William Shakespeare - Life and Work

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

William Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest of all dramatists all over the world

He was born on 23rd April 1564, in Stratford as the oldest son of a glove maker John Shakespeare and his wife Mary.

Shakespeare studied local grammar school. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway (8 yrs older) and they moved to a nearby village; they had 2 daughters – Judith and Susan and a son – Hamnet – he died when he was 11

In 1594 he went to London and he joined famous group of actors – they called themselves Lord Chamberlain´s Men; Shakespeare was a playwright and an actor at the same time; The group bought a theatre which they named the Globe – it was an out door theatre and aristocracy began to love him..

It was a time of the so called Elizabethan theatre (see picture presented in the class)

first he re-wrote some older plays but later he started with writing his own plays and they’ve been very successful  than he came back to Stratford and lived there with his family  It is said he died on the same day he was born (23rd April), in 1616, he is buried in local Trinity Church with his family.
- Works : he wrote 37 plays so today his plays are performed in reduced form ; his inspiration was history, legends and myths ; all his heroes are literary characters and very often they are neither black or white – e.g. Hamlet, Shylock, Macbeth...

- A comedy in our perception is quite different from the Elizabethan time; comedies were a bit lighter, but still some of the issues were actually quite serious (Merchant of Venice); quite often there is a marriage in Shakespeare´s comedies

- Similar principle works for tragedies => he wrote serious and dramatic themes with humorous elements

Tragedies: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello

Comedies: Midsummer Night´s Dream, As you Like it, The Taming of the Shrew, Love Labour´s Lost

Historical Plays: Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV, V, VI, VIII, Julius Caesar

Romances: Winter´s Tale, The Tempest


Shakespeare also wrote famous Sonnets in a special fourteen line form ababab ababab cc;

The most frequent topics he wrote about are love, friendship, the sense of life and death... Among the most famous ones belong 18, 64, 126