William Shakespeare 1564-1616
World Famous poet, playwright, and actor
Background
- Shakespeare is seen as the best writer of all of English Literature. He primarily lived in Warshire England all of his life. His arguably most well known piece is the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, (1598). He begun his career writing comedies and histories, then mainly wrote tragedies until approximately 1608. In his later years, his work transitioned into tragicomedies, (romances).
Social Issue Critique
- As with many writers, Shakespeare's pieces contained several issues of social critique. A Midsummer Night's Dream, (1590-1597) I believe, addressed monarchical social issues of that day and age. All of this is quite arguable, but Shakespeare could have suggested that the marriage system of a monarchy was crude and unjust. That royalty had no real sense of love.
Connection
- Shakespeare was believed to be fake. Critics thought that he himself didn't actually write all of those great plays and poems, because he was slightly lower class. They thought that a man of that place in society could never be responsible for such art. This connects to students, especially high school students, because quite often, people believe that we aren't capable of doing great things, like writing, because we are kids. A "lower class" in age. We are undermined.