Who Is William Shakespeare?English Project

Worked: Fiorelo Zere

Content:• Shakespeare’s life.• Shakespeare sonnets.• Shakespeare’s plays.• Shakespeare’s litterature.• Shakespeare influence.

Objectives:• To know more about Shakespeare’s life.• To learn more about sonnets wroten by

Shakespeare.• To know more about Shakespeare’s

plays.• To learn more about Shakespeare’s

influence on the literature of the world.

Shakespeare’s life.William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. From 1594 onward he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company of theatrical players. Written records give little indication of the way in which Shakespeare’s professional life molded his artistry. All that can be deduced is that over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict.

(Place where is born Shakespeare)

• William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. William was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.

• After the birth of the twins, there are seven years of William Shakespeare's life where no records exist. Scholars call this period the "lost years," and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period. One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire. It is generally believed he arrived in London in the mid- to late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway.

(Shakespeare’s house)

Tradition has it that William Shakespeare died on his birthday, April 23, 1616, though many scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his "second-best bed." This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple was not close. However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term "second-best bed" often refers to the bed belonging to the household's master and mistres—the marital bed—and the "first-best bed" was reserved for guests.

Shakespeare’s sonnets.• Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets.

William Shakespeare cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality.

• The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man; the last 28 to a woman.

• The sonnets were first published in a 1609 with the full title: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.

• The sonnets to the young man express overwhelming, obsessional love. .

• The sonnets are almost all constructed from three quatrains.• The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Sonnets using this

scheme are known as Shakespearean sonnets.

• When analysed as characters, the subjects of the sonnets are usually referred to as the Fair Youth, the Rival Poet, and the Dark Lady.

• Shakespeare's Sonnets can be seen as a prototype, or even the beginning, of a new kind of "modern" love poetry.

Shakespeare’s plays.• TRAGEDIES:• Antony and Cleopatra (1607-

1608)• Coriolanus (1607-1608)• Hamlet (1600-1601)• Julius Caesar (1599-1600)• King Lear (1605-1606)• Macbeth (1605-1606)• Othello (1604-1605)• Romeo and Juliet (1594-

1595)• Timon of Athens (1607-1608)

• COMEDIES:• All's Well That Ends Well

(1602-1603)• As You Like It (1599-1600)• The Comedy of Errors

(1592-1593)• Cymbeline (1609-1610)• Love's Labour's Lost

(1594-1595)• Measure for Measure

(1604-1605)

• The plays written by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) have the reputation of being among the greatest in the English language and in Western literature.

• They have been translated into every major living language, in addition to be continually performed all around the world.

• As was common in the period, Shakespeare based many of his plays on the work of other playwrights and recycled older stories and historical material.

• The ‘Bard’ William Shakespeare never published any of his plays and therefore none of the original manuscripts have survived.

• These enduring works feature many famous and well loved charachters .

• The language used today is , in many ways ,different to that used in the 16 th century .

• Plays were big ! There was money to be made • As soon as plays were written , they were immediately

produced.

Shakespeare literature.• William Shakespeare is considered one of the best English

language writers ever .• He wrote some of the most famous and studied literature

written in English language .• He wrote comedies ,tragedies and histories. • Shakespeare wrote at a time when the feudal, aristocratic

world was being replaced by a new one based on commercial expansionism and individualism

• The plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies, though today many scholars recognize a fourth category, romance, to describe the specific types of comedies that appear as Shakespeare's later works.

• Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on a fatally flawed character or system, that is, a flaw ultimately results in death or destruction.

• Scholars divide the plays into periods. A first-period tragedy (from

1590-1594) is Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare's greatest tragedies come from his second and third period

• In the third period, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra.

• Titus Andronicus first performed in 1594 (printed in 1594),Romeo and Juliet 1594-95 (1597),Hamlet 1600-01 (1603),Julius Caesar 1600-01 (1623),Othello 1604-05 (1622),Antony and Cleopatra 1606-07 (1623),King Lear 1606 (1608),Coriolanus 1607-08 (1623), derived from PlutarchTimon of Athens 1607-08 (1623), andMacbeth 1611-1612 (1623

Shakespeare’s comedies• A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending,

usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays

• Shakespearean comedies tend to also include:• A greater emphasis on situations rather than characters (this

numbs the audience's connection to the characters, so that when characters experience misfortune, the audience still finds it laughable)

• A struggle of young lovers to may overcome difficulty, often presented by elders

• Separation and re-unification

List of comedies• All's Well That Ends Well**• As You Like It• The Comedy of Errors• Love's Labour's Lost• Measure for Measure • The Merchant of Venice• The Merry Wives of Windsor• A Midsummer Night's Dream• Much Ado About Nothing• Pericles, Prince of Tyre • The Taming of the Shrew• The Tempest*• Twelfth Night• The Two Gentlemen of Verona• The Two Noble Kinsmen*• The Winter's Tale*• Cymbeline*

Shakespeare’s histories • King John• Edward III • Richard II• Henry IV, Part 1• Henry IV, Part 2• Henry V• Henry VI, Part 1• Henry VI, Part 2• Henry VI, Part 3• Richard III• Henry VIII

Shakespeare influence.• William Shakespeare's influence extends from theatre and

literature to present-day movies, Western philosophy, and the English language . He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of the English language.

• Shakespeare transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through innovation in characterization plot, language and genre).

• Shakespeare has also influenced a number of English poets, especially Romantic poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Shakespeare's writings were so influential to English poetry of the 1800s. George Steiner has called all English poetic dramas "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes.

• When Shakespeare's plays became popular in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language, with many Shakespearean words and phrases becoming embedded in the English language

Conclusions:• We learned about Shakespeare's tragedies comedies and

histories.• We learned about Shakespeare's sonnets ,their structure and

what are they about.• We learned how important Shakespeare and his influence.• We learned about his plays.• We learned about his life.

Bibliography: Www.Wikipedia.org Www.Biography.com English Books Shakespeare literature.