William Shakespeare: The Nature And Meaning Of Life

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous writers in the English Literature. His reputation as a dramatist and poet actor is unique around the world. His works have been reading and quoting during centuries. And, in spite of their difficult and demanding reading, the effect that they have on issues about the nature and meaning of life is present nowadays. However, although he was considered the greatest playwright of all time, many aspects of his life remain in mystery.

Biography:

William Shakespeare was born on April, 1564, in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon, and he died April 23rd, 1616. His birthday is uncertain. However, because he was baptized on April 26th and there was a common practice to baptize on the third day after

Shakespeare lived in the early modern period, during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Before that, England was a very unpopular weak country which suffered many conflicts and had a very poor population. However, many political and social events happened, from a radical religious world view shift to a dynamic society based on commerce and trade. During the reign of Henry VIII, the Church of England broke with Rome because the Pope did not allow him to divorce Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Thus, he introduced the Anglican Church establishing himself as the supreme Head of the Church in England. The result of that historic change was a new English national identity and the consolidation of the Tudor dynasty. As a consequence, London started to rise economically. Its small industries were growing and the city itself became one of the most important European metropolis, with a lot of influence in the continent. Moreover, Henry VIII founded a modern English navy which was able to make Atlantic explorations and spread its maritime trade so that England became an imperial power during the reign of his daughter Elizabeth I. In addition, this new sense of identity was reinforced after the victory over the Spanish armada in 1588, and influenced deeply many of Shakespeare 's history

He learned to how to construct plays around the struggle for soul of the protagonist, how create theatrically compelling and subversive figures of wickedness, and how to focus attention on his characters’ psychological, moral and spiritual lives. Shakespeare often adds music, songs and dance, and sometimes a dumb show, pageant or masque.

One important difference between plays written in his times and those written today is that Elizabethan plays were published after their performances, so there is no record on what happened in the stage during these performances or the direction for what should happen.

Shakespeare wrote to be performed, but his plays were also read. Half of them were published in his lifetime, and from 1623 his collected plays could be read as whole. He often says in his Sonnets that he expects to be read. Shakespeare’s plays were published in various forms but the most common was called Folios, used to publish plays in large anthologies, and Quartos, which were smaller and cheaper books that contained only one