Who Is William Shakespeare?
July 13, 2008 – 11:14 pm
William Shakespeare is one of the most famous literary figures of world literature. Living between the years 1564 – 1616, he is a well known English poet and play writer. Whenever English literature is mentioned, he is the first and the greatest name that comes to mind. Shakespeare has canon literature of his own with 38 plays, many poems and 154 sonnets. He wrote in English, but his works were translated in many other world languages.
Shakespeare experienced many difficulties in his early life, his father’s economical situation became worse and worse, he did not go to the college, however William educated himself, he is master of Latin, and he focused especially on world classics. Before he came to London and got into theatre job, he married and had children. London and theatre are turning points for this successful name, his contribution to drama genre can not be measured. He was writing, acting and he was also one of the owners of a theatre. All these gave him great reputation.
Works of Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is famous with his 154 sonnets and many plays. In addition to these, he has long poems about different topics. Sonnets are the masterpiece of William, in literary world this work caused many debates, and it still does. Writing such a great work requires long time, this is one side of the debate and it is also argued for whom he wrote all these.
Shakespeare’s plays reshaped drama genre, he is so influential that many new versions of his plays were written, acted. He wrote comedy and tragedy; he used history and historical figures, race issues, gender, politics, the current situation of his era, society, class system in his plays.
We can divide his plays into three categories: Comedy, tragedy and histories.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice is comedy, King Lear, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, Titus Andronicus is tragedy and King John, Henry IV, V, VI, and VII, the play Richard III are examples of Shakespeare’s histories.
Did Shakespeare Really Live or Is He Just a Legend?
There are many speculations about this famous figure, William Shakespeare. Writing so many works, being such an important figure and creating a new literary era in his life span under the lacking circumstances of Shakespeare’s life are found only as imagination. No money to survive, lack of paper and ink, no access to other literary works and creating all these great pieces! While some critics say these, some other claims that William Shakespeare imitated works of other writers, historian people. Some also claims that nobody named as Shakespeare has ever lived, he is just a legend. These speculations can be true to such a certain extent however none of these are proven.
Shakespeare in Other Works
William Shakespeare is an effective literary figure, in addition to his; he was also used in many other fields, from art to cinema. His works were rewritten, they were adapted to film, and in many books you can find extracts from Shakespeare. He is thought to find many new English words; his words are used every day. Shakespeare became such an important figure that an industry of him emerged from books, to dolls of him.
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