William Shakespeare's Sodometry: Who Was Homosexuality?

William Shakespeare, who is considered as England’s national poet, is also known as the greatest dramatist of all the time. He was an English playwright, poet and actor. Since he was born in Stratford-upon Avon, England, English people take him as “Bard of Avon”. During his life, he wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and few of other verses. But while most of his works are famous throughout the world, his personal life is shrouded in mystery. As people know, William Shakespeare wrote 153 sonnets. The first 126 sonnets are written for a noble young man, and the rest 27 sonnets are for a black lady. The first seventeen sonnets are Shakespeare’s precise massage to the young man which express himself. But beginning from the sonnet 18, there is an abrupt turning point: Shakespeare had completely fallen in love with the fifteen-year-old young man. Because of those “love poem”， there is a question raised generation by generation: was Shakespeare homosexual? Some people believe that it is an impossible question to answer since there is only a few

Since during Renaissance literature period, “Sodometry” has been around a critical approach and buggery was punishable by hanging until 1861. (Sutherland, 2014) Shakespeare might not take himself homosexual for risking his own life. In addition, the sonnets that Shakespeare wrote are basically expressed his personal feelings to the young man but not intended to be published. Even though Shakespeare was famous during his lifetime, people might not know about his homosexual trait. Today, when people look over his work and try to find the truth about the mystery, no one will come out and explain the truth of Shakespeare. But people still want to ask the questions: Was Shakespeare gay? Was he bisexual? Or he was either homosexual and bisexual during the different time of his life? There is not a clear