changes the names. Amleth returns and kills Feng.

After Hamlet,the plays Shakespeare wrote a darker tone for the next few years such as Othello,King Lear and Macbeth because they covered themes such as murder,pride,jealousy and betrayal.