William Shakespeare1564-1616
King Lear
Personal Details
1564 - Born
1582 - Married Anne Hathaway
1592 – Career had begun
1599 – Shakespeare and friends build The
Globe
1603 – 1610 – Bubonic Plague
1616 - Died
WHY DO WE READ
SHAKESPEARE?
WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE?
Reason #1:
GREATEST WRITER IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!
WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE?
Reason #2:
HE WROTE 37 OF THE MOST POPULAR PLAYS IN THE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
King LearShakespeare's original version has been
regarded as one of his supreme achievements.
The Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre
WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE?
Reason #3:
HE WROTE 154 SONNETS
WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE?
Side note:
What is a sonnet?
• 14 lines
• rhyme scheme
• iambic pentameter
The Sonnetiambic pentameter
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks
The Sonnet
154 sonnets of 14 lines of iambic pentameter
= 2, 156 lines of iambic pentameter
WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE?
REASON #4
Because he thought and felt like we do today.
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,
WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR?
Reason #5: KING LEAR HAS BEEN ON THE LIST OF TITLES FOR PROMPT THREE OF THE AP LIT TEST 17 TIMES SINCE 1975.
What years?
77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11, 12, 14