William
Shakespeare
The World's
Most Influential
Writer
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Shakespeare is considered the world's
greatest dramatist.
LIFE
Much of Shakespeare's life is shrouded in
mystery due to the lack of record keeping
at that time in England
Born – April 23, 1564…Died – April 23, 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon, England
Middle-Class parents
Shakespeare was 3rd of 8 children
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Great Britain, including
England, Shakespeare’s
home
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England
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Stratford-Upon-Avon,
where Shakespeare was
born and grew up
London, where
Shakespeare’s
reputation was born
(and where the
Globe was located)
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Father was poor, but through ambition
and work made something of
himself. He married into land
(land=money) and later became
bailiff (mayor) of the town
1571 – Shakespeare probably
(records lost) began attending the
King's New School, a grammar
school of good quality in Stratford
Teachers at the school were
graduates of Oxford University and
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By modern standards school would
have been routine and dull
Students spent 9 hours a day at
school
School was taught year-round, except
for 3 brief holidays
Studies were mainly in Latin and
involved rhetoric and language.
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Pause & Reflect: Compare your education
with Shakespeare’s. How do you think it
shaped him?
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• Stratford was a popular spot for
traveling acting troupes.
• Kettleworth Castle hosted a huge
play festival very near Stratford
while Shakespeare was a child.
• It can be assumed Shakespeare was
exposed to theater at a young age.
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1582 – Shakespeare married Anne
Hathaway – he was 18, she was 26.
She gave birth to a daughter the
next year, and later had twins.
Little is known about the next 8-10
years of Shakespeare's life – few
records exist (Scholars call this
period The Lost Years)
Most likely he was in London trying to
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succeed in the theatre
Anne Hathaway’s Home
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1592 – First evidence that
Shakespeare had moved to London
and was working in the theater
mid-1592-1594 – outbreak of plague
closed the London theaters, so…..
Shakespeare began to write poetry
Became well known for a 14 line poem called
a sonnet
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Pause & Reflect
• Speculate about what Shakespeare could’ve
been doing during the “Lost Years.” What
might his family life been like?
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1594 – Shakespeare was part of a
group that founded the company of
players called Lord Chamberlain's
Men (later called the King's Men)
Lord Chamberlain's Men was a very
successful company of players
(actors) – by the turn of the century,
they had the:
best actor, Richard Burbage
best theater, The Globe
best playwright, W. Shakespeare
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1594-1608 – Shakespeare worked in
London as a playwright and actor.
This is the period when he solidified
himself as the most popular
playwright in London.
He did not gain recognition as an
unrivaled genius until later
generations studied his works more
closely.
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1599 – Shakespeare and his partners
built a new theater in a suburb of
London. It was called The Globe his 10% ownership in this theater
helped Shakespeare make his
fortune
The Globe was one of the largest in
the London area – held 3000
spectators
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The Globe (outside)
(This is a modern recreation of the theater.)
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Note the open air design. The original Globe would have had a
roof made of thatch.
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Note the round shape – all
spectators were facing the stage
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Inside view of stage, upper stage, galleries, and the pit.
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Pause & Reflect
• What would it be like to see a play in The
Globe? What factors would you have to
take into consideration?
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The first play ever performed at The Globe was
Shakespeare’s own “Julius Caesar”.
The Globe would later burn down during a
performance of “Henry VIII”. A cannon was fired
for special effect in one of the scenes. Some of
the sparks landed on the thatch of the roof and
created a monstrous fire.
It was rebuilt and then destroyed again when the
Puritans came to power because they believed
theater wasn’t a worthy pursuit.
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1599-1608 – Period in which
Shakespeare wrote the plays which
made him famous: comedies Much
Ado About Nothing and Twelfth
Night; the history Henry V, and great
tragedies Antony and Cleopatra,
Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear,
Macbeth, and Othello
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, which
have been divided into comedies,
histories, and tragedies
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1608-1616 – Shakespeare most likely
split his time between Stratford and
London
Shakespeare wrote only 4 plays
during the last 8 years of his life
April 23, 1616 – Shakespeare died and
was buried inside the Stratford
parish church
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Trinity Church, burial site of Shakespeare
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Burial site, inside the church
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Scholars have placed his plays into
one of four periods:
First Period 1590-1594
Second Period 1595-1600 (This is the
period Romeo and Juliet would have
been written.)
Third Period 1601-1608
Fourth Period 1609-1613
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Pause & Reflect
• How do you suppose Shakespeare wrote so
many large works? What do you think his
work day / schedule looked like?
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Reasons for his appeal
1) understanding of human nature
2) knew people's motivations, desires,
fears – still valid 400 years later
3) had to make great use of language
because of the conditions of the
theater at that time: no lights, no
scenery
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4) produced characters that have
meaning beyond the time and place
of his plays (timeless)
5) created remarkably individual
characters for his plays. Kings,
pickpockets, drunks, generals, hired
killers, shepherds, and philosophers
all mingle in Shakespeare's plays
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Significance today
Shakespeare's plays are still extremely
popular today & have been made into
movies – some several times
Shakespeare "invented" many words that
are still used today:
lonely academe leapfrog assassin
most serious actors still consider
performing Shakespearean plays to be
the toughest test of an actor
plays are still read, debated, discussed,
made into movies: 400 years after he
wrote them
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• Have you seen these Shakespeare movies?
West Side Story – (Romeo and Juliet)
O - Othello
10 Things I Hate About You – (Taming of the Shrew)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
She’s The Man – (Twelfth Night)
Much Ado About Nothing
Hamlet
The Lion King – (Hamlet and Richard III)
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Pause & Reflect
• Based on this information, should
Shakespeare be admired as the best
storyteller of all time? Why? Justify your
answer with info you just learned.
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