William Shakespeare

His plays really do have something for everyone. They appeal to everyone because they have a little drama, romance, comedy and action all in one play. There are also a lot of different kinds of...

This line is from the play Richard II. It occurs in Act V, scene 5, in Richard's soliloquy contemplating his imprisonment.KING RICHARD.I have been studying how I may compareThis prison where I live...

In Shakespeare's time ACTING WAS NOT CONSIDERED APPROPRIATE FOR WOMEN. "England was the last of the European countries to accept women on the stage. In the year 1629 a visiting company of French...

William Shakespeare can be considered a humanist in terms of the content of his work, although his lack of a humanistic education might have distanced him from application of the term as understood...

While both Shakespeare and Molière had enormous success among both the upper class (including royalty) and the bawdy lower-class audiences, their journeys to the top of their craft were markedly...

The context of Shakespeare's sonnet "A Consolation" is that the speaker has fallen on disfavor from his fellow man--and apparently not for the first time. The cause of the disfavor is not stated....

Shakespeare could be seen as a rebel, as he challenged many of the long-held beliefs of Elizabethan society. Among these were the role of women in society, the existence of divine right, and codes...

The greatest tragedy that William Shakespeare endured as a parent was the death of his only son Hamnet at the age of eleven. Other than this, very little is known about young Hamnet's short life....

The hero in Shakespeare's historical plays can be any character that Shakespeare choses to lift up in his writing. It might be a king, or a king's son or a citizen. (While you refer specifically to...

The point of view in this speech is certainly that of a detached philosopher, but the main point is that it is the view of a cynic, a position perfectly in keeping with Jaques' other statements....

It's interesting how this speech from the play As You Like It has captured people's imaginations so much that it sort of detached itself from the play and became a poem in its own right. We know...

Considering how little we know about Shakespeare on a personal level, it is impossible to discern his motivations for becoming a writer with any certainty. Historians are not even certain when...

Of the three traditional genres—epic, lyric, and dramatic—we have no record of any “epic” or prose writing (short stories, novels, essays). Most Shakespeare anthologies identify the dramatic...

William Shakespeare was responsible for the line 'Jesters do oft prove prophets,' in King Lear. This was said by Regan in Act V scene iii. She has been poisoned by her sister Goneril. The...

Shakespeare is not the only playwright praised by people. However, he is one of the most famous and sometimes fame is a self-fulfilling prophecy. People have heard about the plays, so they read...

I do not think that the Elizabethans actually believed in Greek mythology. Most were practicing Christians and it would have been heresy to follow the Olympian gods. However, there was a real...

In Hamlet, Shakespeare articulates through Hamlet the humanist worldview in a nutshell: What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express...

New historicism is a kind of literary criticism that arose in the 1980s. One of the ways in which it differs from traditional historicism is in its emphasis on a multiplicity of historical...

How many of Shakespeare's plays have you seen? If the answer is none, that answers your question. If the answer is that you have seen plays, try reading a summary first so you know the story...

I can't give you a page number because I don't know what anthology of version of the play you're reading. I can tell you that this line is in Macbeth, Act V, scene 5, and is spoken by Macbeth:I...

William Shakespeare is generally regarded as the greatest writer ever in the English language. Although it is uncertain when he first began writing, it is documented that several of his plays had...

Folklore influenced Shakespeare in writing some of the most delightful scenes in his plays as well as scenes that establish a tone of darkness and foreboding. Shakespeare used folklore that would...

People's attitudes toward the supernatural (paranormal, ghosts, mysterious happenings, witches, etc.) would have been the same (or perhaps much more intense given their lack of understanding of the...

It's difficult to be absolutely specific about answering this question, because we're not 100% sure of the dates Shakespeare's plays were written and first performed. We do know that Shakespeare...

In 1582, Shakespeare married a woman eight years his senior, Anne Hathaway. The couple first had a daughter named Susanna, then twins - Judith and Hamnet. The circumstances of Hamnet's death and...

Shakespeare expressed his philosophy through his characters in his plays. His philosophy seems to have been cynical and pessimistic. He seems to have been an agnostic, although it would have been...

This quotation is found in "Antony and Cleopatra," Act 5, Scene 2, IRAS says, "Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the dark." In this final scene, Cleopatra is trying to...

This quotation is from the fifth act of "Hamlet." The Queen, Hamlet's mother, has drunk the poison and dies. Her death is avenged by Hamlet as he kills the king. He has also been poisoned by the...

Here is the list: Anthony and Cleopatra: Plutarch's Lives by Thomas North, 1579 Coriolanus: Plutarch's Lives by Thomas North, 1579 Hamlet: Either- Histories Tragiques (French Translation of...

In act I, scene 5, Romeo first lays eyes on Juliet at the Capulet ball. He sees her as a stunning light, and in contrast, everything else becomes darkness. As he says: Oh, she doth teach the...

Shakespeare's play King Lear has often been interpreted as dealing with the theme of redemption. In this play, the title character King Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters,...

One of Shakespeare's best known sonnets, Sonnet 116 falls into the first of two groups into which the sonnet cycle is divided. Sonnets 1-126 all seem to revolve around the same man, called "the...

A perfect answer to this question is impossible, as we cannot know with certainty what motivated him in the 1590s to be in London and to become a playwright. However, a few historical contexts...

William Shakespeare is an English playwright and poet who lived during the Elizabethan era. The Elizabethan society was separated into four main social classes, which were generally determined by...

In the poems of Shakespeare, nature is used instrumentally as a means to an end. It provides a rich store of metaphor on which Shakespeare can draw to express certain emotions, especially those...

I think the story would be different if you changed the main character, but it would still have a similar ending. Even if Hamlet were in Othello's shoes, Iago would still be there dripping poison...

As the other educator pointed out, church records indicate that Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. Many experts believe that the...

The first thing to acknowledge when observing that there is an impersonality to the art of Shakespeare's characterizations is that you could and should say this about any good dramatist. A work of...

Shakespeare and Milton were both remarkably inventive in their use of the English language, coming up with all kinds of new words, many of which are still in use to this day. Shakespeare was the...

The quotation in question--"There's many a man hath more hair than wit"--can be found in William Shakespeare's play A Comedy of Errors (Act II, Scene 2). Dromio of Syracuse and Antipholus of...

Social class was a determinant in where the various audience members were seated during plays at the Globe Theater. The Royalty would likely not have taken in shows at the Globe, as they would have...

Ivana gives a good general answer. Yes, I agree. I think you could make a convincing argument for at least two potential titles for Shakespeare: Father of Modern Literature and/or Father of...

The "seven lost years" refer to two important periods in Shakespeare's life about which we know very little. The first period lasted from 1578—the year that Shakespeare left grammar school—until...

The question of whether The Tempest is autobiographical has long been a source of speculation among scholars and literary critics alike. One of the main pieces of evidence offered in support of the...

It is generally accepted that Shakespeare wrote 10 tragedies during his life time with one that is still disputed . (Cymbeline - which was regarded in his first Folio as a tragedy yet most agree...

Though both plays center around the trials and pains of romantic love, one of the most striking differences is the nature of the characters themselves. A Midsummer Night's Dream is set in a world...

I don't admire very many things at all about his life--or at least what we think must have been his life. What I do admire is what he produced. I guess I'd say it's a matter of appreciating...

Dating of Shakespeare’s plays is not entirely certain. Even when we do know performance dates, that merely gives us the latest possible date of composition, not the earliest date. Scholars do not...

The simple answer to this question is that we do not know. William Shakespeare did not write any sort of autobiography in which he explained his reasons for writing plays. Although we do know the...

First, it is important to realize that, though Shakespeare is virtually the only Elizabethan playwright studied in high school and undergraduate school, there are many excellent playwrights...